Posted 06 Jul 2010 — by admin
Category Links, SEO
In her recent post, Jennifer Van Iderstyne tackles some misconceptions about linking. In it she confirms what I have always believed that there is no such as a “worthless” link. What do I mean? Well even a no follow link through blog commenting or social platform as well as multiple weak directory link give the googlebot some info about your site. By sending these types of links to your site you lay some basic link foundation that will enable more powerful links to be used to push you site.
These links can also give your site a little cover. If you work with clients that don’t want to let the world know they have hired an SEO, then these “worthless” links go a long way in hiding your linking scheme and and network.
So I have to concur with Jennifer…there is no such thing as a “worthless” link.
It may seem like an unimportant addendum, but using WordPress tags in a clever way can boost your site’s ranking and actually give it other avenues to draw traffic from. I often times uses different combination of similar words in my tags. This is important because every time there is a new tag, your site gains a new page. This page is semantically related to your post or posts, bolstering your site’s authority in a given area. Now one cannot over do this, but if you take a look at the tags for this post, you’ll get an idea of how to use this technique.
One other thing to remember is that the more often you reuse tags, the more content is placed on the tag page. This will actually give that page some power. I often have a tag page rank before some of my individual posts or deep pages.
Happy Tagging.
Last post I spoke about Page Segmentation. Without recapping, one of the techniques I have found most successful is the placement of internal links in the main content body in the form of lists. This will give a solid boost to your site allowing individual deep pages to gain needed link and PR juice.
One site that does this quite well is How Stuff Works.
There will be more on Page Segmentation as this an on going discussion, so don’t worry I have a lot more to share.
I originally read about page segmentation at David Harry’s blog Huomah over a year ago. Since then much of the theory surrounding it has seem to surface one where or the other. I wrote a few weeks ago (which is really replay of a post a wrote last year) on blog rolls being dead. Its clear that Google is factoring the sidebar area as extremely weak. Why is this important for us?
Essentially it means that we need to worry less about distributing links in those areas and focus on being clever on how we use the content body to place internal linking and important outbound links. Everyone has known for some time that content body links are important, what Page Segmentation does is to provide us with a little more assurance that Google has determined that certain areas of a given site are more important than areas.
In my next post I am going to discuss how this can affect on-page SEO.
Posted 13 May 2010 — by admin
Category SEO
Traditionally on-page SEO consisted of what has been termed as “keyword stuffing.” This is where content writers pack a ridiculous amount of keywords into their writing. Now a days Google and other search engines see through this sort of business fairly quickly, yet there is still an importance in using your targeted keyword in your content.
Although there are no hard fast rules in terms of keyword density, the accepted range of keyword usage is between 3 to 7 percent. One should still make sure to use the keyword they want to rank for in their title, Meta Description, header tags (this can be an H1, H2, or H3) and other areas of the page. Of course there other things you can do to increase on-page optimization. I am hoping to put together a short essay soon on more in-depth ways to approach on-page SEO. Remember though one general rule about on-page SEO and especially use of keywords: moderation is King!
In the spirit of changing times, I am writing about what is already known to many and that is the power behind blogroll links are minimal. If that is not enough, most sidebar links (usually site wide) have also shown that their authority has been dampened.
Most of this can be traced to Google’s implementation of page segmentation (which I will discuss in another post). This means that if you want a link that counts and for maximum PR the coveted content body link (either in the content or below it) is what matters.
So don’t get sidetracked by those who are offering a blogroll or sidebar link on a high PR site. The value is not what they say it is.
Posted 07 Apr 2010 — by admin
Category SEO
When building links to a website or target page there are many theories and ideas out there, but essentially like a good building, SEO needs a strong foundation of links. Although reciprocal links are deemed “dead,” I have met much success in using to create an appearance of a solid link foundation.
These links aren’t meant to drive the my sites, but rather they provide the appearance to Google that there are a number of substantial links from subject relative sites. When this is done, I pepper authority one way links to deeper pages on the site as well as the home page and I often see great results.
Posted 16 Mar 2010 — by admin
Category SEO
PR Sculpting: Channeling Online Energy Using On-Page Optimization
Let me first clarify that when I say PR sculpting I do not mean to say dropping a bunch of no-follow links on your site in order to divert PR towards pages you want to rank, rather I want to explain a few simple on-page changes that may help retain some link juice you have received by cutting down on pages that are sort of redundant.
Contact Page
The contact page is everyone’s favorite, but Google often time’s reads them as a “dead page” in that there is no useful info. This means that it is wasting PR. So how do I take care of this issue? I either include my contact in the About page or through a link to a Google Form or Wufoo. This cuts down on wasted unindexed pages, while not losing out on conveying certain types of critical information.
Low Information Pages
These are pages that have less than adequate amount of information on them. Below a certain number of words and characters, Google will not index a page and these pages contribute to wasted site wide PR. One suggestion would be to assess if the information is needed or if you can rewrite the information together with other information. Another possibility is always to write more on that page.
There are lots of other ideas, but I think the point is clear. Goog on-page SEO involves clever use of pages and content inorder not to further diffuse needed PR and Link Juice throughout the site in ways that are unhelpful.
Posted 15 Feb 2010 — by admin
Category SEO
Page Rank Can Still Be Useful
Page Rank. Its a term that raises all sorts of feelings in SEOs. Some of us take it seriously and others disregard as another Google gimmick. The truth is Page Rank or PR can be very helpful in seeing whether or not a web page has an inkling of authority.
How so?
Page Rank, although not always telling of a particular page’s strength in regards a particular keyword should be seen in within a specific context in semantic category and genre comparisons. This means if you are trying to check out the competition then it is important to compare similar pages belonging to different urls and how Google views them. Although PR in this case is only a basic rating, it still can be used as a quick way to either hone in the potential of a particular web page to rank above its competition.