MoreNiche Training 001: On-Site SEO / Part I
MoreNiche Training 001: On-Site SEO / Part II
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PageRank sculpting is an SEO tactic that involves adding the nofollow attribute to links for which PageRank flow is not necessary.
PageRank sculpting is important because it helps stop your pages from giving away their PageRank unnecessarily. It is particularly beneficial for WordPress blogs, since they have a multitude of taxonomy/archive pages that can pull PageRank from the rest of your site.
This tactic of using nofollow on internal links is entirely approved by Google, as stated in their webmaster documentation:
Search engine robots can’t sign in or register as a member on your forum, so there’s no reason to invite Googlebot to follow “register here” or “sign in” links. Using nofollow on these links enables Googlebot to crawl other pages you’d prefer to see in Google’s index. However, a solid information architecture — intuitive navigation, user- and search-engine-friendly URLs, and so on — is likely to be a far more productive use of resources than focusing on crawl prioritization via nofollowed links.
So while PageRank sculpting can help your search engine rankings (by better indicating to Google what pages you’d like to see rank well), you shouldn’t spend a lot of time on it unless you have other WordPress SEO basics covered.
To begin, you’ll need to download and install the following 3 plugins:
If you’re a Firefox user, the nofollow-highlighting functionality of the SearchStatus or NoDoFollow extensions will also be useful.
Got those 3 WordPress plugins installed, and a Firefox extension if you want it? Good; now we’ll take a thorough look at where your PageRank may be leaking unnecessarily.
<a href="#comment-<?php comment_ID() ?>">And while we’re add it, we can stop giving juice to the PageRank monster thanks to the Wikipedia Nofollow plugin.
As detailed as this list may be, unfortunately there are still links that we aren’t yet able to nofollow without modifying the core WordPress code:
These links are out of the reach of plugins, so to speak. However, I’ve pushed to have that changed in WordPress 2.5.2, and lo and behold, WordPress 2.5.2 will indeed allow plugins to add nofollow to items #1 and #2. (The Trac ticket for #3 is still pending; if you have a WordPress.org username, express your support!)
I hope this guide assisted you in better controlling the PageRank flow of your WordPress blog! If you have additional ideas or pointers, feel free to submit a comment! Enjoy!
Source : Wordpress Expert
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1. Meta Tags.
Meta tags are simple lines of code at the top of your web page programming that tell search engines about your page. Include the title tag, keyword stag, description tag, and robots tag on each page.
2. Create and update your sitemap.
Developing a site map is a simple way of giving search engines the information they need to crawl your entire website. There are plenty of free software packages on the web that can help you generate a sitemap. Once you create a sitemap, submit it to Google and Yahoo.
3. Ensure that all navigation is in HTML.
All too often, navigational items are in the form of java script. Even though navigation technically still works in this format, it’s not optimized. Create your navigation in HTML to enhance internal links throughout your website.
4. Check that all images include ALT text.
Your image’s alt text is spidered by search engines. If you’re not including your keywords in alt text, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity for improved search engine result placements. Label all of your images properly.
5. Use Flash content sparingly.
Content generated through java script or flash is a big no-no. Some webmasters like to use flash because of the presentation. If you must, use it sparingly, but only after your site has been properly optimized with basic search engine optimization in mind.
6. Make sure that your website code is clean.
Keep in mind when optimizing a web page crawlers are basically only looking at your source code. When programming your web pages, having W3C compliant code can make all the difference. Run your code through a W3C validator before promoting.
7. Place keywords in your page content.
Search engines scan your website and web pages for keywords. Shoot for a keyword density of between two and eight percent. Google likes your page to be at the lower end of this scale and Yahoo at the upper end.
8. Submit your website to search engine directories.
It’s always a good idea to let large search engine directories know that you’re out there. Submit your website URL to directories like Google, Yahoo, and DMOZ.
9. Build links to your website.
Consider building a link exchange program or create one-way links to your site using articles or forum posts. All major search engines value the importance of your website based on how many others websites are linking to it.
10. Learn the basics.
Learning to optimize your website for search engines takes time and patience. Start by applying basic search engine optimization principles. If you’re new to website optimization, or even a well seasoned veteran, begin by prioritizing which pages are most important to you and go from there. Soon you’ll find yourself moving up the rankings.
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It is recommended to use keywords in page titles itself. This title tag is different from a Meta tag, but it’s worth considering it in relation to them. Whatever text one places in the title tag (between the <title> and </title> portions) will appear in the title bar of browsers when they view the web page. Some browsers also append whatever you put in the title tag by adding their own name, as for example Microsoft’s Internet Explorer or OPERA.
The actual text you use in the title tag is one of the most important factors in how a search engine may decide to rank your web page. In addition, all major web crawlers will use the text of your title tag as the text they use for the title of your page in your listings.
If you have designed your website as a series of websites or linked pages and not just a single Home Page, you must bear in mind that each page of your website must be search engine optimized. The title of each page i.e. the keywords you use on that page and the phrases you use in the content will draw traffic to your site.
The unique combination of these words and phrases and content will draw customers using different search engine terms and techniques, so be sure you capture all the keywords and phrases you need for each product, service or information page.
The most common mistake made by small business owners when they first design their website is to place their business name or firm name in every title of every page. Actually most of your prospective customers do not bother to know the name of your firm until after they have looked at your site and decided it is worth book marking.
So, while you want your business name in the title of the home page, it is probably a waste of valuable keywords and space to put it in the title line of every page on your site. Why not consider putting keywords in the title so that your page will display closer to the top of the search engine listing.
Dedicating first three positions for keywords in title avoiding the stop words like ‘and’, ‘at’ and the like is crucial in search engine optimization.
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WordCamp Dallas 2008: Chris Smith on SEO for Bloggers
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Keyword density and positioning are important areas of search engine optimization. The search engine spiders will scan a page with certain algorithms to determine what the topic of the article, report, or white paper is referring to.
This is basically done by totaling up all the nouns and pronouns, picking the most used and classifying the relevancy of the article. This is how they determine the “keyword” that your article is written about. The search engines then place this keyword relevant article in the results pages of that particular Search Engine.
Why Keywords?
Your keyword should be placed a few times in random areas of the body text of your articles. This usually occurs without effor twhen you write about a specific subject.
You will want to mention the subject at least one time perparagraph thus defining the relative keyword for the article, report or white paper. Without mentioning the keyword enough times, the search engines will not be able to determine what the article is written about.
Over Doing The Keyword Thing
It is very important not to over do the keyword to the point that the written article sounds stupid. The term “keyword stuffing” is when someone purposely overloads their article with the same keyword, trying to get a higher search engine rank because of relevancy.
It’s pretty obvious when stuffing is going on, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to notice it and the search engines spot it right off. When the SE’s determine that you have stuffed your article, they will de-list the article and possibly blacklist the rest of your site as well.
If it looks like the keyword is in your article to many times, try to come up with synonyms for it to make the page flow better without repeating the word.
Keyword Density, How Does It Work?
Keyword density is the times your word is presented in your article, report or white papers. Most people try to use a % to figure out just how often they put a keyword in each article.
An example would be if you had a 400 word article or report and want to obtain a keyword density of 4%, you would want to have the word on your page exactly 16 times. Or basically 4 times in each of the 4 paragraphs. There are many ways, including software that will show you the keyword density of an article and there is no perfect number.
It depends on what works for you and what gets you the better rankings for your articles. Every webmaster has their own density they prefer to achieve due to past results.
What Is The Best Density?
Typically we try to achieve around 3%, sometimes more, sometimesless, just depends on the article or report. Sometimes it’s hard to get 3-4% when writing white papers and specialized magazine articles. Don’t worry about it, the SE’s programs are smart enough to tell what an article is written about with the use of LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing). LSI in a nutshell is related keywords.
The keyword “article” has LSI of: Paper, essay, report, magazin earticle, white papers and the plural of the words also. (see I was able to “stuff” a little just by mentioning this!). It is important to structure your keywords in your articles to have an hourglass shape to it. In other words, more in the first and last paragraphs than in the middle.
Typically when someone is describing a subject, they will speak about the item right off, then go into specifics, then give a conclusion about the subject. Thus giving the hourglass effect of your keywords in the article.
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Search Engine Optimization is a process of choosing the most appropriate targeted keyword phrases related to your site and ensuring that this ranks your site highly in search engines so that when someone searches for specific phrases it returns your site on tops. It basically involves fine tuning the content of your site along with the HTML and Meta tags and also involves appropriate link building process.
The most popular search engines are Google, Yahoo, MSN Search, AOL and Ask. Search engines keep their methods and ranking algorithms secret, to get credit for finding the most valuable search-results and to deter spam pages from clogging those results. A search engine may use hundreds of factors while ranking the listings where the factors themselves and the weight each carries may change continually. Algorithms can differ so widely that a webpage that ranks #1 in a particular search engine could rank #200 in another search engine.
New sites need not be “submitted” to search engines to be listed. A simple link from a well established site will get the search engines to visit the new site and begin to spider its contents. It can take a few days to even weeks from the referring of a link from such an established site for all the main search engine spiders to commence visiting and indexing the new site.
If you are unable to research and choose keywords and work on your own search engine ranking, you may want to hire someone to work with you on these issues.
Search engine marketing and promotion companies, will look at the plan for your site and make recommendations to increase your search engine ranking and website traffic. If you wish, they will also provide ongoing consultation and reporting to monitor your website and make recommendations for editing and improvements to keep your site traffic flow and your search engine ranking high. Normally your search engine optimization experts work with your web designer to build an integrated plan right away so that all aspects of design are considered at the same time.
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