Following are the transcripts from the 1:00 pm session of the V7Network RoundTable chat held on October 7th.

Please note that beyond removing some early chatter before and after that chat, I have made very few corrections, so you will be seeing all of our spelling and typing errors. I hope you are fluent at reading typonese! (grin)

How to Identify Problem Areas on Your Website

<Cricket>     has everyone viewed the preview screencast?

<gissen>       Where do we get it?

<Cricket>     http://screenr.com/mE7

<tumbleweed>       screencast is at http://screenr.com/mE7

<tumbleweed>       hehe

<tumbleweed>       very kewl firefox addons mentioned in the screencast

<Cricket>     Over the coming weeks I will be making a ton of these

<Cricket>     to help with areas that are easier to understand

<Cricket>     thru a screencast

*          tumbleweed thinks the screencast is very innovative. sometimes pictures can say 1000 words

<Cricket>     yeah I agree

<bobnelms>            screencast won’t play for me.

<Cricket>     should play in any browser

<bobnelms>            it’s loading, but it doesn’t show a play button.

<Cricket>     slow connection?

<Cricket>     okay for those who came in late and missed it, save this url for a screencast

<Cricket>     http://screenr.com/mE7

<ewramos>  very god…

<LOZ>         It would be nice if there was a way to re size the screen

<Cricket>     there is a button to full size it

<Cricket>     on the player

<bobnelms>            no, not a slow connection

<atnip>         nice and to the point

<Cricket>     okay for those of you that do not have those tools

<MyPreciousKid>   not working for me either, clicked play, get first screen and nothing

<Cricket>     later (not now) download them thru Firefox

<Groovin>   You’ll need the latest adobe flash player installed in your browser of choice

<gissen>       very nice~

<Cricket>     ?       Web Developer  https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/60

<Cricket>     This is the tool I use the most frequently when I am working on a page. Once you have it downloaded and installed, take the time to play with all different features. The following are the ones that I use the most.

<Texas>       I viewed it.

<Cricket>     ?       Search Status  https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/321

<Cricket>     I install this one into the foot of the window in the status bar. If you right click on the icon after install, and select options, it will let you select placement of it within the window.

<Cricket>     ?       LinkChecker 0.61  https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/532

<Cricket>     This one is a quick and easy way for me to check all the links on a page.

<Cricket>     ?       HTML Validator 0.8.40  https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/249

<Cricket>     This one is installed in the footer of my window as an alternative validator, especially for quick checks. For this one, I have the preferences set to use HTML Tidy to double check pages.

<AmySueN>            Cricket – the chat will be available for future reference, right? I’ll want to go through all these one by one as I have time…

<Cricket>     yes, I am logging the chat

*          tumbleweed listens

<psylinx>     How do you feel about people using screen capture software to record this stuff?

<AmySueN>            thx

<Cricket>     not worried as long as it is not published

<psylinx>     Cool

<psylinx>     I’m a good boy

<Cricket>     okay folks now is where we have to determine where your exact troubles are

<psylinx>     …well sorta

<AmySueN>            (pats psylinx’s head)

<Cricket>     soooo many times people are working on seo, when their issue is marketing

<psylinx>     lol

<Cricket>     and visa versa

<Cricket>     the key is knowing exactly what your issue is

<Cricket>     as an example: someone tells me they have a HUGE bounce rate on a specific page

<Cricket>     this tells me a few different things

<Cricket>     (will go back and explain in a minute)

<Cricket>     Is it possible you are in the top 10 for a phrase

<Cricket>     that your page does not specifically address?

<Cricket>     of so, they are gonna bounce fast

<Cindy522>            Or a phrase with more than one meaning – ACK!

<Cricket>     exactly Cindy

<Cricket>     another

<Cricket>     is it possible they you have what they want

<Brandon>   good day everyone

<Cricket>     but the credibility of your site truly sucks?

<Cricket>     and there is no way they will give you their cc number?

<Cricket>     that is why you need a checklist of things to check on every page of your site

<Cricket>     ok lets move on this for a minute

<Cricket>     am I going to fast?

<Texas>       No

<drapersi>   no

<Cindy522>            no

<poetren>    no

*          tumbleweed is keeping up so far

<bobnelms>            no

<MyPreciousKid>   no

<Cricket>     Top placement in the search results is not enough to result in sales. If you are in the top 10 for a key phrase that no one searches for, it will not matter how hard you work on that page, it is not going to bring many visitors from the search engines.

<firecat>       no

*          SubWolf listens in a mo

<Cricket>     This is where you need to sit down and review each title of every page to determine if it is a phrase people are actually searching for.

<Cricket>     Although not perfect, the Google Keywords Tool for AdWords can be an effective tool to add to your research.

<Cricket>     I highly recommend using it

<AmySueN>            I miss the old keyword tool

<Cricket>     If you are not in the top 10 for a phrase, then it may be time to decide if you have selected too broad of a title.  After making certain that, the page is using all of the basic SEO, I then look at selecting a tighter niche, or add a clarifying phrase to the existing title.

<Cricket>     This one can tougher to evaluate because it is so easy to get in a rut of THINKING you have followed all of the steps needed to optimize a page, when quite often multiple pieces of the puzzle missing.

(more…)