At http://support.google.com/webmasters/bi … swer=35769
it says:

"Make a site with a clear hierarchy and text links. Every page should be reachable from at least one static text link."

I THINK mine is ok with that now.

Then:

"Offer a site map to your users with links that point to the important parts of your site. If the site map has an extremely large number of links, you may want to break the site map into multiple pages."

Does that mean my site map should be available from the navbar menu? Right now I think it's only there for bots?

Yes.

Look at CC's website. They have the Sitemap in the footer area.

If you would have stuck with VSD you could have had it done by now.

Melissa, A good starting point

What do you think your prospective public are going to type into Google in order to find your website ??

Do you have a page which specifically targets those phrases and words, In my case its my about me page)

My suggestion would be a page not necessarily obvious from your category tabs, but with links within your website to it, and links to other pages from it to your other content.

A :: CC sitemap uploaded to the route of your domain, which i never even bother to have VISIBLE on my website at all, its just there for google etc.

OR OR OR :: another website with same domain name but different extension (ie) .info

Just one page as suggested above, couple of pictures (with alternative text) , very little text volume but including those key words 3 times each (sensibly)

And just one link out to your other site homepage, and one link back (this MIGHT fool Google for a while)

OR :: offer up a fee in here for a re write see if anyone bites

There's just too much that I couldn't do with VSD and that Wordpress does transparently.

Do you think that navbar menu at http://ColoradoProcessServers.net is easy to do with VSD?
It would be a bunch of squares hung loosely together on the page and poorly aligned with each other.

Should I make a link to the existing XML sitemap ( which doesn't look so hot when you actually view it ), or use CC's Sitemapper ( which I bought in a package awhile back ) to make a separate one from the XML one? Not sure which would play better with what Google wants to see.

I would use Site Mapper.

I have a set of about six tabs in my Seamonkey browser, of search terms/phrases that are the ones I want to target. And so does my competition, judging from the Adwords pay per click prices I must pay to get better ranking. This is why improving SEO is like money in the bank. Right now things are so competitive that, if I rank 4th on the first page of results, someone else gets the calls and my phone doesn't ring. I need to rank 1 or 2, to even pay the bills here. If I can do that organically, we can pay the bills better. We're still an unregulated state here, for what I do, and there are good people going out of business because of shysters that undercut them on pricing, rip clients off, then disappear and open sites under other names, to repeat what they did. I'm talking people that commit perjury and screw up court cases and cause people to lose their money in court, not just what they paid the perjurers. And that happens, even in heavily regulated states, but it happens here more. We even still have a pedophile working here - a guy who was convicted and spent time in prison for molesting a couple of 7 year old boys, and he's out there doing this work, which is supposed to be an honorable profession.



No per se. I don't want to do anything overt, to tick off the SE algorithms. Instead I've been focusing on my "relevant content" that Google tells you to focus on, like information that I offer clients ( the "Tips" page, for example ) and blog articles, and those of course contain key words and phrases, as part of the relevant content.



Per above, I'd be very cautious about that kind of thing.



That's why I ask, above, whether I should just link ( as suggested here ) in the footer to the XML sitemap, which gets auto-regenerated periodically ( but apparently not auto uploaded to Google, which I just found out at Webmaster, and corrected. ), or perhaps generate a second one that might look better, for actual visitors, using CC Sitemapper, depending on which approach Google might more highly esteem.



That costs money and I'm not sure what advantage it would provide.



I HAVE been wondering how a few of my competitors are getting #1 and #2 ranking above me, and can only conclude, from what I know of them, that because we're a little part time home based business, and they are big companies with lots of employees ( much different business models ) that they can afford ongoing SEO help. I'm not sure. But this is where the term "Guerilla Marketing" - based on that book, comes in. I don't have big bucks, I barely have any bucks, so I have to work with these things as best I can, by myself.





Heh... our business has been down about 60% since 2009, for some strange coincidental reason. ( I'm not saying anyone is running a war on business or capitalism, anything like that...) So I wouldn't want to seem insulting to anyone reading the offer. :-}

In addition to the XML map? And separately?

Are you sure that would be better SEO-wise?

To be honest, I normally charge for advice for SEO. I am happy to point you in the right direction. But I have learned the hard way (pain sweat and tears), and can only give advice and resources without hurting my bottom line.