Could anybody tell me the best strategy for optimizing a niche forum for keyword searches. I have a few members say they found me on google search even though the site is fairly new, if I know these keywords is it just a case of making them appear more in threads to make it appear further up the list in google or is it more complicated than that? Thanks in advance everyone
Use this keyword tool, which will pick appropriate keywords from your forum and will tell you where exactly do they rank in Google and how many people search for them. Using keywords in posts help a lot, I'm not sure if using them in titles of posts make any difference. I would say that running a forum naturally would bring you best results, because most of people search naturally in Google. With new topics and new posts you'll just get new keywords which might rank good, so there's no need to stick with keywords you are ranking already. But it is good to decide which (one) keyword phrase is the most important for you, and place it on all important places on your forum (title of the main page, title of some posts (maybe), anchor text of internal links and backlinks). Then decide for 2nd most important keyword phrase, and use it occasionally in your anchor texts... Examples: If someone will search for 'How to get alexa rank', he will find three popular webmaster forums on first Google page, including one post from DP. All three are big forums, with PR, many backlinks and huge content, so don't expect to compete with them for some major keyword phrases. If you're monitoring what is happening in webmaster/SEO world, you'll see many announcments of events, seminars, new tools, etc. You can use some keyword phrase from such an anouncment, after that phrase is already known a little, and use it in your forum's post (no need to stuff the forum with it at all). To answer you directly: I think there's no point to repeat your keyword phrase a lot. It's much more important to place keyword properly and use proper multiple keyword phrase on the first place. Again, seodigger tool can give you idea which other keywords to use.
Forums are easily indexed - so indexed pages shouldn't be a problem. It's all about backlinks. What keywords are you trying to rank for?
Here is the list of keywords which rank well in Google (picked from the site #1 for "phobia forum") and which have some search volume in WordTracker/Overture. phobia forum panic attack and anxiety forum panic attack forum anxiety disorder forum anxiety forum If you enter different phobia related keywords in tools.seobook.com/general/keyword, you'll get: social phobia anxiety phobia phobia list type of phobia etc Suggestions: 1. Put in the title of your forum: pannic attack, anxiety and phobia forum 2. Put chosen keyword phrase, e.g. anxiety and phobia forum in anchor text in your backlinks and internal links. To see where the #1 and other phobia forums gets backlinks, use backlinkwatch.com 3. Put the link with anchor text in your signature and in your profile here on DP, ask for a review in Reviews and put keyword phrase in the title of the post and as anchor text in link in the post text. Do the same in webmasterworld.com and in webmaster-talk.com (they both have review sections), also in health forums ( search.big-boards.com/result.php?q=health ) which allow signatures or links in the posts. 4. Signup in Google webmaster tools to see your most searched keywords 5. Check statistic tool which you can probably find in your hosting's control panel 6. Find health blogs which accept posts from others (contact authors, you can ask in Buy/sell/content creation), make a good post, use keyword phrase in its title, and put the link with anchor text in the post.
Wow Boron thanks very much for all that useful information. Looks like I will be kept very busy Thats very kind of you to offer so much information to help me.
The strange thing is this site is only showing 2 backlinks from low page rank sites. Is this normal to be number 1 in google and have only 2 backlinks? How else have they managed top spot? Thanks for all your helpful replys.
2 backlinks is what Google reveals publicly. Google shows only a portion of links, not all of them. Besides, Google backlinks are only updated once in a while (every 3 months or so, this might changed lately though). That means, you don't know exactly how many Google backlinks the site has at the moment. To get the best idea about backlinks, use http://backlinkwatch.com , which will tell you, that the site has 2000+ backlinks, and you'll see analyzis of 1000 links - with PR and anchor text. You can arrange backlinks according to PR (High to low) - you'll get an idea about the value of site's links then. To get some other info about any site, you can use this tool. Yahoo shows the most links when compared with other backlink tools.
Thanks im running the backlinks tool now to see where they all come from. Im sure you have some understanding by now as to what things im trying to learn. Can you point me in the right direction for some good ebooks to read that will help me in my webmaster quest lol!! I guess all about SEO, Keywords, ADsense, Traffic, Forums, that kind of thing. Thanks very much
SEO is preety much all about this: - having useful site (yours look like one) - carefully selecting one main keyword phrase and using it in the TITLE of the site, for other keywords use keyword suggestion tools mentioned in above posts. - getting backlinks with anchor text with exact keyword phrase (but do not allways use only one keyword phrase) from the high PR sites. Try to get backlinks from blog posts and articles (ezinearticles.com), that means from the appropriate context. Do not buy sitewide links, footer links and paid directory links. Link from Yahoo directory may have ranking value (ask on a forum, I'm not sure), but it is $299, free submission exists, also ask how to do this, I don't know. Use advanced search here on DP, enter a term and select 'search titles only'. SEO: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/search.php?searchid=9236330 Traffic: http://forums.digitalpoint.com/search.php?searchid=9237050 Ask specific questions about Adsense and other in appropriate forums. Other: Search engine ranking factors SEO for Firefox (Plugin for Firefox). Big Health Forums
Once you have found some keywords add a description / welcome message to your site near the top of the home page. In that mix some of your keywords in it and title it with the most competitive keyword you are going for. Also maker the title a bold or preferably us an H1 or H2 tag styled to look nice. This will help big time in the SERPs. For an example of this see the site in my sig. I see you have already gotten a PR4. If any of those backlinks are from directories go back to them and modify your listings (if possible) changing your link text to your keyword and adding more keywords to the description. When doing either of the thinks I mentioned make sure you don't just throw keywords here and there. It needs to be easy to read and understand by your visitors.
Thanks for your advice, I havent submitted to any directories as havent read much about doing so yet but the backlinks I do have none use anchor text as back then I didnt realise how important it was but I will contact all of the sites and ask for anchor text to be used with my keyword in. Thanks