newbie to e-commerce, I think I may have messed up

If you want someone to review your site, then there are several other places that offer that service: searchengineforums, ihelpyouservices, htmlforums, cre8asite, etc (all .com), among others.

Thanks to both of you!

I will take a look at all of the suggested sites.
I will also take your advice and compare my sites to the others that are listed in the directory.
I have read the guidelines multiple times, (just to make sure I did not miss anything).
I truly appreciate the help, I am thankful for any resorces that may help me in my pursuit of an objective opinion.
Rhonda

the best site on a similar topic - remember that we aren't talking about slickest but most content rich, comprehensive, any question you might want to ask is answered, etc. In tens of thousands of sites I have reviewed the best has been a personal site put together by the lady herself using the most rudimentary software but the real content, the text and images, very special indeed. It held my interest for hours and I returned to it numerous times. Then I see a site that someone has spent tens maybe hundreds of thousands on, developing it to look slick and professional. And it holds my interest for seconds because amongst the fancy graphics and ingenious programming there is not actually any real content. All packaging and no product. The good thing about DMOZ is that we strip off the packaging and discard it, we look only at the product.

Another thought

Maybe I need to hire someone to take a look at the coding of my website, and see if it is search engine friendly.
I am so new at this that I am not sure the html code has everything it needs.
I have added all the correct tags "I think"

But I am not sure if I have done all I can to make it easy for the engines.

Maybe I need to hire someone to take a look at the coding of my website, and see if it is search engine friendly

Click to expand...

Not for DMOZ! But if you want someone to look at that sort of thing then the webmaster resource sites giz mentioned are worth a look. You will usually find plenty of people willing to help you for free but get more than one opinion.

Surely you haven't. But this community is composed of people who like to figure out how to find the good sites no matter what has been done to the spam to push the good sites out of search engines -- despamming, so to speak. In general, we really aren't the people to know what can be done to a site to make its ranking independent of its intrinsic worth. For that, you really need SERP perp help. There are forums that claim to offer that, and sometimes the advice you get there ISN'T really really bad, and sometimes it is.

What we look for is the basic information about the people involved in the business: in short, "who are you, and what would you do for money?" That enables your real-life reputation to follow you onto the web, and allows people who are alert to e-scams to determine whether they should do business with you. In short, the information critical to all effective business transactions between people not personally known to each other.

The SERP perps often want to hide that information, because their usual customers want desperately to escape their real-life reputation, not to mention their previous web reputation. Don't listen to that part -- that's the single biggest difference between spam-scam-meisters and legitimate businesses.

And if someone offers you a choice between making a site easy for the engines, and making it easy for people -- remember that search engine spiders aren't EVER going to be customers!

Hutchenson

GOOD POINT!!
Thank you for the advice.
I had not thought of it in this respect.
I was just wishing to "know" that I am doing everything correctly.
Both me and my husband are learning from a Front Page book, and for someone who has never done a site, it can seem a bit complicated.
It gets a bit confusing because when I use some of the spider simulator's and other tools they show errors, for example bad form, too much white space, etc.

I am not seeking to find my site showing up under topics, or area's that it does not belong.
I hate nothing more than to surf the web and type in jewely and get (for example) an adult site that has nothing to do with jewelry!
I surely do not want to "hide" ANYTHING!!!
Maybe this is not the correct move.

Thanks everyone for the advice.
As I said before, THIS IS AN AWESOME FORUM!!!

One piece of advice from me, for what it's worth - you don't need to pay a bunch of professionals to overhaul your site. Just get a few friends to look at it and give you an honest critique - pick someone who hasn't much internet experience, and some people who cruise a lot of sites. You will get a lot of different opinions, but some of them might resonate with you.

Playing the SEO game is, in my opinion, a road to frustration - because it is, by its very nature, trying to manipulate the search engines to artificially place one site above another. The trouble is that when the applicable search engine changes how it ranks sites, you are back to square on again, and maybe have done yourself more damage in the process.

Alucard is right, of course. There are some things that people do that cause unnecessary harm to their websites, and a bit of advice at the right time can make quite a bit of difference. If you phrase your question in terms of "what have I done to cause myself damage?" rather than "what can I do to get ahead"? you'll be more likely to get productive, non-harmful advice.

Thank you both for the advice.
I will no longer worry about being on page one of the search engines, and focus more on having an intelligent, well written, imformative site.
I have a much better understanding of what SEO really means!

What's good for visitors is usually good for search engines.

You can rank well without resorting to "tricks". In fact many "tricks" are especially detected by search engines and the site demoted accordingly these days.

oneeye

I missed your first post to my thread while I was busy typing my response.

WOW, that is great food for thought.
Now I feel stupid for my thought about paying someone.
You had "just" given me the "right" answer on how to self critique my site!
I am glad that I went back and reviewed all of the things in this thread.
I would have hated to have missed that one!

You may also be interested in Post #12 from a few days ago, over here: http://resource-zone.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=40509&p=195385#post195385 which seems timely.

Giz

On my site, I have listed a address, however it is a MB about a block from my home. Since It is a jewelry business I did not feel safe listing my home address, could this be keeping me from being listed in the directory?
Is this what I might take from recommended reading?
If so, I will figure out a way to repair this problem.
Again, thank you all for your help.

btw - hutcheson

I really love reading your analogies. They stimulate the mind to think a bit!
It really makes for intresting reading.
I often read them more than once and come to a totally differnt conclusion than I did at first read.
Analogies are funny to me, if you just look, you can often find many area's in which to apply them to many aspects of ones life!
Either that or my life is just "messy" LOL

question

Since I personally have not submitted my site, and was pretty un-familiar with where the designer was submitting it, would it be prudent for me try to submit the site myself?
I would place it in
SHOPPING/JEWELRY/PRECIOUS METALS
Would you advise against submitting again, even if he has submitted to the wrong area?
Rhonda

Address - depends entirely on context and category whether it might be a problem and it would take a review to find out!

Category - pick the single most appropriate category based on category descriptions, not the one you want to be listed in (nice if it coincides but...) Whether you are right or not in your choice would take a review to find out! One more submittal to the right category will not make you a spammer but the decision is yours - a new submission to the same category as an older one will overwrite it and could potentially delay review as some editors review in date received order. On the other hand if the placement, new description and title is perfect in accordance with guidelines other editors will give priority to people who have taken a lot more care in their suggestion.

Thanks again!

I think the one listed below is the "most" appropriate.
Its a bit tricky because I carry classic, handcrafted, silver, gold, and even strange genuine stones like Agate, Nephrite, and Obsidian.

I wish there was a mixed category, however I have not suggested one because quite frankly, I cannot think of an appropriate name other than "mixed" which does not seem very descriptive.

I chose Precious Metals because the "majority" of my jewelry is Classic.
I think I will will chew on this for awhile before making a decision to submit.

I cannot thank you all enough for all of your help and advice.
You take the fear out of trying to build your own site, and your answers are concise and logical.
Awesome Forum!

Maybe varied merchandise is the best place.
DUH..
I have been to that page so many times, and just never seem to notice the varied merchandise.

For Some reason I have seen it as the title for all the categories below.
However today I noticed the bullet beside it.
I dont know how I missed it all of the other times, I feel so stupid
I guess it would be the best place to submit.

Varied Merchandise, now there's a fitting name.. hehe.
Sorry everyone.
Rhonda Tatum

You're thinking like an editor. "Where is it best to put this?", rather than "How can I shotgun this somewhere and get on with something else?". That's generally a good thing.