hey there,
I spent all day writing on SEO (aiming
for launch in the next couple of days;-)
so there are 2 strategies I’m not sure
everybody knows how to use/do
properly, so here we go:
1) the easy one, but super-powerful when
done correctly: you probably already know
that you *should* be linking to authority
sites in your niche.
Now, first of all, a big mistake I keep
seeing over and over again is that
people link to those authority sites with
the same keyword they’re trying to rank
for. The problem with this is of course
that you’re now pushing the authority
of that site even further up, creating
more competition for your own keyword.
So, rather than using your own keyword,
why not link with another, related anchor
text, or of course just the URL of that site?
Two great ways for finding authority sites
are either just Googling your target keywords
(or closely related keywords) and linking to
the top sites that Google returns.
Why?
Because Google is already telling you that
they’re authorities.
The other way I like using is to look
at content directories that are full of high
quality content, such as http://voices.yahoo.com/.
These are typically non-marketing, non-spammy
articles, and all too often they reference the
real authority in the field!
Example: when you look at this article
on car safety
http://voices.yahoo.com/what-safest-car-color-11213780.html?cat=27
you’ll see an outbound link to the
DuPont Automotive Color Popularity Report.
and I’m guessing DuPont is probably an authority
in the eyes of Google. But would you have
thought of linking to them … plus a highly
relevant article on their site?
2) the not quite as easy, but equally
(if not more powerful!) thing to do:
I encountered this concept a few years
ago, and back then it was called ‘rank-sculpting’.
All you’re doing here is to direct link-juice
around your site, and it’s a concept I’ve
used ever since discovering it all those
years ago (with great effect).
Generally, what I do is create 1 page
plus 4-5 posts all with related content,
and the posts then link from one to the
next creating a mini-linkwheel, and they
all link back to the page.
In terms of content, you could have
say the page all about fat burning,
and the 4-5 posts would be on topics
such as fat burning using low intensity
cardio, fat burning using pills, fat burning
using natural foods, fat burning by
participating in 24h kiss-a-thons…
that way you have a natural relationship
between the posts and it’s perfectly
natural to have all those posts link
back to the page.
And in the process the page gets a big
‘vote up’ for the keyword ‘fat burning’.
Now, for a new blog I’d do this by
hand, but if you want to add either
of these techniques (or both) to a
blog with existing content, I highly
recommend you check out Don’s
Wordpress plugin that helps you do
all of this from one central place:
http://www.jvzoo.com/c/1648/4920
It’s a real time-saver because you
don’t have to jump from post to post,
but instead it’s all done from one
central admin panel.
Also, the plugin pulls in Pagerank
values for the authority sites you
could link to, so if you’re linking
to another site, it might as well be
a high PR/high authority one, right?
Also, you can do some nifty split-testing
of ‘coloured’ boxes underneath your posts
which are almost like a call to action
“and now check out these other great
articles by me”.
have fun with this, do some linking
to authority sites and drive the internal
link juice to the relevant pages, and
you WILL see increases in rankings!
Cheers
Veit
