A LITTLE HELP FROM YOUR FRIENDS: THE IMPORTANCE OF LINKS.

In addition to evaluating and ranking keywords, search engines place varying degrees of importance on the links between Websites. The vast majority of web pages in most search engine databases have been found via other Web pages that the search engine has already indexed. The more active links that exist to a particular page, the better its chance of achieving a superior ranking. Having your site listed in various online directories, for example, is one way to create a measurable effect on your site’s appearance in search results. Why? Well it’s a popularity contest of sorts. If other, well-established and well-trusted websites link to your site, they are in essence vouching for your site, or voting on its behalf. Your site looks better and more relevant simply by being associated with other respected sites.

Did you know: Yahoo! will return a list of pages linking to a given site? The search command is linkdomain:example.com.

The outgoing links on your Web pages are also analyzed and used to determine your site’s relevance to other pages in the database. Even where the links appear within your site can be of great importance in determining how it is ultimately ranked in a given search. But the “inbound” links to your site will always be the most important factor, as they represent other humans vouching for your site — rather than just relying on your site to vouch for itself. This concept is known as “independent citation”, and is no different than the everyday example of checking the references of a potential new-hire. You want to hear the prospects’ story, but you’d also feel better hearing a few other people give good recommendations.

SITE DESIGN AND STRUCTURE: SAFE LANDINGS AND EFFECTIVE DIRECTION.

One of the most important aspects of a successful SEO effort is the overall structure of your site itself. The search engines need to be able to crawl the site effectively; even minor errors in code or overly-difficult navigation can thwart the spiders and leave important pages excluded from the final results. And the design and internal mapping of the site can affect ranking in a variety of ways, from subtle to dramatic.

Armed with your list of keywords, it’s important to place them properly to deliver visitors to the best landing pages for their particular search. Different keywords can have different effects depending on where your visitors are in the buying process, whether they’re gathering information, comparing alternatives, or actively deciding where to buy. By mapping the relevant search terms and phrases to the right pages, you can match visitors’ arrival points to their intentions, all with the goal of maximizing the return from the increased traffic generated by the search engines.

Campaign tracking software allows you to measure your results precisely to learn what pages are being viewed most often (and which are being ignored), how often searchers visit before buying, and how long the conversion process lasts.

For most searches, your home page is not the best landing page. Many visitors are best directed to interior pages where they can immediately find the specific information they seek.

This blog post is part of a larger series of posts, all relating to maximizing the pretense of your website via SEO. Be sure to check it out here>>