Web traffic generation help please

[McAndy]

Hi All

I am have little place on the web where I put my car photos and I have spent the last few months building a database to give information on each car that I've seen, kind of like a mini (and poor relation of!) UCP. It is purely a hobby and entirely non-profit (massive loss actually, but I do it because I like it! ).

I'd like to let people know about it to share the information and images I have gathered, but due to its free-ness, I'm not willing to pay for advertising. I've tried a facebook page to tell the world (only 27 fans and I directly know 24 of them!) and I'm considering a flikr stream to show a few pics and encourage people to visit. I have also supported the Bristol Italian AutoMoto Festival for a couple of years and they have some links back to me. Does anybody have any other/better ideas to help generate traffic?

Many thanks in advance for you help

Andy

[illmonkey]

Search engines follow links to gauge how popular they are. Start a blog, get reviews on other sites anything to get the name about and post links.

Have a quick google for SEO, all will be revealed.

[Mongoose]

illmonkey said:

Search engines follow links to gauge how popular they are. Start a blog, get reviews on other sites anything to get the name about and post links.

Have a quick google for SEO, all will be revealed.

What he said ^^^^^^

SEO is your friend...

[CzechItOut]

101 (mainly free) Tips to Improve Your Web Presence

Edited by CzechItOut on Friday 19th February 12:16

[illmonkey]

CzechItOut said:

101 (mainly free) Tips to Improve Your Web Presence

Edited by CzechItOut on Friday 19th February 12:16

Half that list (or more) is total tosh! I think "11 Tips to Improve Your Web Presence" is a better title.

[evenflow]

11 is a little harsh. There are some decent (layman's) tips on there.

[drivin_me_nuts]

Mongoose said:

illmonkey said:

Search engines follow links to gauge how popular they are. Start a blog, get reviews on other sites anything to get the name about and post links.

Have a quick google for SEO, all will be revealed.

What he said ^^^^^^

SEO is your friend...

Isn't 'content is your friend' a better place to start that SEO is your friend?

[Mongoose]

drivin_me_nuts said:

Mongoose said:

illmonkey said:

Search engines follow links to gauge how popular they are. Start a blog, get reviews on other sites anything to get the name about and post links.

Have a quick google for SEO, all will be revealed.

What he said ^^^^^^

SEO is your friend...

Isn't 'content is your friend' a better place to start that SEO is your friend?

I assumed the OP already had significant content on the site, but I get what you're saying.

"Both SEO AND content are your friends"

[McAndy]

Thanks for the replies. Ok, I've done quite a few things on the list already, but I'm intrigued by the 'content is your friend comment'. The only Flash I have has html generated to allow search engines to find it still. However, my gallery is set within a iframe.

Also, would a load of links from one blog aid with SEO then?

[Mongoose]

You should make sure you have content on every page, and try and use keywords that identify the site in the content. eg instead of 'here are some pictures' use 'here are some pictures of blue cars'. Also keep you content fresh and up to date. Also look at 'content layering' - google it.

Also, iframes =

[evenflow]

In terms of links:

All inbound links help.

Inbound links from pages with existing high PageRank help more.

Inbound links from pages with existing high PageRank AND related content help even more.

ETA:

McAndy said:

Also, would a load of links from one blog aid with SEO then?

No, not really from just one blog.

Edited by evenflow on Friday 19th February 12:54

[drivin_me_nuts]

McAndy said:

Thanks for the replies. Ok, I've done quite a few things on the list already, but I'm intrigued by the 'content is your friend comment'. The only Flash I have has html generated to allow search engines to find it still. However, my gallery is set within a iframe.

Also, would a load of links from one blog aid with SEO then?

Google predominantly ranks sites on content and page title more than anything else. Write strong meaningful <title> to get your site found and make sure the content also reflects that. It isn't rocket science, there are plenty of guides around that can help.

Last year I had never written a site before, but with the content and the appropriate keywords in the page content of the site, google immediately ranked me on the first page for many of my site pages - and these are for big hitting searches.

There's always more to do, it is a constant work in progress, but if your content is good, google will find you naturally.

(and without pissing on anyone's bonfire here, think long and hard before paying anyone to 'optimise' your site for you.)

content, content, content. Wins every time.

[McAndy]

Thank you kindly once again all! I shall implement changes and upgrades and changes and see how I go!

[Dick Dastardly]

McAndy said:

Also, would a load of links from one blog aid with SEO then?

Try and get links from different blogs. The common understanding is that the first link you get from a domain is of more benefit than the second, and the third, and so on. Unless there is the likelihood of good traffic then once you post once or twice on one blog, move on to another.

Make sure you give meaningful comments that add to the conversation. Something like "great post, man" won't cut it and most blog owners won't approve them, so you'll be wasting your time.

[McAndy]

Hello again. I just thought of something else...I have been using php include statements for headers and footers so that I can do updates to only one script when necessary...is this foolish of me?

[evenflow]

Foolish in terms of SEO?
If so, then no.
The search engine spider will see a text only version of the page as it is rendered in a browser, so the content from the include files will be, well, included.

[McAndy]

evenflow said:

Foolish in terms of SEO?
If so, then no.

Ok, that's good news...how might it be foolish though please?

[evenflow]

Sorry, I worded that badly! Not foolish in anyway.

I'm all for include files, especially as the site gets bigger and bigger.
Nothing worse than a client asking you to change a phoen number in the footer, then realising that the footer is embedded in 100 files rather than being in just the one place...

[McAndy]

Thank goodness...you scared me there! Many thanks for the advice...

[McAndy]

Hi again All. I have a database containing vehicle information...I was thinking of writing a quick bit of sql for the header to loop through and display all the relevant data (that is, car make and maybe model) in the metadata. Is this a stroke of genius, or can one have too many keywords. Also, would Google or other search engines frown on such behaviour?

Many thanks

Andy