Whilst these tips do not have as significant as an effect as the previous tips I have discussed they are still important - they may make the difference between getting on the first page or not. A key factor to remember when trying to get high rankings for your site is that there is no magic bullet, no single thing you can do that will guarantee a top spot. It is all about carrying out a range of tasks that will incrementally get you where you want to be.
1) Text around the anchor text of a link
As well as the anchor text of the link itself the text around the anchor text is also important - it sets the context. For example if you have text that is describing a cruise on the Nile and then suddenly there is a link to an automobile site with the anchor text of automobile repairs then it is not going to look too natural to the search engines!
2) The font size of your keywords
As well as using tags such as the h1 or b tags etc to highlight the important keywords on your page you should also consider increasing the font size of these keywords. In essence anything that you do regarding formatting of text to highlight it to a human visitor will also add weight to a spider visitor.
3) Formatting - use selectively
As discussed earlier you can use various formatting tags to highlight your keywords but if you use too much formatting and it ends up making your page look like a dogs dinner then it will have a negative effect rather than positive. Remember - look at your page and if it looks presentable and easily readable then it is probably OK, if it looks like an abstract painting you have gone too far!
4) Sitemaps
Sitemap - get one!, at the very least they are useful for the search engine spiders but they can also be useful for human visitors as well. If you do not want to generate one by hand then there are many free ones available, personally I use the Google XML Sitemaps plug in for my Wordpress blog.
5) Site size
It is simple really - the more content you have the more likely you are to get one of the pages a good ranking. However the principles of good quality content apply - it is no use simply generating hundreds of low quality pages simply to bulk out the site. In addition to this, if you have a large site then you must ensure the content is accessible - you will need a good menu system.
6) File / Page Locations
This may sound a strange one but the actual location of your files / pages relative to the root of the site may have an effect on your rankings - pages closer to the root tend to get better rankings. Therefore but all your pages with primary keywords as close to the root of the site as possible - do not bury them many layers down.
7) Domain names - sub domains v top level domains
Is a separate domain name better than just having a sub domain - well yes actually - so mykeyworddomain.com should rank better mykeyword.genericdomain.com. So if you are serious about your site get yourself a proper domain name (preferably one where the domain name relates to your keyword!)
8) What type of domain to use?
There is a clear hierarchy of domain names - if you qualify for a.edu or.org name then they have the greatest weight with the search engines, following after that are.com domains and then all the rest (.net,.ws etc) all trail behind. If you are starting a new site you should bear this domain name hierarchy in mind.
9) Hyphenated domain names.
Hyphens help - particularly where you are optimizing for keyword phrases rather than individual keywords. This applies to both domain names and page names - my-keyword-site.com is a better name mykeywordsite.com and my-keyword-page.htm is better than mykeywordpage.htm. A guiding principle, as with most search engine stuff, is: if it makes it easier for a human to read or use then it will help to improve your rankings.
We hope these tips prove useful to your online marketing efforts, please look out for more of our articles on this and other related subjects.
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