Figured I would share one of my latest guides I wrote. A Navigation Menu in SEO can play a huge role in optimizing your website for search engines. The reason being is when a search engine crawls your website, it is going to read everything in the header and the first 100 or so keywords in your body which would usually be your article.. In this lesson we are going to discuss using targeted keywords, using text, why not to use image or flash, and why css is your best bet when it comes to header, footer and other navigation menu’s / bar’s. Using targeted keywords in navigation menu’s I am sure you have seen websites which use flash or image navigation menu’s in their headers. If you are trying to optimize your web site, this is a major SEO Mistake which has been added to the SEO Black book on here as reference. The reason this is a no-no when it comes to SEO is because, search engine crawlers are not human, no matter how much you may want them to be. They cannot read images and flash. This is where using a CSS menu comes in handy. The reason this will come in handy is because you can spice up your navigation menu with awesome looking graphics and effects but at the same time you will use text to overlap every item on the menu. When designing a menu and adding categories and items, you want to use keywords that you are trying to rank for in search engines. We are going to discuss more of this below. When getting a site off of it's feet, you want to use keywords in your menu until you start ranking for main keywords that you are aiming for. For example below. Using targeted keywords in your navigation menu’s This will play a crucial role in your site ranking for keywords that you are targeting. In a normal menu you will see it categorized like this for example: Home | News | Forum | Reviews | Tips | Tutorials These are just general keywords. Now let’s say you have an SEO site and you are optimizing for SEO Keywords. You would want your menu to resemble something like this: Home | SEO Tips | SEO Tutorials | SEO Forum | SEO Tools Now that you have a hint, these are keywords that I am trying to rank better for (SEO Tips, SEO Tutorials, SEO Forum, SEO Tools). As you can see in the top header navigation menu on our site therantandrave.net and on this site, our menu’s are in CSS. If you use wordpress, almost every wordpress theme comes with CSS menu’s which saves you a lot of work. Your best bet is using text/css navigation menu’s in your header, sidebar’s and footer using targeted keywords. Edit: since I forgot to add this to finish my above statement off, notice that the keyword "seo" is used in each phrase. It is alright to use it in there like so when a site is getting off of it's feet. Once you start ranking for the keyword "SEO" in this case, you then can change it up to just tutorials,forum,tools , for the search engine will start grabbing the information seo + tutorials, seo + tools in the future especially if you are building pages are given keywords. Check out the site in my sig for more info.
you have to be very careful setting your menu like this, especially if you are changing a current site. approx 80% of people suffering -950 filters have made "optimization" changes to the navigation on their site. (the link is to the blog post where we overcooked it playing with this) if the site is new, you can get away with a bit more, but you still risk tripping the spam filters if you overcook it, then you'll be one of these people asking about the sandbox myth for the next 6 months. gently does it with internal nav optimization these days, we are finding it better now to just link with the main word "Forum" rather than "seo forum" because if the page above ranks for "SEO" then the page below will rank for "seo forum" with just a "forum" link from the "SEO" page. kapiche?
Actually not really, I have done some keyword research for this. With the general page being seo and then having my link just say "forum" prior to that, I did not rank for seo forum, I ranked for seo and had no ranking for forum, with it being a general keyword.
Just stating the results I got. I am not saying I am against what the other guy said, It's just not that big of a deal. I am simply playing with results and testing on this current site. No need to be a smartass.
well thank you for sharing your boundless (2 weeks worth) of experience with us all. if people all follow your advice and overcook it / hit the over optimization filters and bomb their sites just before xmas, then hopefully you'll also have the relevant experience to help them get out of it again, and maybe even lend them some money to get them through their tough times plus when i just checked your site says "forum" not "seo forum" ?
I am alwayst playing with results like I said. Changing things up. Isn't that what seo is all about, playing with and testing results, seeing what works the best? It varies from site to site. Since I am clueless when it comes to seo and all and only have 2 weeks experience. If you looked up some info on the site, you would see it goes back further than 2 weeks. But hey, you know all, I won't argue. And again, I never was against what you said prior "gently does it with internal nav optimization these days, we are finding it better now to just link with the main word "Forum" rather than "seo forum" because if the page above ranks for "SEO" then the page below will rank for "seo forum" with just a "forum" link from the "SEO" page." I have found when first getting a site off of it's feet, it is better to start off with using the phrase "seo forum" until you better rank for the keyword "seo". Then, switch it up to forum in the future. Feel me?