March 24, 2008
April 2008 Featured BANS Site Review for the Active Baby Products website.
Site: www.activebabygear.com/
Target Niche: Baby Products and Reviews
Date Reviewed: 03/24/2008
By: Mark Hansen
Overall Score: 4.4 out of 10 (10 being the best)
In addition to the measures above, the site has a total of 12 inbound links to the domain. While this factor is important, it is not measured in the overall score of the site.
Lets get into the review and reasons for the scoring of the Baby Products website.
The Active Baby Gear site is likely one of the most beneficial candidates for this Build a Niche Store review! The site has been active for 5 months and has moderate indexing with the search engines. Looking through the logs of the site, spiders are visiting on a daily basis and minor tweaks to the site should result in substantial improvements in search rankings! The review of this website will be very helpful to many of you!
Domain Age: 5 Months
The domain name activebabygear.com has been registered since September 2007. If the site has been in the Google aging filter, it is at the point it should begin working its way out. One of the most important factors to avoid the aging filter is “Steadily” adding inbound links from sites specific to your niche and getting listed in directories. During my research, I found a total of 12 inbound links to the site… by this point in the age of the domain, you should have approximately 10-15 per month, (Assuming a slow link building rate) or at least 50-75 inbound links.
Niche Specific Website
Overall, the Active Baby Products website itself, is very much geared toward products for babies. That in mind, since there is no specific niche market and it will take a bit of extra work to get the site performing like a tightly knit niche. In this case, since the site is broad, each of the categories you have listed should be treated as its own niche market and search optimized and marketed accordingly. In addition, since you are focused on such a broad niche, reviewing your site logs regularly will allow you to find the popular sections of your store and spawn new websites on those active categories.
Site Indexing and Spider Activity
Looking through the site logs - there is no lack of spider activity! Almost all of the three major search engines are dispatching the spiders to your site on what looks like a daily basis! To you, this means that pages you change or add will see very little time in ranking well! Once you begin targeting very specific and high kei phrases, you should see very quick ranking for the terms. (Discussed below) While 2 of the big 3 engines are sending their spiders daily, MSN is still not coming and going regularly. MSN used to be one of the easiest engines to not only rank on, but it was simple to get the spiders in the site. When you find that MSNbot is not coming regularly, especially after 5 months, it can be very beneficial to sign up for a free webmaster account with the Live search engine at: webmaster.live.com. After you have your free account setup, you can add your site and review relevant info about your site almost immediately!
Now that we get past the basics… it is time to get into the things that will help your site the most!
Use of Unique Meta-Titles
Overall, your site has very few unique meta-titles. Even though your domain name itself is inserted in each of the meta-titles, there is nothing to make your site unique! Your site current ranks #1 for the term “Active baby Gear”. The problem however, is that “active baby gear” itself, has no search history in the engines. One of the major benefits of optimizing your title tags will be the resulting search ranking for very specific phrases. Use the spreadsheet I sent for a resource tool on developing your main category titles. For example, the main page of your site:
Current title: “Active baby Gear”
Recommended Title: “Baby Gear : Activity Gyms : Jumpers and More Gear for your Active Baby”
What we have done is take a very general term in Active baby Gear, and provided a bit more information about the contents of what can be found on your website. This needs to be done first, to all MAIN categories, then eventually to all subcategory or product pages.
Use of Unique Meta-Keywords
Again, your meta keywords are not unique to your site. Even worse, your main page of the site, has none. Search engines that still use the keyword meta information to categories the contents of your site pages will not have anything to refer to. While meta keywords are somewhat discounted in today’s search algorithms, they are still an important part of your site optimization. Beyond the main page of the site, every additional page uses the generic terms provided by the BANS software. A good example on optimizing these tags:
Main Page:
Current keywords: “none”
Recommended keywords: “Baby Gear,Activity Gyms,Jumpers,backpacks,carriers,slings,safety,
health,healthy,swings,carseats,car,seats,developmental toys,diaper bags,playpens,play pens,
strollers,walkers,active,baby,babies,child,infant,gear,products”
We have included ALL the words that make up your main store categories, as well as several variations of each phrase. This is what you want on the MAIN site page.
Main Category Pages (used Activity Gyms as this example)
Current keywords: “Activity Gyms,Store,”
Recommended keywords: “activity gyms for babies,activity,gyms,center,tables,
mats,center,baby,babies”
Again, we have used most of the more common phrases for this main category. In addition to these terms, as you add subcategories or product pages, using this as the parent category, you would add those terms to this as well.
Use of Unique Meta-Descriptions
Once again, there are very few unique meta descriptions on the site, and instead, you have opted to use the generic phrases supplied by BANS. While titles and keywords are not as widely used by search engines, the meta description can very commonly be seen on the search engine results pages, just below your links. On a page by page basis, you should write a 10-25 word description of what the user can expect to find on the page… for example, the main page of your site is VERY good! (Shown below) The actual category pages however will benefit with a bit of some additional work.
Main Page
Current description: “Active Baby Gear provides great deals, product reviews, and product safety information on baby products that your active family needs.”
Recommended description: none
Main Category Pages (used Activity Gyms as this example)
Current Description: none
Recommended keywords: “Baby Activity Gyms, Play Centers, Tables and much more, can be found for your Active baby in the Activity Gym section of our Active baby Website”
Nothing real special about it… it is just a description of what can be found in this section of the site, as if you were telling someone over the phone or in person. Being as thorough as possible without getting too spammy is exactly what you want to do with your meta descriptions. If your site has 5 subcategories, or product pages inside a main category, explain that they are found in there as well.
Use of Public and XML Sitemaps
The xml sitemap on this site is perfect! The public sitemap however shows exactly what people should be searching for if they intend to find this site. In this case, the anchor text on your links follow the same fashion as your store pages, with the domain name as the first thing listed. When you go through the site and rebuild your individual page titles, you will find the sitemap updated accordingly. These small changes to the meta structure will have a great effect on your search engine reach!
Use of Targeted Articles and Information
Let me say first, I LOVE the article on product recalls! As a parent, that is a very useful article to have on the site! I also notice that you have a product review section which is missing any content. I would suggest writing one small paragraph, 50-75 words each, choosing one product that you would expect to find in each of your main store categories. Within each paragraph, link over to that product or category in your store to provide relevant on-site linking.
Search engines LOVE content based articles! Used effectively, you will find them indexed very quickly!
Your main page is very attractive and pleasing to the casual visitor. The table layout of product sections can be used more effectively if you convert your category descriptions (Text above each image) to anchor text and link it to the associated category. ANYWHERE you use text to describe a store section, the addition of a link only takes a minute and provides great link juice to the landing pages.
Default Build a Niche Store Menu Optimization
If one section of your website could have more impact than any other, it lies in the words you use in your menus. These words are called anchor text, and pass relevance to the resulting pages. In other words, if you have a page that sells Carseats, your anchor text would be fitting if it said: “Carseats for Sale”. The menu system on your existing site uses the exact terms provided by eBay and Build a niche Store. Search Google for: “Activity Gyms” + “Build a Niche Store” (click) What you can see is that there are 60 other pages with the exact same text… targeting the exact same products. Realistically, that is not alot… but what if your title was “Activity Gym Sets”… There are no other stores targeting this phrase! Again, the term may not be the best choice, but it is unique and has no other competition from other BANS sites that stayed with the generic phrases provided by the software and eBay category structure.
Spend some time optimizing your main categories, make them all unique! Once that is completed, spend time researching and creating product pages beneath each one for ultimate success!
Overall Recommendations for the Success of this Build a Niche Store site
Overall, you are steps ahead of anyone else who may decide to target this same niche market. Your site domain is beginning to age and carry a bit of relevance due to linking. With 5-6 hours of your time on this site, it can easily become a TOP PERFORMING store in the niche market of Products for Active Babies.
Mark
Popularity: 14% [?]
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25 Responses to “Build a Niche Store Review - www.ActiveBabyGear.com”
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Excellent review Mark. It gives me a little more of what I need to make my BANS pages perform better. It’s so easy to just forget something.
I took your advice and signed up to Windows Live. Funny thing is that I already had an account. I had just not used it.
I can see what I will be doing for the rest of the day. Time for better optimization.
thanks Mark.
Mark,
When you say to collect 10-15 inbound links a month, do you count social bookmarking links in this number?
-Fred
@ Fred -
ABSOLUTELY! Social Bookmarks are a great source of inbound links!!
The most important thing to remember about inbound links is that you have more than 1 page on your website!!
Only 1 out of 5 or 1 out of 10 should be to your main page of your site. Marketing your deeper pages is just as important as the rest, and oh yeah… dont forget to get a few links to your sitemap! :-)
Mark
Mark,
I’m new to BANS. Nice site. When I was looking at the site your are reviewing I was wondering if you create a HTML table to insert your pictures on your front page. I like this approach and would like to duplicate it. Would you happen to know if anyone has covered this on the BANS forum?
Also would you mind letting me know where you get your images from? I’m going to need quite a few in the niches that I end up choosing as time rolls on. Thanks, you have a VERY helpful site and I appreciate all your efforts.
Mark
Mark,
The way to create a Home page like the one in this site is to create tables using HTML (as you guessed). It is not too difficult but does require either extreme knowledge of HTML OR the use of an HTML editor.
Explaining how to do this is too complex for a comment section, but I do believe this has been discussed in the BANS forum.
Of course, you could always put in a post in Mark’s new forum about this…
Rochelle
Mark,
I believe it would be helpful if you could do a video review of a site so we can see each of the areas you are referring to.
Kind of like the one you did on adding unique descriptions.
I’m not that familiar enough with the various parts of BANS to visualize some of these changes.
You’re welcome to do my site : )
Thanks,
Jeff
Thanks Rochelle…
-Mark
What a great rewiew of this site!
This explain in general the structure of what building a niche site should be. I think to many of us is forgetting about making our sites unique both to search engines and buyers crawling the web.
Does anyone now of a tutorial or other learnings to create inbound links? (one that a norwegian newbie would understand ;-))
-Arthur
Thanks for more great info! When trying to go to the reviewed site, I noticed the link titled “Baby Products” is incorrectly linked and goes to an error page. It appears the url there is called activebabyproducts.com instead of activebabygear.com.
@ Jeff -
I actually recorded the entire thing as I was doing it! I decided at the last minute not to publish it due to the viewing of some of the site information.
I may just take you up and do a video review… instead of writing it, I will record it! :-)
@ Sarah -
Thank you for finding that link… I double-checked it at least 5 times and it slipped right past me!
@ Arthur -
Check out http://www.earnersblog.com, he has a GREAT link building guide. It is linked in his popular posts.
Mark
I prefer the reviews in writing. I read MUCH faster than I listen and I feel like I am wasting my time watching a video.
Don’t get me wrong, the content of Mark’s videos are great, but he has already covered where the Meta info, etc is located in previous posts. Here he just doing a review of a site and how to improve it.
Video has it’s place, especially for basic knowledge training. But written posts are much better for advanced training and searching for information. For example, it is much easier to print out Mark’s recommendations and use them for my own checklist than to have to listen to a video, write everything down, and then priont it.
The point I am trying to make is I can read 5 to 6 times faster than I can listen to a video and a lot of Marks thoughts I use as reminders for building sites. If I have to listen to a video, take notes, and then make my own cheat sheets for improving my sites it would take much longer than just reading, copying, and printing it.
Last, but not least searching this blog for that one little topic or website is much easier with text than having everything on video.
I know the TV generation may disagree with me, but for me text works better for most of Marks great training on advanced topics. Video has it’s place, but is not the answer to everything.
I agree with Paul. I much prefer text to video. I’ve not watched some of the videos because I don’t want to dedicate the time needed to sit and watch it. With the text I can read it at my leisure. With the video if I get interupted I either have to remember what came before the place where I’m paused or rewind and rewatch something to get caught up to speed.
Rochelle
Rochelle and Paul,
People who are not as fluent as the two of you obviously are in website terminology should have the option to see the review of a site as it’s being done.
Not everybody learns the same way.
You would have the option to skip that particular review.
Mark,
I still strongly believe that this would be a very valuable lesson for beginning BANS students like myself.
I’m not just trying to get my site reviewed. You are welcome to because it definitely would benefit from it but whatever you decide is fine with me.
Jeff
I really like the videos and find them very helpful. However, later on when I’m searching for something specific that was covered in the video, I would like to have written instructions.
Aren’t we a greedy bunch. Give us your time and knowledge for free and we want it our way. LOL
Sherrin
Jeff,
I hope you don’t think I was being a web snob by stating I prefer text to video. This preference has nothing to do with my level of knowledge. I’ve always prefered reading to viewing when it comes to learning new things. That is my method of learning.
That being said, I’ll go with whatever Mark chooses. I was just putting in my two cents.
I apologize if I’ve ever come off as being whatever you might be thinking.
Rochelle
I like both. The videos are fantastic for newbies who need to be shown. Written text is great as a reference later.
I think the review of this site is invaluable - it’s great to have a concrete example to look at.
Thanks, Mark!
As the owner of this site, I found this review quite revealing!! I’m hard at work on getting my site up to speed. IMHO I’m pretty good at creating a decent looking site, but I’ve been pretty clueless at using keywords, and all things SEO.
One question, does participation in social site forums count for building inbound links if I’m using a link to my site in my signature? I’m thinking of hitting topic appropriate forums and adding my 2 cents worth. Will that work?
Thanks,
Shawn
@ Shawn -
Social forums and blogs are GREAT for backlinks!! Forum signatures are a wonderful place for backlinks since they are usually across several IP blocks.
When looking for blogs to comment on, google the term “do-follow blogs” and try to post on those first… do follow means the search engines will follow the links.
Note: When posting on blogs, I prefer to make sure I am contributing to the group versus just posting for a link…
Mark
Mark,
Thanks for the blog advice. I absolutely agree on contribution. As a Naturopathic physician and acupuncturist specializing in pediatrics, I have a nearly endless amount of material to contribute!!
BTW, does anyone have examples of BANS sites that have tweaked their site menus for optimization. I’d like to see some examples before I pop the hood and start tinkering with my site.
Thanks,
Shawn
http://www.buyprimitives.com
http://www.silvercertificatestore.com
http://www.thelicenseplatecollector.com
: )
@ Shawn -
Another good example is: Grill Auctions
15-20 MAIN categories, many product pages beneath, focused on very specific products.
Mark
Disaster strikes!! I’m the owner of this site and since migrating to BANS 3.0 EPN, my home page has vanished!!! Does anyone know how to restore my lost information? All that I did was make a few changes to home page as suggested in this review and pressed save and then its gone, in its place was a “page expired” error and all my months of hard work is gone. I do have a backup of the site on my computer but its 2.0. Any thoughts? the BANS forum has been not helpful.
Thanks,
Shawn
@ Shawn -
Any chance it is related tot he new category changes and update sent by Adam and Kelvin this weekend?
The site itself is still running fine, it looks like there are just no listings…
After looking a little further, it looks like you main page has no filename, which is leading to URL’s like this: http://www.activebabygear.com//ActivityGym
See the extra slash in the url? That leads me to think your main page has no filename.
Mark
I’ve finally rebuilt my home page and I’m integrating the suggestions Mark has made in this review. Hopefully nothing goes screwy this time!!!
-Shawn
Ok, here’s a puzzler. I checked my site this morning and all of the formating is gone!!! It looks like something from the 90s or something.
What could have gone wrong, and more importantly, what should I do about it?
Thanks
Shawn