Using My Software to Determine Why a Site Ranks Poorly in Google

A reader left a couple of comments/questions to two of my Search Engine Optimization (SEO) articles over the weekend.

One was left to my post Don't Give a Hoot about Google Page Rank, commenting about Google Page Rank, Keyword Optimization Strategies, and Link Popularity as they relate to a site his father has that's not ranking too well for the keyword he wants it to.

His other comment was left to my post Search Engine Ranking Factors and is a little more mathematically oriented, asking about my opinion of Keyword Optimization and is it a multiplier or additive in the search engines.

So, Devin T.... thanks for the comments!

If you've read my more recent post dealing with SEO (which Devin has since he left his comments there), then you know that I've created a research and tracking tool that I use to help me with my own SEO. You also know that I'm working on a finished version of this tool to be released this summer as a product. What you may not know, is that if you're on my email subscription list, you'll have the opportunity to purchase this tool at a substantial discount a day or so before it's released: so, sign up to my subscription list using the form in the top right of this blog, or, at the end of each article.

I used this tool to do some analysis of the site Devin referred to: www.TheMonadnock.com to see if I could determine why it is not ranking well for the keyword monadnock, and what I think he can do to improve it. In case you didn't read his comments, Monadnock is a community or region in the state of New Hampshire.

Before I get too far into this, I want to be sure that I explain that in my post Don't Give a Hoot about Google Page Rank, I'm referring to your own Google PR, not the sites you get links from. The article in a nutshell says don't worry about trying to get your site's Google PR up, it's not all that important to ranking well in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). SERPs are the pages that you get back listing results when you perform a search. However, the Google PR of pages that link TO you can have a dramatic effect on your SERP ranking.

Here's what my tool tells me about Devin's site:

Right off the bat, I'm going to dismiss Devin's statement that the Google PR of his site is one of the issues, because there is another PR3 site in the top 7, and the #1 site is a PR0 site.

Keyword Count
What else do I see in these numbers? The keyword count is rather high at:

This shows 52 occurrences of monadnock, 8 in the head section and 44 in the body section. While this may not be a problem, it's drastically more than the top 7 sites. Yahoo likes this type of thing, which explains, or partly explains why he ranks higher in Yahoo. However Google probably see this as "Keyword Stuffing". I would attempt to reduce the number of times the keyword is used. But do it naturally. Don't delete it just to delete it. Your number one priority is to people, real humans, reading the site. If you can remove occurrences of the keyword and have easy to read sentences that make sense then do so, otherwise leave it alone.

Meta Data
Meta data is located in the head section of the html code and contains data that is not displayed on the page, things like page title, description, keyword, etc. The title on his page is very good; it's short and contains the keyword he is looking to optimize on. The description is also very good, again concise and containing the keyword(s). But, the keyword meta data is way too long. Some search engines don't use this field anymore, but, that does not mean that they don't read it and make some judgment calls like: "whoa dude, that's stuffed full".

Backlinks
Looking at the backlink counts reveals what is probably the main issue: lack of focused links. The data does not actually show lack of focus, just a lack of links. By focus, I mean what's in the anchor text (text that you actually click on) of the links pointing to the site. You want a lot of links pointing to your site that contain the keyword(s) you want to optimize for in the anchor text. How do you get these types of links? If you have a quality site, you'll get some links naturally over time as people find your site and link to you. You can write and submit articles to articles directories and include a link to your site in the "about the author" resource box that is usually at the end of articles, and finally (and fastest) you can use a service such as 3WayLinks that I highly recommend. I talk about 3WayLinks in an SEO Interview I did recently... more on that below.

Misc.
I don't have any data to back this up, but I would move the signup section off of the home page and have it on a separate page. You could list the membership level prices on the home page and link to a "checkout" page. From a layout point of view, I don't like it in the middle of the home page, but from a SEO standpoint I think those Paypal links may have an effect. But again, it's only a hunch; I have no data to back that up.

Multiplier vs. Additive
Is "Keyword Optimization" a multiplier or additive in the search engines? I don't know, probably additive. You can rank well for a term and not even have that term anywhere on your page (I talk about this in the Search Engine Ranking Factors post). But, overuse it and you will drop in ranking (at least on Google).

Summary:
Robert Phillips at CyberCashology interviewed me recently about SEO and you can purchase that interview off of his site here: Cutting Through the SEO Hype. It's a good resource, we talk for almost two hours on how I got this site ranking #1 for months (and at lease on the 1st page other times), and how I helped him with his SEO for his blog.

Devin,
I just gave you about $1000 (probably much more) worth of advice! Use it well! I didn't cover everything, but enough to make a difference.

Until next time,
Fred

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Posted by Fred on July 14, 2008 | Printer-Friendly

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Assigned Categories: Search Engines: SEO

Related Entries:

• Playing Chicken with Google
• Don't give a Hoot about Google Page Rank.
• Beyond SEO - The Tale of the Three Legged Dog
• Search Engine Ranking Factors
• What's the Value of a Link to SEO (Search Engine Optimization)?

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