SEO can be a bitch if you're not collaborating with people. Most SEO forums are total shit. Occasionally there's a solid idea or 5, but mostly I cruise through to make sure I'm not doing what's barely working for others.
I can't control who posts on this thread, but please think before you write: if someone implements what you suggest, it has the potential to adversely impact their income if you're wrong.
SEO is not dead. It's evolving. Accept it and get used to it. It's not easy anymore. Also, there's minimal logic to the flow of this post. I'll try to work backwards, but no promises.
That said...let's get rolling.
Google's Disavow Link Tool
Don't fuck with this. At best it helps you, but I doubt it will. Think of this as a way of crowd-sourcing bad websites, spam factories, and sketchy websites. If you have shitty links--it happens--don't give them your data just yet. Wait for the greedy (who bought links, like you) to raise their hands. Data will arise from that. Based upon that, decide if it's worth it or not.
Exact Match Domains (EMDs)
Google recently dropped a update/algo change that decreased the value of having an exact match domain. Following the penguin update, many garbage EMDs floated to top positions in the SERPs (search engine results pages) because they had done minimal optimization. I feel this was an attempt to correct that.
What is an exact match domain? I recently bought CitySEOCompany.com. That is a EMD for "city seo company," NOT city or city seo. Hyphenated domains are not exact match domains either. FYI - my domain doesn't rank (at the date of posting, it's not even indexed yet) and exists for EMD testing purposes. I don't live in Madison and don't plan to operate there, but it was a clean buy.
Despite this update, there is still an inherent benefit to having keywords in your domain name. The value may progressively decrease, but I doubt it will ever go away. Why? Let's look at the word "overstock" at the broad level. Overstock is a keyword, probably had volume back in the day, and got turned into a brand. If you want to buy overstock toilet seats, can Google really discredit you for having overstocktoilets.com? No. It's not as powerful, but there's still value.
Having a EMD with thin content will decrease your changes of ranking. EMDs used for adsense were probably hurt. I've never been in the adsense game and unless I rank for "spinal injury lawyer" (rumored @ massive payouts), I won't ever be.
If you dropped because of this update, it means you were coasting on the power/weight allocated to your EMD. That's all. If you buy a EMD, you better make sure you're going to brand it and make that the first priority of your link building.
If you picked up a legit EMD (or something close that has your keyword in it AND you can brand), you should start building links with variations of the raw url: RooshV.com, http://rooshv.com, http://www.rooshv.com, RooshV.com/, http://www.RooshV.com, etc.
You can throw in "website" for good measure, but I'm not a giant fan of the post-penguin shit-show that says drive "click here" and "dope website" links to your homepage. If you have too many exact match keyword anchors (meaning you linked text is "keyword"), then feel free to dilute as you see fit.
Legit static anchor resource: http://marketersblackbook.com/seo/best-l...-building/
Since we're on this topic, I suppose the next logical move is to the dreaded Penguin update...
Google Penguin
Let me preface this by saying that I've been fucked by Penguin. All of our websites made it through the rollout, 2nd refresh, and ONE got fucked on the 3rd.
Why?
Early in the game we were buying links from websites that were selling links. It wasn't a "blog network"--which means 1 person or firm owns the entire thing--but rather a blog marketplace. I'd post it here, but it's done. If there's a public link and you can pay to play, move on.
That said, we only dropped 18 spots or so in a relatively competitive SEO market. Not a bad drop, considering we're competing with SEO firms. Initially, I blamed it on us redesigning the website, adding MORE content, and the density being "over optimized." The phrase over optimization was thrown out by Matt Cutts before and after the initial rollout. Since then, he has clarified his stance on that and admitted that it probably wasn't the best phrase to describe the complexity of the update.
What you NEED to understand about Penguin
1. It's not perfect. In fact, it's pretty fucking dumb. Sure, it hit a LOT of people who were banking on shitting SEO, but the fact is, it's a work in progress. It will continually be refined.
2. It targets your SEO efforts both on and off page. Meaning, most people thought it was about what they had on their website. Initially, over-optimized H1/H2 tags and websites with high keyword densities took a dive. Changes are they had paid links too, but if they were BLATANTLY target keywords on-page, they got spanked.
That said, the refresh (that fucked us) hit blog networks, link schemes (aka paid links, "text link ads," websites who had 7K links from 1 website (we had 1 and has since been removed).
--An important point to hit based on flow of logic--
There's something I just discovered that's very important. Well, I knew about it, but it just bitch slapped me for not adhering, so I want to drop it here..
Relevance is the new PR (page rank). Previously, you could get a link from a PR7 website and you'd move like gangbusters. Now? Not so much. So, how important is relevance?
My view on relevance
You can break this down as much as you want, but there's essentially a relevance perspective you should be concerned with.
Domain=>Page=>Your Page/Your Domain
What does this mean?
The below is legit:
Technology=>Video conferencing=>Video marketing/SEO
The theoretical best is below:
Web marketing=>video seo=>you tube marketing=>seo
Now, if you notice, these links are going from a given website's interior pages to your interior pages.
Why does this matter?
Google has TONS of data based upon how they allocate page rank that says it's highly unlikely for a site with a page rank of 7 to link to something irrelevant or only mildly relevant from their homepage, which will pass the most flow/link juice. This means the blogroll link you have from some PR5 website--unless highly related--is very unlikely to pass flow.
--By the way, this is 3 parts theory, 1 part experience--
Given this assumption, we can look at major technology websites for reference. The phrase "technology" is all encompassing, so if a massive PR7 tech website has 10 categories, we can safely assume the content within those categories is highly diverse.
Post-penguin, a great link is from a page-relevant website on a broadly-relevant website.
What about Post-penguin Anchor Text?
Legit web journalism can teach you a SHITLOAD about how you should get links. For example, get paid to write for a very fucking legit business website. Alexa rank is less than 800. There are "general" stats that I know off the top of my head. I can't simply drop them into an article without a link to a trusted website that references them; I have to back up my claims.
I write the article first based on knowledge and back it up on the revision. How do I link? No pattern. I make a snap decision and highly the best sounding phrase for a link, like: "has show to increase widget sales by X% on average."
Now, does that look like "click here" to you? No way. You need to randomize interior linking and make your website--regardless of intention--look like a resource for web users.
Now, I'm not suggesting that you engage in studies to create useful data that "gets" links (google links to think that great content gets links natually. Fuck that.). Rather, crate strong and lengthy (1K words+) interior pages (with images and videos) that are link worthy. Make the anchor text random and build your base.
Massive links to the homepage of a relatively thin website scream "I'm trying to rank."
Think of your website like a pyramid. The MAJORITY of your links to your homepage should be your brand. I'd keep exact match anchor text to 10% or less. Build the brand, but bulk link the intrior pages with chaos from the above referenced relevance ration assumptions.
(Great song playing as I write: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJkgxx8c47k)
For example, if you like at a website like seo M o z (I don't like the general attitude, but they push a lot of data that ranks), the top 5 anchors to their homepage are variations of the brand name or the raw url: brandname, brand name, brand-name, http://brandname.com, etc.
A LOT of their links to to interior pages with completely random anchors. Why? Because web writers who write about seo/sem/im write articles and reference later. This results in completely random anchor text distribution across interior pages, proving their position as a resource.
Applying this concept to a eCommerce Store
If you import/manufacture your products, this is not for you. Skip this section.
For retailers in the game: You have 3-4 levels of "SEO priorities."
We'll break it down pyramid style:
1. What your domain ranks for (major head of tail keywords).
2. How well your brand and/or category pages rank
3. How well your products rank
As aforementioned, 90% of your links to the homepage (that you build/acquire) should be branded. Google knows what your title tag/home page title is. And what the on-page content is. They don't need (or want) targeted anchor text to figure it out.
For my eCommerce biz, I find it more profitable (and easier) to rank for brand terms as opposed to category terms.
Example? A good brand that sells wholesale will have higher pries than their retailers. Meaning, if you can hit the #2 position for that term, you'll make decent money on all their products.
Real life example? I take buy a product from Renew Life. It's a daily probiotic. Ask yourself...what's easier...ranking for "probiotics" or "Renew Life?"
Renew Life, by far.
Best practice? -- Look at the products on your brand page
If your top-selling brand has 20 products, build 20 links to the brand page. The anchor text? Change up "brand name product name" "product name by brand name" and slight variations of that. DO NOT send "brand name" "buy brand name" "order brand name online" there frequently. It's simply too predictable.
(jihad music + work=productivity: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBwUiZCBkyg)
On predictability, let' roll back to EMDs (exact match domains) for a moment. If you own "spinalinjurylawyer [dot] com, you should NOT make you title tag/page title "Spinal Injury Lawer | Top Spinal Injury Lawyer." This is too common and precisely the people who got hit on the EMD update. Since your head keyword is already in the domain, throw something like "Lawyers Specializing in Spinal Injury | Spine Accident Attorneys." BTW, I'm not tracking the number of characters in that title tag...just giving you an idea. Bottom line? Mix your keywords in the vital data google uses to display your data to searchers.
On that, let's roll into meta descriptions...
All too often, people repeat their keywords again and again in their meta description...why?
It does nothing for you.
This is your ONE space to sell on the organic search platform. If you're a service business, allocate enough space to include your number at the end. Make is sell enough, but write for humans, not engines.
Example: Online OR brick and mortar store that sells fish oil supplements.
Order the best fish oil on the market here. Improve heart health, reduce pain & inflammation. Quality tested, MD recommended. Call us now to order 555-555-5555.
What does this do? Addresses the search query, sells it, throws in benefits, and provides a call to action, with a contact number.
Most people view SEO as something you do that gets you ranked...rank and you WILL get sales. True, to a certain degree, but the man who converts higher @ position 3 is a boss.
SEO is NOT just ranking, it's effectively utilizing your content for search engines and sales simultaneously.
FML - Since we've only got a 60 minute window (thought it was 60 days, ROOSH) to edit...
Panda
People try speak on the concept of duplicate content like they're experts....it makes me laugh.
In reality (this is client/seo biz/ecom biz side), your most substantial concern is that you have the same content on your website more than once. This confuses the very-mechanical google spiders....they can't decide what to rank and as a result, may kick your shit down a LOT of notches.
There is this rhetoric that syndicating one article 300 times over a (loooong) period of time is bad...it's not. It's call republication. It existed before the web and it exists now.
Handle Your Website Problems First
Since there's a 60 minute limit on edit posts, if you want to know how to avoid dup cIf you've ontent on a WP site, get Michael Spadinacci's (SP?) book SEO for WordPress (or whatever the it's called) on Amazon. He's legit, owner of a top 25 SEO firm, and it's more or less academic, on-page wise. Most importantly, it handles the innate dup content problems WP can create for your site. Yeah, it's a high-end book. I have at least 10 of them and it's the best, easily.
Moving Forward
Drive relevant links to your interior pages...this is how you effective counteract a penalty. If you have a say in the anchor, drive chaos to the interior, just make sure it's relevant at the page level, at the very minimum.
If you need advice on website architecture, drop it below and I'll address it later. I have to get back to work and did not realize there was a 60 min. relegation on editing posts.
Drop responses, questions, and problems below.
Again, if you aren't rolling with anything serious, please refrain from absolute statements. People DO take action based upon posts...unless you're seriously in the game, please, state whether or not it's theory.
Be good, RVF.
I can't control who posts on this thread, but please think before you write: if someone implements what you suggest, it has the potential to adversely impact their income if you're wrong.
SEO is not dead. It's evolving. Accept it and get used to it. It's not easy anymore. Also, there's minimal logic to the flow of this post. I'll try to work backwards, but no promises.
That said...let's get rolling.
Google's Disavow Link Tool
Don't fuck with this. At best it helps you, but I doubt it will. Think of this as a way of crowd-sourcing bad websites, spam factories, and sketchy websites. If you have shitty links--it happens--don't give them your data just yet. Wait for the greedy (who bought links, like you) to raise their hands. Data will arise from that. Based upon that, decide if it's worth it or not.
Exact Match Domains (EMDs)
Google recently dropped a update/algo change that decreased the value of having an exact match domain. Following the penguin update, many garbage EMDs floated to top positions in the SERPs (search engine results pages) because they had done minimal optimization. I feel this was an attempt to correct that.
What is an exact match domain? I recently bought CitySEOCompany.com. That is a EMD for "city seo company," NOT city or city seo. Hyphenated domains are not exact match domains either. FYI - my domain doesn't rank (at the date of posting, it's not even indexed yet) and exists for EMD testing purposes. I don't live in Madison and don't plan to operate there, but it was a clean buy.
Despite this update, there is still an inherent benefit to having keywords in your domain name. The value may progressively decrease, but I doubt it will ever go away. Why? Let's look at the word "overstock" at the broad level. Overstock is a keyword, probably had volume back in the day, and got turned into a brand. If you want to buy overstock toilet seats, can Google really discredit you for having overstocktoilets.com? No. It's not as powerful, but there's still value.
Having a EMD with thin content will decrease your changes of ranking. EMDs used for adsense were probably hurt. I've never been in the adsense game and unless I rank for "spinal injury lawyer" (rumored @ massive payouts), I won't ever be.
If you dropped because of this update, it means you were coasting on the power/weight allocated to your EMD. That's all. If you buy a EMD, you better make sure you're going to brand it and make that the first priority of your link building.
If you picked up a legit EMD (or something close that has your keyword in it AND you can brand), you should start building links with variations of the raw url: RooshV.com, http://rooshv.com, http://www.rooshv.com, RooshV.com/, http://www.RooshV.com, etc.
You can throw in "website" for good measure, but I'm not a giant fan of the post-penguin shit-show that says drive "click here" and "dope website" links to your homepage. If you have too many exact match keyword anchors (meaning you linked text is "keyword"), then feel free to dilute as you see fit.
Legit static anchor resource: http://marketersblackbook.com/seo/best-l...-building/
Since we're on this topic, I suppose the next logical move is to the dreaded Penguin update...
Google Penguin
Let me preface this by saying that I've been fucked by Penguin. All of our websites made it through the rollout, 2nd refresh, and ONE got fucked on the 3rd.
Why?
Early in the game we were buying links from websites that were selling links. It wasn't a "blog network"--which means 1 person or firm owns the entire thing--but rather a blog marketplace. I'd post it here, but it's done. If there's a public link and you can pay to play, move on.
That said, we only dropped 18 spots or so in a relatively competitive SEO market. Not a bad drop, considering we're competing with SEO firms. Initially, I blamed it on us redesigning the website, adding MORE content, and the density being "over optimized." The phrase over optimization was thrown out by Matt Cutts before and after the initial rollout. Since then, he has clarified his stance on that and admitted that it probably wasn't the best phrase to describe the complexity of the update.
What you NEED to understand about Penguin
1. It's not perfect. In fact, it's pretty fucking dumb. Sure, it hit a LOT of people who were banking on shitting SEO, but the fact is, it's a work in progress. It will continually be refined.
2. It targets your SEO efforts both on and off page. Meaning, most people thought it was about what they had on their website. Initially, over-optimized H1/H2 tags and websites with high keyword densities took a dive. Changes are they had paid links too, but if they were BLATANTLY target keywords on-page, they got spanked.
That said, the refresh (that fucked us) hit blog networks, link schemes (aka paid links, "text link ads," websites who had 7K links from 1 website (we had 1 and has since been removed).
--An important point to hit based on flow of logic--
There's something I just discovered that's very important. Well, I knew about it, but it just bitch slapped me for not adhering, so I want to drop it here..
Relevance is the new PR (page rank). Previously, you could get a link from a PR7 website and you'd move like gangbusters. Now? Not so much. So, how important is relevance?
My view on relevance
You can break this down as much as you want, but there's essentially a relevance perspective you should be concerned with.
Domain=>Page=>Your Page/Your Domain
What does this mean?
The below is legit:
Technology=>Video conferencing=>Video marketing/SEO
The theoretical best is below:
Web marketing=>video seo=>you tube marketing=>seo
Now, if you notice, these links are going from a given website's interior pages to your interior pages.
Why does this matter?
Google has TONS of data based upon how they allocate page rank that says it's highly unlikely for a site with a page rank of 7 to link to something irrelevant or only mildly relevant from their homepage, which will pass the most flow/link juice. This means the blogroll link you have from some PR5 website--unless highly related--is very unlikely to pass flow.
--By the way, this is 3 parts theory, 1 part experience--
Given this assumption, we can look at major technology websites for reference. The phrase "technology" is all encompassing, so if a massive PR7 tech website has 10 categories, we can safely assume the content within those categories is highly diverse.
Post-penguin, a great link is from a page-relevant website on a broadly-relevant website.
What about Post-penguin Anchor Text?
Legit web journalism can teach you a SHITLOAD about how you should get links. For example, get paid to write for a very fucking legit business website. Alexa rank is less than 800. There are "general" stats that I know off the top of my head. I can't simply drop them into an article without a link to a trusted website that references them; I have to back up my claims.
I write the article first based on knowledge and back it up on the revision. How do I link? No pattern. I make a snap decision and highly the best sounding phrase for a link, like: "has show to increase widget sales by X% on average."
Now, does that look like "click here" to you? No way. You need to randomize interior linking and make your website--regardless of intention--look like a resource for web users.
Now, I'm not suggesting that you engage in studies to create useful data that "gets" links (google links to think that great content gets links natually. Fuck that.). Rather, crate strong and lengthy (1K words+) interior pages (with images and videos) that are link worthy. Make the anchor text random and build your base.
Massive links to the homepage of a relatively thin website scream "I'm trying to rank."
Think of your website like a pyramid. The MAJORITY of your links to your homepage should be your brand. I'd keep exact match anchor text to 10% or less. Build the brand, but bulk link the intrior pages with chaos from the above referenced relevance ration assumptions.
(Great song playing as I write: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJkgxx8c47k)
For example, if you like at a website like seo M o z (I don't like the general attitude, but they push a lot of data that ranks), the top 5 anchors to their homepage are variations of the brand name or the raw url: brandname, brand name, brand-name, http://brandname.com, etc.
A LOT of their links to to interior pages with completely random anchors. Why? Because web writers who write about seo/sem/im write articles and reference later. This results in completely random anchor text distribution across interior pages, proving their position as a resource.
Applying this concept to a eCommerce Store
If you import/manufacture your products, this is not for you. Skip this section.
For retailers in the game: You have 3-4 levels of "SEO priorities."
We'll break it down pyramid style:
1. What your domain ranks for (major head of tail keywords).
2. How well your brand and/or category pages rank
3. How well your products rank
As aforementioned, 90% of your links to the homepage (that you build/acquire) should be branded. Google knows what your title tag/home page title is. And what the on-page content is. They don't need (or want) targeted anchor text to figure it out.
For my eCommerce biz, I find it more profitable (and easier) to rank for brand terms as opposed to category terms.
Example? A good brand that sells wholesale will have higher pries than their retailers. Meaning, if you can hit the #2 position for that term, you'll make decent money on all their products.
Real life example? I take buy a product from Renew Life. It's a daily probiotic. Ask yourself...what's easier...ranking for "probiotics" or "Renew Life?"
Renew Life, by far.
Best practice? -- Look at the products on your brand page
If your top-selling brand has 20 products, build 20 links to the brand page. The anchor text? Change up "brand name product name" "product name by brand name" and slight variations of that. DO NOT send "brand name" "buy brand name" "order brand name online" there frequently. It's simply too predictable.
(jihad music + work=productivity: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBwUiZCBkyg)
On predictability, let' roll back to EMDs (exact match domains) for a moment. If you own "spinalinjurylawyer [dot] com, you should NOT make you title tag/page title "Spinal Injury Lawer | Top Spinal Injury Lawyer." This is too common and precisely the people who got hit on the EMD update. Since your head keyword is already in the domain, throw something like "Lawyers Specializing in Spinal Injury | Spine Accident Attorneys." BTW, I'm not tracking the number of characters in that title tag...just giving you an idea. Bottom line? Mix your keywords in the vital data google uses to display your data to searchers.
On that, let's roll into meta descriptions...
All too often, people repeat their keywords again and again in their meta description...why?
It does nothing for you.
This is your ONE space to sell on the organic search platform. If you're a service business, allocate enough space to include your number at the end. Make is sell enough, but write for humans, not engines.
Example: Online OR brick and mortar store that sells fish oil supplements.
Order the best fish oil on the market here. Improve heart health, reduce pain & inflammation. Quality tested, MD recommended. Call us now to order 555-555-5555.
What does this do? Addresses the search query, sells it, throws in benefits, and provides a call to action, with a contact number.
Most people view SEO as something you do that gets you ranked...rank and you WILL get sales. True, to a certain degree, but the man who converts higher @ position 3 is a boss.
SEO is NOT just ranking, it's effectively utilizing your content for search engines and sales simultaneously.
FML - Since we've only got a 60 minute window (thought it was 60 days, ROOSH) to edit...
Panda
People try speak on the concept of duplicate content like they're experts....it makes me laugh.
In reality (this is client/seo biz/ecom biz side), your most substantial concern is that you have the same content on your website more than once. This confuses the very-mechanical google spiders....they can't decide what to rank and as a result, may kick your shit down a LOT of notches.
There is this rhetoric that syndicating one article 300 times over a (loooong) period of time is bad...it's not. It's call republication. It existed before the web and it exists now.
Handle Your Website Problems First
Since there's a 60 minute limit on edit posts, if you want to know how to avoid dup cIf you've ontent on a WP site, get Michael Spadinacci's (SP?) book SEO for WordPress (or whatever the it's called) on Amazon. He's legit, owner of a top 25 SEO firm, and it's more or less academic, on-page wise. Most importantly, it handles the innate dup content problems WP can create for your site. Yeah, it's a high-end book. I have at least 10 of them and it's the best, easily.
Moving Forward
Drive relevant links to your interior pages...this is how you effective counteract a penalty. If you have a say in the anchor, drive chaos to the interior, just make sure it's relevant at the page level, at the very minimum.
If you need advice on website architecture, drop it below and I'll address it later. I have to get back to work and did not realize there was a 60 min. relegation on editing posts.
Drop responses, questions, and problems below.
Again, if you aren't rolling with anything serious, please refrain from absolute statements. People DO take action based upon posts...unless you're seriously in the game, please, state whether or not it's theory.
Be good, RVF.