Important SEO Ranking Factors
Posted on February 21, 2008
Filed Under Blogging, Internet Marketing, SEO, Wordpress |
We’re all trying to get an edge, and SEO provides us an ability to game the system a little bit, and give us a slight advantage. Many people are confused about SEO and struggle daily to improve their skills.
For you new guys, here is a list of some of the most important on and off site factors for basic SEO. This list is in no particular order, but they’re ALL important on some level. Any serious SEO plan should take advantage of each and every one of these factors effectively.
Title Tag - Use of Keywords in the Title Tag
Easily one of the MOST important factors in SEO. Have an optimized Title Tag is an absolute must. Take the time to get your keywords into your title.
A nice article to read about title tags is Courtney’s post: How to Create Rippin’ HTML Title Tags
Remember:
- Include your keywords
- A unique title tag on every page
- Do not spam your keywords
- Don’t get too long. Search engines only pay attention to a certain number of characters.
- If using wordpress, use a plugin for “Title | Site Name”
- Puts most relevant keywords first.
- I use All-In-One SEO
Anchor Text of Inbound Links
This is all about building back links that contain your keywords! There are two factors, quality and quantity. Each link to a page counts as a “vote” for that page. The words used in the link gives a nod at what the page is about. An included keyword in these links is a HEAVY factor. You need to vary these links though. DO NOT GET SPAMMY!
Have multiple versions of phrases that include your keyword(s). Try to make the links look “natural”.
I use stuff like:
- Nashville Web Design
- Nashville Web Designer
- Nashville Website Designer
- Nashville Web Design Company
- Web Design Nashville
- House Cat Nashville Web Design
- House Cat Web Design
There are/will be changes made to this aspect I believe. Currently it is one of the heavily manipulated factors at this time (gbombing).
Also consider the text adjacent to the link.
Link Popularity
The quality and quantity of the links that point to your site.
Quality > quantity.
The more incoming links to your site, the great perceived importance.
Each link is a vote. The more trust the site linking to you is, the greater the vote!
Age of Site
I’ve seen some blogs that debate this, but it seems to be a significant factor. And it makes logical sense.
The older the site, the more seriously it is taken. It has proved that it’s around to stay.
Younger sites need to “prove” themselves. The rankings of younger sites tend to fluctuate more, and seem more likely to trip spam / blackhat detection.
Internal Linking
Just like the external passing of PR via a vote system, but applies to internal pages only. Proper internal linking is important, it determines value of pages within your site.
An often over looked factor. Don’t ignore this since its completely in your control.
A few suggestions:
- Point links to home page with keyword anchor text
- Sitemap - Improves Crawlability
- Use no follows - Don’t pass authority to useless pages.
A site has a certain amount of authority (link juice) that you can spread around your pages. Controlling your internal link structure allows you to manage this authority. Don’t waste your juice by passing links to stupid pages that you do not care to have indexed.
On top of this, google only indexes a percentage of large sites. Take some control of what pages it does index. Don’t waste your listings with low value pages.
As with external links, use your keywords to give a page value for a specific keyword.
Subject Matter of Sites with Inbound Links to Your Site
The sites you’re getting back links from, what are they about? Are they related to your sites content and keywords?
Back link analysis may be more complicated than simply evaluating the anchor text. The text surrounding the link, as well as the pages theme/keywords/topic is a factor for the authority that link may pass to your site.
Back Links from Authority Sites for Your Keywords
Similar to the above point. If a site is about your niche, its holds more authority than a random link from a site about a random non-related topic.
Now if a high ranking authority site for your niche/keyword/community links to you, it is very important.
Make some friends in your community. Build relationships. Get some links.
(Try to get in with the big boys)
Content and Keyword Usage in Your Site’s Content.
Important! Use your keyword in your site’s text. Using the words in your text lets the search engine know your site is ACTUALLY about what someone linked to you with.
Include the Keywords from Your Title in Your Body Text.
DO NOT SPAM KEYWORDS. Yeah, use them a few times but mix it up, just like your backlink anchor text. Use variations of your keywords. Use similar or related keywords. Use a thesaurus. Do some keyword research.
I think the weight may be changing. The Bush Google bomb probably increased its importance. That way sites don’t get artificially inflated just by backlinks. This is one way the more recent gbomb may have worked (Dangerous Cult / COS one). The word dangerous was included in the site content, so it was easier to pull off, even with google’s alg changes. With this new bomb, they probably re-evaluated this factor’s weight.
Inbound Link Authority
Basically mentioned this one a few times. Links from important pages count more. Period.
Its better to have a few hundred 3-5+ PR inbound links, than a few thousand 0-2 PR links.
Get good sites to link to you!
Keyword Usage in Heading Tags
Use the site structure given to you with HTML. Use the headings!
<h1>
<h2>
<h3>
With H1 being the MOST important. It states the overall heading/topic of the page. You need to have your keyword included in the H1 tag on ever page. You also need a unique H1 on every page.
H1 on each page should include a:
- Unique Text/Heading for that page.
- Overall Site Keyword Included
- Keywords relevant to that page included
Again, this should go without saying, do not spam keywords.
Keyword Use in Domain Name
Not a must. But helps.
- A keyword domain may do better in SERPS, but may make branding harder.
- Keywords in domains gets bold in search results. Must mean something.
- Also, people may link to you with your address as the anchor text.
- If you don’t get that right off… your keyword will be in your anchor text… which is a very good thing.
External Links / Outgoing Links
Now, you cannot control internal links, so Google won’t slap you around for incoming links from naughty sites, but they will for bad external links. Links from your page to bad pages are a vote from your site for them. This associates you with them. Since this IS a factor you can control, it is something you are responsible for.
If you MUST link to a bad site, slap a nofollow on it at least.
Do your best to only link to good quality and trusted sites.
The Growth Rate of Inbound Links
Not only is the number of links important, but also the rate at which you gain new links. The higher the rate (links/day), the more it will affect your site’s ranking. A new site can pass a older site with more links if its number of back links are growing at a significant rate.
Duplicate Content
Avoid duplicate content. Google can penalize you for it. Also, they will only pick one version. They may not pick the version your want.
Take this in consideration when submitting to social networking sites. May times these social sites have more authority than your original article, and they will place higher than you.
Wordpress especially has problems with duplicate content because it provides various ways to access your posts. (categories, archive, tags). You may want to consider blocking some of this duplicate content.
I wrote an article about preventing duplicate content on Wordpress.
Also,
Duplicate content inside of Title and Meta tags on many pages across your site.
Repeated use of the same content/keywords in SEO factors like title and meta data may result in pages being placed into the supplemental index. Try to vary your keywords. Use similar or related phrases. Don’t use “make money online” or “internet marketing” in almost every post you make.
EVERY PAGE NEEDS A UNIQUE TITLE TAG
Server Stability / Accessiblity
Bots need to be able to get to your site. They need to generate a a description for your site and look at your content. Your site needs a stable host.
Thats my list
So there you have it. Some of the most important and basic, MUST know, SEO factors. I suggest researching each of these points further on your own to improve you knowledge in each of the factors.
I hope this helps some of you guys out.
If you’re using Wordpress, check out my: Quick & Dirty Wordpress SEO Checklist
And if you’re using Court Keyword Snipping Theme, read:
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