SEO, Links & Google?

[SimonC]

I have a personal blog website, the address is http://minibus.wordpress.com

I have purchased a domain name - http://www.minibus-blog.co.uk which I have pointed to the blog site.

My first question is this: if I start building links to http://www.minibus-blog.co.uk will they count toward Google Page Rank and my position in the search engines (bearing in mind this is only a redirected domain name to the wordpress.com address)?

Or do I need to get all the links straight to the wordpress.com address?

My mission is to get this blog on page one for minibus related keyphrases, it is just a sad personal quest (don't ask!) - can anyone give me some tips for doing this, I am familiar with a lot of SEO techniques, but all input is appreciated!

[Marco]

Sorry I can't help. I have yet to figure out google SEO. Yahoo is easier to rank on, but not as popular as google.

When you find out, please let me know.

[rob24hrsbiz]

Hi

Personally I would forget about SEO and concentrate on Human Visitors.

A tip..install the google tool bar and the yahoo tool bar THEN visit your own blog ;-)

You will be surprised, after a few days you will start getting traffic.

There are a few other tricks that work......

But write this across the top of your computer "it's about humans not SEO!"

Also make use of http://www.onlywire.com its free and will start the ball rolling.

I learned the hard way......SEO is dead, hence http://gurudoo.com/rep1/ my attempt at fighting back at the nonsense thats promulgated as "knowledge".

Good Luck

[seo4china]

Well, from a long time perspective it makes more sense to build your links toward your own site. Your blog may become big and you make consider one day hosting it yourself (in order to place ads on it for instance) and if you had been building links toward the public blog you will have to restart all over again.

Furthermore, the main advantage of having a public blog is that you will get free traffic from the users of this public blog at the first place ;-)

As of the user who pointed out that SEO is dead, well, I beg to differ, SEO has just begun. End of the nineties or early 2000 SEO cannot be compared to the industry today, now it is much tough to trick the engines and get sites ranked at the top of the search engines easily. Now only the best will survive, and with a booming online advertising market and internet defining the future, the need of knowledgeable SEOs firms and consultants will only continue to be stronger.

Patrick Abotsi
SEO Specialist in Shanghai, China
E-mail: seo@seo4china.com

[vicseo]

Even though you are aware of Google's Page Rank algorithm, have you reviewed search engine optimization (SEO) of your website which truly promotes your web business without spending loads of money to become a "Sponsored" advertiser. You are invited to read the following strategy.

With 85% of Internet surfers using search engines/directories such as Google, Yahoo or MSN to find goods and services, it is very important to promote one's website by first publishing one's domain named website on these major search directories. To publish your website's domain name for FREE at Google's search directory, visit "http://google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl" and fill-in the form. In another way, Google, Yahoo or MSN provide a Yellow Pages kind of advertisement for every website according to a set of ranking protocols. And there's where web designers and search engine optimizers play an critical role in marketing websites which in turn, display goods and services to be discovered [via search directories] by the rest of the world. The greater the appearance or presence that one's website can generate on search directories, the greater number of customers will accordingly visitor one's website.

As for the cost to market one's website via the Internet and more particularly -- search directories, will depend initially with the proper design of webpages and the proper placement of metatags which are: <Title>, <Description> and <Keywords>.

A searchable <Title> would be "[name of the goods/services - a generic domain name is okay unless you own a well-know brand], [city], [state - postal abbreviation]" -- up to 65 characters and spaces. The <Description> would be up to 20 words comprising a complete readable sentence which promotes interest in your business, i.e., "We sell quality _____ at a reasonable price, etc." And <keywords> would consist of 12-15 compound plural words separated by commas, i.e., "cars, planes, transportation, etc."

In conclusion, webpages can either be rather straightforward using only HTML text or be crafted totally as a graphic Flash configuration. Either way, care should be taken to complete the Properties entries for Title, Description and Keywords so that there is something that search robots can index. The more one is educated in crafting effective webpages along with metatag placement, the less will be spent to hire third-party consultants to assist you in this matter.

To demonstrate how search engines/directories work, go to Yahoo.com and type in the following search query: "pizza downtown los angeles." [Note: do not include the quotes (").] Again, this is a very generic query which means you want to order a "pizza" from "downtown" and in what city -- "Los Angeles." Sounds fairly simple and then hit Enter. In a moment or two, there will appear some 1.3 million search results and among the top Five rankings will be a business called "Pizza Next Door, etc." The significance of this demonstration is to illustrate that most Interest shoppers will discover "Pizza Next Door," forthright because of its high web presence and ranking within the Top Five. So these shoppers are more or less likely to patronize this pizza establishment and hopefully in the long term; validate the owner and his family as having a profitable Internet enterprise.

Good luck!

[SEOgirl]

You should not have your domain pointed to the WordPress domain. Search engines don't like redirection, and directory admins don't either. Since it is a personal quest, get a domain name from WordPress (15$ a year) and then the domain will not be pointed at your blog, it will be your blog domain. You can still keep your other domain pointed to your site, but don't have a redirect like that.

Then get all your links to that domain, and this domain will be the one to have all the Google PR. Make sure you install the Google toolbar so that you can see the Google PR of the directory you will submit to. Only submit to directories that have Google PR, or if they don't but are new directories. Since yours is a blog, you can submit to blog directories (do searches for blog directory / blog directories / submit blog and so on). There are many blog networking sites too. Have the word minibus in the title of your blog when you submit to these. Submit to directories for websites as well.

WordPress pretty much does the on-site meta tag stuff for you, just make sure you use the word minibus a lot. ;-)

I did a search for "minibus", there are lots of results. It will take some time. Oh and you are visiting forums too, good call!

Good luck!

ALSO:
Check out my site when you decide what domain you want to use, I can give some PR links to your site with anchor text minibus. Just post a comment on my blog with the domain and I'll hook you up. I love personal quests.

[kpraveenkumars]

Visit http://www.praveenkodur.com/blog and get to know more...

[Vin]

Google Page Rank and search rank are two different things. PR depends on number and quality of backlinks to your site. Coming first in the search results can be achieved by SEO. See :