One week ago, I wrote a post detailing that my Dixons page on ShopCodes.co.uk was on page 25 of Google for the search term “dixons voucher codes.”
Today, this very site is on page two for that search term and is the 14th site listed; whilst my other new wordpress site 1234Codes.co.uk is a little behind on page 8. The cached version of that page which advertises Truprint shows that there’s a link labelled “Dixons – £30 Off Discount Voucher Code“.
Shop Codes has improved, it’s now on page 18. A jump of approximately seventy positions.
I’m going to update the text links within my site so that the Dixons links are worded slightly differently. Currently they read: “Dixons (£30 Off Codes).
It feels like a life time ago but only three weeks ago a search for “Dixons voucher codes” returned my Shop Codes site as the number one result in Google.
I’ve just scoured hard to find it in Google and I had click to page 25 of the results before I saw my site! That’s one mighty fall from grace.
In the short time it has taken me to take the above screen grab and edit it to demonstrate the search used and the number of results, I’ve slipped behind a further page. So in the space of five minutes I’ve dropped ten positions.
Even then it doesn’t link to the Dixons page on my site, it links to the home page.
Meanwhile, over at MSN, a search for a slightly different term “dixons discount code” displays my site as the second result.
I’m going to link to my Dixons voucher codes page and monitor how far it can fall in Google. It’s not the end of the world as I’m number one result for other sites but in three weeks time will they be consigned to Google’s bin too?
Great headline in the Daily Mail to explain Gordon Brown’s ‘bamboozling’ last budget.
Now that I am not just a sole trader but a Director of my own company, I’ll start taking more interest in the business aspects of the Budget.
All the news has been of the 2p decrease in income tax. With my salary I’ll be a few hundred pounds better of because of this.
My new fledgling business though will be hit with a tax increase from 19% to 22% over the next few years. So if my grand plan of making £70,000 in profits come true, then this will mean I’ll pay approximately £2,000 extra in tax.
Befuddlement is not the word I have in mind.
Shop Codes has been struggling in the Google rankings in recent weeks, so I’ve been working hard updating and fine tuning the pages so they’re optimised for the search engines and include fresh content.
The result has been paying off and I’m slowly seeing some positive results. Not only are the pages being indexed but in some cases they are the number one result for some keywords.
One of those is “m&s voucher codes”. It may appear to be an obscure keyword but to a site like mine it is the bread and butter. Google takes the visitor direct to the Marks and Spencer page on my site and then I deliver a voucher code for that shop. There’s lots of combinations of keywords that I’d like to be present on Google for, ie “marks and spencer codes” or “m&s vouchers” – but the way I’ve been ‘dropped’ by them, I’ll accept anything at the moment to be on the first page. To be the top result just shows I am gradually doing the right thing and is even better.
Before I get too excited though, Marks and Spencer have announced they are closing their affiliate scheme for a number of weeks. They’ve partnered with Amazon since 2005 and Amazon will soon be launching a new M&S site.
So, I can leave the page as is and the links to M&S will probably break at some point or I can just link direct to the site without the affiliate tracking code. The latter option seems like the best option to me as I’m then keeping my site visitors happy.
