Search Optimization...Keywords & Regionality Questions

[mark4man]

hello again...

[hope this is the correct form...if not...please move me mr. administrator, thanks]:

was wondering:

I have a site designed for my recording studio; & many of my keywords are plural-based (ending in 's')...keyword combos such as 'recording studios', 'mastering studios', etc.

is the plural approach better...or should they just read as 'studio', w/ no 's' on the end ???

[reason I ask is...whenever I search, I automatically place an 's' on the end...out oif habit...thinking it brings in multiple responses. maybe old-fashioned...I don't know.]

so...1) which works better...plural or singular ???

2) My site comes up in a search for 'recording studios, nj'...pretty high on a Google list entitled: 'local bussiness results for recording studios near new jersey'...yet my location is listed about 3 pages deep into the site. aamof...until yesterday, it was a set of pages not even under it's own domain. one would have to go to my main site (an indie music site); & click on a link to get to the studio pages.

so...2) how do the search engines determine regionality, if you're city & state aren't prominent on your site...telephone # ???

3) what is the best method FOR optimizing regional search results ???

thanks,


mark4man
MoonMix Studios

[Christophe27]

1) It depends what 'works better' on what the Google user enters in Google, however both (studio and studio's) will work. The ranking can change a bit, but not much. Use what you like ;)

2) If you enter 'music studio new jersey' as a title of a certain page, you could rank high with that page for these keywords. Otherwise Google cannot know where you are from. The server for example can be anywhere on the planet.

3) See 2

PS: Pity you live in America. I'm a songwriter myself, without a band to just let them hear some songs :( What music do you play or like?

[mark4man]

Christophe27...

thanks.

as to the question...everything from folk to rock to jazz to r & b:

http://www.moonjams.com


mark4man
MoonMix Studios

[mark4man]

FOLLOW-UP...!!!...not sure if I should ask yet another question, but this one is more important...(& I woke up wondering about this in the middle of the night, last nite):

Q: The hosting plan I went with...w/ GoDaddy...was an upgrade from a 'standard' to a 'deluxe'. this means I can host two sites for a reduced rate, which I went for. it also means that my original site (moonjams) remains as the Primary account. My new domain (moonmixstudios) is the Secondary account. (I guess you could say it's shared hosting?)

so...my new site's files reside in a folder of the same name under moonjams...with some sort of url re-director or pointer or something in place for people wishing to visit the new site.

now...it works fine for web surfers...

but how about for search engines...???

thanks much,


mf
MoonMix Studios

[Christophe27]

I'm sorry, I don't quite understand what you mean.

I know you have two domains, moonjams.com and moonmixstudios.com, both hosted on GoDaddy.

Christophe

[tracknut]

so...my new site's files reside in a folder of the same name under moonjams...with some sort of url re-director or pointer or something in place for people wishing to visit the new site.

now...it works fine for web surfers...

but how about for search engines...???


This is not a problem, search engines will have no reference to the main moonjams site.

Dave

[mark4man]

tracknut & Christophe27...!!!

[have been busy setting up recording equipment & forgot to come back...thanks...!!!]

have some additional questions...(sorry, but I'm still a neophyte at this)...& I'll number them for easier response:

so...my new site (MoonMix Studios) is up & running...& submitted to Yahoo, Google, Bing & Ask...3 of which required an authorization meta tag, which I complied with.

1) would they have found me anyway...without the meta tags ? (not an important question, here...just curious).

my old site was a set of pages on another domain (MoonJams). as of right now...that old url keeps coming up in test searches I perform. so what I did was to rearrange that page w/ redirection info & a link to the new domian: http://www.moonjams.com/moonmix_studio.biz.htm.

now...I obviously want the major search engines to quit showing that address...& display the new domain (& I only left that page up for those surfers who have, or who find, the old link). On the old site (MoonJams)...there are NO physical links left to that page. so...

2) what is the best way to get rid of that old address in the major search engines...??? [2A) will resubmitting MoonJams to the search engines do the trick...now that any physical links are gone from that domain...???]

3) Is my 'redirection page' the best way to go about redirection...or should it be accomplished automatically somehow...in the code...?

4) are there other search engines out there I haven't covered...??? (I've covered Ask, Bing, Google & Yahoo).

thanks very much...& again...thanks for all the useful info already given,


mark4man
MoonMix Studios

[Christophe27]

Hi,

The best way to let search engines know your website is permanently moved to another website is by using a 301-redirect. Also the value of your webpages will be transfered to the new domain. ;) You can set this up in for example PHP or .htaccess. I always use .htaccess.

Please let me know if you have problems setting this up.

There are many search engines, but I think you have covered the most important. BTW they all will pick up the redirect as soon they visit your website. However, it can be a long time (couple of months) before your old URL is permanently moved from the index of the main search engines.

Best,
Christophe

[mark4man]

Christophe...

looked all over the place in my Elizabeth Castro book (HTML, XHTML & CSS: 6th Edition)...& can't find a thing as to a '301-Redirect'.

how is this implemented...???

thanks,


mark4man

[Christophe27]

No you can't find that a book about html or css.

For a good understanding! You want the webpage http://www.moonjams.com/moonmix_studio.biz.htm being redirected to the domain http://www.moonmixstudios.com/ ?

[mark4man]

yep...

that's exactly what I want to do, w/ a 301-Redirect.

thanks,


mark4man

[Christophe27]

Ok, I believe the following must work!

Open .htaccess in your root. If you don't have an .htaccess, create one. Then add the following code and save it.


Redirect 301 /moonmix_studio.biz.htm http://www.moonmixstudios.com/


To check, surf to http://www.moonjams.com/moonmix_studio.biz.htm If it works, you should be redirected to the new domain ;-)

Best,
Christophe

[mark4man]

no...that doesn't work.

i even used the redirect checker here:

http://www.webconfs.com/how-to-redirect-a-webpage.php

& it told me that it either wasn't working...or was not user freindly.

btw - you didn't tell me what an htaccess file is


UPDATE:
The above code is in a Notepad file in my root directory, entitled: .htaccess
it has no file extension.
it still does not work

[Christophe27]

I've checked it and it worked fine with me. (on a example on my webserver)

Can you tell me what else is in your .htaccess?

A .htaccess file is a file the webserver checks first before going to a webpage. If you put a redirect from (for example) non-www to www, the url will change first to www.domain.com, before loading the page. It is a great way to avoid duplicate content ;)

Christophe

[tracknut]

You might also confirm that you're running the Apache web server (GoDaddy's Linux hosting does, but not Windows), as that's the one that uses .htaccess

Dave

[mark4man]

I'm on a Windows server

[tracknut]

I'm on a Windows server

You might check on GoDaddy's control panel to see if there's a way to set up a 301 redirect. .htaccess is Apache only, so that won't work for you. I don't have any Windows-hosted servers, or I'd look myself to see...

Dave

[Christophe27]

I'm on a Windows server

Oops, yes, then the .htaccess won't work of course. I don't have any windows servers so I can't help you. Sorry!

Christophe

[mark4man]

UPDATE:

1) called GoDaddy.

2)
My Operating System is Windows
My .Net Runtime Version is ASP.Net 2.0/3.0/3.5

3)
They sent me a tutorial
I follwed the tutorial for ASP.Net:

<script language="c#" runat="server">
private void Page_Load(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
Response.Status = "301 Moved Permanently";
Response.AddHeader("Location","http://www.new-url.com");
}
</script>

4)
I placed this code...(w/ my new url)...into Notepad...named the file:

moonmix_studio.biz.htm...

& saved it as an aspx file...[the entire file is entitled: "moonmix_studio.biz.htm.aspx"]

5) I uploaded that file to my moonjams.com root directory.

6) it still does not fuc_in_ work

gettin' a bit miffed, here,


mf

[tracknut]

There seems to be a disconnect in that interaction. You created a redirect for an asp page (named moonmix_studio.biz.htm.aspx), and actually if you go to the page (http://moonjams.com/moonmix_studio.biz.htm.aspx) it does correctly redirect to where you wanted. The issue is that you're not using asp, you're using html files, and the page you wanted to redirect was not moonmix_studio.biz.htm.aspx, it was moonmix_studio.biz.htm.

I'd call GD back and tell them that in fact you're not using asp, and that while learning how to do an asp redirect was an interesting exercise, it's not what you need :)

Are you using any features from Windows that you require? If not, I sort of hate to say it, but you can quite easily convert your site to run on Linux (GD does all the work, you can just request it from their control panel), and then of course the .htaccess method works. Or perhaps the next call to GD will net you the answer you actually wanted.

Dave

[mark4man]

Are you using any features from Windows that you require?

not sure.

my site is of a musical nature; & I stream .wma files. the header in the .wax file (which redirects to the .wma music file) always reads:

<ASX version="3.0">

but I'm not sure that qualifies [i.e., not sure if that (standard) method (.wax dile w/ ASX language) for streaming .wma music files also works on a Linux server]

mf

[mark4man]

[forgot to come back & tell you guys]...

1) I discovered an amazing thing...AMAZING...!!!

I was surfing the web looking for the m3u streaming code...(after deciding to also include mp3 music samples on the site)...& came upon an article by Nunzio, entitled 'How to Stream Music or Audio from Your Website. I thought the title to be a bit odd...so I checked it out...(especially since it made referrence to streaming .wma's).

so...I'm looking at Nunzio's streaming code, for both the m3u's & the .wax's...& it's NOTHING but the doggone url/folder where the music file exists...i.e., the pointer is simply the domain & path to the music...in ASCII text in Notepad...saved as a .wax...nothing more.

so I tried it...& it WORKS...perfectly...!!! [& really FAST, to boot.]

my .wma's had been opening w/ a hiccup (which I never mentioned). 1st...after clicking...WMP would indicate 'connecting to media'. then there was a quick flash of 'locating media'...then back to 'connecting to media'...then the file played, but started 1/2 second into the music. the whole shebang took about 9 seconds...& the music started late.

I had been using the standard & typical ASX 3.0 code in the .wax file, which contained the typical mms:// pointer...& it was all crap...!!!

I just finished changing all my .wax files over to the above mentioned method...& those bad boys FLY open & play in about a quarter second.

&...btw - the m3u pointer is the same deal...url/folder/myfreakin'song.mp3


2) migrated my site(s) over to Linux. GoDaddy tells me it could take 72 hours, but I think it's already complete. gonna upload the aforementioned .htaccess file & see what happens.

thanks very much...to you both,


mf