Keyword Overload
My friend Debbie from the blog, New England Lighthouse Blog, asked me some interesting questions about keywords and keyword optimization. Here’s a quote from her:
On the first page of Google results, 8 links were to companies selling a product or service and only 2 links referred to traditional Lighthouses! I have no problem with any business being online or at the top of search results but, at this time our search is focused on traditional Lighthouses not products!
Finally, after changing keywords three times, the search results are better using the keyword phrase “traditional Lighthouses” with 7 non-profit links versus 3 product links! How many of us really have the time to try numerous keyword combinations?
Basically, the word “lighthouse” happens to be one of those words found in everything from lawn services to optical companies and beyond. Real lighthouses have been beaten out of their own keywords and phrases! How can she improve and what are some alternatives for her?
Read the rest
Submitting Your Blog To Directories
In Debbie’s case (and your case too!), she should submit her blog to as many directories as possible. Most bloggers don’t do this. Her blog is really a photography blog of sorts, all of lighthouses. I cannot give her exact ideas but I can point her in the right direction.
A great resource list for directories is Add URL.nu. When submitting to directories keep in mind that choosing the best category for your site is important. Some let you enter a description also. This description should be carefully worded!
Read- Text Surrounding Link: Final Proof -This shows you how the text surrounding a link on a directory can be used in a powerful way!
Co-Citation
Co-citation analysis is a unique method
for studying the cognitive structure of science.
Combined with single-link clustering
and multidimensional scaling techniques,
co-citation analysis can literally map the
structure of specialized research areas as
well as science as a whole.
What? We are really talking about Bibliographic Co-Citation in this case.
It’s a way for search engines to determine similarities and differences in sites, posts and blogs etc. You want exactly what you are selling or writing about to be associated with the correct categories and similar content.
If 30 companies selling clothes and have “lighthouse” in their name, it can cause your real “lighthouses” to be associated with clothes, thus being no good for you!
You want your site indexed and associated with more exactness. Debbie’s site needs to be associated with photography, lighthouses, oceanside cities and the sea in general. There are lots of ways for her to play around with it. Like many of us, she would like a simple solution.
In her case, the solution may take some work to get honed, but I think she can find it.
The way you find the co-citation for your site is by looking your site up on google. At the bottom of the description you will see the familiar, “similar pages”. That’s your co-citation. Look and see what your blog or individual posts are actually associated with.
Go read-Citation - understanding how it effects your SEO. by Jim Boykin. It’s fascinating!
If you’re willing to spend a little money, list your site on the Yahoo directories.
My very smart friend Dawn from AntiBarbie Dot Net pointed out to me that you can list your site with their free standard submission! The Url for that is: submit.search.yahoo.com
Read Court Tuttle’s-Write Using Keywords-He has many great articles on keywords as well as everything else.
You can find services at sites like http://forums.digitalpoint.com and http://www.wickedfire.com that will submit your blog to lots of sites for a few bucks. Just don’t get too ‘hung up’ on it. Directory links are useful, but you’ll have to ‘pay to play’ to get links from ones that pass decent PR. Use, and move on.
You’re right T.O. Do it and get back to writing content! Thanks for the links
What’s this!? A new theme!? I don’t what rock I’ve been sleeping under to have missed this! It looks terrific Bobby!
Bush Mackel’s last blog post..More Food For Thought with Google and PR
Thanks Bush! Are you that guy Aaron warned me about? LOL! I like the minimal, clean feel of this one much more!
If you’re willing to spend a little money, list your site on the Yahoo directories.
At least in her case it would be free. One of the perks of having a personal website or blog is not having to shell out all that money for Yahoo. DMOZ is another good one to get listed at too
Dawn’s last blog post..The friend that never was.
Submitting your site to Yahoo and all search engines is free, but the Yahoo directory is for business listings and does cost. I just tried to list my site and they want money! Unless I’m missing something, the Yahoo directory is a paid service and is completely separate from mere search engine submission.
Hi Bobby, thank you for your great advice, help, and tips! Every new Blogger needs to bookmark your site to understand the maze of the amazing web!
Currently reviewing the excellent addurl site and I am amazed at the quantity of Directories listed.
Thanks Debbie! Nothing I write (besides personal or my poetry&fiction) is new or original. This is true of everyone just about. I write for my readers not the web as w whole. Please read the resources carefully (about co-citation, etc) before submitting your site to them.
These are just a few of the things you can do and when they’re done, they’re done! I am learning this stuff too. The great thing about this knowledge, is if you ever start a new site, you’ll be armed!
You wrote: but the Yahoo directory is for business listings and does cost. I just tried to list my site and they want money! Unless I’m missing something, the Yahoo directory is a paid service and is completely separate from mere search engine submission.
They want money for business listings for the Yahoo Directory but if you use their standard submission they will do personal sites and personal blogs for free.
Dawn’s last blog post..The friend that never was.
Hi Dawn! The url for the main directory submission listed in my post says nothing about free or standard submission. So I had to do more hunting. On the regular Yahoo search engine submission url which is http://submit.search.yahoo.com/, the standard or free directory is listed.
You’re right! To build co-citation for your site, the free one won’t help like the paid one will though. Thanks Dawn! I’ll add that in to my post and give you credit!!!!!
Hey!!! nice new look Bobby!
Everyone is changing their look again and it’s killing me to not do the same….but whatever. Some interesting points you made in this post…I never thought to submit my site to some directories , so I guess I’ll have to get on that ASAP!!!!
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Hi Morgan! Thanks so much. The other template uses the sandbox platform and I am no expert on writing PHP yet so I used one of Court Tuttle’s SEO optimized themes. He takes common themes and tweaks them to make them “killer”.
Please read the linked posts about co-citation and “text surrounding links” before you go submitting to these directories. It’s not necessary to use directories but if you do it right it may help some!
One comment on Yahoo and DMOZ directory submissions: Yahoo free listings don’t get checked often, if ever. I submitted back in June and I have yet to be checked and listed (for my haunted lighthouses site). DMOZ is in sore need of editors, they also have not checked yet (haunted lighthouses). Yet on the other hand, my recent check at google’s webmaster tools shows my haunted lighthouses site listed as number 8 (this week) as my average top position on the search phrase “haunted lighthouses,” whereas when I first started it, even after a month I couldn’t find it after 8 pages with 50 per page.
Directory submission from places like you mentioned? I think you’re better off getting links from respected, long term sites in your particular niche than from the cheap directory listings those places submit to. Which means having great content, not out of date, and networking with those with highly ranked, long term websites in your subject. Those links will get you more “authority” than those “we’ll submit your link to these directories” sites.
As far as lighthouses go, that is too generic a term, and I think most people are savvy enough to qualify it in search with additional words, such as “New England Lighthouses.”
Also, I still maintain that static sites have a better search engine appearance over blogs.
And, don’t forget about the “long tail search” bringing traffic into your site.
Debbie’s site actually has great keyword usage, and if she checks her Feedburner stats, or uses Google analytics, I think she’ll be pleasantly surprised. And the webmaster tools from Google is the best place to watch your keyword rankings.
One other thing you can do is install the do follow plugin for wordpress (if you’re using that platform). With akismet and captcha plugins also installed, comment spam isn’t an issue. And it’s a great way for a little link love between blogs, especially for those in the same niche.
My niche is not honed to perfection and I am just making a name for myself before I start a new site! Most of my commenters are from different niches and I wont benefit from niche comments too much!
I don’t read ANY other blogs in the area of ethics as I think they are so dry and boring. However, I have a reverse strategy of doing everything opposite of what everyone else does.
I have submitted to Dmoz several times and I still am not listed. I don’t think it will have much impact. What a great comment Sue! I think you and many of my readers teach me much more than I teach them! Have a good day
I think you have transcended the “dry and boring” part of ethics. Your blog is so much more than just ethics, that’s why I come back and read it!.
Hey, I didn’t mention I like the new look. But then, I’m partial to white and blue together. It looks great, so uncluttered.
And as far as I’m concerned, the world pays way too much attention to Google. It’s scary.
Thanks Sue! Having so many types of articles may keep me from ever gaining page rank, or over time it may help! Who knows. I love learning and the internet is the most fascinating thing I have ever seen.
Personally, I really like Technorati and Stumble upon as two great measurements of web success
Great advice here. Getting listed in directories is very helpful to your site but definitely not worth spending too much time or money on.
Very true! If you are skilled enough to use the idea of “text surrounding link” it may be something to give you a little edge. I just learned this stuff last night
Hi Bobby - Love the cool new look - you computer genius you
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Ha ha ha…computer genius? Thanks Amber! It’s nice to have you come to my new pad!!!
Excellent I submitted my sites!
Thanks for the tips AntiBarbie and UncleBobby!
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He he he…you crack me up Rolando! I’m liking this comment luv plugin! You left a comment and I can see instantly that you have a new post! How totally cool! I must do a post about it. This is the only plug in I have ever wanted to write a post about! Thanks Rolando
When I would first google up “Speedcat”, I would find a lot of Puma Speedcat Shoes… really! - Anyway, I could see myself growing stronger as a page by seeing where I ranked in a search for myself. At first, I was unfound. I am now 1st page 1st entry.
I was getting excited about dropping into the Top 10 K over at technorati today. My page rank went from 10,080 to 12,103. I gained 8 more links today too. What happened? I think you may be the only the person that could answer this. My strength went “up” to 379 - how is this possible??
Hi Eric! It happens to everyone just before you hit any big deal level such as top10K or top 5K etc. I was at 10,200 for 1 month and then it jumped to 12,350! A week later I was top 10K.
Technorati also has a lot of problems. When every link from over 100 million blogs is counted, etc there will be problems. Don’t worry at all & you’ll be back up soon!
This is a very intersting discussion. Keywords are vital to getting search traffic. I don’t think anyone focuses on this enough.
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MikeC: I think wordpress users are more into keywords than blogspotters. Keywords aren’t rocket science but every post should be based on a key phrase!
Yes I agree with you. Some posts are better for keywords than others obviously.
Mike C’s last blog post..California Tunnel Fire
Hello Bobby…
We love this post. This is a very comprehensive and detailed post on optimization that we can definitely learn from, besides the SEO article that we had done the other time. U actually explained in further details on how to optimize the keywords and it’s great.
Thanks for this absolutely informative post Bobby! =)
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Thanks Nafa! I’ll link this post to your keyword post! Please link your keyword post to this one!
Bobby this is good,how did u ever get such good advice before helping us?
Btw,sorry I couldnt come to this fantastic website yesterday as Im travelling, I managed to come by straight after reaching
Hope you are well.
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Hi Winston! You should have a central keyword phrase in every post and the post title! I got all my advice from a magic leprechaun
Do you think submitting to the wrong directories not within your niche can hurt you? I’m thinking about my niche websites. I have other websites besides this one. I’m thinking of two specifically one is alternative health, and another that is a recipe based website. I have a lot of content at both of them although they are fairly new. I created them in May.
As far as traffic they do very well , I mainly see them as a “Resource” and my alternative health website now pulls in my traffic than my main website. My readers stay a long time but don’t overdo commenting. I do get a lot of emails from readers with questions, lol. I think this is due partly that many don’t want their business out there. Although I have submitted those two websites to some directories, I haven’t gone overboard with it.
Reading this post made me realize I needed to submit my photography website to a few directories.
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Probably not too much. Directory submission may or may not help. If you used a paid directory on Yahoo and used the “text surrounding link thoery” it might help a lot! It’s too much for me to spend.
With photography, if you have 2-3 friends with photography websites, you could link and back track posts together with good anchor text!