Search Engine Strategy Basics part 1 continued

Linking Strategies

Choosing the right keywords and publishing quality keyword-rich content puts you approximately two-thirds of the way toward optimum search engine recognition. The other third is pretty much solely based on popularity.

If we were talking about popularity in the real world, it would probably include simple things like who voted King and Queen of the high school prom, or who had the most date options on a Saturday night, or which sibling got the most attention from Mom or Dad.

In the world of search engines, popularity takes on a whole different meaning. And in most instances, it comes down to this… the website with the most quality links pointing to it wins the contest.

Link popularity.

That’s the game. And the ultimate goal is to get countless “important” websites (those that have a theme or topic that’s similar to yours) to provide links back to you. Of course, when we’re talking about importance, we’re referring to how major search engines view them.

Most often, that equates to high page rank and top position in search results. The higher up the food chain a website happens to be, the more powerful any link they provide back to you is perceived.

In order to get the most bang out of the link popularity process, it’s best if you actually seek out valuable websites. Aside from those you might already have in mind, conduct searches based on the keywords you’re most interested in gaining search engine recognition for.

Naturally, someone who’s in direct competition with you wouldn’t even consider giving you a link back. So what you’ve really looking for are popular websites that have content or products that are either complimentary to yours or are indirectly.

For example, let’s say your topic and keyword is based on ways of perfecting your golf swing. Good link back choices would be websites with the following themes or products:

·information about golf courses or golf tournaments

·golf equipment or apparel

·golf instructors or seminars

If the topic is related to yours and the website that’s providing the link back carries a good deal of weight with major search engines, the value of your own website will automatically be elevated.

When it comes to the actual link that these valuable and important websites place on their pages…

Always encourage the use of text links rather than just a URL. For example, instead of simply displaying https://www.adwordanalyzer.com as the link back to your website, you want something more substantial and keyword rich. And, of course, search engine friendly.

If one of your keywords is “targeted traffic”, for example, the link might read as follows:

Drive targeted traffic to your website with Adword Analyzer

That not only gives you credit for the keyword, it encourages the search engine crawler to perceive your website as having more value.

If you have a separate page on your website where you solicit link backs, it’s always a good idea to list one or more link text possibilities. That way, you’ll receive credit for the keywords you yourself have chosen to target.

You should also provide the HTML code for placing your link on other websites. Basically, make it as easy as possible for someone else to add you to their pages.

You should also specify where you require a link back to be placed. Ideally, you would want your link located on either a home page or one click away from the home page. At the very least, your link should be located where it will be perceived as valuable by the search engine crawlers.

Buried four or five levels deep on some obscure page that might not even be indexed is absolutely worthless. The whole point of getting link backs is to gain more importance with the search engines.

So the bottom line is…

The more control you have over the links that others place on their websites, the more search engine value you’ll experience.

It takes a good deal of time and effort to encourage high-ranking websites to link back to you. Make certain you invest whatever additional effort is necessary in order to gain the best possible link as well.

And the criteria for the best possible link is this:

1. It includes keyword rich text.

2. It originates from a valuable and high-ranking website.

3. It’s placed in what would be considered an important location.

Anything less than that and you’re compromising the whole link back process.

Always keep in mind that in this particular instance, quality will always win out over quantity. Yes, you want a vast number of links pointing back to your website. But given a choice, you’re much better off with fewer links from important websites than countless links from sites that don’t carry much weight with search engines.

What To Do…

Following is a brief overview of what each of the major search engines and directories is looking for with regard to optimization and value.

Google

Doesn’t use meta description and keyword tags. High score for the overall weight and proximity of keywords, < h > tags, and bold text. Rewards quality content, anywhere between 50 to 600 words. Content should include keywords in text and links. Likes to see keywords in the page title (utilizing 90 characters or less) and carried consistently throughout the website. Especially values link popularity, themes, and keywords in URL‘s and link text. The use of excessive keywords, cloaking, and link farms is viewed as SE spamming.

Yahoo

No major importance but the description and keywords filled in play a role. Will not index anything associated with SE spam. Slow loading pages run the risk of being excluded. The page title has some significance and should be concise. Likes site popularity and wants to see a theme throughout the website.

MSN

Supports meta description and keyword tags. Doesn’t index anything associated with SE spam. Frames must use <no frames> tag to get indexed. Considers the page title important and wants it to contain keywords. Wants to see proper keyword frequency. Link popularity carries a good deal of weight. Likes to see a theme carried throughout the entire website.

DMOZ

Likes to see concise and accurate descriptions and keywords. Slow loading pages can be penalized. The page title has some significance and should be filled in. Keyword frequency is not factored in. Link popularity is not important. Especially likes to see accurate and appropriate category choices.

What Not To Do…

After all your hard work getting your web pages optimized, the last thing you want is to do something that would prevent your site from getting indexed. Or worse, have it blacklisted by search engines altogether.

At the top of the “don’t do” list is the use of invisible text (the text is the same color as the background ). Most every search engine is wise to this practice and will currently ban any website found to be using it.

Here is a quick rundown of everything else you should never do…

Don’t repeat keywords excessively.

Don’t place irrelevant keywords in the title and meta tags.

Don’t make use of link farms.

Don’t submit to inappropriate categories in search directories.

Don’t submit too many web pages in one day.

Don’t publish identical pages.

Don’t use meta refresh tags

No matter how good your website is - no matter how valuable the content it contains or how legally optimized it might be - if you use any of the things spelled out above, you run the risk of being blacklisted, branded as a search engine spammer.

Although it varies from one search engine to another, spamming can include one or more of the following:

irrelevant web page titles and meta description and keywords tags; repetition of keywords; hidden or extremely small text; submitting web pages more than once in a twenty-four-hour span; mirror sites that point to different URL addresses; using meta refresh tags

When it comes to directories such as DMOZ (which have human editors), spamming generally equates to one of these three practices:

deliberate choice of an inappropriate category within the directory; marketing language; capitalization of letters

It’s not difficult to stay out of black hat territory. But it’s certainly difficult to recover from having used those types of techniques. That is, assuming you can recover at all.

Just pay attention to the rules established by search engines and directories. And since Google is the player you’ll most want to satisfy, it’s important that you read and re-read their webmaster guidelines which are published at https://www.google.com/webmasters/ on a regular basis.

Break the rules and you’ll always be struggling to gain benefit from all the major search engines. Follow the rules and you’ll establish web pages that will not only be around a long time, they’ll always be in contention for top search results position.

The end of part 1

Part 2 continues tomorrow...