More SEO Questions - Keywords and Links

[Adammo]

Hi all,

Sorry to keep bugging, but I just had a few more questions regarding SEO. I have the All-in-one SEO plugin installed in Wordpress, and have used various keywords to describe each post.

1 - I am seeing that several of my sub-pages have been indexed (woo hoo), but I found them through the Page title. For example, one page:

{URL removed}

If I search for "team canada womens roster" (without quotes), I find that I am on the 1st page of google. But it looks like Google found me because of the page title and the description. Are the keywords useful? I have several for this page including:

2010 olympic womens hockey
womens hockey roster
olympic canada womens roster

When I search for those terms in google, I don't find my site.


2 - How important are apostraphes? For instance, should I use "mens", or "men's"? I think for my Page Titles it would be hard to incorporate both.



3 - I am finding that my posts are being found in Google, but not my pages. Is this a keyword issue?


4 - Since some of my subsites are being found, should I add links to the pages where I would hope to get revenue from? Or are the Page links in the header sufficient enough?


5 - My site is being found when I use quotes "Team Canada Hockey Site", but is not found when I remove the quotes. Is there any concerns with this or is this still just a time issue that is taking place?


Thanks!

 

[djbaxter]

1 - I am seeing that several of my sub-pages have been indexed (woo hoo), but I found them through the Page title. For example, one page:

{URL removed}

If I search for "team canada womens roster" (without quotes), I find that I am on the 1st page of google. But it looks like Google found me because of the page title and the description. Are the keywords useful? I have several for this page including:

2010 olympic womens hockey
womens hockey roster
olympic canada womens roster

When I search for those terms in google, I don't find my site.

In Google, look for the phrase Results 1 - 10 of about XXXX at the top right of the search results page. I think what you'll find is that you rank higher for the more specific phrase, which is also the phrase with less competition.

2 - How important are apostraphes? For instance, should I use "mens", or "men's"? I think for my Page Titles it would be hard to incorporate both.

I'm guessing not very important. Try it out for yourself though - conduct searches in Google and Bing with and without the apostrophe. How much do the results change?

3 - I am finding that my posts are being found in Google, but not my pages. Is this a keyword issue?

What do you mean by "pages"? "About me" type pages?

Generally, it's your posts you want indexed more than the static pages.

4 - Since some of my subsites are being found, should I add links to the pages where I would hope to get revenue from? Or are the Page links in the header sufficient enough?

If you create a new post where a link to one of the "subsites" would be relevant, include another link there. Your visitor may or may not notice the link in your header.

5 - My site is being found when I use quotes "Team Canada Hockey Site", but is not found when I remove the quotes. Is there any concerns with this or is this still just a time issue that is taking place?

See my comment above regarding how many competing pages are in the search results. Searching for a specific phrase in quotes finds pages with exactly that sequence of words; without the quotes, more pages are returned because Google will look for pages containing those words but not necessarily in that sequence or even together.

 

[Adammo]

In Google, look for the phrase Results 1 - 10 of about XXXX at the top right of the search results page. I think what you'll find is that you rank higher for the more specific phrase, which is also the phrase with less competition.

You are correct. So should I place more keywords that have less competition in my keywords section?

What do you mean by "pages"? "About me" type pages?

Generally, it's your posts you want indexed more than the static pages.

That's what I mean, but my main "advertisements" are on static pages. Should I create a post with the exact same content that exists on my "advertisement" pages since I want them to be noticed the most of all? If you take a look at my site, you'll know what I mean .

 

[djbaxter]

You are correct. So should I place more keywords that have less competition in my keywords section?

You want both. The page you mentioned is specifically about the team roster so that's the main key phrase for that page. That's what you want to highlight. And the keywords meta tag is pretty much useless, especially for Google, so don't worry about that. Worry more about the wordpress tags section - that's where you want alternate descriptors and keywords.

Also, if you have not already done so, install one of the "related posts" plugins on your WordPress. This provides links to similar posts elsewhere on the blog at the bottom of each post.

That's what I mean, but my main "advertisements" are on static pages. Should I create a post with the exact same content that exists on my "advertisement" pages since I want them to be noticed the most of all? If you take a look at my site, you'll know what I mean .

No - that's duplicate content. Just link from posts where appropriate to the static pages. The search engines will find you eventually.

 

[Adammo]

No - that's duplicate content. Just link from posts where appropriate to the static pages. The search engines will find you eventually.

Thanks again, all of this info is really helpful, but I am a bit confused (surprise, surprise) about what you mean with this statement.

As you can see, I want google to notice the jerseys and apparel sections of my website. So should I create a post describing these items and have a link to my static page, or should I move all of my static page content to post format, and replace the static page with just links to my sponsors?

Hope that makes sense, just worried as my "posts" are coming up much better than my "pages".

 

[djbaxter]

I would suggest that you create different posts (i.e., not just one) each highlighting a specific product or type of product and link from there back to the static page where that item can be purchased.

 

[Adammo]

I would suggest that you create different posts (i.e., not just one) each highlighting a specific product or type of product and link from there back to the static page where that item can be purchased.

Sweet ya, that makes sense. Thank you for that!

I found that my main keywords for the stuff I am selling to be "jerseys", and "apparel". I would assume that I would need to include these keywords in my title? For example "Team Canada Retro Style Jersey"?

 

[djbaxter]

That works for me...

 

[Adammo]

That works for me...

Thanks again, you've been really helpful and I appreciate it!

 

[Linda Buquet]

If I search for "team canada womens roster" (without quotes), I find that I am on the 1st page of google. But it looks like Google found me because of the page title and the description. Are the keywords useful? I have several for this page including:

2010 olympic womens hockey
womens hockey roster
olympic canada womens roster

When I search for those terms in google, I don't find my site.

The keyword meta tag is not read by Google so does you no good. Doesn't hurt to leave keywords in, but the main things you will rank for are whatever KW are in the title. So if you want to try to rank for those other KW you'll need to write a post about each phrase and have it in the title and at least a couple times in the text content.

I found that my main keywords for the stuff I am selling to be "jerseys", and "apparel". I would assume that I would need to include these keywords in my title? For example "Team Canada Retro Style Jersey"?

Are you talking the title for the whole blog or just for a single page or post?

If those are the main keywords (for the site) then they need to be exactly like that in the title. Plural not singular if you know that's better. And my guess is that retro and style are wasted (unless you were talking about a product page for that specific style) So title could be:

"Team Canada Jerseys and Apparel" for home page if those are the main keywords you want to rank for.

Then an individual page could be "Team Canada Retro Style Jersey" but pay attention to plural usage and if the keywords you are trying to rank for is Jerseys plural it needs to be in the title as plural.

 

[Adammo]

Are you talking the title for the whole blog or just for a single page or post?

If those are the main keywords (for the site) then they need to be exactly like that in the title. Plural not singular if you know that's better. And my guess is that retro and style are wasted (unless you were talking about a product page for that specific style) So title could be:

"Team Canada Jerseys and Apparel" for home page if those are the main keywords you want to rank for.

Then an individual page could be "Team Canada Retro Style Jersey" but pay attention to plural usage and if the keywords you are trying to rank for is Jerseys plural it needs to be in the title as plural.

Hi Linda,

Thanks for the advice! To answer the above question, I meant for a specific post.

So for example, I would write a new post named "Team Canada Retro Jerseys" which would then show up with the title "Team Canada Retro Jerseys | Team Canada Hockey". I would then describe the product and reference both the affiliate link, and my static jersey page (named Jerseys).

Does that make sense and seem like a reasonable approach? I am finding right now that Google is fininding my posts faster than my pages, and since my products are only on pages right now I wanted a way to get my products into posts.

Hope that makes sense!

 

[Adammo]

One other thing I was thinking about. Can I add links to my main sites (1 branch higher representing pages) to the sites (post) being found in Google? Would that help get my page ranking up at all for my Pages?

Using my examples before, I can find "team canada womens roster" on Page 1, but "team canada womens" is on Page 3. Ideally i'd like to improve the "team canada women" search.

I am hoping that my site can be found as "team canada hockey" (the main search), so i've added anchor text to most of my posts and pages. Just curious if there are any other tips?

Thanks!

 

[djbaxter]

See http://affiliate-marketing-forums.5...optimization-tactic-low-high-competition.html

For lower competition search terms, optimizing on-page factors will often work well. For higher competition search terms, you need anchor text from incoming links. While all links "count", incoming links from external domains count more.

 

[Adammo]

Sorry, another stupid question...google is starting to pick up all of my posts which is great news, but still not having luck with my main niche search term (the site title). They have picked it up as teamcanadahockey (I assume from the URL string), but not with spaces.

Should I consider create a post with the title of my site? OR just see what happens in another week?

My main niche title was the reason for creating the website as that has more traffic than my sub-topics being picked up.

Thanks!

 

[djbaxter]

You are ranking for team canada hockey - see Results 1 - 6 of 6 for team canada hockey +teamcanadahockeysite.com - just not very well.

And, as we've said before, that's because you have a lot of competition for that phrase: Results 1 - 10 of about 16,500,000 for team canada hockey.

The only way to remedy this is to obtain backlinks to your site with the anchor text "team canada hockey". But consider whether you really want to do this... you're not selling team canada or team canada hockey - your selling merchandise and even there you are competing with the official Team Canada store. It seems to me you want to rank for specific items, not the general term.

 

[Adammo]

Thanks, great points. The reason I wanted to be found by that search term is because the numbers worked out really well when I first began looking for a niche. What I failed to realize at that time was that I couldn't really merchandise "team canada hockey". I had just hoped to get people into my site and make them think they need apparel.

There are numerous lowered numbered things I could do for sure...including the jerseys, and rosters posts. I have to wait a little more time for google to notice the jersey post though. So you think it is best to just promote the different products I have at my disposal?

Finally, do you mind me asking what numbers you feel are good numbers within google? If I begin looking for a niche I can make money from next time, i'd like to know a good target when I place the term in quotes.

Thanks again! Still learning

 

[djbaxter]

Thanks, great points. The reason I wanted to be found by that search term is because the numbers worked out really well when I first began looking for a niche. What I failed to realize at that time was that I couldn't really merchandise "team canada hockey". I had just hoped to get people into my site and make them think they need apparel.

But that's backward thinking, IMO. If people want to know about Team Canada, they're more likely to go to the official site.

If you are really passionate about this topic and want to become a center for Team Canada Hockey information, you are probably further ahead starting a forum where people can discuss news, scores, players, etc., and then use that to link to your products. If you want to try this out, there is some free software available (this forum uses vBulletin, which is not free) - the major ones are Simple Machines Forum or SMF, and phpBB. Of the two, you might be happier with SMF since phpBB tends to be targeted more by hackers, for various reasons.

There are numerous lowered numbered things I could do for sure...including the jerseys, and rosters posts. I have to wait a little more time for google to notice the jersey post though. So you think it is best to just promote the different products I have at my disposal?

yES.

Finally, do you mind me asking what numbers you feel are good numbers within google? If I begin looking for a niche I can make money from next time, i'd like to know a good target when I place the term in quotes.

I think other members here are more qualified to answer that than I am, although I suspect it's a relative/suibjective thing.

Thanks again! Still learning [/QUOTE]

 

[Adammo]

But that's backward thinking, IMO. If people want to know about Team Canada, they're more likely to go to the official site.

If you are really passionate about this topic and want to become a center for Team Canada Hockey information, you are probably further ahead starting a forum where people can discuss news, scores, players, etc., and then use that to link to your products. If you want to try this out, there is some free software available (this forum uses vBulletin, which is not free) - the major ones are Simple Machines Forum or SMF, and phpBB. Of the two, you might be happier with SMF since phpBB tends to be targeted more by hackers, for various reasons.

Oh I totally agree with you. My affiliate marketing journey began by looking how to start as a newbie. Tow of the general tips were:
a - write about something you enjoy
b - determine if you can monortarize your niche.

I first began looking at hockey before finding out that "team canada hockey" had great numbers. I thought of course I can make money from it from jersey and apparel sales. My thinking was if I write about Team Canada that it will drive sales, but looking back on things I probably should have just stuck with promoting products. Lesson learned for next time though .

So what I am trying to do now is improve my chances of getting this thing into more of a money-make so to speak. I know we talked earlier about making posts related to jerseys and wanted to get your opinion on something else.

I have found through some of the WordTracker and Market Samurai tools that "team canada jerseys", and "team canada apparel" still produce searches and I think I could get near the top of google for them. Should I just create two posts (1 jerseys and 1 apparel), or do you think I should split it up like we talked earlier (team canada retor jersey post, team canada olympic jersey post, team canada apparel t-shirt post, etc.)? I think it would be best to just include two posts as the terms are more SEO than terms like "team canada retro jersey".

Hope that makes sense!