Post Page Rank

Basic SEO Kung Fu for The Newbie by the Newbie:

** The following post has been inspired by a commenter by the name of Lloyd, a soliloquist blogger from Davao. Thank you for your comment Lloyd. This post is my response to the question he raised in my post “So This Is How It Feels Like: Page Rank 3“. I hope he finds this useful. **

Hi there! If you got to this post through a search in Google, please let me know by leaving your comments at the end of this post. I would appreciate it if you can tell me what keywords you typed as well. God knows I’m dying to hear that. And I’d faint instantly if I ever even see five, yes five comments confirming that. You see, more than anything known to me, I think this blog is more an experiment than an outlet of personal thoughts, opinions, reviews and frustrations. Of course, I’d like to believe that all I care about in terms of this blog is all the fun I get in telling “mini-stories” of my experiences that most likely don’t matter to a lot of people (heck, maybe even to me..lol) but subconsciously, I feel that I also blog to test myself and see if “an old dog really is incapable of learning new tricks”. For those of you still clueless as to what I’m implying about in this intro, this is what I mean: This blog, may well be an unconscious effort to learn search engine optimization (SEO) and how to increase page rank. And through no initial intention of my own, I have been blogging to see if I can do that. I have started from page rank zero to page rank 3 in three months and so it looks like I sound like some self-declared SEO kung-fu guru of sorts, but truth be told, I’m nowhere near that. And I’m even nowhere near anywhere with this blog, I think. :) So, while these tips may prove beneficial to a few, I’m sure there are more blogs out there with truckloads of authority, hundred thousands of RSS readers and thousands of Google Adsense earnings and online and offline feature stories under their belt who can teach you tried and tested SEO and page rank tips. The only question is whether these guys will tell you everything. Because, unlike before, blogging has become competitive as ever. And although millions of internet moolah are floating out there, any new blogger getting a nano-sized particle of that is still seen as threat by the big ones. And there is real threat, I tell you (though I’m sure it’ll not come from me..lol). After all, everything starts small. Google, Yahoo, even Microsoft started small.We all know their stories, right?

But okay, enough of that intro. The title of this blog, after all, is “SEO and Page Rank Tips from a Nobody“. I would have titled this “Search Engine Optimization and How To Increase Your Blog’s Page Rank Tips as Told by a Newbie Blogger“, but you probably know by now why I didn’t use that title. It is long and downright boring. It is almost a post in itself. And people don’t seem to like long titles specially when it comes to SEO and how to increase your page rank because we are all too busy to go through a long entry and long titles are like “long post ahead” warnings that we prefer to avoid and run away from. Busy, busy, busy, I know. So, let me just give you a rundown of what I plan to write in this post. I will write this in an FAQ-fashion and go straight to the point using bullets because ordered sentences are easier to understand. SEO and how to increase page rank tips works for standard static websites and blogs alike, but for the purpose of this post, I will speak of it in terms of blogging. Wouldn’t want to keep you waiting, so start doing some stretching and let’s do some SEO Kung Fu. Huzzah!

First, let’s define some terms/answer some FAQ’s:

*Note: These are my own definitions. If you want a more authoritative definition, I urge you to visit Wikipedia or your favorite SEO guru’s blog. :)

1. Why do SEO?

Because SEO alone can strategically skyrocket your blog/site to stardom! SEO and page rank are related in many ways. Search engine optimization or SEO means that you will design/configure/layout/engineer your blog such that it will appear in Google searches for certain keywords you assign to your posts. When you blog, you want your articles to be “found” by people. And people, specially those who do not know your exact URL (universal resource locator) aka “address” have no way of reaching your blog unless it appears on SERP’s (Search Engine Result Pages). And in which page of the SERP’s your blog will appear is determined by your page rank. So, these two are somewhat inextricably linked to each other.

2. Why want page rank?

Page rank or PR is your blog’s value on the web. As determined by Google’s algorithm, you can have a page rank anywhere from zero (0) up to ten (10) — the highest. It is determined by the number of “backlinks” or the number of sites linking out to your site. Google sees these links as those sites’ vote for your page. So, technically, the more backlinks you have, the higher the PR. Others claim that your page rank is also determined by the PR of the site linking out to yours. More of that on the following texts below.

DISCLAIMER: By the way, the following guidelines/tips is not an exhaustive list. I have written this post based on my experience, at least, those that I used and which obviously worked for me and got me a PR3 ranking from an ultra-low, entry-level PR of zero — nothing — nada. There are probably millions of other tips and tricks out there. Google has been my bestfriend in search. And I’m sure it’s yours too.

SO HOW EXACTLY DO WE “Search-Engine-Optimize” OUR BLOG?

1. Title Optimization. – Titles are the most ignored and most un-optimized part of a blog and yet it is probably the most important and has more weight in search engine searches. Optimize your titles. If you want your content to show up in searches for “recipes for diabetics”, start with an optimized title having similar keywords. For example, you may use “Top 100 Recipes for Diabetics” instead of “100 Dishes That Diabetics Will Love“. Sometimes, in our attempt for uniqueness or making a “catchy” or “sticky” title, we compromise title optimization. However, don’t overdo it as well. By doing so, you will sacrifice “uniqueness” for optimization. Know how to strike a balance between the two. Title-making for SEO is an art. Practice makes perfect. Did you notice how I attempted to do that for this blog? I titled this “SEO and Page Rank Tips from a Nobody” because I wanted this to show up in “seo tips” and “how to increase page rank” keywords. If I were all crazy about title optimization, I would have used a longer title like the one I mentioned on the introduction: “Search Engine Optimization and How To Increase Your Blog’s Page Rank Tips as Told by a Newbie Blogger” but doing that would hurt my originality and attempt for “uniqueness“. So I used the first one — shorter and sweeter but says the same thing. :)

2. Keyword Density.

Keyword density is another important factor in SEO. It refers to the number of times a search keyword appears on a certain page or site. The more instances of that keyword’s appearance on your site, the higher the chances of it appearing on SERP’s. Some people abuse this by embedding hidden keywords in their content in an attempt to fool Google. Unfortunately for them, Google people are all geniuses. They will know if you cheat and it will not remain unpunished. So, play nice with Google and it will reward you. For this post, again, as an example, notice how quite redundantly I’ve mentioned “SEO“, “search engine optimization“, “pr” and “page rank” in order to achieve higher keyword density. Notice also how I’ve mentioned the title of this post within the content area. Title and content matching reinforces SEO. This has a disadvantage though, which is obviously — a longer, redundant and boring post. So again, balance is the key here. I don’t normally write posts this long but this one is different because I am demonstrating a point, so i’m very sorry if this has now become utterly boring to you. :)

3. Search Engine – Friendly Permalinks

Permalinks are your posts’ direct URL on the web. If readers want to go to a specific post in your blog, they can type its permalink directly (that is, if they know the permalink). Permalink structure, in the case of blog posts, are customizable. In WordPress, for instance, you can set your permalink to show either a default WordPress generated address or set it to base the permalink on your post’s title. The latter is the best and most SEO-friendly choice. Remember title optimization? Add that to an optimized  permalink and you got yourself a “killer” combination. :)

4. Frequent and Regular Posting.

If you want Google to index your site more often, write regularly. Just that.

5. Automatic or Manual Pinging.

Whenever you update your blog, search engines don’t automatically go crazy and crawl your site. Google bots are very intuitive but they’re not God. If you want certain crawlers to know when you’ve just posted a new entry, you can either manually “ping” that site or include their “ping url” in your automatic ping settings. It can be found in WordPress, with Blogger, I’m not so sure.

6. Optimized Tagging

This is being taken for granted for so long. Proper, strategic and optimized tagging will work magic for your SEO. Matching your tags with your title and content will achieve SEO bliss for your blog. The next time you write a post, do not neglect tagging.

7. Content. Content. Content.

This one goes for both SEO and page rank.

There is no substitute for original content. Google does not like duplicate content. The higher the number of similar pages your site has or the higher number of sites having the exact same content as yours, the lower your PR (if any) will be and the more unlikely your content will turn up in SERP’s. Even if you own all the sites containing similar content, it will still hurt your PR. I have learned this the hard way. I was so eager to setup my self-hosted WordPress blog and I wanted to import content from my first blog hosted at Blogger. I could not delete my Blogger account since it’s the only SocialSpark approved blog I have at that time. The result, duplicate content for both blogs. I had no PR that entire time. A few months after, after my WordPress blog was approved by SocialSpark, I redirected My Cheap Thrills to A Day In The Life of RJ. A bit of tweaking transferred permalink identification/redirection, telling Google that I only had unique content for one unique blog. And a month after, the PR3 award. Bottomline, create unique content for all of your blogs.

8. If you are serious about your SEO Kung Fu, you must arm yourself with the necessary tools as well. I recommend the “SEO for Firefox” plugin. Using this plugin will highlight which links are “no followed”. This way, you’ll know if the blog you’re wasting your precious comments on are really “following” your link. The internet is full of treacherous people who will do anything to get traffic and comments. Others use the “no follow-free” banner/logo as a come on, but in reality doesn’t “follow” your link. So, be smart. :)

AND HOW DO I GENERATE/ACQUIRE/INCREASE PAGE RANK (PR)?

1. Page rank (PR) is all about links. Pretty much all of the internet is, anyway. So kids, what do you do to have more backlinks? You know what to do. Beg. Push. Bargain. Do whatever floats your boat. :)

Beg. – blog hop from one blog to another and leave messages to these blogs asking for a link exchange.

Push. – Have a network of or join an established network of bloggers, preferably in your own/same niche and exchange links with them.

Bargain. – Buy links. Yes, there are people who buy links. And yes, unfortunately, there are people who sell links.

Be Wonderful. – Now, this — this is pure genius. Be the most wonderful person you know and wait earnestly for people to link back to you. It’s the most difficult thing to do and it’s the one that takes the longest time. But when you do get links through this system, the links may stick there probably longer than your lifetime..and that’s not an exaggeration.

Be Interesting. – Make yourself or your blog for that matter, interesting enough for people to graciously link to you from either their posts or their blogroll.

2. Be on the hunt for blogs that advocate/promote/observe/use the uber-controversial “No Follow-Free” (others call it “do follow”) plugin just like this site. :) Every struggling new blogger knows how terribly difficult it is to get a backlink because not many people know you (unless you have lots of blogger friends before you started blogging..some people are just too lucky, don’t you think?).

This is where “effective” and “relevant” commenting comes in pretty handy and all-too-valuable for the new blogger, and also for relatively old ones. As you may have realized and read by now, “no blog is an island“. No matter how impersonal it appears on the exterior because bloggers seem to hide behind their keyboards, it is still a “social thing“. And the most effective and well-known bloggers are those who actually joined conferences and similar blogging events. That’s just how it is in life, even in blogging.  So, that said, it’s a must that you leave effective and relevant comments on other people’s blogs (specially the “no follow-free” ones because, it is in these blogs that your commenst actually count as significant votes/links to your site.) :) Need I mention that you should not spam and leave only sincere and well-thought comments? After all, it is still the blog owner’s prerogative to accept or remove your comments. So play nice, but don’t be butt-kissing either. Don’t go from blog to blog leaving “nice post”, “good post”, “good job” comments. It shows how hurried you are to leave. And it shows you might not have even bothered to read the post you’re commenting on. Furthermore, they make you sound so insincere. I mean, come on..you’re a blogger! Surely, you can do better than that.  :)

3. Join all the blog directories you can ever Google. All of them if possible. Blogcatalog, Blogarama..etc.

4. See if you can write guest posts for other blogs. It will give you a chance to link back to your own blog.

5. Join and be active in forums and set up your signature to show your site’s URL.

6. Join all the social networks / social media you can join.

7. Others say a backlink from a site with higher PR is more effective. It doesn’t matter. Links are links.

So, there you have it. Such a long post. And so, the experiment begins.

Everything you read is as I recall all that I’ve experienced and read about SEO. I will update this from time to time as additional info and lessons becomes available. This may or may not be gospel truth.

SEO is such a complex thing, otherwise, I wouldn’t even bother to write about it. People won’t bother Google-ing it. And SEO companies won’t flourish. So, if you find that your articles never seem to see the light of day in Google searches or that your PR has been zero for God knows how long already, let go of the frustration and don’t be too hard on yourself. “Every dog has its day.” And I’m sure that “every blog has its day” too. It’s only a matter of time.

I hope this helps any of you out there. If you have questions, let’s hear them. I’ll see if I can answer them. And please take it easy on the comments, I am, after all, a newbie. :) I don’t know a lot, but what little I know, I want to share.

Suggested Further Reading:

• The Invisible Blog
• How I Lost Weight
• How’s Your Blogging?