 So you’ve covered the SEO basics on your site – you’ve tweaked your title and description tags, added traffic-generating key phrases, created friendly URLs and added an XML sitemap. Take it to the next level with a few of these advanced tips and techniques.
Use the social network
Everyone knows the power of social networking. But in an ever-evolving world, it’s getting tougher to use these effectively. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and others all rank high in search engines, so make sure your accounts and URLs are SEO friendly. Bear in mind that your interaction on social networks is a ranking factor for Google as well, so make sure you’re keeping the conversation lively and active.
For Facebook, ensure that you’ve changed your profile/fan page URL to a targeted keyword phrase. YouTube doesn’t let you customize your URL, but you can set your username as the same phrase. (If it’s already taken, try something as close as possible with a limited number of additional characters.) Same thing for Twitter – and with the 140-character limit, don’t worry if your URLs get shortened, but try to keep your posts short enough to use the real, direct URL to drive traffic to your site. And if you post in forums or on comments sections, especially on other high-traffic sites, include your site’s URL in the footer wherever possible.
Jumping on the ranking bandwagon, only to have the wheels fall off suddenly, is every web marketer’s nightmare. Change is inevitable, so look at the big picture. Use social media channels for their strengths, rather than shaping your content to match the hottest new ranking factor. You don’t want to get the rug pulled out from under you as ranking factors change overnight.
Expand your content horizons
Top-quality content is king. When you’ve crafted an excellent piece, rather than thinking of external sites as a way to simply push traffic back to your site, think of them as a chance to expand your brand. Find sites that are relevant to you, get in touch with a proposal to syndicate your content, and get yourself out there to a broader audience.
Maximize your comments sections
Also consider your comments section as a golden opportunity to get picked up in search. Beyond creating thought-provoking content, make sure you’re creating a two-way conversation. Ask open-ended questions in your post, particularly at the very end, to get users involved.
And once those comments start pouring in, make sure you’re there to respond. Thank users for their comments and respond to any questions, feedback or criticisms. This direct dialogue makes other readers feel welcome and brings them into the conversation.
Also, pay attention to what’s being said – if a user leaves a brilliant comment or brings up a great topic, draw on that inspiration for your next post. Start with an excerpt from that conversation, link back to the reader’s site where possible, and take it from there.
Make use of robots.txt
Focus the search with an effective robots.txt file. Usually containing only a few lines of code, you can drive robots from Google and other search engines to index the content you choose. Here’s a simple example:
User-agent: *
Disallow: /Test/
Disallow: /Sample*/
Disallow: /test1.html
The asterisk in the user-agent field means it applies to all bots equally (you can also tweak this to focus on individual agents such as Googlebot). The disallow field tells bots which files and directories they can skip over (in this case, the “Test” directory, any directories starting with “Sample”, and the test1.html page).
All you need to do is save in a text file named “robots.txt” and place it in your root directory. Just be aware that it’s not necessarily going to keep prying eyes off of sensitive or confidential material; some bots (particularly malicious ones) will ignore this file.
If your content is updated frequently, robots will also take note of the content changes, leading to more frequent indexing. And keep it simple – the deeper your pages are buried and the more complex the code, the less likely they are to get indexed.
Maintain your reputation with nofollow
Want to keep search engines away from other content? You can also implement the “nofollow” function, both at the page level and the link level. Let’s say your site has public forums and they get hit hard with external spam links – obviously you don’t want to be tied to known spam sites. Here are examples of how to use nofollow to avoid this:
Page level
<meta name="robots" content="nofollow">
Link level
<a href="http://www.yoursite.com/spam.html”
rel="nofollow">spam link</a>
In this example, nofollow can help ensure that you’re not handing over your site’s reputation to spammers.
Take heed of speed
Though there are many factors at play, keeping things minimal is one key to optimum site speed. Try to reduce the number of files referenced, sizes of your image files, and the amount of code. Also, using correct Java script and cutting the number of 301 redirects can help here. Check your site speed on Google Webmaster Tools (under Labs>Site Performance) and see what they’ve got to suggest for improvements.
Maximise your landing pages and linking structure
A standalone landing page could also be right for your site, especially in cases of promotions or campaigns. This page creates a single-entry path that can help improve your conversion rate. In addition, it helps to focus your message, boost your quality score in pay-per-click engines, simplify your metrics, and provide a testing ground for ideas without affecting the rest of your site.
Beyond a landing page, you may also want to consider an overall audit and/or upgrade of your existing internal linking structure. Your site navigation is integral to the user experience, and a clean structure will help your visitors quickly and easily locate what they’re looking for. This can also ensure that key phrases for individual pages will be more targeted by the search engines.
Get more out of your CMS
Whether you’re running Drupal, WordPress or another CMS, optimize its effectiveness. Among other things, a CMS can standardize format and structure, help promote internal links and integrate with analytics tools. Widgets can also help drive the user experience by auto-generating sidebar lists of related content, relevant links and more. And various plugins, such as those for integrating Google Analytics, can make your life easier by targeting who you’re tracking and how they’re finding and using your content.
Check out the competition
Finally, keep up on what’s happening in the market, and analyze why the leaders in your field are setting the pace. There are a number of useful tools to check out the competitive landscape: Google Alerts, Social Mention and other social media trackers, Open Site Explorer and other SEO spy tools, and SpyFu and other point-per-click keyword research tools. This isn’t to say that you should steal from your competitors’ campaigns – rather, you should figure out what they’re doing and why they’re doing it, and then strive to do it better. |
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