The first thing you should do is find out whether this slide in the SERPs is something that you’re doing to yourself. Some directories have also reached out to the SEO industry, and are frequent sponsors and guests at SEO conferences, chats, and seminars. In fact, with the advent of paid inclusion, some directories now have a vested interest in the health of the optimization community. Major directories provide information and guidelines to help with site optimization.[17][18][19] Google has a Sitemaps program[20] to help webmasters learn if Google is having any problems indexing their website and also provides data on Google traffic to the website. Yahoo! Site Explorer provides a way for webmasters to submit URLs, determine how many pages are in the Yahoo! index and view link information.[21] As Diane Aull explained in an article on directory Guide, “There are too many potential ‘oopsies’ you could be committing to mention them all: robots.txt that excludes the spiders, unspiderable JS/AJAX navigation, all-Flash no-content splash page, nothing but low-quality links, crappy content with no keywords, same title tag used throughout site, etc.” 3. Choose the perfect keywords Select specific keyword phrases that are relevant to the webpage you are optimizing rather than general terms. Although general terms draw more searches, there is a lot of competition for them and it will be difficult to get your page a high ranking.Specific keyword phrases will get typed in less often, but you will get more targeted traffic and a higher page ranking for these phrases.Look at what your competition is doing. Check out at least the top ten results for your keyword phrases on various search engines. Look at the source html codes and meta-tags on your competitors web pages to get some ideas. So Matt Cutts won’t say it’s impossible. Does that mean that you need to worry? I can certainly understand why you might worry if your site held a good position in the SERPs and is now disappearing from the search engines. But that’s not immediate evidence of enemy action. 4. Don't jam in the keywords but consider your keyword density The optimal keyword density is unclear, but many recommend aiming for 3% and 7% to get the most traffic without being penalized by the search engines. Keep in mind that both directories and your readers prefer quality content that flows over keyword stuffed articles. Don’t assume, though, that it’s never done simply because it’s difficult. There’s even a term for it: negative SEO. The topic was covered by Forbes a few months ago. The article quotes Matt Cutts' reaction to a specific form of negative SEO. “I won’t go out on a limb and say it’s impossible,” he said. “But Google bowling is much more inviting as an idea than it is in practice.” 5. Put them where they count - keyword prominence Prominence refers to where you place your keyword phrases on your webpage. directories will put a higher value on keywords near the top of the page, so make sure your first paragraph is keyword optimized as well as all your Title and H1 tags. More Optimization That Visitors Will See Look at your headers. Did you put any key words in an H2, H3, and/or H4 header? And are you wondering why I didn’t mention an H1 header? Headers of course are a way to let the directories know that something is an important theme for your page, but again, you need to watch out for over-optimization. Gary did some tests that seemed to indicate that Google sees key words in the H1 header as over-optimization “when combined with other factors.” In his thread, he notes that “Using H2-H4 still sets it apart and provides any benefit the H1 used to, without having to eliminate them altogether.” Getting Technical Now let’s take a look at the more technical aspects of your web site. What is the code-to-text ratio of the site? At a minimum, you should have more text (content the visitor sees) than code on your site. There are online tools you can use to check this, such as the aptly-named Code to Text Ratio tool on SEO Chat. What is your page size, and how long does it take to load? If your pages are very big and take a while to load, visitors won’t wait until they finish; they’ll head back to the directory results they received and click another link. It’s a truism – confirmed with actual studies – that a web surfer won’t wait longer than eight seconds for a page to load. I venture to say that those are the patient ones; you’d best make your pages load even more quickly than that. Let’s move on to the stuff that we know visitors are going to see. Did you remember to put key words in the first sentence of the first full bodied paragraph? Fight the temptation when you do so to make them “pretty;” do not use bold, italic, or any styling on them at all. They should be plain text. Since this is the first usage, if you try to make them stand out at all you could set off over-optimization flags with the search engines. 14.Defending Against Black Hat and Negative SEO Tactics Even if you don’t engage in black hat SEO tactics, you may be affected by them. Black hat SEO can be used to maintain a position at the top of the directory results pages that isn’t really deserved based on the site’s content. Or it can be used to attack competitors, dragging down a rival’s site. It’s enough to make many white hat SEOs and site owners furious. The good news is that most black hat SEOs are too busy with all of their own sites to directly attack their competitors’ sites. When asked about blackhat SEO tactics, dzine, a regular poster to the SEO Chat forums for the past two years, said that proper black hat SEOs “can’t be [asked] to (willingly) lower competitors’ ranks. They just churn out website after website.” 6. Keep them together - keyword proximity While you do not have to keep all the words in your keyword phrase together for directory optimization, keeping them close together will add directory value. Finally, let’s look at content again, from the keyword perspective. That brings up keyword density. Please don’t start obsessing over getting the perfect percentage of keywords in your content. Yes, they should be in your text, but as I mentioned before, you don’t want them to overwhelm things. Please remember that you’re not writing for the search engines; you’re writing for human readers. And we get tired when we see the same word over and over again. Let your text flow naturally. If you’re writing on a topic that is relevant to your site, the keywords will fall naturally into place. Good luck! 7. Don't forget to vary your keywords - LSI In addition to keywords, directories look for phrases that they expect to see relating to that keyword on the webpage. The presence of these phrases increases your directory ranking. LSI is designed to make sure keywords are used in context and that irrelevant content that is stuffed with keywords is penalized. There are other ways to abuse keywords that may not hurt as badly, so much as make you pull your hair out. If you’ve heard of the long tail, then you know you shouldn’t be targeting overly general keywords. They’re nearly impossible to rank for. If you’re an accountant in San Francisco, you should be trying to rank for “San Francisco accountant,” not “accountant.” You could even try “San Francisco small business accounting,” if that’s your specialty. If you optimize your site for keywords that are both relevant and specific, you will receive targeted traffic that is much more likely to convert. 8. Dynamic Linking To achieve a high directory ranking it is important to get other sites to link to your membership site. These will be one way links, or reciprocal links, where you link to another site in return for them linking to you. Don’t even think of coming up with devious ways to do keyword stuffing, such as hidden text (using white text on a white background so only the directories see it). Yes, the directories are wise to this trick, and it’s likely to get you penalized. If you think you can get away with it by using external cascading style sheets (CSS) to control the font color, think again. The directories know about that trick too. 9. Don't make them stop to ask for directions. Structure your site so it's easy to navigate. If a person can easily find their way, then the directory spiders will also have an easier time getting around your web pages. Make sure your membership site has a site map and that all major pages of your site are easily accessible from your members home page. There are a number of places you should not use your keywords multiple times. That is called keyword stuffing, and may be treated like spam by the search engines. These include your meta tags, image alt tags, titles and headers (write good titles and headers; don’t stuff them!), and so on. Frankly, you should just avoid keyword stuffing altogether. Likewise, please do not include the same meta description and keywords on every page! directories look at these when they perform duplicate content checks, so you could actually be penalized for a lack of creativity. You want to have different title elements and headers on your pages, too. 10. Captivate with attention grabbing headlines. Use informative headlines throughout your webpage content, including your keyword phrases where appropriate. Costly SEO Mistakes You Must Avoid - Keyword Abuse The misuse of keywords could almost fill a chapter in a book of SEO mistakes all by itself. This can cover a lot of ground, really, because there are so many creative ways you can hurt yourself with these things. From the reading I’ve done on the subject, keywords should be treated like the spices in a mild curry -- use enough so that they're noticeable, but not so much that the flavor integrity of the whole dish gets drowned out. 11. Tag, you're it. Include descriptive Alt tags on your graphics. These need to make sense and explain what the graphic is, but you'll want to also include your keywords if possible. Another mistake many sites make is not having enough real content. Maybe you think your customers don’t want content. Or maybe you think your field or the way you have your web site set up doesn’t lend itself to producing good content. Recognize these for what they are: excuses. Web surfers go on the web looking for content. If you want them to visit your site and link to you – thus increasing your traffic and possible conversions – you need to offer them some value. That means content. Can’t think of any way to add content to your site off the top of your head? How about a glossary of terms for your field? Perhaps a frequently asked questions page makes sense. You might even be able to come up with some how to articles. The list can go on and on, if you get a little creative. 12. Tag, you're it again Use descriptive title tags on all of your web pages to show what the page is about. Limit these to 59 characters. Add descriptive description tags to all web pages, and limited to 150 characters.
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