Unashamedly asking for free advice. I've never been in this position before!

Hi,

I have acquired a site that in it's niche is currently:

• #14 in Google
• #5 in MSN
• Nowhere in Yahoo

My aim is to get the #1 position in this niche across the big 3 SE's

There's no great money involved, but I'd love to be able to say I am ranked #1

I'm busy trying to get one way links to improve SERPS & PR, but are their any other tips you can offer?

Is link building the key, and does it matter where I get links from (obviously I realise the better quality links are worth more)

Any reply appreciated, and repped.
Steve

 

Related links are worth way more then unrelated links.

To improve your rankings in the SERPs you should get links back with the keyword you are trying to rank high for as your anchor text.

 

MSN is wonky, I can't figure it out at the moment. But... yahoo seems to like keywords; keywords in the content in the meta tags and titles. (as well as IBL's of course.)

 

Let me apologize now for what will be a long post! There are many things to consider in SEO and Web marketing that will have an impact on, not only drawing traffic to your Web site, but on how your potential customers view your business.

Before I get into the SEO techniques, I will say that you should look at your Web site and determine if you need to add to your credibility. Good traffic won't get you anywhere if you're not making sales. Does your site make people want to trust you? Do you have contact information clearly displayed? Do you have familiar payment or certification logos on your site? Does your copy read well? Have you proofread your content for errors? Is your ordering process easy for customers to understand?

As far as SEO, here are some things you should consider.

1. Effective page titles
2. The file names for each of your Web pages
3. Well-written content that is UNIQUE (no duplicate content) and truly offers information customers can use.
4. Appropriate keyword density
5. Alt-attributes
6. Heading tags
7. Description meta-tags
8. Keyword meta-tags
9. Anchor text links
10. Incoming links
11. Outgoing links
12. Adding a blog to your site
13. Site navigation
14. Site maps
15. Directory submission
16. Search engine submission
17. Domain name

 

If you did everything articlewriter wrote, you would definitely be doing almost everything you can SEO wise. I would add 3 more suggestions:

18. The latest trend in search engine land is related keywords. So for example, alternate the anchor text on incoming links with related keywords.
19. Get context links. Write an article (or have someone else write about your site) and put links from WITHIN the article to related pages on your site. Submit it to article directories or maybe you can post as a guest blogger on a related blog.
20. If at all possible try to get a link to your site on the 13 before you on Google and the 4 before you on MSN.

good luck.

 

"If at all possible try to get a link to your site on the 13 before you on Google and the 4 before you on MSN."

That's an interesting piece of advice. Does doing that move you up the list, somewhat?

 

Too bad I can't remember who did the test (if you google around you might find it), but someone built two identical pages and then linked one to the other using a certain keyword. You would think the page that has the link ranks higher because it contains the actual keyword, but the page that was linked to ranked higher (even though that page didn't even have the keyword on it.)

 

so u recon put a link on your page with google search type of link ie: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&ct=r...hG36INAKpuevz2uEw&sig2=XFCaOU71ReuBTRsOY-LEvQ
(this is for a search amazing+keyword) and the same for msn and yahoo? interesting, i wonder if that worked for everyone.

 

No, it's no black hat, just simple SEO.

In the test I read they had 2 pages, say a.html and b.html.
On a.html they had a link <a href=b.html>keyword</a>. b.html didn't have the keyword at all. And still b.html ranked higher.

What I meant about putting your link on the other websites: if they are your competitors then forget it But it could also be a blog or some other website that ranks higher than yours. Sometimes just asking (or paying) for a link to your website is enough. It might be that the website owner doesn't even know he/she ranks for that keyword.

 

It's a superb technique because those sites are exactly matched for relativity.

Also, a 2-way link between #7 and #14 gives more "boost" to #14 (usually).

 

The algorithm of the 3 SEs changes from time to time...

If you want to rank to Google..build quality related links and optimize you page properly..

Follow this link

For Yahoo is about onpage optimization.. keyword density the h1 and build more links that's the algorithm of Yahoo now.... I have seen they are after now on backlinks unlike their previous one only they are more on ONPAGE optimization only..

On MSN, I don't have any clue what's their proper way or something but I think they are more on meta tags... IMO..

Hope this informations helps....

 

I am on the second page for the word 'Anxiety' with only charity and goverment sites above me. The main reason is having good quality content which helps me get a lot of natural one way links. I also write articles and only mostly submit to sites that are relevant, asking for a one way link in exchange for my article, again the article has to be good.

Apart from that and some optimization of my site I have done very little, so my number one is content, but everyone has different opinions.