Off Site SEO
In the last article I concentrated purely on On-Site SEO. This article explains the very important Off-Site SEO that has to follow.
Google displays results on its Search Engine Return Pages (SERPS) in an order that it believes indicates the pages on the internet with the highest relevance to the search term that was typed in. How it measures the relevance is a closely guarded and permanently changing algorithm taking many factors into account.
The ones we have control over include all the on-site optimization techniques in the previous article and all of the following.
* Domain Age – How old is the domain name – the older the better
* The number of links from other sites to your site – known as back links.
* Google gives a ‘weight’ to every page it knows about – receiving a link into a page adds weight to that page.
* Some types of website have more ‘weight’ than others – specifically domains ending in .gov and .edu
* A link from an authority website such as the BBC also provides a heavier link.
* Is the site listed in the DMOZ or Yahoo directories? – DMOZ is a human authored directory given great authority by Google, and the Yahoo directory costs about $350 per year, and is also liked by Google.
* How dynamic a site is. If a website is static, in that its content never changes, Google does not perceive that it might be as up to date as a more dynamic and constantly changing website.
It follows, therefore, that to raise a websites position in the SERPs the following should be achieved.
* Add the website to the DMOZ directory and the Yahoo directory- follow their instructions carefully – dmoz.com
* Increase the links into your website by asking for links from other related sites making sure they use your keywords as the anchor text.
* Join forums relating to your website, add your website address to your signature, and be active on the forum but do not purely promote your own site, rather involve yourself in discussions.
You can run the risk of being banned if you overtly promote your own site!
* Write about your area of interest in web 2.0 sites such as Twitter, Facebook etc. As you become more well known on the web you will become recognized as an authority in your own right by Google.
* Start and keep a blog up to date which refers to your website. Write keyword rich articles for your blog and link back to your site.
* Use bookmarking sites such as Digg, Google, technorati, De.li.ci.ou.s etc to bookmark pages in your site. socialmarker.com
By building up a network of links back to your own site you will, over time, raise your position in the SERPs.
Finally, do not fall into the trap of employing an SEO ‘expert’ who promises you front page exposure at the drop of a hat. Many so called experts use techniques that at best are frowned upon by Google and at worst will have your site totally removed from the SERPs.