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1. Key word rich text - Pick 5-10 key words/phrases that you think are going to draw the most traffic to your site. You will use these words throughout your site - any more than 10 and you're starting to dilute your content - google likes targeted content. Choose one key word for each page and include it in the title. Don't spam, but definitely try to incorporate it as much as possible.
2. Use keywords in the title - One thing that I've noticed is the fact that google likes to see the keywords you've chosen for that page in the title. Try to use it at least twice - it could look something like this: "Widgets - Do Widgets Work?" Notice the keyword "widgets" is included twice and provokes interest. Also, include your title as high as you can within your header - you want it to be the first thing google sees when it visits your site.
3. Links, Links, and more Links! - The more you link up the easier it is for google to find your site and makes your site seem more important. One key link to grab is a spot in the DMOZ - one I get included in there I was quickly found within all spider search engines. Shoot for 5 a day. If google updates approx every 30 days or so that's 150 links for every update - a lot of exposure to the engines and the net.
Well, there you have it. I'll be the first one to admit that I'm not a google expert. Although the application of the above principles has really helped me to gain a large presence on google and the web in a very short amount of time. Feel free to add your thoughts and comments! Good Luck!
This doesn't have as much to do with this thread but rather something I've noticed throughout WW. It seems a lot of people on here are more concerned with their PR than their actual SERPS.
Hey real proud of you! Youv'e said it all... Keep on going :-)
I've been doing as you said for 3 sites, and it works really good :), good listing and title keywords.
/SwiZZ
Welcome to WebmasterWorld.
PR stands for PageRank. You can find a great deal of information on it by reading through the Google Knowledge Base [webmasterworld.com], as well as our Google Library [webmasterworld.com]. After that, you can use out site search [webmasterworld.com] to locate past threads.
Please forgive a couple of foolish questions from a newbie.
1. Is there any rule of thumb for the ratio of keywords to text in the body of the page?
I noticed that you suggest using the keyword twice in the title, but in the body are there any guidelines?
For example: I have a keyword in my title and I use it about 7 or 8 times on my page. A few times in plain text, a couple of times in links, a couple of times in tags, and once as a header. But my page still does not rank in the first 100 results on Google. Could it be that the other content on my page is diluting my keyword?
2. You suggest adding 5 links per day, but can you explain more regarding how this is actually accomplished? Could you also explain how these links help with the rank that my site achieves?
Thank you again for your help
skeeterpop asked:
1. Is there any rule of thumb for the ratio of keywords to text in the body of the page?
Yes, there is but I've never seen the rule of thumb published. You'll see some places suggest each page should have only a couple sentences with lots of keywords in each, and other places will suggest a few paragraphs with keywords in each.
The basic thing, again in my opinion only, is to write for your audience. People visiting a site will not like it if every sentence includes the same keyword repeated over and over. Keep it natural -- use the keywords and phrases wherever it makes sense, but keep it readable. When you're serving your site visitors, you're serving Google.
I have a keyword in my title and I use it about 7 or 8 times on my page. A few times in plain text, a couple of times in links, a couple of times in tags, and once as a header. But my page still does not rank in the first 100 results on Google. Could it be that the other content on my page is diluting my keyword?
It could be, but there are dozens of other factors that affect your ranking. It could be that you're aiming at an ultra-competitive (and unrealistic) keyword. It could be that the page in question doesn't have very many inbound links from other sites, etc.
2. You suggest adding 5 links per day, but can you explain more regarding how this is actually accomplished?
By going out and finding high-quality sites that are also listed in Google, and asking if they'd be interested in linking to your site. You have to have good content, and you have to show them a benefit to linking to your site. You may have to trade links with them, but not always.
Good web site for learning more about linking: linkingmatters.com.
Could you also explain how these links help with the rank that my site achieves?
Part of Google's analysis of your site and pages is to quantify how many other sites in their index link to you, and then to qualify those links by judging the quality of the incoming link. This is where the PageRank of a site/page is important -- links from pages/sites with higher PageRank are better than links from pages/sites with lower PageRank. And WebGuerilla already provided a couple links here on WW for learning more about PageRank.
Hope this helps.
Specifically for Google, it's good to think in terms of phrases rather than just words. "Blue widget" matches "blue widget" better than "blue [lots of text] widget" does, both in the title and body text (not in the link text though).
I note that you talk about the number of links (presumably from different sites), rather than the PageRank of the links. This seems to have become more and more important over the last year. If you can get the right words in the link text, that's also a big help in Google.
Welcome to WebmasterWorld, skeeterpop.
> rule of thumb for the ratio of keywords
I think that people over-stress keyword density in Google. Note how askjoe mentions "Key word rich text", rather than the phrase "keyword density" which is traditionaly used. I don't know if that was intentional, if so I agree. Doubling the size of a page doesn't require doubling the incidence of the keywords, IMO.
it could look something like this: "Widgets - Do Widgets Work?"
Notice too how he has 'widget' as the first word in the title. I have found that all things being more or less equal between two sites, the one with the keyword or phrase closest to the start of the tag will win out.
A month later and 30 inbound links that we know of that are PR4 or PR5 and one big chunky "we're the only link on the page" style PR6. Oh, and two entries in different cats in DMOZ. So I'm guessing we'll open next database update after the dance at a PR4 or PR5. At that point I hope to at least get #2 or #3 for that one keyword out of the 5 that we're currently down on page 7 for......
I would add the following to askjoe's advice (and then just point everyone at Brett's article for the detailed low-down!):-
1. Content, content, content, content, content. Make it good and forget about spiders, mostly. Just keep the keywords in there, but don't force them. If a keyword doesn't look right in a certain place, get rid of it. Humans are the most important people spidering the web, not the robots!
2. Start out with a good site structure you can build on (we found Post Nuke, with a few hand-coded modifications really good). That makes it easy for you to shuffle your page rank around your site later.
3. See 1.
4. Target not only DMOZ, but the other good directory sites out there (there's loads).
5. When writing to a website to get a link, write them a nice email. Be sure to have looked at their site very thoroughly - give them feedback on it - good and bad. Webmasters love that. Pick out the thing that interested you most about the site and end on saying that you enjoyed/got something out of reading it. This policy has really worked for me (I'm the sort of person who would do that anyway though) - every single site that I have asked for a link from has done so. No-one has asked me to link back - although I have done so.
6. See 1.
7. Keep adding new content regularly. If you start seeing freshbot on a daily basis you're doing the right things.
8. Check out the backlinks that your competition have. Write to them and get links too........ but with anchor-text so your keywords appear in the link.
9. Never ever subscribe to any link exchange programs or ever pay anyone any money to "get you up in the rankings". It's probably a scam.
10. See 1.
TJ
4. Target not only DMOZ, but the other good directory sites out there (there's loads).
Can you list some others?
Joeant
Goguides
Zeal
Craig
They're really easy to find - just use the web! lol
TJ
Get on everything that you can that is good quality. Don't know Zeal myself, so can't commment on it's quality. But if it looks like a good quality resource, get on there.
Too much emphasis is put on page rank - especially for new sites. Just get established and get some inbound links from quality resources. If you have a good quality site, pagerank will follow just as night follows day.....
TJ
Never heard of zeal, have to go check it out.
I can only assume they have a completely different index to dmoz and are not related.
TJ
Maybe I'm missing something but why in the world does PR matter if you are listed #1?
PR is a factor used in generating the serps. Higher PR may lead to higher position in the ranking, all other things remaining equal. So, without the "high" PR, he may not have been ranked #1 in the serps.
"Forget Page Rank and get in Zeal anyway."
"Get on everything that you can that is good quality."
I agree 100%
That's the strategy I employ myself.
I was just pointing out that Zeal contributes no PR for those who may have thought that Zeal helps your PR when your site is approved.
You have to score 90% or above on that member quiz in order to submit your site:-(
To get links to your site try checking backlinks for your main competitors which should give you a few sites to approach. It's obvious that some of the back links of your competitors will be competing sites which you will not be able to approach. Great thread by the way.
I noticed that no one mentioned Yahoo as a directory link suggestion. I always list my clients sites in the Yahoo directory in addition to DMOZ. Getting listed in Yahoo is much quicker most of the time.
I have really noticed that as soon as my Yahoo listing is up my rankings improve at Google and the other spider based engines.
1. The importance of Page Rank has been over emphasized (IMHO) over the past year or so. My suspicion is that Google has moderately decreased the importance of page rank in its algo over the past 18 months. I have gotten sites listed in the top 10 (sometimes top 5) for competetive keywords that had a PR of 0! PR Helps, but I don't think it is in the top 3 most important things Google uses in its algo.
2. Having the site listed in the Open Directory Project (DMOZ) or Yahoo is key. It makes sense too. Since both directories require a site review, Google is simply saying, these sites are worth more because we know a human has verified that they are substancial sites with some decent content. Everything else is a crap shoot Google as search spiders really cannot truly discern the quality, relevance, and importance of a site no matter how fancy your algo is. This is obvious in many searches on Google in which you see really crappy sites (or spam sites) right next to really good sites. DMOZ can take forever so if you want immediate results, pay for a Yahoo listing.
3) Beside the page title, I've found the page attribute that makes the biggest difference is having the keyword(s) in the link text, especially in the inbound links from other site. If the other site's link text says vists *your site name* today, it is much better to have they change the link text to *view widgets at your site name* (widgets being your keyword you are targeting).
Are these websites creating some sort of "theme" for these keywords? I just don't understand.
Askjoe
