Hi guys, I need some help with these tricky questions. I am trying to build a tattoo website for SE marketing. My primary keyword will most likely be: tattoo designs and secondary - tattoo gallery. I also have a lot of other keywords like: start tattoos, dragon tattoos, fish tattoos, etc... So, I am trying to do 50+ pages for each individual keyword. So here come my questions: 1. Will SEs rank similar: domain/tattoo-designs/startattoo.htm, domain/tattoo-designs/start-tattoo.htm, domain/start-tattoo.htm? I think it would be ideal to use: domain/tattoo-designs/startattoo.htm because some people search for: "star tattoo" and some search for "star tattoo design", so by creating a directory like: /tattoo-designs/ should help to rank highre for "start tattoo design" without hurting "star tattoo" ranking? 2. Is it necessary to create "follow sitemap" in robots.txt if you have a link to sitemap at the bottom of the page? 3. Should keyword density for primary keyword be necessarily higher than for secondary and what's ideal density? 4. What's an ideal amount of body text? Let's say if my keyword density is 8%, will SEs give me higher rank for having 500 characters in body text VS 250? 5. Is PHP and HTML ideal for spiders? I want to tell straight ahead that no way I want to trick SEs. I want to write very unique, original and very user friendly content. However, I feel that I can do it with emphasis on SEO. But I want to make sure that I do it right. ...and here are some questions about getting back links. I would like to ask them simply because some people say one thing while others totally object it. 1. Let's start with directories. Most people think that more directories you submit to - higher rankings you will get. But lately, one of the SE experts said that you should submit ONLY to reputable directories, and often 10 reputable directories would be enough to get high ranking. Is it true? 2. We all know that articles are great linking strategy. But speaking of revelency, how can articles submitted to let's say Ezine Articles help your rankings if that site is not relevent to tattoo website? Yes, I know some people will grab your article, post it on their website and you will get back link. But, can it hurt you if their website will be penalized for any reason? 3. And now speaking of articles. Should you care about keyword density while writing an article for article directories? And how do directories rank your articles? Is it by popularity or by submission date, or they have their own rules? THANKS A LOT FOR YOUR HELP!!!
1. Will SEs rank similar: domain/tattoo-designs/startattoo.htm, domain/tattoo-designs/start-tattoo.htm, domain/start-tattoo.htm? I think it would be ideal to use: domain/tattoo-designs/startattoo.htm because some people search for: "star tattoo" and some search for "star tattoo design", so by creating a directory like: /tattoo-designs/ should help to rank highre for "start tattoo design" without hurting "star tattoo" ranking? Yes, similar in SE eyes, however, not for the visitor point of view. It's hard to read starttattoodesigns. That's why most people use dashes. 2. Is it necessary to create "follow sitemap" in robots.txt if you have a link to sitemap at the bottom of the page? Create a search engine type sitemap.xml and submit it to Google Webmaster Central. Yahoo and MSN has the same facilities with diff names (can't really remember the names). Putting at the bottom of page or robots.txt might be working, however, all SEs have a convention of using those sitemap.xml. 3. Should keyword density for primary keyword be necessarily higher than for secondary and what's ideal density? The ideal density is a little bit higher than the top 10 of your competitors. Each industry has it's own density, so there is no fix rules for this. 4. What's an ideal amount of body text? Let's say if my keyword density is 8%, will SEs give me higher rank for having 500 characters in body text VS 250? Density won't place much importance. You could visit official i-robot.com (the movie) and see that there is NOT a single word there, it's all images, and it's rank in top 10 for the word robot. So, density down the drain. 5. Is PHP and HTML ideal for spiders? Yes, if you code it correctly. HTML and all server side programming (PHP, JSP, ASP) are spider friendly, again, if you code it correctly. 1. Let's start with directories. Most people think that more directories you submit to - higher rankings you will get. But lately, one of the SE experts said that you should submit ONLY to reputable directories, and often 10 reputable directories would be enough to get high ranking. Is it true? Problem with mass directory comes from automated or "unknowledgable" submission. If you mass submit, you should do it periodically (not in one go, but spread it for months or years to come) and using different texts and anchor links. Otherwise SE will think it is robot submission and it hurts, rather than helping. Thus, it may nullify the purpose of mass submission. And of course by that it is better to put it in 10 reputable directories. So, submit to the 10 reputable. If you already have quite a high rank after some time then you could just leave the others behind. They won't bring many traffic and won't give substantial increase in ranking also. If you are still "weak", please do mass submit. In a correct way, that is. 2. We all know that articles are great linking strategy. But speaking of revelency, how can articles submitted to let's say Ezine Articles help your rankings if that site is not relevent to tattoo website? Yes, I know some people will grab your article, post it on their website and you will get back link. SE "knows" that it's an article directory and won't judge based on the site, but on the article's latent semantic and the bio link. But, can it hurt you if their website will be penalized for any reason? No, unless you link to them also (link exchange). 3. And now speaking of articles. Should you care about keyword density while writing an article for article directories? Of course. And how do directories rank your articles? Is it by popularity or by submission date, or they have their own rules? Depends on the directory. Mostly, it may track how many visitors click your articles for a certain keyword search. So, it's like a mini search engine. Wow, it's a tons of questions. My fingers are numb Rep will be appreciated, of course
SolomonZang, I highly appreciate your help! Many thanks to you, it was interesting to read your answers. And very informing. I just have one quick question for you. I asked Question # 4: What's an ideal amount of body text? Let's say if my keyword density is 8%, will SEs give me higher rank for having 500 characters in body text VS 250? and you answered: Density won't place much importance. You could visit official i-robot.com (the movie) and see that there is NOT a single word there, it's all images, and it's rank in top 10 for the word robot. So, density down the drain. So, are you talking about density or amount of characters in body text? Also, if you can have all video site and it can be ranked # 1, why do people deal with stuff like density and body text? See what I mean? Just very curious to know. And big thanks again!