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Search Engine Optimization
SEO Report Card: Pinkorpunk.com
A fun site could use some more keywords, better URLs and CSS help
I have to admit that both the design and focus of this month's report card recipient stood out from the many requests I receive. The website is not subtle, and it's probably not even pretty in the classical sense, but it's certainly fun. Pinkorpunk.com sells clothing accessories that have one of two things in common: They are pink or they are punk. Need a white leather piano keyboard belt? Not pink, but very punk, and imagine how cool you'd look at the office with it around your waist! But while the site is visually intriguing, there are improvements that can be made to its search engine optimization. Let's take a look.
Homepage Content
While visually interesting, Pinkorpunk.com does not feature enough textual content on its homepage. At the top of the page, the line "Welcome to PinkorPunk.com" appears, but that simply isn't enough. Some good keyword research is in order to determine what a potential customer might be searching for. Those identified terms should then be added to the introductory line, expanding it to a short paragraph. Adding even a sentence or two with applicable keywords describing the site could make a difference. A sitemap link appears at the bottom of the page, which helps spiders find their way through the website. Alt tags, used to textually describe graphics, are quite good, and this can help search engines identify the page's focus. Alt tags are not a replacement for good textual content however, as they no longer carry much weight with search engines.
Inbound Links and PageRank
Pinkorpunk.com is a fairly new website, which may partially explain its PageRank of 0. But, the other factor in the ranking is the site's small number of inbound links. Yahoo! sees 45 links from outside sites while Google doesn't list any at all. Inbound links translate to PageRank, and higher PageRank translates to better search engine results. This site, with its vibrant content, should have no problem garnering links! A linking campaign is in order here. Research online directories and get listed in those that still have decent PageRank (many have been recently demoted by Google in that regard). A blog is also in order, especially with such hip content. Online press should be a target as well, as should social media avenues like MySpace, Flickr and Facebook.
Indexation
This site's webmaster estimates the number of pages to be around 90. Yahoo! sees 64, Google sees 80, and MSN Live Search sees 70. For a small site, this isn't too bad, but better navigation (see below) will help in getting all pages indexed.
Internal Hierarchical Linking Structure
The main, left-hand navigation at Pinkorpunk.com is graphical, not textual, and search engines are therefore not seeing that navigation. This is a huge problem for search engine spiders as, without that navigation, it is difficult for them to find their way through the website. While the sitemap link in the footer of the website is helpful, an alternative navigation structure is sorely needed. Using CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) for design purposes, rather than JavaScript, would greatly help with this.
HTML Templates and CSS
As mentioned, CSS needs to be used in place of less-SEO-friendly JavaScript in the design of the main navigational bar. An equally important issue is the lack of heading tags anywhere in the site. Search engines give text in heading tags extra weight, so heading tags should appear on every page in support of defined keywords. The homepage, category pages and product pages should all use at least H1 tags (the top of the heading tags hierarchy) to emphasize keywords and page focus.
Secondary Page Content
Secondary pages contain more textual content than the homepages, especially product pages, which have nice sections of text on each of them. Though content tends to be light, it is fairly well designed at all levels and maintains core SEO attributes throughout the secondary pages.
Keyword Choices
While category and product descriptions on Pinkorpunk.com tend to contain good keywords, many potential keywords are overlooked. Full keyword research is in order for this site. Try the free interface at Keyworddiscovery.com (Keyworddiscovery.com/search.html) or Wordtracker.com (Freekeywords.wordtracker.com) to assist in determining other potential terms. For example, what comes up for "belt buckle?" Are there more focused terms for "wallet?" Besides being good for research, these can be fun interfaces to use.
Title Tags
Unique and keyword-focused title tags are an important SEO attribute. Search engines see title tags as one of the first things upon entering the code of a given page, so getting them right is important. Specific keywords related to a page should be first in the title with branding at the end. Pinkorpunk.com appears to have automated title tags pulled from other page content, which often isn't a bad way to go. But there is a flaw in the site's system. For example, the title for the pink belts category page is "Pink or Punk - All Products - Pink Belts." This is contradictory information for both users and search engine spiders. Such inaccurate titles need to be cleaned up.
URLs
Whenever possible, keywords should be the base of URLs, and where multiple keywords are used, they should be separated by dashes, as search engines see dashes as spaces. Unfortunately, Pinkorpunk.com ends up with ugly, appended URLs that end with jargon like ?category=316002&count=1. The platform upon which the site is built (MyCart.net) does not make search-friendly URLs very easy.
Pink or Punk is the kind of site that can attract viral attention in the form of blog mentions, inbound links from news stories and punk-oriented groups. The webmaster should seize upon this opportunity, but first he needs to clean up some of the technical, structural issues.
Want your site graded? Email seo [ at ] practicalecommerce.com.
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Published on Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Comments:
PinkorPunk.com I love it. Fantastic idea.
Posted by: Steve
Thursday, April 03, 2008
Hi Kerry,
As someone who LOVES pink...not so much punk, but I do like pink, I was looking forward to perusing the site. But, alas, the background image was a major hinderance in my browser. Use this link to see what I am seeing: http://screencast.com/t/oplIBQC2
You may want to look into the coding on that and see what can be done. I can't wait to view all of your pink products! :)
~ Nora
Posted by: Nora
Thursday, April 03, 2008
Nora, thank you so much for pointing that out! I've been working on the site layout and am constantly concerned with how it is appearing across different browsers. Thank you for the screenshot, because it is exactly what I need to see. I think I have made a small tweak that should correct the layout for now.
I hope you like some of the pink products the site offers right now, I will definitely be adding more as I find appropriate products. Input is always welcome and I thank you profusely for your help already!
- Kerry
Posted by: Kerry - PinkorPunk.com
Thursday, April 03, 2008
Beautiful, Kerry. Much better now. Now I can happily "shop the site." :)
~ Nora
BTW, very creative name.
Posted by: Nora
Thursday, April 03, 2008
Great job, K!
Posted by: Carol
Thursday, April 03, 2008
I'm glad to see you are asking for feedback on your site!
Posted by: Kare Bear Kerry
Thursday, April 03, 2008
Thanks for giving the soure of www.keyworddiscovery.com. It is tuly helpful for content writers.
Posted by: web templates package
Thursday, May 01, 2008
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Jeff, thanks for taking a look at my site! I really appreciate it!
Like you said, the site is fairly new, but I'm glad to hear I got a few things right in the beginning. Now I am looking forward to focusing on your suggestions as I improve the site.
I laughed at your mention of Keyworddiscovery.com being a "fun interface." I wholly agree that Keyworddiscovery.com and their free tool, is a great place to research keywords.
Thanks again for all your help!
- Kerry
Posted by: Kerry - PinkorPunk.com
Thursday, April 03, 2008