Finding relevant links

[Jack_mcs]

Google made some changes last year that makes it more difficult for new sites to get indexed. One way around this is to get other sites to link to your site, either through link exchanges, link directories or paid for links. But you don't want just any link if you can help it. The links should be relevant to your product line and, in particular, to the keyword for the page you are targeting. This tip makes finding such relevant sites easier.

 

For example, if your keyword for a page on your site is "sour apples," then go to google (or your SE of choice) and type in

"sour apples" + link

That will give you a list of sites that use that keyword. You could use variations of it to get better results for link exchanges, like

"sour apples" + reciprocal

or

inanchor:"link exchange" "sour apples"

 

Once you have found the sites that are willing to exchange links, contact them and ask if they will excahnge links with you. Get a few hundred of such relevant links and google will probably take notice. If you are going to have such a link exchange program, you should consider installing the Links Manager contribution since it can be a nightmare doing so without it.

 

Jack

[Grimmyfrombar]

Google made some changes last year that makes it more difficult for new sites to get indexed. One way around this is to get other sites to link to your site, either through link exchanges, link directories or paid for links. But you don't want just any link if you can help it. The links should be relevant to your product line and, in particular, to the keyword for the page you are targeting. This tip makes finding such relevant sites easier.

 

For example, if your keyword for a page on your site is "sour apples," then go to google (or your SE of choice) and type inThat will give you a list of sites that use that keyword. You could use variations of it to get better results for link exchanges, likeor

 

Once you have found the sites that are willing to exchange links, contact them and ask if they will excahnge links with you. Get a few hundred of such relevant links and google will probably take notice. If you are going to have such a link exchange program, you should consider installing the Links Manager contribution since it can be a nightmare doing so without it.

 

Jack

 

Thanks for the tip Jack. Once again a very valuable post. Its people like you that make this forum so important and helpful to newbs.

 

So you need hundreds of links? I didnt realise it takes so many. Is it worth the work if your site is already indexed?

 

Thanks,

 

Lee.

[Jack_mcs]

The amount of links needed will vary with the links themselves. If you recevied just one link from google itself, then you probably would never need another link again. But my guess is that the possibility of that happening is rather small. Most sites you exchange links with will have a PR of 3 or less since, once a site gets above a 4, there is not much reason for the shop owner to exchange links. It takes more PR 3 links to get the same affect than PR 4 links, and more of those than PR 5. There is no set number on how many links are needed, but in my experience, you need around 50 before a PR of 3 appears and a few hundred to get a PR of 4. Remember, with google and SEO, the rules are vaugue and tend to change.

 

Jack

[kudviss]

Thanks Jack, could you advise us some tips for a new store owner what contributions should he install so that he will have best ranking and attract more visitors?

 

Thanks,

[kudviss]

One more question, why when I type my store's name on google i only see my conditions.php and shipping.php page instead of some other things that can attract visitors?

[onebrady]

Hey guys,

 

about contributions and only your conditions.php and shipping.php showing.

 

I would get the xml sitemap and submit it to google at https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/.

 

I would also install ultimate URLs and header tags. It is important to have unique titles for each page and URLs that are specific to the items that you have in your store example www.site.com/product-title.

 

I would also look to move your store to the root instead of www.site.com/catalog. This will help with SEO.

 

I also would get webCEO. It is free and can help a great deal in learning what needs attention on your site. Try and focus your homepage towards up to three key search terms and try to optimize it that way.

[Jack_mcs]

One more question, why when I type my store's name on google i only see my conditions.php and shipping.php page instead of some other things that can attract visitors?

Try typing in site:yourdomain.com. You probably have more than those two indexed. Although that could be correct if it is a new shop. It can take several months for your pages to be indexed. Providing a faster way to the pages will speed that up. You do that by installing

- google sitemap

- Dyanmic Sitemap

- All Products with Images

 

Jack

[ardley216]

a PR of 3 or less since, once a site gets above a 4, there is not much reason for the shop owner to exchange links. It takes more PR 3 links to get the same affect than PR 4 links, and more of those than PR 5. There is no set number on how many links are needed, but in my experience, you need around 50 before a PR of 3 appears and a few hundred to get a PR of 4

 

sorry jack could you explain what PR 3 4 5 and so on is... but thanks for the very good post!

[Guest]

Jack: You mentioned installing All Products with Images.

 

I looked at the contrib. The support thread/link mentioned in it is a dead link.

 

What does that do, exactly?

 

I have over 2700 items in my website, and growing. I'm picturing some ghastly page that tries to load all 2700 items at once.

 

Can someone direct me to a screenshot or...something? I'd like to know more about what that actually does.

[knott]

pr = page rank

 

page rank

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PageRank

[Jack_mcs]

sorry jack could you explain what PR 3 4 5 and so on is... but thanks for the very good post!

PR stands for Page Rank and is a measuring system google uses to help rank your site. Yahoo has one too but it is not as popular as google. PR goes from 0 to 10. As more sites link to your site, the PR goes up. PR is determined by the number of the links and the relevancy of those links to your site - nothing else. The higher the PR, the better your chances in the search engine listings. Google uses over 100 different factors to rank a site. PR is one of them and is rather low in the list. While it can be of some importance, it is not what one should focus on to improve a sites index position in the search engine listings.

 

Jack

[Jack_mcs]

Jack: You mentioned installing All Products with Images.

 

I looked at the contrib. The support thread/link mentioned in it is a dead link.

 

What does that do, exactly?

 

I have over 2700 items in my website, and growing. I'm picturing some ghastly page that tries to load all 2700 items at once.

 

Can someone direct me to a screenshot or...something? I'd like to know more about what that actually does.

The link number is valid but the url system was changed. Try here. This contribution lists the items on pages, which is one of the things that makes it more SE friendly.

 

Jack