SEO help

[chili]

Hey brian,
Thanks for that, this is a nice forum, I've never used a vbulletin 3.0, hopefully it will become a very busy place soon.
I'm trying to optimize my site for the first time. This past week I added Meta data and Titles. For the first 2 years the site just had titles like this: company name- keyword phrase. I've been number 1 for that phrase for a long time but it doesn't bring in enough traffic. So, I dropped the company name all together and added more keywords. I'd like to try for #1 with "expired domains". From what I've seen it shouldn't be that difficult. The number 1 right now is PR5-6. I fully expect after the next update to be up there. I added some very good backlinks including a 7 and also finally got into Dmoz. But right now I get no traffic from that keyword.
As I see it, in order to get #1 its all about inbound links with "expired domains" as the anchor text.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Brian Turner]

Hi chilli, and apologies for the late reply. New baby, you see.

As for ranking on Google - be careful not to be lulled into a false sense of security. PR isn't the big deal it used to be - at the moment it's the number of IPs you can get links from that really count. So don;t worry so much about the number of links you can get from any particular site, as much as the number of different sites on different IP c-blocks that you can actually get linked from.

You also need to ensure that your links, where possible, use the keywords "expired domains". You could also "rough it up" a little and use keywords selectively, ie, "domains that have expired" and "new expired domains" as Google will still associate the main keywords together, and the linkage will look more natural.

The hard way to do it would be to set up a "webmasters resource" on your site - basically, a link exchange - there are some good tips here: link exchange.

You can also make sure that when you post in forums, you use the keywords in your signature link rather than just an URL. Sig links aren't worth that much - but every little helps. They are low PR, but if you post on a wide range of forums then you can get a wider range of IPs under your belt.

More ideally, though, you want to get lots of directory links - and I mean lots. There's a good starter list here: free directories. I note you said you got into DMOZ - but don;t forget to get a regional listing. Also note that PR itself is no good - where possible, get the dierctory links to include your keywords, ie: "reycled traffic: expired domains". That will help lots more.

If you want any more ideas for links, then call up the sites who are your main competition and check up on their backlinks - you can do this automatically from the Google toolbar, but if you don;t have it installed, merely type:

link:URL

where URL is the domain name with the www prefix (no http). This will show you the higher ranking pages that are supporting your competitors - check them out as there are often free opportunities to be had for free links from some of these backlink checks.

Of course, keep your on-page elements sound: you're doing the right thing by focussing on keywords in title, but meta-tags don't mean anything to Google. Do ensure you put the keywords about your page: especially in headings - I see you don;t have any, but I highly recommend that you creaet a <h1> tag title heading for your page, and then maybe on or two <h2> tags containing your keywords. And, of course, spread "expired domains" a couple of times in the body-text.

Anyway, see how all that goes - if you have any more problems, come back and ask and I'll see if I can;t help you rise up the rankings.

[chili]

Congrats on the new baby!
Thanks for the help.

[Brian Turner]

No problem - feel free to ask more questions.

[becki]

hi chili!