What can I do to improve pagerank?

[HaLo2FrEeEk]

Ihave a Mod_Rewrite to change all the dynamic ?var=value links to "static" value.html pages.  This shoudl have helped, but I notice my pagerank is still really low.  I have keywords in my META, of course, and my pages are W3C compliant (HTML 4.01 Transitional [http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http://infectionist.com]), but still, it's too low.  The only way people can really find my site with a google search is through typing Infectionist (the name of the site, mine is the second or third result) or Clan Infectionist (the old name of the site, the first result).  I want little keywords to get picked up for categories, like for some sites there's the main link, then links underneath to show categories (roster, about us, download, etc.)  How would I go about doing this?  My site is generally conformed well, the title to news posts are linked, as well as clicking on the table itself (onmouseover javascript does that, hence the need for the link).  Same with podcasts.  Tutorials are all linked, and mod_rewritten.  I just want to have a good ranking site.

 

Can anyon help out a little?  Thank you.

[Johntron]

I would trying improving the semantics on your page. Start using <h1> through <h6> tags for titles of articles. Search engines will give the text inside of these tags more relevance (put the keywords you're trying to target in there). Make your <title> more relevant (again, keywords) Titles are the most relevant piece of text.

 

Make your banner more relevant as well. Try putting some text in a <h1> and maybe a subheading in a <h2>. You can use CSS to move these off screen so people don't see the text, and then put a background image in the parent element. Just make sure the text in the image matches the text in the heading tags; otherwise, Google might blacklist you for misleading HTML. See reviewanalyst.com as an example of this.

 

Also, try removing irrelevant content, if possible. Ideally, you'd have only relevant text, but obviously this isn't possible (navigation, attributions, etc). Be clean about it too. Search engines are very good about picking up on hacks.

 

Page weight. Search engines don't like waisting time. They're more apt to crawl your site if you reduce page weight. You have a lot of external files (CSS and Javascript). Combine these into one to cut down on load time. Get Firebug and Yslow to help improve here. Enable Gzip compression if you can (this has the added benefit of reducing bandwidth usage).

 

Sign up for Google Analytics, or something similar to help you track your traffic. Optimize pages to help users find the information they want, so when they do find your page, they're more likely to come back.

 

You could also use mod_rewrite and PHP to make your URLs themselves more relevant (use article titles in the urls). Make your URLs descriptive. If anything, users may see the raw URL lying around somewhere on the internet and click on it because they like what the URL says.

 

Other than that, keep creating relevant content, but most importantly, get external links that point to it.

 

Hope this helps!

[HaLo2FrEeEk]

It does, quite a bit.

 

Couple things.  I will be completely redoing the design soon (hopefully).  I have the design all made, I just need to php-ify it and make the header and footer files and just not be lazy =P.

 

I have gzip enabled on the server, and I do my best to make sure the images that ARE loaded, are small and non-obtrusive.  The new design is much better about images, most of the look is CSS, there are about 165 KB of images in total.  That will help, hopefully.  I don't really call to any external Javascript file, it's all on the same server, and it's used across multiple pages, I suppose I could build switches into the header to not load certain scripts on pages that don't need them (like the click counter is only needed on the news page, not the others).  The only other external Javascript that I call to is the Google Adsense, which is fast becoming a nuisance, truth be told.

 

And unfortunately, I don't really have any "articles", there are no permalinks to news posts, though I will probably add that with the new design.  I couldn't really make the url have an article title in it because...well, there are no articles, just small news snippets.

 

But I do get where you're coming from, I'll work on some things, try to just tidy up.  The code is 100% compliant and optimized to a point, but I'm sure I could do better.

 

Thank you for the help, I'll ask for more if I need it later, but you've given me quite a bit to chew on for now!

[sKunKbad]

You might have a duplicate content issue because claninfectionist.com and infectionist.com have the same content. You should redirect one to the other, and this might help out.

 

Also, you should make a list of the top 10 things that you would expect to be in the rankings for. Number one should be the title of your page, and be the H1 tag of your page. This specific keyword or phrase should be found in the content of your page as many times as possible without being annoying. After that, the other keywords or phrases on your list should be included in the content of your page in decreasing frequency to that of the main keyword/phrase.

 

You should use CSS to put non-relevant content, such as your menu, down at the bottom of the code. It will obviously still appear at the top of the page when viewed, but the code will be lower than the actual content. A search engine bot likes to see content first, and a menu isn't content.

 

You are using a table based layout, which can also slice and dice your content and put it in an order that is not necessarily the order that you would expect your page to be read by a search engine bot. Pretend for a minute that a search engine bot is a blind person who has a device that reads the screen content in the order that it appears in the code. Your code is nearly worthless. Remember that they want to see content organized like a report you did in high school. Title -> Header -> paragraph paragraph etc etc etc. If you turn off CSS, Javascript, Images, and Flash, what is left for your user to "see"?

 

Multiple word keywords in your META keywords tag should be enclosed in single quotes like ( one, 'two words', three)

 

Your META description tag is not nearly as descriptive as it should be. This should be more like a small paragraph, and not a short sentence.

 

The best thing you could do for yourself is learn CSS/XHTML design and keep the most important content as high up in the code as possible.

[HaLo2FrEeEk]

Wow, you actually took the time to look at my code.  That deserves a cookie.  Thank you for that.

 

Like I said, I'm sorta waiting to get the new layout up before I really go and change things inside and out, this old one will only be up a while longer, then new one's much better and more optimized.

 

The reason claninfectionist.com and infectionist.com are the same is because when I registered infectionist.com, I just changed the root folder to point to the same thing, that way I didn't have to reupload to a new folder.  I will set up claninfectionist.com as a redirect url in my host's web confiuration panel.  Here is what the new design will look like, more or less:

 

http://claninfectionist.com/images/misc/Infection_Finalized_H2F.png

 

And here is a screenshot of the page in html form:

 

http://claninfectionist.com/images/misc/newCI_preview.png

 

It looks like it's image-heavy, but it's really not, very few images, and the ones I do have are tiling so that don't take up much space.

 

I will keep in mind everything you've told me, though, it was fantastic advice.  Thank you!

[Johntron]

Use CSS clipping (similar to sprites) for the rounded corners to reduce page weight. There's a few web services to analyze the content of your website to give you an estimate of which keywords will appear most relevant from a spider's perspective. If you really want to build traffic, and not just rank for specific keywords, you should try out a keyword analysis tool. Take a look at textalyser.net and seobook.com.

 

Oh, and I'm not sure what your intentions are, but this may save you a headache. If you want to use Flash, be sure to offer an HTML version of the relevant content (text containing keywords and any links). Use progressive enhancement to replace the bland HTML with Flash, just make sure both versions of the content contain the same information (unless you like being wiped off the map by the likes of Google).

[HaLo2FrEeEk]

The only thing I offer flash for right now is my podcast player, it opens in a seperate window to play.

[scarhand]

i would say some of the most important things:

 

- url rewriting to display dynamic as static

- keywords in <title> tags

- keywords in <h1> tags

- backlinks backlinks backlinks

[HaLo2FrEeEk]

i would say some of the most important things:

 

- url rewriting to display dynamic as static

- keywords in <title> tags

- keywords in <h1> tags

- backlinks backlinks backlinks

 

- done

- I can't really do that, it's not set up for that

- I suppose I could use layers in CSS for that, I've just always hated H# tags

- what's a backlink?

[RalphOrange]

one way is getting backlinks from other websites. Reciprocal Linking is one way, writing articles is another.

[wrathican]

The H# tags are there for a reason. They show headings.

They are far more important than any other presentation tag.

if you dont like the look of the heading, you can always change it using CSS.

Search Enging Spiders don't 'see' your site so they dont know what colour/size/font you text is.

 

 

you can make a H# tag look any way you want.

[dropfaith]

with the right css h tags can display as normal tezxt you know just becuase they make the browser pull them up as higher relevance doesnt mean the display needs to show them as huge headings..

 

 

[TheFilmGod]

It's all about the back links. I created a website that has been optimized to practically it's limit. All relevant keywords are in the <title> <h1> and <h2>'s. I use pure css, no tables. Valid code... alt tags are even opimized. Literally, everthing that is SEO related, I did.

 

I am currently ranked 170th for the keywords I'm looking.... and it's because I don't have backlinks.

[wrathican]

with the right css h tags can display as normal tezxt you know just becuase they make the browser pull them up as higher relevance doesnt mean the display needs to show them as huge headings..

 

 

 

exactly what my point was. not sure if i made it

[rob123]

hello,

 

Google Page rank is based on back links. Back links are Links pointing to your website from another website. The more back links you have the higher your PR will be.

 

1. Join forums, forums are a great way to achieve links to your website. In most forums you are allowed to have a signature and in your signature you can put a link to your website. But another important note to look on is making sure the forum is somewhat related to your website. You will still get credit if it's not, but if it's related to your website than you will be accomplishing two tasks at once.

 

You will be advertising for your website (bringing in targeted traffic) You will also be building your websites presence.

 

Your websites presence is very important to your survival. The more people see, or hear about your website the more credibility you will have and this increases your chances of having these visitors come back and possibly become leads.

 

2. Submit to search engine directories. Search engine directories are a good way to get a free link to your website. They also increase your chances at being listed higher on popular search engines like Google, and overture.

 

Most search engine directories allow you to submit to their website for free. This will allow you to increase your web presence by being listed on another search engine, and it will also be a free link.

 

Remember the more links you have the higher your PR will be

 

3. Using ezine ads (or newsletters). Creating an ezine will probably be the most beneficial step you can take to increasing your web presence. When you create an ezine you will be able to keep visitors coming back to your website for more by using signatures and giving special deals.

 

Ezine's will also allow you to increase your back links. By creating an ezine you can submit your information about your ezine to an ezine directory. This directory will than link to your website(thus giving you a free link).

 

4. Creating and publishing articles. Articles are an easy source of generating new traffic. You can include your signature in your article. This will bring in more traffic from article submission directories.

 

Your signature usually consists of 4 to 8 lines. Usually the first line would be the title of the website that you are trying to advertise. The last line would be the link to the website and the lines in between these would be a sales pitch to draw your viewers into your website.

 

5. Links from related websites. Gaining links from related websites can be one of the most frustrating tasks you can attempt.

 

Thanks

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Outsourcing software development

[corbin]

And I now find my self wondering if he registered to post and get his 'backlink' here..... lol