Fly on the E-Commerce Cyberwall

From a different direction
Today was an optimization day. I tackled some client pages that I've tried hard to get into the top 10 for several months, but that simply have never even gotten into the top 30. I stared at them bewildered for a while because every test I ran on them had them fitting very nicely into the parameters I felt should put them in the competition for the rankings they weren't attaining.

So after beating my head against the wall for a couple of hours and wondering how I could improve the optimization of pages on which I couldn't find anything to tweak, the lightbulb
went on. I was trying to improve what was on the page and completely neglecting to consider off-page elements.

And it's the off-page elements, specifically the links coming in to these interior pages, that are putting a lot of other sites way ahead of the pages I was targeting. I ended up doing a thorough check of incoming links and identified the pages in the best positions to make a move with a few tweaks to the page and a handful of added links.

Those will be the focus instead of the ones I've already optimized half to death. It's a relief to find that I wasn't so much losing my touch with optimization as I was just focusing too bullheadedly on one thing to the neglect of the other. But, hey, if I can (eventually) get the linking up to where it needs to be, those pages are going to be ready to make some big jumps.

I guess that's one of the hazards, though, of working on your own. No one there to bounce things off of and get another perspective when you get stuck. I guess that's the reason that search engine optimization forums are so valued. It's about as close as a self-employed, work-by-yourself person gets to having someone to kick around work problems with.

Update from last night
Joanne's (my wife) father is seems to be recovering. He'll be in the hospital for the weekend, but it looks likely that he'll pull through.
Jeff