Pro-SEO

Top 6 SEO Tactics

1 - Link to sitemap from syndicated content

Syndicating your content, Either through RSS feeds or by submitting articles, Is a great way of getting backlinks. They are also great pieces of search engine bait as many high profile article directories are targeted heavily by search engines and some people will copy those articles and include them on thier own site.

While submiting articles is great there is another thing you can do to optimise the effect this will have on your site. When you include your "About the author" section at the bottom which links back to your site instead of linking to your homepage try linking to your sitemap. This way when search engines follow this link they will find a page full of links that they can eat up, This will mean more of your site will be found by search engines and more of your pages will be included in the index.

2 - Translating your website into other languages

If you are promoting your website to only English speaking web-surfers you are missing out on a potential 64.8% extra traffic. This is because 64.8% of people on the internet surf and search in a language other than English.
Google alone spiders and understands 35 different languages, and have plans to add more.

You will also be happy to hear that competition in other language is a lot lower than the same words in English. Now, Imagine ranking well for "web hosting" or "cheap flights" in turkish, polish, Dutch or japanese. Sounds good doesn't it?

3 - ROR Sitemaps

We all know about regular sitemaps, But how many of us know about ROR Sitemaps (Resources of a Resource)? Unlike regular sitemaps that are usually targeted to specific search engines ROR sitemaps are understood by all search engines.

ROR sitemaps are ideal if your website is selling products as you can offer up a lot more information about your products. A ROR file enables you to document your product names, descriptions, prices, images, availability and any other relevant information.

4 - Keywords and phrases that convert

I have covered this is another post but feel it's worth covering again. The biggest mistake any webmaster can make is targeting highly competitive keywords that they have no chance of ranking well for. Instead what should be done is target more specific key phrases instead of general keywords.
What this means is you shouldn't spend your time trying to rank well for "car hire" when you could be ranking well for "car hire in london", Or better still "cheap car hire in london".

By adding descriptive words to your targeted keyphrases you benefit in two ways. First you will be getting targeted traffic, what's the point of someone in india searching "car rental" and finding a site that rents cars in london? That will not end in a sale. Secondly it will mean you have a much higher chance of ranking well. Far fewer people will be trying to rank well for "car hire in london" than are trying to rank well for "car hire".

Think about it like this. Who is going to buy an ipod? The person searching "ipod"? Or the person searching "buy 4 gig black ipod nano"? And which term would be easier to rank well for?

5 - Internal linking structure

The way people navigate your site should be well thought out by you to ensure not only that people can find all of your content and products, But also so search engines can. This isn't limited to your side bars, you can also do this within your articles. If you write an article about dog food but mention cat food within this article use this opportunity to link to the article about cat food that you have previously written.
This will not only mean there is another link for search engines to follow and as a result index your site deepper but it will also mean you are encouraging your visitors to click around and will increase your page views.

6 - Secrets of site logs and stats

Your site logs will hold a lot of information that can help with your SEO efforts. Most hosts have a statistics script installed, It might be awstats. From these logs you will be able to find what countries are sending you visitors and more importantly how they are finiding you. You will be able to find out what sites are sending you visitors and more importantly what search terms they are finding you by.

If you find a page that is getting visitors from google when people search for a certain phrase you can do the same search and see where you appear. You may then want to optimnize that page further to increase your position for that term or retain your high ranking.

It's important to know where your visitors are coming from and what they are looking for.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 03, 2006 at 8/03/2006. You can skip to the end and leave a response.