Current techniques to increase PR and SERP ranking

[Dawn111]

Hi, I am very new to SEO and SERP techniques. I have a fairly new website that has a PR of 2. Currently I am trying to get backlinks and the main way I am doing this is by commenting on keyword/topic related blogs. I want to increase page rank to at least 4 - but I don't know what the most optimal way of doing this is.

If you guys could help me by telling me what the current methods are of increasing page rank and SERP results. I have been looking over past threads but alot of the ones I come across are pre-2008. If you guys could share your thoughts or even point me to recent threads that address this that would be great. Thanks.

[tfanelli]

Hey Dawn,
I would suggest trying to focus on getting higher quality links versus alot of lesser quality. If you can get some pr 4+ sites to give you direct links that would be better than a bunch of 0 blog pages.

You can do this a couple ways.
1. Do you have any local business you could go to and exchange links?
2. Although very difficult to get links from wikipedia are good. If you are a genuine authority or pioneer in an area make a wikipedia page. Remember wikipedia is all about info not advertising.
3. Purchase them! You can get high quality pr pages from various places. We used to advertise in print journals and I would make the publishers give me a link on their home page for the pr.

Good luck!

[chrisains]

I think before you continue it is important to identify exactly what you are trying to achieve. You say you want to go from a PR2 to a PR4, but why? How is having a PR4 going to impact your business? Is having a PR4 going to increase traffic to your website, increase conversions and improve your bottom line?

There is no point in simply building links for the sake of building links. You should define an online marketing strategy which will impact your business.

Professional link building is an extremely complex process therefore I would advise thorough research before proceeding.

[Dawn111]

tfanelli > thanks for the info. I will look into the wikipedia idea you suggested and also the local business link exchange. My site is very professional looking and I don't really want to spam it with ither people's links, but I do have a blog section on it so maybe if I offered local business a link or even a little post dedicated to them they might link exchange - what do you think about that? In terms of purchasing links - I can't really afford to do that so that one is not a viable option for me.

chrisains - of course I have set goals I am trying to achieve - the PR thing is a component in that. Currently I am number two in google search results for my main keyword, I want to be number one and the two listings above me have a pr of 3 - so I calculate that if I outdo them in Pr I will outdo them in search result ranking.

[chrisains]

Hi Dawn111 - I see the logic behind your mission to increase PR however this is not necessarily true. Just because you have a higher PR does not mean you will have a higher ranking within search. Work on improving the relevancy of your inbound links, from relevant sources, with high PR where possible. Analyse the linking architecture of your competitors and see if you can benefit from mirroring any of their techniques. Review the content of the two competitors above you and see if you can improve the relevancy of your content to out-weight the relevancy of your competitors etc. There are many techniques which you can use but focusing purely on increasing PR is not the way forward.

Chris

[tfanelli]

Dawn
I agree with Chrisains about relevant links, which made me think of a couple other things I wanted to throw in.
1. Make sure you use keywords in the Link itself.
2. I think doing things like Press Releases or Online Social Media Releases has been a benefit. Checkout a service called Pitch Engine, they have a free package I think.
3. Make sure you are linking your social media sites to your main site. Facebook, LinkedIn, etc. Most of the time these are No Follow links, so they technically will not pass link juice, they are factors you should not ignore.
4. Lastly, and I have had really good success with this. Write come of your own content and freely give it away to relevant places. For instance, I guest blog for iWeb.com on their blog, and doing this gives you credibility and great links back to your site wrapped in relevant content.

Just a couple more ideas. I think these are the kinda things that a good business/marketing/seo person should make part of their toolbox that is a good practice for both credibility and link building!
tom

[freejung]

Hi Dawn, welcome to WW!

Some of the suggestions above are good (I would not advise buying links, but that depends on your risk tolerance). But rather than jumping into tactics, I think it helps to take a step back and think about strategy.

What value can you provide to other webmasters that would incentivize them to link to you?

Answering that question depends entirely on your niche and what sort of content, services, tools etc you are equipped to provide. Answer it well and good links will come easy.

For example, giving away free content to get links is a strategy that's worked well for me. That's a particular angle that happens to work well in my niche. Think about what you can provide in your niche that other webmasters would find valuable and either be willing to link to you in order to make use of it, or want to share it with their visitors.

Some general ideas of what you might be able to provide: data, articles, blog posts, photos, graphics, videos, infographics, webinars, courses, whitepapers, products, services, consulting, etc etc...

[FranticFish]

the two listings above me have a pr of 3 - so I calculate that if I outdo them in Pr I will outdo them in search result ranking

I've seen lower PR pages and sites beating higher PR pages and sites since I first started studying rankings, and I still see it today.

PR is such a general metric. Page A might have a PR4 from one PR5 link that was off-topic and with unfocused anchor text. Page B might have a PR3 from 30 on-topic low PR links, some of which contain useful anchor text. I'd expect page B to outrank page A.

I have been looking over past threads but alot of the ones I come across are pre-2008

The fundamentals are unchanged. If you focus on increasing your presence on sites related to your own, then rankings and traffic should follow. Think of it this way: you become a noteworthy person/site in your niche. You get traffic / links / your url cited / your brand mentioned / Tweeted / 'liked' on Facebook. The exact method by which trust flows to your site by your actions does change because Google is trying to measure increasing amounts of factors to ascertain what sites are trustworthy, but the principle is unchanged. If you focus primarily on the *principle* rather than the actual mechanics then you won't end up algo-chasing or bandwagon-jumping. Instead you'll come up with a strategy that should benefit you in the longterm.

[tfanelli]

I've seen lower PR pages and sites beating higher PR pages and sites since I first started studying rankings, and I still see it today.

PR is such a general metric. Page A might have a PR4 from one PR5 link that was off-topic and with unfocused anchor text. Page B might have a PR3 from 30 on-topic low PR links, some of which contain useful anchor text. I'd expect page B to outrank page A.

Hence, that is why i stated, its one of MANY items that influence ranking. Its not the ONLY thing, but its a factor. Of course you see sites of lower page rank out ranking others, because of all the other factors outweigh the PR and the algo determines the site with the lower pagerank collectively is more relevant to the users search query.

We are essentially saying the same thing.

[Dawn111]

So much information to absorb! Thanks guys, I am going to let all this stuff that you've said sink in a little before I fire away questions that are springing into my head. Oh, and I realize I made a typo - I am number 3, not two, for my main keyword on google.

[OnPageMarketing]

I guess the real question would be, is your keyword really a keyword?
Its been my experience that most people dont know how to use the tools at their disposal, or the tools they use only provide them with certain parameters or info. Keyword research is the first and most important part of any SEO strategy.

[tedster]

Welcome to the forums, OnPageMarketing. That's a heck of a good observation you made. There is a book in the depths of understanding what makes a REAL keyword!

I'd say it especially matters whether the "keyword" brings in visitors who make difference to your website's goal - whatever that is in each site's case. PR and rankings are pretty abstract and you can't deposit them at the bank ;)

[Elfchen]

The pagerank is only a small part of the ranking. So you can also rank a pagerank 1 site before a pagerank 3 site. So simply work on clean and fresh content and do not try to manipulate anything. If you get catched you will be completly deleted from the index up to a couple of years.