1) Steal Your Competitors’ Keywords
- Look at the keywords they use in their title tags.
- Look at the keywords they use to link to their “money pages”.
- Some webmasters are dumb enough to include their money keywords in their meta keywords tags. Take a look at these but keep in mind that smart SEO people won’t do this. In fact, just to mess with wannabe SEO’s they might actually put bad keywords in the meta keywords tags to get others to use them.
If stealing keywords sounds shady, its only because I used the word “steal” instead of “learn” to grab your attention. You should always learn about your competitors; you can bet that they’ll try to steal..err learn your keywords too.
2) Fix Canonical URL Issues
If you can access your site by typing “site.com” and “www.site.com”, Google will see that as two different sites with the exact same content and that can hurt you a lot. To fix this create a file called .htaccess with these three lines and put it in the root folder of your site:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} !^www\.site\.com$
RewriteRule (.*) http://www.site.com/$1 [R=301,L]
WARNING: unless you know what you’re doing, have someone else do this. All servers are configured differently and you don’t want to screw-up your .htaccess file.
3) Pay Attention to Your MozRank
SEOmoz has a tool called LinkScape that calculates your MozRank. MozRank is a great metric that evaluates the QUALITY of your incoming links. (Most link assessment tools only focus on quantity). If you have more links than your competitors but they’re ranking above you, you should compare your MozRank to theirs; maybe your competitor has fewer links but they are BETTER than yours.
If your MozRank is higher, you have more links than them, and they still rank above you, then you probably have an issue with the lack of keywords in the anchor texts of your incoming links.
4) Get a Double Listing
A double listing (or indented listing) can sky-rocket your click-through-rate (CTR)! How you can get a double listing?
- You need two pages of your site on the same page of Google results. For example, let’s say you have a page A and page B. Page A ranks #4 on Google for “plant seeds” and Page B ranks #15 for the same keyword.
- You need to take page B from position 15 (second page of Google) to position 10 (first page of Google) so pages A and B are on the first page of Google.
- Perform this Google search to find out what 2 pages Google finds most relevant to a given keyword: site:yoursite.com [keyword].
- Now that you know what 2 pages are the most relevant for that keyword, use the SEO Rank Checker Tool to find out the Google rankings for those pages.
- Optimize pages A and B for your keyword. Link to page B from page A and vice versa using the keyword you want to rank for in the anchor text of the links.
- Get some keyword-rich links from external sites to pages A and B.
- Presto! Your listing will look like this one:
5) Use Google Webmaster Tools
You really have no excuse not to use this amazing tool. These are some of the things your can do with it:
- Submit a sitemap of your site so Google knows what pages they should index.
- Tell Google what is the canonical URL you want to use (site.com or www.site.com).
- Detect issues with duplicate title tags and meta descriptions.
- See a list of URLs restricted by robots.txt.
- Detect crawlability issues.
- Find 404 error pages.
- See the most common keywords people find your site through.
- Get a list of links pointing to your site.
- Tell Google how they should index your images.
6) Create a Google Sitemap
Now that you’re using Google Webmaster, create a sitemap using this tool: GSiteCrawler.
7) Use Google to Get Keyword Suggestions
Start typing your main keyword in the Google search box and get ideas for keywords. For a more detailed keyword research use the Google Keyword Tool.
8) Learn the 4 Truths about the QUALITY of Links
- Links from authority sites (e.g. CNN) are worth more than links from average sites (e.g. your nephews’ videogame blog).
- Links from related sites are worth more than links from unrelated sites.
- Links with your keyword in the anchor text are worth more that links that say “click here” or “read more”.
- Link QUALITY is way more important than link QUANTITY.
9) What To Do If You Ever Get Penalized By Google
First off, avoid spammy black-hat tactics so this never happens. But, if you’ve been a bad boy/girl, this is what you should do:
- Find out why it happened. Read Google Webmaster Guidelines and find out what you’ve done wrong.
- Fix it.
- Ask Google to reconsider your site. Admit to everything and don’t pretend you didn’t know what you were doing. Promise that you won’t do it again.
- Don’t do it again!
Zeke Camusio
Latest posts by Zeke Camusio (see all)
- SEO Competitive Analysis: Your Roadmap to Ranking #1 On Google - February 10, 2011
- 5 Internet Marketing Tips For The New Year - January 6, 2011
- 12 Tips For Using Twitter to Grow Your Business - November 17, 2010
nicely done!
This is some nerf ball stuff man.
This is one of the great post I have ever read. Great job. Nice set of tips for SEO’s. I liked the Backlink concept.
This is one of the great post I have ever read. Great job. Nice set of tips for SEO’s. I liked the Backlink concept.
Fixing
Now i got what i was missing for so long thanks for such a great post Zeke! And thanks for the Mozrank tips!. Great to go through your tips. :)
Good post one must know everything about SEO work to run their business online.
Nice article Zeke :-) I especially like your points about attaining a ‘double listing’ Thanks — Andy :-)
Some excellent tips here. I see lots of professionally built sites that don’t have .htaccess and they don’t understand why it’s bad.
Nice article Zeke :-) I especially like your points about attaining a ‘double listing’ Thanks — Andy :-)
Nice tip on MozRank. I agree on that we need more quality links over quantity thus using Linkscape will help us determine which domain gives us the most based on its authority.
Some quite basic points but the most interesting is that way you’ve basically written MozRank off as being useless: “If your MozRank is higher, you have more links than them, and they still rank above you, then you probably have an issue with the lack of keywords in the anchor texts of your incoming links.”
1) If MozRank doesn’t take anchor text into consideration when judging the value of links it’s missing out a major area of what makes a quality link, how can you trust it?
2) If your competitor is ranking about you despite inbound links, it could easily just be a case of it having better structure and on page optimisation.
Hi Zeke! Great roundup. I see better now what’s the use of MozRank. It’s like I know about it but have not been paying much attention to it or did not value much how it can help me. Thanks.
Thanks for good SEO tips.I would like to add Canonical URL. It is well worth our time to make sure they are optimized correctly.
These are surely sure fire. Some of it are tested and proven. I’m using and will be using these tips.
I LIKE IT!
very informative. I am always trying to improve my rankings.Thanks !
I especially like how you place ‘what to do if you got yourself banned’ at the end of the list, could be easily misinterpreted ;)
REally interested. thanks
Number 2 “Fix Canonical URL Issues” was totally new to me.. never thought of it that way. :)
I discovered this one, last year at Webmaster World. It’s a good one to know
Very strong article, points right where it should. I loved Nr 4. Get a Double Listing and I’m going to practise on it!
Don’t all of you think no. 8 is not good.
Links from related sites are worth more than links from unrelated sites.
Very strong article, points right where it should. I loved Nr 4. Get a Double Listing and I’m going to practise on it!
Excellent list, will make sure all of these are on my checklist, got a feeling a couple might have missed the cut last time round! Thanks
Hey Zeke,
I am using all of them but was unaware of the strategic implementations.
SEO moz tools like Linkscape, double listing, Google penalisaton ideas of your is interesting.
I saw double listing happening in most of the sites but was unaware of the idea and today you made it clear.
Thanks for sharing these ideas.
Excellent article, Zeke. Thanks so much. Just checked MozRank. Good points
MozRank and Google’s double listing are new to me. So… thanks! :-)
Interesting article enjoyed it
Interesting. It’s always nice to come across some SEO info that gives specific tips that are insightful and immediately usable such as the one above about getting a double listing. I read so much SEO stuff that’s just a rehash of all the usual advice, seems most sites peddle the same info, even the ‘gurus’ with their unending spiels about this latest SEO secret and that latest little known SEO techniqu are just peddling the same old same old.
I’d be interested to know why canonical urls are such a big deal and why they must/should be fixed, either by mod_rewrite or via google webmaster. What is the big deal about this? Isn’t google able to deal with websites with the same address but without th ‘www’? I have a couple of dozen sites and a good number of them rank very highly without caring about canonical urls.
Also the .htaccess issue. I used .htaccess with mod-rewrite on add-on domains to get rid of duplication using the main domain but then stopped doing that because it was messing with the indexing of my sites in google, causing them to be delayed or not indexed at all. I’ve never had a problem with add-on domains without the .htaccess file, they are always indexed correctly and quite highly. Again, what’s the big deal if there is any?
Thanks for the good tips. Keep ‘em coming.
Like you mentioned, Google recommends defining which of the two versions you want to use through their Google Webmaster Tools and by using the 301 redirect that I mentioned in the article. As SEOs, we can debate about how things should be but we have to be aware of how things actually are and do what’s necessary to rank our websites better.
Thanks for the comment.
Like you mentioned, Google recommends defining which of the two versions you want to use through their Google Webmaster Tools and by using the 301 redirect that I mentioned in the article. As SEOs, we can debate about how things should be but we have to be aware of how things actually are and do what’s necessary to rank our websites better.
Thanks for the comment.
#2 was totally new to me. Thanks for the advice!
I learnt so many things from this blog, this is surely going to help so many beginners and learners…
seo usa | seo europe | seo canada
First came to your blog, thank you very interesting. Be sure to sign
Nice tips thanks, a little concerned about issue 2 not sure I’ve the brain power to do this one but thanks.
GREAT tips! Thanks for sharing.
Great tips. This is SEO for 2010 for sure, and something I would recommend to others.
Great tips. This is SEO for 2010 for sure, and something I would recommend to others.
Great tips. This is SEO for 2010 for sure, and something I would recommend to others.
There is one thing I don’t get about #1 “Steal Your Competitors’ Keywords”: Some webmasters are dumb enough to include their money keywords in their meta keywords tags. Take a look at these but keep in mind that smart SEO people won’t do this. In fact, just to mess with wannabe SEO’s they might actually put bad keywords in the meta keywords tags to get others to use them.
Isn’t it pretty obvious what words you are optimizing a page for anyway? Why not just look at the title? I don’t see what the problem is with the meta keywords tag?
Great tips. Thank you.
Great post Zeke, you had mentioned something which even I don’t know and I am really thankful to you to post such a great information.
For #1, assuming that your competition knows what they are doing and has a good strategy is a dangerous proposition. I think recommending it the way you have is ill advised. Look at your competition and consider them, but doing your own work and research, in addition, is the piece of this advice that is missing.
I think that it’s a safe assumption that if the competition is ranking high on Google then they must be doing something right. Obviously, you would never want to steal keywords from a competitor with a poor ranking.
I think that it’s a safe assumption that if the competition is ranking high on Google then they must be doing something right. Obviously, you would never want to steal keywords from a competitor with a poor ranking.
really very helpful tips for someone that new in internet marketing..
nicee!!!
reallylike what you are saying here
great seo info
Nice tips, using the keywords suggested by Google itself is a good idea to make better keyword rich titles. Keywords are the source of traffic :-)
Useful post
By taking a little time to study your competitors’ websites, you can identify the search terms that are missing from your own search marketing campaigns and those that are working for your competitors.