Internal/External Links & SEO

bbam

Quick question folks..

WE're tweaking a new template for our website.. I've bee running some of the free SEO tools online to use as guidance.. But there is quite a degree of variance..
For example: some will label that all links are "external" which isnt true, while other will see 3 external links which is the right number..

Very few recognise our likes on facebook, one shows something like 4 likes, how can it show 4 when the number is over 200.

So as regards other SEO reports.. my current idea is working on the majority of advice rather than relying on one specific free seo tool.. Does this sound reasonable.. Or is there one golden standard tool people use ??

Its hard to know what actions wil help when one is working of conflicting reports.

And regarding internal links.. does it matter what format I enter internal links as so they are more widely recognised as only internal links ??

Peterdalkey

I only recently learned that FB blocks Google and other bots, so your likes do not count towards you SERP rankings. A lot of the SEO tools measure their own metrics, often nothing to do with Google algorithms methodology. Do not go mad on tools!
Make sure you have your tags and headers well named and decent high quality content, with both properly populated with your best industry/product/service specific words and keywords.

dgerryd

Internal links if done correctly can have a great affect to boost a site not just for one page but for many pages do a couple of searches for "website architecture" or "website silo structure" that should give you an insight into what to implement google gives weight to site structure, user experience, (how many clicks it takes to get to the next relevant piece of content) It lowers bounce rate which google likes.

jmcc

bbam wrote: »

And regarding internal links.. does it matter what format I enter internal links as so they are more widely recognised as only internal links ??

Some SEO tools will treat example.com and www.example.com as being two different sites. So if you have a mix of URLs then it will be misleading for them even if example.com and www.example.com are the same site.

Regards...jmcc

dgerryd

If you can at all stick to the www version of an url as that's what most people seem to use over the non www version so internal links are either going to be http://www.example.com or http://example.com. You should also have set canonical redirect to your chosen address to avoid duplicate content.

bbam

dgerryd wrote: »

If you can at all stick to the www version of an url as that's what most people seem to use over the non www version so internal links are either going to be http://www.example.com or http://example.com. You should also have set canonical redirect to your chosen address to avoid duplicate content.

That's already done..
If I type example.com or www.example.com, I end up on www.example.com.
I have used www.example.com all through the links in the site.
And SEO friendly links were enabled after loading our new theme..

I appreciate I'm probably not going to get onto first page ranking without professional seo help... but I was hoping to hit the top few..

dgerryd

Patience is everything once your doing things consistently all will come right for your rankings

M.T.D

Patience is good.
Unless you are in a competitive field where competing sites have been doing "promotion things" then a properly set up site with sufficient targeted content will eventually do well.
Many, I would even say most, websites are badly set up with insufficient content.
Check out your competing websites if your site is set up better than the competition and you have good content, then in time it will rank.

bizinchina

Here are some of the tools that use to help , Majesticseo.com shows your external link pattern (and your competitions links too wink) , serpfox.com I use to track the keywords of where our site ranks and our clients rank , aherfs.com and is very expensive but I feel it's more accurate and more up to date than the two I mentioned before , and web master tools does an ok job at showing your internal link pattern.

bbam

So just to feedback..

WE have three double-word terms where the bulk of our business is based..

First one we are ranking on page 6, up to this we were nowhere to be seen, now its still essentially nowhere but we're there so we can build on it.. it would account for 75% of business.

Second one we are no three on first page.

Third we are no four on fist page.

bdo

bbam wrote: »

So just to feedback..
WE have three double-word terms where the bulk of our business is based..

Are you looking at your (keyword) terms too narrowly? For a healthy flow of traffic from SEO, you need a much broader spread from a large number of (long-tail) keywords. It is too risky to rely on three double-word terms for 75% of your traffic.

If it was me, I would concentrate on doing lots of keyword research into the keyword universe that is used in your niche - and then generate lots of good content on the site focused to a much broader set of keywords

bizinchina

bdo wrote: »

Are you looking at your (keyword) terms too narrowly? For a healthy flow of traffic from SEO, you need a much broader spread from a large number of (long-tail) keywords. It is too risky to rely on three double-word terms for 75% of your traffic.

If it was me, I would concentrate on doing lots of keyword research into the keyword universe that is used in your niche - and then generate lots of good content on the site focused to a much broader set of keywords

Yeah I have to agree here , there is nothing wrong with have some focus keywords , but I would a content strategy with a lot of long tail and broad keyword phrases.

Using the new content to pass link juice and page rank to your focus pages. I would create some long tail keyword anchor text links in these new posts and create a natural link profile for your target keyword money page

blue4ever

bbam wrote: »

So just to feedback..

WE have three double-word terms where the bulk of our business is based..

First one we are ranking on page 6, up to this we were nowhere to be seen, now its still essentially nowhere but we're there so we can build on it.. it would account for 75% of business.

Second one we are no three on first page.

Third we are no four on fist page.

It's an obsession with specific keywords that can really screw you up, its in some ways ties your hands and, more importantly, your thinking - Google (+others) have semantics built into their algos - then you shouldn't be hung up on 'trophy words' - you should be obsessed with content - quality, varied and (if at all possible) unique

bbam

Thanks.. I'll look at broadening our net on that...

Just to throw out devils advocate on that though..

Say I sell "blue door widgets"
Now, there are only so many unique ways to talk about blue door widgets without also falling into the trap of just generating spam text for the sake of it.. Thats where the SEO pro's are required I suppose...

bdo

Put yourself in the customer's shoes.

They are not (always or only) thinking about "blue door widgets" when they are searching.

Instead, they are thinking about how a new door will benefit this house; should they choose a blue door instead of a red one; the cost of a new door versus staying with the old one; the best blue doors examples in the world; the benefits of metal door widgets vs plastic ones; can you buy blue door widgets in Donegal?; the different styles and types of new doors ........ and they are searching around for all this content.

But they will never come across your site ... because you only wrote content about "blue door widgets".

As a result, you've missed out on lots of potential prospects who are at an earlier stage of the buying process.

You need to stop thinking about what you are selling .... and start thinking more about what your buyer is buying.

tricky D

bdo wrote: »

Put yourself in the customer's shoes.

They are not (always or only) thinking about "blue door widgets" when they are searching.

Instead, they are thinking about how a new door will benefit this house; should they choose a blue door instead of a red one; the cost of a new door versus staying with the old one; the best blue doors examples in the world; the benefits of metal door widgets vs plastic ones; can you buy blue door widgets in Donegal?; the different styles and types of new doors ........ and they are searching around for all this content.

But they will never come across your site ... because you only wrote content about "blue door widgets".

As a result, you've missed out on lots of potential prospects who are at an earlier stage of the buying process.

You need to stop thinking about what you are selling .... and start thinking more about what your buyer is buying.

^^
Hummingbird = lower keyword emphasis, more scenario based terms.

(for operators who are paying attention)

bbam

Thanks guys..
We've implemented a blog section on the website and there we blog about subjects related to our products but not always the products themselves..

Its interesting working through the whole SEO process that goes on behing a really successful website - our plan is in the future to have professional SEO help, but for now funds don't facilitate this..