I would go one further: <A HREF="http://www.asksam2.com/" title="Sexual Health Advice">Sexual Health Advice</A>: (put some trailing relevant info here) Just my 2 cents (and that is Canadian, so about 1.83 cents)
Yes links within your own site are very important. Think of a link as a vote. Everytime you link to a page, you vote for it in Google as being relevant for whatever anchor text you give it. So if you have 100 internal pages that all link back to your homepage page with "Sexual Health", that will help you in getting listed. Then you need to come up with a creative link stategy that gets around the problems you described. No links = No rank pure and simple. Hope that helps.
Hi there, I am at a similar stage to you Sam with my knowledge, so check others agree first, but it may well be worth looking to register with as many directories as possible. Most of them have a health section of some type, I would start with DMOZ, then hunt for others, there is a good link on this site somwhere to a whole list of directories (cant remember where though) Most of these directories are free, some require back links and some request payment, it's generally not a large amount, and i bet the guys here know which ones to pay for if any.... Hope this helps a bit in your quest
Very interesting conversation here...I come from the 'ad network' division of this amazing forum. I dabble a little in SEO to Google and have recently tried an experiment. So, I am thinking of new ways to promote my site and try writing articles and submitting them for free reprint to sites like http://www.articlecity.com/ (there are quite a few more as well). One of the first articles I write is entitled 'Poor Birdy'. It's really a silly story about a bird that I found frozen to a 7-11 bicycle rack. This article was submitted in early Dec 2004 before the latest update. If you search now for 'poor birdy' http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2004-27,GGLD:en&q=Poor+Birdy . My articles are #2, #3, #4. Another article I wrote was entitled "Simple Graphic Design" (that's actually my line of business) My article is #1 and #9. http://www.google.com/search?source...,GGLD:2004-27,GGLD:en&q=simple+graphic+design I crafted these articles to require reference links back my site for a more elaborate explaination. Since then I diseplin myself to write an article a day and submit it. I beleive this will help tackle the mighty G quickly and effectively.
We have a lot that chop themselves also. I'll ad a few links in our homeless site, we have two resources sections, will pm you once I've done it and tell you where the links are.
this has become very interesting indeed. you guys have given me enough stuff to work on and keep me busy for awhile. i have an old site hosted free at tripod, and it has a PR3, i placed on every page of that site, a link to my new sites index page, and a link to the new sites page thats the same page on the old site. thanx for all your advice and help, this has been the most eye opening thread i have seen, and its so simple even i can follow it, thanx again guys. sammie xoxox ps now i will look to get links to, but i dont hold out much hope lol
You could start by using a signature at the bottom of your posts. It might not be too relevant, but it's simple and easy. The only problem I have is that due to the fact that my site is new, or under construction rather, the links to the threads show higher than my site in the SERPS. Still beneficial though. As far as ranking better in other SEs than Goo, that is because there is much more competition on the actual best SE, it's crowded with spammer sites that push genuine sites down substantially in many sectors. We are all waiting for Goo, to change and discard spammer sites from SERPs, and actually I heard of a plug-in or something that they're testing that appears to work quite well. Otherwise the other players are going to climb up the ladder and catch Goo. Yah, the new proprietary MSN, AOL, etc are pouring in resources to compete effectively.
thanxxx Dominic, i know its a shame in this day and age, but someone has to do something for them, they are far to young to have to worry about stuff, they should be helped. its so sad when you hear something bad on the news, about a teen killing them self over a bully at school or something like that, but even worse when it could have been sorted out for a few $$. i guess sexual health, gets the boot from all the porn sites huh?
I have an old site hosted free at tripod, and it has a PR3, i placed on every page of that site, a link to my new sites index page, and a link to the new sites page thats the same page on the old site. Maybe you could mix it up a bit...Google thinks that if all external links point to one page ie. index.htm they are auto generated and therefore not as much value is given to such links. Try linking to several different pages from tripod to your new site using different anchor text. It won't look auto generated because you are now linking to different pages. Good Luck
I wouldn't worry about porn links, I would concentrate on health links. Especially if your trying to target youngsters. Try to get links from reputable sites that establish you as an "expert" in your field.
thanx for all your help guys, sorry i was away for a week, house move. to floods in the old house on the day i moved, things looked bleak. but all's well sammie x