Recently I came across a very informative article from Wordtracker and got some useful information. To summarize, to get better rankings all this you can do in just nine steps. 1. Create more content "Try to update your content as often as it makes sense to do so" 2. But don’t duplicate content "If there are legitimate reasons for you to duplicate your content (in your heart of hearts, you know if you’re being naughty or nice), you might want to deploy a redirect or a canonical tag In fact, if you have duplicate content you should." 3. Make your site speedy Site speed is also becoming an increasingly important ranking factor so keep yours up to scratch 4. You can also adjust the crawl frequency in Google Webmaster Tools. Several configurations are recommended in the article. 5. Add a sitemap Important in having all your links in one place. 6. Make sure your server is working as it should. See how many of your site's pages have been crawled by Google and Bing 7. Check your server responses Check your server responses by running a site audit in the Keywords tool 8. Get links As well as improving your rank, bringing in more traffic and generally being awesome, links potentially get your website crawled more quickly. 9. Know your crawl rate You want Google to crawl as much of your site as often as possible. So to find out, log into Webmaster Tools. If you want to see the article, check it here: http://www.wordtracker.com/academy/get-your-site-crawled
Consider it as an additional step, probably this will help. There should be proper error handling in the site. Create a 404 page for you blog/website and provide some relevant links so that the user can easily navigate to other parts of the blog. Also, try to fix broken links. You can download broken link checker wordpress plugin and quickly find all the broken links on your site. Moreover, making contextual links, adding meta tags and using the ping services will definitely be a major add-on.
1. Focus on the Long Tail Keywords 2. Stick Around - Alexandra LevitThe longer you are in business and producing quality online content, the more likely you are to pop up in search results for all related keywords. 3. 3. Optimize Your Articles 4. Don't Forget About Building Backlinks the Right Way 5. Use the New Google Keyword Planner for Find Profitable Keywords 6. Provide Amazing Value to Your Readers 7. Don't Try to Outsmart Google Using BlackHat 8. Think of SEO as an Opportunity to Create Value 9. Decrease Bounce Rate 10. Make Top Notch Content 11. Setup Your Company Official Blog 12. Think of Creating a Community
That is basically your site's speed. Matt Cutts always include this among the 200+ factors that affect SEO
Thanks, that just made me smile Legit advice, OP, but a bit too much emphasis on crawl rate to my taste. I'd say, just build a great website and they (search engine bots) will come. What eventually leads to higher search ranking in my experience is: - providing content that solves the visitor's problem - viral content - free stuff -games and entertaining stuff - great deal/bargain + great user experience