Linking Structure
Your web pages anchor text and structure is one of the MOST important aspects of SEO, for two big reasons. The first is for the web site visitor. If your site is tough to navigate and/or confusing, you will lose visitors. The second reason is that many of the search engines not only give the linking (anchor) text a lot of weight, but good navigation helps their indexing robots or “spiders”. If the robots get stuck or have no where to go, they will stop indexing.
So let’s begin with static text links.
Here’s an example:
My Link Text
This is basic enough. Now you should again add your keyword phrase inside the anchor text linking to a RELEVANT web page.
Here is a good example: browse through our large selection of SEO tools
Note that the link text, AS WELL AS THE DIRECTORY (named SEO) AND THE PAGE NAME it is linking to, have the keyword phrase. This will help your SEO greatly. If you search for anything on Google, you will notice that the key search terms (if present in the url) are highlighted as well as the key terms “striped” from the URL’s body content. This says to me that naming your links with the key terms for THAT web page is important. I would suggest adding your keyword/phrase 3-5 times in the link text (with 15-25 INBOUND links present). In other words, 1 time for every 5 links.
Now let’s take a look at a good way to implement the links into your body text.
Example:
Since 1987, Search Engine Optimization Inc. has been the foremost provider of SEO Tools
Search Engine Optimization Inc. has been developing SEO software and tools for webmasters around the world. Founder John Schmit who… Pleasebrowse through our large selection of SEO tools Note that the text link is now embedded inside a readable paragraph but DOES NOT take the place of the other key terms in the paragraph text. SE’s like this. We will still need a “menu” for navigation that will contain some of the same links.
I will now be covering good navigation for both your visitors and search engine robots.
Every “important” page on your site should link to every “important” page on your site. Here is what I mean. First, “important” refers to pages (for example) that DO NOT include “thank you pages” after making a purchase or submitting a form. Pages like this have one purpose so you wouldn’t want to link directly to them (but link FROM them for your visitors). If every important page on your web site follows this, the search engine robots will have no trouble indexing your site.
What if I use a fancy JavaScript or DHTML menu? This is OK, but use both if you decide on the fancy menu. Search Engines do not read the content within tags. There systems could crash, so they just don’t do it. And if possible, place the static text menu toward the top (but if it looks bad, it’s not worth it. Visitors are more likely to trust a professional looking web site – I do, don’t you?).
Another very important tool is the “Site Map”. Every medium to large site should have one. A site map is a page that contains every “important” link to your site. Make sure the layout “makes sense”. This allows your visitors to find what they want easily, and search engine robots will eat them up. I would add a link to your site map on every page on your web site. You can build a “fancy” looking site map, that is search engine friendly. Only the users see it as fancy, but to the search robots, it is just static links.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Search engines are RELUCTANT to index dynamic pages with query strings. Dynamic pages are WRITTEN to the browser using scripts like ASP, CGI etc. Query string contain special characters like “?”, “&” and “=”, which are read by the these scripts. SE’s are reluctant, but DO index them SLOWLY. They do not want their robots to get trapped and crash. But once they index one dynamic page and things go smoothly, they will index more, but still in a conscious manner. If you must use dynamic pages, then create static links to these web pages for the robots to follow. And try to keep the query strings short.
Here is an example of a static link to a dynamic web page:
My Link Text [http://www.dynamicPage.asp?id=12&Resource=QueryString]
Author: John Kline
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Digital Camera Times
As a real estate professional, you qualify as a prime prospect for most companies
offering real estate SEO (search engine optimization) services.
You want more sales and more listings and they want you to
believe that they can give that to you.
If you haven’t already gotten calls, emails or letters from a few real estate SEO
companies telling you that they can get your real estate website into the top ten of
this or that search engine… get ready, because they’re coming…
A lot of real estate professionals struggle with whether or not to make an
investment in a company to manage their SEO campaign.
Will it be worth your investment? Will you get burned?
There is no right decision, but there are smart ones and dumb ones.
Here are a few things to think about as you make your decision about real estate
SEO:
1. SEO is just one piece of the internet marketing puzzle. Hiring a
company to optimize your real estate website for the search engines is not
necessarily a bad thing, just understand that it is only one part of your internet
marketing plan. Focusing too much on SEO leaves a lot of money on the table.
Having good rankings makes it seem like your website will be a successful generator
or real estate leads. Not so.
In the past, search engine optimization WAS pretty much synonymous with internet
marketing. SEO WAS marketing on the internet – that was all you needed to do to
get noticed and get leads. Times are different now.
Understand that your marketing has to be right FIRST, before you even set foot onto
the internet and spend time and money bringing prospects to your real estate
website.
That means you need to identify your market, create a message suited perfectly for
them and deliver that message with the media that they are known to respond to.
That must be done before you even think about SEO.
——————
2. There are no SEO guarantees. Many SEO companies that are out there
cold-calling realtor lists often guarantee results or give the impression that there is
some guarantee of results.
There are no guarantees. Results-based guarantees from a Search Engine
Optimization company are a good sign for you to run the other way.
Don’t even waste your time talking to them.
——————
3. Listen to exactly what the company you are speaking with is offering.
Most SEO companies that call you will make bold promises about improving the
rankings of your website. Many of them are very good at what they do. Sounds
simple enough, right?
But what exactly is your goal – Good rankings or more real estate business? Don’t
get caught up in the myth that better rankings = more sales or more leads or
listings. Better rankings equals better rankings. That’s it.
In a nutshell, know that SEO is important and good search engine rankings are
important… but SEO is not a silver-bullet for your real estate business. It will not fix
your marketing and although a well optimized real estate website might bring a
flood of prospects to your door, what good is it if they never knock and ask to come
in?
——————
4. Marketing is marketing is marketing… Always has been, always will be.
The internet hasn’t changed anything about that. What the internet does do is give
you a very efficient delivery system to use for your marketing message.
Whether or not you seek outside help for your internet marketing campaign, the
important thing to remember is that you don’t abdicate responsibility for your own
marketing by “outsourcing” it. Outsourcing your own marketing, even on the
internet, is not a smart decision. After all, marketing is by far the most leveraged
activity you can possible engage in.
Marketing IS the business you are in.
You are the mastermind. You come up with the plan… THEN you hire someone to
do the implementation.
Jason Leister, the Real Estate Technology Guru ™, is owner of Computer Super Guy, LLC, a Chicago-based technology firm that helps real estate professionals profit with technology.
Visit the Real Estate Technology Guru to subscribe to our free monthly eZine, ProfIT, and receive a FREE copy of our special report “The Truth About Real Estate Websites and Search Engine Optimization.”
Author: Jason Leister
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: US Dollar credit card