Web Site Reviewed: http://www.nancydonline.com

The Nancy D Jewelry Web site contains plenty of good content that has the potential for an opportune search engine ranking. Overall, the content is logically and intuitively distributed onto five distinct pages. However, each of the pages would benefit from targeted keyword research and optimization.

General Comments
Generally speaking, NancyDonline.com is not properly keyword-optimized. The key issues hurting the site, however, can be addressed fairly easily. As well, the site’s topic – nickel free earrings for nickel allergy sufferers – puts it in a fairly limited niche market, which makes it very possible to push the site toward the search engines’ top rankings. On a secondary level, the site could be positioned for the search engines for its Pacific Northwestern custom jewelry, which opens up another niche market.

The home page (and several other pages from the site) is already listed by the big four search engines: Google, Yahoo!, Live Search (MSN), and Ask.com. However, the site has very few back links (or “inlinks” as Yahoo! calls them). The lack of back links is a major obstacle to attaining top search engine rankings

Since nancydonline.com is already listed, we will focus on the changes which can be made to improve the ranking with these search engines.

See below for an overview of the specific positives and potential problems we found while reviewing nancydonline.com.

Specific Positives

• Informative, well-written content -- The Web site consists of five pages – Home Page, About Us, Contact Us, Products and News – each of which contains informative and concise content.
• Plenty of high-quality images – Each of the pages on the nancydonline.com site includes a selection of good-quality images of the jewelry offered on the site. The images provide a user with a clear idea of the type of products available from Nancy D Jewelry.
• Intuitive, logical site navigation -- The pages on the nancydonline.com Web site are logically linked via the main menu, which enables easy navigation between the various segments on the site. The links in the main menu are all crawlable for search engine spiders, thus allowing search engines to visit and review all pages on the site.
• Basic geo-targeting – Albeit on a very basic level, the Nancy D Jewelry Web site includes a number of references to the artist’s Pacific Northwest location. With a little more targeted approach, the Washington state locale could help define a local/regional niche market for nancydonline.com.
• Intuitive shopping page – Nancy D Online contains an easy-to-use and nicely laid out shopping area that allows users to view and purchase Nancy D’s jewelry.
• Home page indexed by all four top search engines — All four of the Internet’s top search engines – Google, Yahoo!, Live Search (MSN), and Ask.com currently list this Web site’s home page. (Ask.com lists the shop.nancydonline.com subdomain only.) Indexation with the top search engines is imperative to attracting traffic.

Specific Problems & Solutions
Overall, Nancy D Jewelry is poorly ranked for the main keyword phrase “nickel free earrings.” Although the site boasts a decent ranking in the Yahoo! search engine (#29), the site is not in the top 1000 search results in the Google and Live Search engines.  Keyword optimization and link building are the keys to improving the search engine performance of this Web site. The nature of the product offerings on the site – i.e., nickel free earrings and other types of handmade custom jewelry – places the site in a niche market that should make it possible to climb closer to the top of the search engine’s search results.

Problem: Little or No Keyword Optimization
The primary problem with the nancydonline.com Web site is that it lacks proper keyword optimization. Main keywords for the site’s key pages have neither been defined nor added to the page content. Without targeted keyword optimization, search engines cannot accurately determine the topic of a given page and thus won’t consider it important and worthy of a high ranking.

• Define Your Main Keywords
  Use the Traffic Blazer Keyword Generator to find search counts for your main keywords for the past 30 days.  The primary focus of the Nancy D Jewelry Web site is custom jewelry for people with nickel allergy.  The Keyword Generator returned counts for our main terms as well as several variations. We picked the following terms for optimization based on their search count and their relevance to Nancy’s site.
  • nickel free earrings (Yahoo! search count: 293)
  • nickel free jewelry (Yahoo! search count: 295)
  • nickel allergy (Yahoo! search count: 929)
  • custom handmade jewelry (Yahoo! search count: 642)

Once you have defined your main keywords you will need to add those keywords to the Title tag, Description Meta tag, Keywords Meta tag, and page copy on your home page and any other page you wish to optimize. Consider applying keyword-optimized heading tags and image Alt attributes to key pages, as well.

Applying keyword optimization to this Web site is easy. Mainly because the site consists of a very limited number of pages (five) and the topic is easily described via a few, popular yet not overly competitive keywords and phrases.

• Optimize Keywords in the Title Tag
  The Title tag is one of the most important elements in the search engine optimization process. A well-optimized title tag must be descriptive, enticing and include the main keyword(s).  The Title tag on the home page of the Nancy D Web site currently reads “Home Page.”

Results when searching at Yahoo! for "Nickel Free Earring"

Replace "Home Page" with descriptive and concise content for the Title tag and include top keyword(s), such as “nickel free jewelry” or “handmade jewelry.” Consider mentioning the Pacific Northwestern location.

Example:
<title>Nancy D Jewelry – Nickel free earrings and handmade jewelry in the Pacific Northwest.”</title>

• Optimize Keywords in Meta Tags
  All of the pages on Nancy D Jewelry lack Description and Keywords Meta tags. Although many search engines no longer rely heavily on the Keywords Meta Tag, the Description Meta Tag continues to be used when listing search engine results.  If the major search engines do not find a Description Meta Tag, they use a snippet of text  from the page (see example above). Adding an optimized Description Meta Tag allows you to manage your web site description and can also help to improve the overall ranking.

Example:
<meta name="description" CONTENT="Nancy D Jewelry -- Specializing in nickel free earrings for allergy sufferers. Nancy D Jewelry carries a great selection of nickel free earrings and other handmade custom jewelry made by artist Nancy Draper, in the Pacific Northwest, USA.">

• Optimize Keywords in Page Copy
  The copy on the pages of the Nancy D Web site is well-written, concise and informative. Phrases like “nickel free earrings” and “hand made jewelry” are included in the text. However, the copy could be further optimized.  

Rather than providing all of the page copy in one, lengthy paragraph, consider expanding the text and dividing it into multiple paragraphs. Doing so will allow you to add the main keywords once or twice to each paragraph without sacrificing the textual coherence.

Example:
Welcome to Nancy D Jewelry - - where you’ll find a great selection of handcrafted jewelry from the Pacific Northwest, including nickel free earrings and other custom jewelry made by artist Nancy Draper.

Nancy D Jewelry specializes in creating beautiful nickel free earrings for those who suffer from nickel allergy.

Nickel allergy sufferers may experience irritation or rashes when wearing department store fashion earrings. If you haven't been able to find nickel free-fashion earrings through traditional retailers, you have come to the right place.

All of my earrings are made using nickel-free ear wires, and my customers who have had problems with nickel allergy in the past are always satisfied and come back for more! 

In addition to nickel free earrings, I create necklaces and bracelets made with quality components inspired by the breathtaking natural surroundings in the Pacific Northwest.

I use only high-quality components - - sterling silver, copper, gemstones, freshwater pearls, Czech glass, natural shells, tribal silver and more!

For retailers, I also offer my jewelry on consignment or at wholesale prices.

• Optimize Keywords for Images
  Nancy D Jewelry includes plenty of images but none of the images feature Alt attributes. Alt attributes are short descriptions of the images that display upon mouseover and when the image cannot be displayed in a browser.  Alt attributes are also valuable to the blind and those with text-only browsers. Alt attributes should be concise and include keywords which provide enough description for readers to understand the image even if they can’t see it.

Example:
<img src=”http://shop.nancydonline.com/images/product_3_zm.jpg” alt=”Nickel-free deep blue Czech glass pendant earrings with black accents adorned with sterling silver and black glass beads”>

Problem: No Heading Tags
None of the pages on Nancy D Jewelry use heading tags for the boldfaced segments above the main page copy. Keywords found in heading tags are generally more valuable to search engines than large fonts.

• Solution: Use Heading Tags
  Heading tags vary in size from <H1> (largest) to <H6> (smallest).  Using heading tags rather than font tags will better emphasize the importance of the heading and subheadings on the site’s pages. Be sure to include keywords in these segments.

Example:
<H1>Welcome to Nancy D Jewelry</H1>
<H2>Specializing in Nickel Free Earrings for Nickel Allergy Sufferers</H2>

Problem: Missing Link to Home Page
Although nancydonline.com includes an intuitive and prominently displayed main menu that links to all of the site’s pages, the menu lacks a link to the home page. A link to the home page should be added to the site's main navigation section.

Problem: Link to Online Store is Missing from Main Navigation
The shopping cart section of the nancydonline.com Web site is located on the shop.nancydonline.com subdomain. The main site does not include prominent links to the shopping section. This makes it somewhat difficult and tedious for site visitors to make a quick purchase. To resolve this issue, make the shopping section an integrated part of the main site and place a link to it in the main menu.

Problem: Low Google PageRank 
The current Google PageRank for the Nancy D Jewelry home page is 2 (out of a possible 10) while the other pages on the site all have a PageRank of 1, which is the lowest possible PageRank for pages in Google’s index. Because the PageRank is the single-most important factor in Google’s ranking algorithm, a PageRank of 1 or 2 makes it very difficult to secure a top ranking for popular keywords.

Note: Although PageRank is a Google-specific concept, other top engines use similar methodology when reviewing Web content.

The PageRank is mainly based on link analysis: Quality back links (i.e., inbound links from highly-ranked, topically similar sites) are generally rewarded with improved PageRank. Thus: In order to boost a Web site’s PageRank, you must build links.

• Solution: Build Links
  Currently, Yahoo! lists a single back link to the Nancy D Jewelry home page. Google lists none.  Because all of the top search engines consider back links critical to a Web site’s overall quality, lack of quality back links generally prevents a given site from attracting significant search engine traffic. Use the Link Popularity Report to track which sites are linking to pages in your site.

Link Building Strategies - Link building can be done in several different ways. Reciprocal linking and directory submission are the two most common methods of obtaining back links.

Reciprocal linking is the concept of exchanging links with another Web site. In order for reciprocal links to be effective, the sites that are exchanging links must be topically similar.

Having a Web site listed in a Web directory automatically creates a link to your site that may help improve PageRank and search engine ranking. Note that not all directories are ranked highly by the top search engines and that listings in those directories may have little or no impact on PageRank/search engine ranking.

Overall, nancydonline.com has the potential to take advantage of a prosperous niche market on the Web. However, lacking keyword optimization and absent back links combine to prevent the site from attracting search engine generated traffic. Targeted keyword optimization and link building will significantly boost the traffic flow to this Web site.

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