Archive for January, 2008
published by Dan in SEO | SEO Strategy
The saying actually applies not just to direcroty submissions but your over all SEO campaign, especially in the area of link building. With keyword research and selection care must be taken but inclusion of keywords and phrases in content and other important areas (anchor text, headers, etc) must be done as soon as possible. With link building and direcorty submissions though it is right to start as soon as possible but it is better to build links over a period of time. There are several reasons why it is best to take time your time when it comes to directory submissions. Some of the reason I can think of on the fly include:
- having enough time to research each directory - If you are going to do the submissions yourself then it is best to spend time making sure that you don’t waste your money on paid directories that will only give you links that are not valuable at all. It will also give you time to find out the guidelines of each directory and thus be able to insert keywords and phrases to the anchor text of the directories that allow it.
- having enough time to write up unique descriptions - Even if you ask an SEO copywriter to do this for you, you ought to give enough time to churn out unique descriptions. Harassing your SEO copywriter to give your results with too little time will only result in sub-standard descriptions that are either almost carbon copies of each other (thus defeating the purpose) or that are not substantial enough or don not represent what your site really is about.
- avoiding a sudden surge of links - What?!? A lot of links are good but a sudden surge of links might get you flagged if there appears to be no reason for it (i.e. newsworthy stuff going on in your site, getting in the front page of Digg, etc.) since it can be interpreted as using shady techniques such as link spam.
Popularity: 19% [?]
published by Dan in SEO
When submitting to multiple directories keep in mind that these days it is done mostly for the link value instead of the traffic it provides. In days gone by (pre-search engine era - Did you even really go on the internet before that?) directories were used as the main portal for searching information. Nowadays, though you might still get some traffic from directories, it is the search engines that drive traffic to our sites. Because of this it is important that your directory submissions have content that are acceptable not only to the directories you submit to but also to search engines. What this means is that for your directory submissions the content must:
- contain keywords and phrases - This is basic SEO and you want, not only your website to be searchable but also your directory listings to be searchable as well. It would be even better if you can slip in the keyword or keyphrase in the anchor text. However, not that this isn’t always possible since some directories require that the link to your site only contain your site/business name.
- have different descriptions - Submission descriptions are usually very concise. For this reason it because extremely difficult to vary the description for each directory you will be submitting to. The best thing to do in this case is make sure that you don’t “over submit” to directories and simply limit submissions to worthy ones. Since that will still leave you with quite a number of directories (even hundreds if you are not too picky) then the next logical stop is to hire an SEO copywriter to write unique, concise, and meaty descriptions for EACH of you submissions. The logic behind this? Submitting the same descriptions to different directories might backfire in terms of link value since the descriptions might be seen by search engines as duplicate content.
Popularity: 17% [?]
published by Dan in SEO
Just as with paid and free directories the smart move is to submit to both kinds of directories. Again when submitting to directories what matters is that the directory you submit to is reputable and ranks well in search engine results pages (SERPs).
If you have a very specific topic for your website though make sure that you submit to the top niche directories for your topic or business industry. But how do you find out which the top directories are? Simple. Google it. Note that if the directory ranks well in Google then it is probably a good one. Furthermore, due to the recent manual penalties imposed on directories (for reasons still open to speculation) it is wiser to update your directory listings and see which ones have not been affected. As for general directories just stick to your standards and make it clear that you have no intention of submitting to spurious directories whether free or paid. But then again, as I said the last time, you can just leave this to your SEO specialist.
Popularity: 16% [?]
published by Dan in SEO
In the previous post I gave you an important reminder about directory submissions which is to submit only to reputable directories. However, choosing which directories to actually submit to can be a little tedious, especially since there are so many out there to choose from. In case you are wondering though which ones to submit to here are a few tips on directory submissions.
Paid versus Free Directories - Submit to both kinds but remember that submission to paid directories are usually better. Except for the few exceptional free directories like DMOZ (which is a headache in itself if you think about the waiting time for this one) most free directories are not worth it since they are either not reputable enough (meaning you should be wary about them) or they delete links after a certain period of time (meaning you have to resubmit your site).
If you want to submit to free directories though (and you really should do so too) you might as well consider the following:
For a much easier time submitting to directories you can also simply hire the services of an SEO specialist. Remember to emphasise the importance of submitting ONLY to tried and tested directories. There are plenty that will boast of being able to submit your site to thousands of free directories but if you look at their list of directories the vast majority are really new and are nothing more than link farms. So before hiring any SEO company to do this job for you make sure you have their policy in black and white so that in case you find out that your site was submitted to a link farm and was penalized for it you can at least hold the SEO company liable.
Popularity: 16% [?]
published by Dan in SEO Strategy
When it comes to link building make sure to keep the following tips in mind.
- Submit only to reputable directories - Never ever submit to link farms. Before submitting to directories (whether link directories or article directories) do a little reasearch and look the site up in Google. If the site does not appear on the index then DO NOT submit your site to that directory. Chances are that site has been flagged and will do your site more harm than good. In case the site is just new and has not yet been indexed it is still better to steer clear of that directory since the link they pass on won’t carry much weight anyway.
- Spamming Wikipedia won’t do you any good - Yes the Wikipedia link might get you traffic but in terms of SEO it won’t do you any good. The reason for this is that they use the nofollow attribute for external links to avoid spammers from benefiting from the links they put in Wikipedia.
- Link baiting is ok - Link baiting is not bad as some would like to portray it but you should think it through before coming up with sensational items if that is your strategy because negative articles can affect your reputation in the long run. Make sure that if you take the unpopular side in an issue you are doing so not just for link baiting purposes but because it really is your opinion.
- It is easier with quality content - Link building will be a hundred percent easier if you make sure that your site’s content is good first. Even if you pull all the (legal) tricks you can think of if your site is crap no one will link back to it.
Popularity: 17% [?]
published by Dan in SEO Strategy
Once you have covered the very basics and made sure that all holes are plugged then it is time to start souping up your links. Some of the most basic link optimisation techniques you should always remember include:
- Using keywords as anchor text - If you are link building and soliciting inbound links make sure you suggest that specific keyyords be included in the anchor text. This is also true for internal links. To help spiders determine which pages have content that is most relevant to your primary keyword use those primary keywords as anchor text when link to other pages within your site. Do this as well for outbound links to help other people’s SEO efforts.
- Avoid deep linking - To ensure that your entire site is spider-friendly avoid deep linking. This means making sure that no page is buried more than three clicks down from the main page. This involves organising your informaation architecture and it pays off not just in terms of SEO but will also make your site easier to navigate, and thus more user-friendly as well.
- Use the no-follow attribute for links you don’t want to be factored in the ranking - Remember that this works only for Google, MSN, and Yahoo. Ask doesn’t really care about the nofollow attribute. Yahoo will also still index the link but at least won’t include it in the ranking process. You want to do this for non-relevant links or links that might potentially harm your pagerank.
Popularity: 16% [?]
published by Dan in SEO Basics
I was going to do a series on link optimisation again but I realised that I have posted several times on link optimisation. So instead of giving a really in depth analysis of each strategy I decided to just summarise or give a list of link optimisation strategies that I have mentioned before. In case I fail to mention something feel free to leave a comment so I can take note of it.
The most basic thing remember before even thinking about optimising your links is to make sure that you do not have any dead links and that you use the right syntax. As much as possible adhere to W3C standards so that you won’t have any (or at least minimise) problems regarding accessibility. To make sure all the links in your site is working do a regular checkup of your links. You don’t have to do this manually because there are plenty of applications you can use. Two pretty good link checkers are the W3C Link Checker and Link Checker by Kevin Freitas (a Firefox Add-on).
Note that checking your links is important to increase usability. As I have mentioned before, “If you do not have the basics covered then you are prone to overlook seemingly trivial but potentially important factors that will affect your optimisation efforts.”
Popularity: 15% [?]
published by Dan in SEO
In the previous post I gave two examples for excluding a directory from being crawled and indexed by search engine bots. Now, if you simply want to your website NOT to be indexed (for whatever reason, which is mystifying considering the fact that you are reading an SEO blog and so you must want to promote your site!) all you need to do is include this in your robots.txt file.
User-agent: *
Disallow: /
Now you might think that this isn’t necessary especially if you didn’t even submit the site to any directories or any search engine submission pages but the truth is that as long as there is one site out there that links to your page, there is a possibility that your page will be indexed, even though it might take a long time for that to happen. So if you really want to keep your site out of SERPs then do use the robots.txt file.
Now if you want to some files in a directory indexed but most of the other contents of that directory out of search engine databases then you can also specify just that certain files to be indexed. For example
User-agent: *
Disallow: /diary/
Allow: /diary/keepoutwarning.html
This means that the contents of the directory diary will not be indexed except for the allowed page keepoutwarning.html.
For more information on how to use the robots.txt file visit The Web Robots Pages. They also have a Robots Database as well as robots.txt checker and IP lookup, which are very useful tools.
Popularity: 14% [?]
published by Dan in SEO
Two important and common problems of websites are excluding certain pages from being indexed and fighting spam. The issue of link spam is clearly a problem every website, especially blogs, have. The problem of not wanting certain pages to be indexed is not universal though it is a pressing one for some websites. Reasons for not wanting a certain page to be indexed by search engines include links leading to duplicate content or stub “no content” pages. This is important in SEO because we know that duplicate content is not desirable. Whatever the reason is, there are ways in which certain pages can be specified as “not for indexing”.
One of the ways to do this is by using the nofollow attribute. However, as discussed in the previous post on the nofollow attribute you can see that exclusion of pages from being indexed is not really what the attribute is for, besides not all of the search engines bots (Yahoo! and Ask bots) even recognize/pay attention to the nofollow attribute. To exclude a page from being indexed what you need is to create a robots.txt file and include the pages(s), file(s) or even whole directories you don’t want to be indexed.
So what do you put in the robots.txt file? The standard file indicates the User-agent(s) and the files/page/directory which the user-agent(s) cannot enter. For example:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /private/
The * means that all bots are not allowed to enter nor index the directory “private”.
If you want to keep out specific bots you can specify this by replacing the * with the name of the bot.
For example:
User-agent: Googlebot
Disallow: /private/
This means that all the other bots will be able to crawl and index your private directory except for Google.
Popularity: 15% [?]
published by Dan in SEO
The use of the nofollow attribute results in one or more the following consequences, depending on the search engine bot crawling the site:
- the bot doesn’t follow the link at all;
- the bot follows the link but doesn’t index it;
- the bot doesn’t show the existence of a link at all;
- the bot doesn’t show the link in its SERPs even just as anchor text; and
- the search engine does not factor in that link for page rank calculation.
In terms of SEO, what this means is that…
1. If you are on a link building campaign you should make sure that the inbound links you get are not tagged with the no follow attribute. Note that all external links in Wikipedia, whether in articles, talk pages, user page, etc., are assigned the nofollow attribute. So if your SEO specialist tells you that spamming Wikipedia with links to your site is a good strategy then you can be sure that your SEO consultant has really outdated knowledge.
2. Comment spamming isn’t such a good idea. Many blogs now use the nofollow attribute in the comment section so that the sites that spam won’t benefit in terms of getting points from the links they litter around. However, note that while commenting wouldn’t always help your page rank there are still plenty of blogs that do not use the nofollow attribute on their comment section. Commenting (not comment spamming) is also good for building your social network, and while bots might not follow the links, interested readers will.
3. Since search engines differ with how they deal with the nofollow attribute you can still benefit from pages with even with your link tagged as nofollow though definitely not in Google nor MSN.
Popularity: 21% [?]
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