Here are 5 Priceless SEO Strategies & Search Engine Optimization Tips that you can apply to your website today.
1) Use the right SEO strategy for the Job – Your strategy depends on the market and the keywords so if you intend to identify multiple keywords and ensure that your site has enough content about the subject (or add content) to create at least 5 pages about the topic (especially if your competitors only have one page).
As a quick tip, you can use a site:yourcompetitor.com keyword command in Google to see just how many pages they do have on the topic. Also, look for the first result that is not the homepage for the search (when conducting research). The reason is, the first result that appears without the homepage means that the page earned that position and ranked in the SERPs on a large percentage of its own on-page merit.
For example, you can always investigate under further scrutiny and determine how many inbound links that page has. This will give you a better idea of how many quality inbound links (links from other pages) your page may need (if the quality and authority of the sites offering the link are similar), aside from strong internal links.
If your competition has 20 pages on a subject, then you know you should start writing (if that landed their page in the top 10). Typically two things produce this (1) site architecture concentrating on the target landing page or (2) strong external links to the homepage which elevate the sites overall synergy and topical relevance for the keyword. If the site was stronger than that page for the search query / keyword, you would see the homepage returned in the search results instead.
2) Optimized Site structure – This can save you time and energy targeting competitive terms. Theming and siloing is one of many tactics for ranking higher in search engines.
In a nutshell, theming and siloing involves using keyword-rich naming conventions and logical topical progression to reinforce each page to rank for a series of select keywords. One example of creating a theme is site/main-keywords/product-category/keyword-rich-item-name then the silo is building 10 or more related pages in the /product-category/ folder. This way each page reinforces the topic and search engines know where to go when seeking information on the topic.
Think of it like a clear index in the back of the book, whereas in this case, it is a road map to relevance which can score you points from search engine spiders. The added benefit also becomes self evident when link building becomes part of the positioning strategy, by building links to the theme, every page in the silo gets elevated. More pages with link weight equals a higher possibility for multiple rankings (from each page).
Keep in mind, any two or more words on a page are potential keywords with the right amount of site authority, inbound links or strong site architecture (*think wikipedia). So, never undermine the power of a solid content ranking strategy that uses the sheer quality and volume of topical information as a base.
3) You need links for recognition – Links are required to elevate what is called link popularity. You can rank from both internal (links within your site) or external (links from other sites), the key is finding the proper balance. One tip is, ensure that your main keywords within your site are augmented from other key pages in your site that preferably have the keywords on the page.
For example, if I wanted to rank for “SEO company”, then I need to (a) create a page with SEO Company in the title, use the term 4-6 times on the page for every 1000 words, have a link with the word SEO Company on the page.
Then If I had 5 or 6 related pages about SEO (which you should) then I would link to the target landing page with the anchor text SEO Company to identify that page as the flagship page. Obviously the keywords and pages will be unique for each scenario. But the concept here is continuity between pages, if your internal links are established properly, you will require less links from outside sources to rank highly in search engines. In essence, it limits your risk and exposure of dependency on other sites.
4) Help search engines crawl your site – Aside from crafting poor titles, the next thing that you could do to cripple your optimization efforts is not have a site map clearly linked from every page in your site. At least your themes should have site maps so they can feed the pages in the silos (using the tactic briefly discussed above).
5) Write quality content – By writing quality content about a theme in volume to increase your sites quality and relevance score. Don’t leave the ranking game up to numbers, if your competitor is constantly writing great articles on their site or syndicating them through other sites, there is a reason for that, “it works”!
So instead of trying to buy your way to the top using PPC or link building to supplement relevance, just hire an SEO copywriter that can identify the pulse of your market and fill in the gap of what is missing in your site to be considered a relevant result.
Resources:
For those of you who may not have read most of these posts, I have included links to posts which provide additional clarification on each of the topics gleaned above.
- SEO Link Building Tips – Some great and useful tips on link building.
- SEO Defense – What to do after you hit your mark.
- How to cultivate a long-term SEO strategy over time.
- SEO Basics – Which ratios impact rankings and how to balance them.
Stay tuned for more useful SEO Strategies, Tips and Search Engine Solutions from SEO Design Solutions.
Hi Jeffrey!
Good article, I found your explanation on link recognition to be particularly helpful, Thanks.
Thanks Rhys:
I have to give the credit for the term “link synergy” to you. You coined it, hats off.
based on the previous context of “site synergy” from your brilliant post. http://biznz.org/2008/05/maximize-seo-like-a-pro/
I have to thank you for the efforts you’ve put in writing this website. I really hope to check out the same high-grade content from you in the future as well. In truth, your creative writing abilities has encouraged me to get my own, personal blog now ;)