Search Engine Optimisation Resources |
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It's not just being linked, but how you link - anchor textWe're all pretty aware these days that having links from quality sites pointing into your own site is a very important factor in gaining good rankings on some of the major engines. The other point that has become increasingly important is
that relevant anchor text should be used in links. This applies
not just to external links pointing into your site, but internal
linkages throughout your web site. Anchor text is the text that is visible in a link to a web page e.g.: Search engine optimization tutorials The text above is linked to a page named: optimization-tutorials.htm .. which (of course) contains information about optimizing web sites for search engines. Relevancy is the key The whole issue of successful search engine optimization can really be summed up in this statement: Relevant quality site using It's as simple as that. Where it becomes a little more challenging is when your domain name, such as ours, is totally non-relevant to your web site theme. If you haven't purchased a domain name for your new project yet, it's well worthwhile giving your name careful consideration purely for this reason: people will tend to link to your site using the name of your web site as the anchor text. If you are selling Flombles, then you are better off purchasing a domain name that contains the word Flombles. It should be something like cool-flombles.com and not coolflombles.com. The issue of hyphens is something else that you'll need to consider as a domain name without a hyphen is easier for people to remember. Your folders should have flomble related names, as should your individual pages; e.g: cool-flombles.com/buy/white-flomble.htm. This way, you'll not only benefit straight off on any relevancy points that may be applied for your naming structure, but each time someone links to you, the chances are that they'll use beneficial anchor text! Reciprocal link requests When approaching other webmasters to link to your site; it's really important to "suggest" suitable text for them to use; i.e link code that will have the most suitable link text for your site. For further information about link requests, see the added resources at the end of this article. It's also a good strategy to approach everyone who may be
linking to you 'naturally' if they aren't using suitable link
text. It's very important to be ultra-polite in these requests
as these webmasters have linked to you of their own accord. They
are under no obligation whatsoever to you - bear in mind that
a link that isn't quite what you wanted is better than none at
all. Don't "over-optimize" No doubt over recent months, you would have noticed in SERP's (search engine results pages) that many spammers have been exploiting this with 50+ character hyphenated domain names, followed by file paths a mile long. I'm definitely not suggesting emulating this strategy.. all things in moderation. I went a bit overboard naming a couple of pages a couple of years ago as an experiment and I really wish I hadn't - looks ridiculous and gave me no benefit. I also wish I had paid more attention to file naming when I first started publishing articles on development and marketing a couple of years ago - we live and we learn - but I am glad that I can pass on what I have learned to others. Optimization is a rapidly changing environment - gotta move with the times. Right, now I'm off to make a stack of changes to my pages - only 400 to go ;). Here's some other updated articles on search engine optimization that you may find of benefit: Title tags tutorial - making the most of your page title tag Meta-tags tutorial - meta tags are still an important part of overall search engine strategy. Reciprocal linking - good manners can get you valuable links!
Michael Bloch Copyright information.... This article is free for reproduction but must be reproduced in its entirety & this copyright statement must be included. Visit http://www.tamingthebeast.net for free Internet marketing and web development articles, tutorials and tools! Subscribe for free to our popular ecommerce/web design ezine!
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