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6 Underutilized Ways to Increase SE Rankings
January 6th, 2008 | 13 comments
We all want to rank higher in the Search Engines, right? In most cases that’s exactly the problem, we all want to rank higher. It’s because of this that in order to get front page results for competitive terms we must think “outside the box.”
Of course the number one factor in SE ranking is the number and quality of incoming links.
Below are a few somewhat underutilized techniques one could use to climb a few positions in the SERPS:
1: Examine your internal linking structure. Nofollow all links that don’t deserve authority i.e. contact, email, affiliate links, social bookmarking links, duplicates etc. Lastly, be sure there is a link on every internal page pointing back to the index (with preferred anchor text is recommended). Nofollowing all these links will increase the authority within each page, sending the new authority back to the homepage.
2: Instead of using “home” like most people do, including myself, use your primary keyword. That will increase your rankings for that keyword almost every time. Links don’t have to be external to count. Just look at Wikipedia! I haven’t done this yet for this blog because it just wouldn’t look right with this theme, but I may with the upcoming theme. (posted Jan. 6, 2008)
3: Obtaining quality links by offering unique articles to authority sites, as explained in this Article Marketing Video I created a while back.
4: Using a Host such as SEO Hosting (sister site of HostGator) to host your sites on different C-Classes. Many people will disagree with me on this, as it’s said that just separating c-classes won’t do you any good, as the SE’s have other ways of finding related sites. However, I separated most of my bigger sites into separate c-classes a few months back and links from other sites I own are now clearly stronger. Could be a coincidence, but I think not.
5: Providing testimonials to product owners. Many people, for one reason or another must believe that links on sales pages aren’t any good. Well, do a link: check on all of the links of those who left testimonials for my Article Marketing Guide. You’ll notice that the links I gave them (all of them) are showing up as one of the first 5 links within Yahoo Site Explorer. Each page is ranked individually and sales pages aren’t treated any differently. Most just happen to be a front-page link as well!
6: Adopt a unique internal link structure. The following will not work with every site for various reasons, but some can adopt the structure below in order to provide a clear path for the SE spiders, which will get your your pages index quicker and also pump more “juice” back into the homepage. Keep in mind this structure will only work for a static site, not a blog or similar CMS.
Implementing one of the above should rise your listings a spot or two. Implementing them all should cause a much greater effect if you’re not already doing them!
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7th January, 2008 at 5:23 am
I am working out on my SE ranking. Since I don’t have much time doing SEO work, my assistant handles most of the ‘dirty’ jobs on my behalf. I am looking for materials I can find online, so this post of yours helps. Thanks for the heads up!
7th January, 2008 at 8:27 am
Hey Josh,
Loved your post on Blogging Tips about Internal Linking. I wish I found it before I started writing my series.
Although, I just have a few questions.
When hosting your sites on different C-Classes, wouldn’t Google checkout your Whois data and realise that it is your site? Would making your details private alleviate this?
I read somewhere that Google checks webmaster tools and finds out which sites you own. Have you heard of this?
Finally, I’m hiding links in a box underneath my blog articles (not for Blackhat purposes), does Google penalise people who use CSS for doing that?
Thanks Josh! (clicks subscribe)
Rob
7th January, 2008 at 4:59 pm
@ Aurelius, no problem and thanks for the compliment.
@ Rob, Thanks Rob. Internal linking is very important, yet so many people don’t even think about it.
- Many people do say that the SE’s can just look at your Whois data and they might. I won’t say that’s false. I’ll just tell you that my sites are on separate C-classes and those links seem to be more powerful when interlinking my own sites. I won’t go either way on that, as I’m not extremely knowledgeable there, but it seems to work for me.
- It wouldn’t surprise me at all. That goes with Analytics as well. Anywhere they can access your data legally, I’m sure they do. No proof with that either though.
- Hmm, doesn’t sound too healthy. I think I read something from Matt Cutts on that subject. You may want to do a few searches on his blog in regards to that. If the links are passing or receiving authority I’d be very careful. If they are contained within Java or something that isn’t readable by Google then I’d say there isn’t anything to worry about.
8th January, 2008 at 2:00 am
Hi,
I’m doing SEO for one of my clients who is offering to pay me $50 per month to build quality one-way follow links for his site. I think I can do it. He’s main keywords are home based business opportunities, so on second thoughts I’m thiking due to the competition, should I charge more…?
Thanks
8th January, 2008 at 2:57 pm
Hi Josh,
Thank you so much for the info on internal links and nofollows,
not easy to find quality info on this topic when related to rankings.
Jack, I’m doing SEO & Adwords for clients as well, and I think you should charge more, or try a different payment structure. Think how many Q links you can build in one month and compare that with what seo firms charge for 100-500 Q links. I’d say $50 is a sweet deal. All the best
8th January, 2008 at 3:27 pm
@ Jack - I’d say that depends on your skill in that arena. If you’re experienced in building quality links and you know you can increase his/her rankings then $50 is extremely cheap. If you online think you can do it, but you’re not sure, I suppose $50 is fair.
@ Tal - No problem. Internal linking is very important in retaining authority and getting pages indexed, yet so many people fail to realize that.
9th January, 2008 at 6:39 am
Most people getting in to internet marketing doesn’t came across such SEO’s and thus they loose in it….. but gaining the ranks to get optimized will work for the people who willing to promote their products.
13th January, 2008 at 10:01 am
[...] Spaulding has posted 6 underutilized ways to increase search engine rankings. I always love to read others opinions in this area and Josh does a great job in this post of [...]
14th January, 2008 at 4:15 pm
[...] 6 Underutilized Ways to Increase SE Rankings [...]
21st February, 2008 at 11:46 pm
Thanks Josh for sharing some new points for me to check out in the quest for better SEO.
22nd February, 2008 at 4:24 pm
No problem at all, Bob. Good luck with your SEO efforts!
23rd February, 2008 at 10:05 pm
Sure takes the pressure off when you simplify things. Lots of tweaks and constantly building on links seems to be the trick.
23rd February, 2008 at 10:42 pm
Hi Vitally,
That’s right. When you get a chance, take a look at my comment policy. Thanks for stopping by.