In part one of the SEO rules, we looked at keyword research and site structure. In part two, we'll explore a few more secrets that will help you on your mission to make sure your website comes up top when users Google for your product or services.
- Domain attributes
As well as identifying the keywords and knowing where to place them effectively, there are other domain attributes that can impact on your ranking. Notably, how long your website domain has been registered for will impact on whether Google sees you as reliable and in it for the long-term. Old domains carry more trust. A new domain is held for the short term in what is called the Google Sandbox – an anti-spam measure for new sites. Sandboxes are in effect filters that hold new sites back and prevent them from getting ranked – this state of limbo can last three months to a year. So if you're new to the web, you need to build up links and get the site known.
Content is King
Although good web copywriting should demonstrate brevity, readability and be ultimately scan-able, there is a place for a large amount of content on your site. This will allow for more longtail phrases to be naturally included in your copy – helping pick up the more obscure search phrases and queries.
- Nofollow Attribute
It's important that you avoid duplicate pages. Duplicate content (such as printer friendly versions of articles) can have the same headline and links. So in a search engine's eyes, it can't tell which the main page to index is. By ensuring you don't have duplicate pages you will place more emphasis on the pages you do want to index, making those more important. You can avoid duplicate content by ensuring you always have a unique headline and metatag on each page.
Use HTML code to help guide crawlers. If for example you're selling advertising on the site, you can put ‘nofollow' on the links to state it's an advert. A 301 redirect means a page is permanently moved so spiders know to pass them and go to the re-directed source. A 302 redirect is a temporary redirect.
Do's and Don'ts
- Remember title tag and keyword density are important
- But avoid keyword stuffing
- More copy is good for long tailing but you can have too much content (above 100k in file size is too much.)
- The number of links on a page should be no more than a hundred (aim between 15-75 internal links)
- Avoid spamming, keyword stuffing, repeating a keyword over and over again, or using hidden text are all a no-no (the user can't see it, but a search engine can).