Couple of questions about SEO

hi there,

I have a couple of questions about SEO.

I have recently carried out some optimisation for my homepage. I changed the title tag to keywords that I wanted to be found for, chaged the metadescription, and added a keyword rich (with the keywords from the title tag) to an H1 tag on the homepage. I also wrote a keyword rich paragraph, again with the target keywords from the title tag and the h1 tag.

I did all this work yesterday and tried searching on the keywords that I optimised for. I found that google had the homepage in its cached, with the new changes applied, so this would have appeared to have been indexed by google. However, the page still remains in the same position in the search rankings.

I therefore can't understand why the page, since being optimised, and indexed, has not improved position? Even though it has been cached, do I still need to wait before it changes position? (after all I only did the work yesterday).

The other question I would like to ask is that someone mentioned that you need to also submit sites and pages to 'Directories'. What are these and how does this help your optimisation. Also can anyone recommend any that I should try?

Thanks for your help.

Regards
benarnain

On-page work currently doesn't offer much extra ranking value in terms of Google. It's kind of like posting more and more awards on the wall behind your desk - they don't mean a thing until someone or something recommends you to someone else.

You need third party referrals.

The more "trusted" the source, the more benefit you will receive from it. Directories used to be an easy way to get these referrals (links), but no longer carry as much weight as they used to. You'll need quality links from "quality" sources.

These could be other sites that are industries related to yours, sites that feature articles about what it is you do (not sites that feature articles about every thing in the world... like ezine), suppliers websites, customer websites, local news outlets, etc.

So that's the easy part.... the hard part is actually getting the links. For that, think back to the networking classes you had in high school/college (if you had some), and think of it in much the same way - you scratch my back I'll scratch yours. You won't get these links for absolutely free unless you're just THAT amazing (and also assuming no one else is near as amazing as you are).

Hi jsteele823,

Thank you for your response.

I see what you are saying. So do I need to get the companies to link to my website using the keywords that I am emphasising? on my homepage So for example if I was a sports shop and my target keywords for my homepage were: Sports goods and sports equipment, would I need to get the external site anchor text in the like to be those exact keywords!!

If multiple sites are competing to get links for the same keyword, how do I compete?

So should I not bother at all about directories?

Thanks for your advice!!!

Benarnain

Keyword anchor text does help (not as much as it used to, but does quite a bit, still).

It multiple sites are competing - well that's why you have to be better than them or find alternate keywords to rank for. There's only 10 spots on the front page, and it's getting to where only 3 of those even matter.

I wouldn't necessarily say to ignore directories altogether. Some can still pass value. If your link goes up on a page that isn't indexed or has a couple hundred links already, then you're highly unlikely to get anything out of it. If, however, you can get on an indexed page that has relatively few outbound links, then it could help.

There are also niche-related directories out there that still provide great value - but they don't always exist in every niche, so you just have to look around.

I think jsteele has answered your question quite well but I thought I would share my thoughts on the matter still

I find that some directories still help with some sites (note the "some") but I wouldn't rely on just these for a link campaign because as said above they just cant cut it themselves these days!

I have a couple of sites (personal sites I dont do much with atm) ranked on page 1, which I have ONLY done directory submissions for and no other form of linking at all. So IMHO directories CAN still help with SOME sites but if this is a site you want to rank you will need to do other forms of linking too (the sites I have are personal sites which I dont do SEO for atm and only did some directory submissions to make sure they are used a little).

As mentioned above, articles are a good source for link building but... you NEED to find good sites to submit your articles to so you can get and KEEP a good strong link from your article. ezine is not the place for this so do some research on article/news sites about your niche and see if you can become a guest poster!

hi from one of your replies above that says about niche directories these have a list of some, not all of them work but some do and some are usefull it has benefited me for the sector i am in www. web-directories. ws/Niche/ ive put spaces in so just take them out they also have a list of general directories its a good starting point

Whats the keyword and what position are you in?

If its highly competative...then chances are you will not move up with just onpage optimization.

Not to mention you could have over-done the onpage stuff. From the description of the stuff you recently did...sounds like you stuffed it.

There's more to it than getting links

Yes links are an important element in driving ranks but not the only element. Equally divide your time between improving the user experience on your site and gaining quality links and you'll be glad you did.