Websites....

[JSR]

It's worth considering that the reason you have to spend so much time and resources on SEO and getting on Google's first page is because there are so many hundreds or more people doing exactly the same as what we're doing. And most of those are playing exactly the same games with SEO and Google-rankings so that they get ahead of you on the first page.

You have to ask yourself the question of - why would someone chose you over the hundreds of alternatives?

I don't want to sound like a doom merchant, but it costs so little to start up now that everyone thinks a couple of hundred quid on equipment and they'll suddenly be making shedloads of profit overnight. Maybe that'll happen, but you'll be one of the few if it does.

Just be realistic with your expectations.

[Lee]

Not everyone wants to share their website TPM, might be easier to just have a google for personalised mugs/tshirts etc and take a look at the top results.

SEO is controlled by meta tags, which is keywords, and as has been said, if the right words are used, you can get to the front page of google search results.

Fair enough - it just seems that Johns are working really well, so would be good to get a peek ;-) but I understand ;-)

[chongsta]

In the past ive had a few home-made websites for my various businesses.

The biggest tip i can give regarding key-words and google is "content". Thats nothing new and any SEO companies will tell you the same thing. I had many calls and emails from SEO companies promising the world when it comes to google but when you face the fact that there are only 10 results per page, how many 'top positions' can they promise?!

Ive never used any promotional campaigns from google but i got at least top 4 rankings from my key words for all my sites. The trick is to have your KW's in with your Body content on the 1st page. Google thinks from the customer stand point and thus if the searcher is looking for "really cheap mugs", then have a sentance or an item with that in the body. You have to think of all the weird ways that customers actually search for items and I would strongly advise that you use 'long tail' keywords as well, not just "mugs" "cheap" "promotion" etc. Instead use terms/KW's like, "very cheap mugs", "custom made promotional mugs" "my picture on a mug" etc.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyword_research

More and more people arent using 'key words' in the sense that they were a few years ago. so many people have only just joined the internet (and growing each christmas) that the old ways of searching are sometimes redundant and thus you have to think like a new user to the Net. If your a sports merchandiser or any company for that matter looking for bulk orders of mugs and stuff, these people will always find what theyre looking for anyway regardless of google rank, its their job to source the cheapest products as per the budget they have. Most established companies of this kind have been in the game for years anyway, its a tight community, so if you're offering a cheaper service they'll find you, all you have to do is construct some inticing keywords that will move them to look at your site for your offers. If its the general public you want to attract, then you have to think like them:- "my design on a mug", "we can print" "your designs" "on a mug" "on a plate" "on a mousemat"...etc etc. think like a customer.

I regularly got top rankings for my canvases over much bigger companies simply because i thought like a customer and adjusted my keywords to how people think. If you use a search engine anayltic website, you can see just what terms brought customers to your site and you wouldnt believe some of the words people were using, and yet they hit my site.

some other tips, dont use Flash as your main-build for a site. Even though Google says that they index Flash sites, its a bit hit n miss. It costs more as well and load times will put people off. I use a printing company who's site is all Flash, it takes 2 mins to load, even on a fast connection, this puts customers off, so stay with normal HTML.

Dont make up keywords that aren't on your site! google will punish you badly for it.

And dont over keyword your metatags, keep them relevant to the item you're selling.

1 more...if you do manage to suck in some potential customers, make sure that what you have is what they want! This refers to google's 'bounce rate'. If a customer hits your site based on what their keywords were and from what google suggested, be sure you actually sell it! if not your customer will click-out of the site really quickly and google records this, meaning that your site wasnt any good in the first place and you'll slip down the rankings. My point and case reference here is from when i used to sell *cough* erotic canvas art! I had search terms with reference to the images on the canvases e.g. Stockings, fishnets etc (they were tastefull ok!!) lol, so what actually happened was, people were searching for such 'images' of the said mentioned, but not on canvas! So i got plenty of hits, in fact i got loads, but not from people wanting to buy the canvas art, and thus the bounce rate was through the roof because of people coming into the site and leaving within 5 seconds. My SEO was spot on, i was getting loads of traffic...but sadly not the traffic i wanted :( I ditched the site last year, shame lol.

Hope that helps a little...
Dave