Optimizing for top Google rankings includes a number of factors. In Part 1 of 3 we discussed onsite optimization. In Part 2 we will touch on incoming links as well as using Google Webmaster Tools.
LINKS
Links
are very important in today’s Google rankings, but just how many links
you need will depend on both the competitiveness of your target
phrases, and the quality of the incoming links themselves.
Essentially
the number one rule of links is to keep it relevant! Topical relevance
is very important in order for inbound links to give your site the most
value. If the page that links to you is relevant that is good, if the
entire site linking to you is relevant, that is better.
First to
get an idea of how many links you may need, take a look at the top 10
ranking sites in Google and record how many links Yahoo is noting for
each site. (This is because Google does not display anywhere near all
the links they have noted). The average of this count is often a good
indication of how many links your site may need.
There are many
different ways to get links to your site including the age old
reciprocal link trade, directory links, article based links, and links
from press releases.
Reciprocal Links
Reciprocal
linking has seen its value drop considerably over the past few years,
however, if the site you are trading with is relevant you can still
receive value from these links.
Paid Links
Google
frowns on paid links, however that is not to say that they don’t work.
Often you can find highly reputable and relevant websites which are
offering paid advertising spots. If these links are coded to link
directly to your website without passing through any tracking
redirects, you will in many cases see value in the form of both direct
traffic and increased link densities and rankings.
Articles
Writing
and distributing industry specific articles is a great way to help
increase both your link counts and site traffic. Consider writing articles on a regular basis and submitting
them to some of the more popular services such as EzineArticles. Be
sure to include a link to your site from somewhere within the article,
or at the very lest within your bio. Try to use a target phrase as part
of the anchor text for additional value.
Press Releases
If
something of importance has happened to your company such as a new
product launch, or other notable achievement – essentially anything
news worthy, put out a press release. Submit this press release through
services such as PRWeb or PRNewsWire. Again, be sure to include a target phrase as part of the anchor text.
There
are also a number of places you can get links that have basically
turned south, and are not generally recommended. These include
signatures in form posts, guest books, and other typically free links.
Forum Posts
Forum
posts can help to marginally increase your link counts; however, with
this one you must be careful. Only add a link to your site in your
signature if both the forum allows it, and you are a respected member
of the forum. If you are a solid contributor and your posts have depth
and meaning, and the forum is highly relevant to your site, then having
a link in your signature may give your site some juice. Posting wildly
to random forms will in most cases get yourself banned, and will be
both a waste of time and potentially make you and your site look bad.
Guest Books
In
nearly all cases, do not post your link to guest books. If you happen
to stumble upon a guestbook that is highly relevant to your site, the
other comments are relevant to your site, and you have something useful
(and again relevant) to say, then perhaps consider it, but typically
focusing on links from guest books is considered SPAM and is best
avoided all together.
Blog Comments
Having
a link from your blog comments is not necessarily a bad thing. If you
find a relevant blog post of use, and have something relevant and
constructive to say, don’t be afraid to enter your link into the “URL”
field of the form, but don’t try stuffing links into the comment itself.
Link Farms & Bad Neighborhoods
These
are sites that allow you to simply post your link no strings attached.
They are mostly long scrolling pages with countless links. Stay away
from them. If you see one, run in the other direction. These links are
bad, will not help with your rankings, and in some cases can actually
damage your rankings.
Stay away from sites that cross link with
obvious spammers. These networks of SPAM sites are not ones you would
want your site associated with, and if you achieve links from enough of
these sites it can adversely impact your rankings. Even more important,
NEVER link to any of these sites – as that will certainly tie in your
connection to them and give Google reason to discount your rankings.
DMOZ, Yahoo and Other Directories
Directory
based links can be of significant help, especially if they are from
highly reputable directories, the two biggest being DMOZ.org and the
Yahoo Directory.
Getting a site into DMOZ is like Gold. Google
loves links from DMOZ and your site will reap the benefits. The big
catch however is actually getting your site into the directory in the
first place. Find the perfect category for your site and check to see
if it has an editor. If you see a link “Volunteer to edit this
category” try and find another relevant location. Pages without active
editors take much longer to get listed into. Once you find the perfect
directory submit your site every 4-6 months until listed. If you are
lucky you will get in eventually.
Yahoo Directory is seen as an
authority in the eyes of Google, and getting your site in will help
your link reputation. This link does come at a price of $299 per year,
but will play a role in helping your website achieve top rankings.
There
are a number of other valuable directories out there that can help you
with your search rankings. Before submitting to any directory the key
is a combination of relevance and authority. If the directory is
relevant and active it may be worth considering.
GOOGLE WEBMASTER TOOLS
Google
Webmaster Tools can be very useful for your optimization efforts. It
may not directly help you obtain higher rankings, but can help you
trouble shoot if you are experiencing problems. It will also allow you
to remove URL’s that you don’t want indexed and set various preferences
such as your domain, crawl rate, and geographic target.
XML Sitemaps
This
is the most common reason people use Google Webmaster Tools – the
submission of their XML sitemap. While you can use your robots.txt to
have Google find your XML sitemap, by submitting it directly to Google
you can check up on the spidering status.
Error checking
Webmaster
Tools is also quite useful for checking on various error URL’s that
Google may know about. Under the Diagnostics > Web Crawl you can
view any errors that Google has to report on your site. By cleaning up
any errors you can help increase your chances of rankings.
Links
From
inside Google Webmaster Tools you can get a much clearer look at what
sites Google is noting as having links to you, and give you a better
indication of the need, if any, to increase your link counts.
WWW Preference
Be
sure to select your domain preference under Tools > Set Preferred
Domain. In nearly all cases you will want to select the version
including the “www”
SUMMARY
Inbound
links play a significant role in successful Google rankings. By
focusing on relevant links, as well as by diversifying where you get
those links from, you can build a solid foundation for your search
rankings today and into the future.
Stay tuned for How to Optimize for Google Part 3
(of 3) where I will discuss other considerations including redirects,
HTTP headers, and a number of other factors which play a role in
successfully conquering Google.
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