WMS Consulting

1.1      Robot.txt File

A robots.txt is the first file a crawler will grab from a site, and this file will indicate where ona  site the crawler is not allowed to go.

Searche engines,, ina never ending quest to better rank pages, use a technique in which the words in links pointing to a page count towards the page’s relevance. That sounds complicated, but a quick example will make it quite clear. A link like this:

<a href=”http://www.google.com”>Google Search Engine</a>,

would increase the rankings for the page being linked to (http://www.Google.com) for a search that used any of the words Google, search or engine. This is true of every link on every page, and can have an extremely powerful effect on the total traffic a site can generate.

Link reputation is most effective if used to target generic, high volume searches. For example, most of the top ten sites on big-ticket searches, like mortgage, are a result of aggressive link building campaigns utilising Link Reputation.

The real beauty of Link Reputation lies in the fact that while there is a limit to the number of words that can be used on a page, there is virtually no limit to the number of links with anchor text that can be generated to a page, with each link increasing the page’s ranking for a specific phrase.

In practise, there are two man ways to utilise Link Reputation:

1. Create a standard piece of linking code to provide to partners. This is an ideal way to utilise Link Reputation, and should be a part of every site’s marketing mix. Every sponsored site, every partner site and any additional sites owned by a business should all be provided with this code. If necessary, in return, a link back can be provided.
2. Use keyword within text. For example, instead of “Click here to find out more”, use the destination pages primary keywords or title, e.g. “seo australia”

As a rule of thumb, a link taken out of context should convey what a user can expect from the linked page. Click Here isn’t nearly as obvious as SEO australia, and it is the later types of links that are favourable. Thankfully, due to the fact that virtually no reads online content, preferring instead to skim, the later types of links also have a Usability benefit, as they offer information on the content linked to. With both a Usability and SEO benefit to keyword rich links, they really are an absolute no brainer.

Anchor text is a very effective and easy tool to utilise, and as much as possible, all links should be keyword rich and relevant to the destination page.

• Plurals and non-plurals – e.g. dog and dogs
• Adjectives – strong, thick, light, heavy.
• Hyperbole – Good, better, best
• Brands – Any brand name is relevant
• Buying Qualifiers – cheap, good, buy, order, deliver, delivery, delivered, free, affordable, deal, deals, order
• colours – white, red, black etc
• regionalise – Country names, states, territories, cities, large regions (e.g. Europe), regions in a city (e.g. Hells Kitchen) and suburbs as well as zip/postcodes
• Disqualifieers, e.g. terms that get search but aren’t possible – Cure (there is no cure for menopause), features not included (not available in black)
• Web specific terms these are words that are common despite being, in many cases, self evident: web, website(s), internet, online site(s).

Directories are the backbone of the Internet; they categorise and interlink all the sites on the Internet, and are an important part of how the Search Engines index the web. It stands to reason that seeking out links from directories is a good idea.

Some good resources include:

• http://www.avivadirectory.com/strongest-directories/ – a great list of relevant international directories that is updated fairly recently.

 

• http://www.aussieweb.com.au/ – Aussieweb provides free listings for Aussie businesses, and is worth the punt for the price.
• http://www.HotFrog.com.au/ – Hotfrog provides free listings for Aussie businesses, and is worth the punt for the price.

 

• True Local – Whilst not an SEO link (it is tracked) it is still useful, as TrueLocal is a part of the News Interactive stable, and is linked in via their header on all their sites (Foxsports, news.com.au etc). Some useful TrueLocal pages include:
  • TrueLocal Advertising Page
  • The Free Listing Page
• Yellow Pages – Not a great SEO link, but still well worth a listing, especially as an add on to a real world, book listing. Just be sure to provide as many details as possible.