Most Websites Are Structured Like The Image Above

Website silo architecture is the process of implementing a structure whereby each topic is housed in it’s own mini-site within the site and the internal linking pushes ranking factor back up to the primary / topic page otherwise dubbed the “silo landing page”.

While SEO is simpler than most so called “experts” imply, it’s like the difference between a short order cook and a chef, they both cook food and often use the same ingredients, but it’s how they use them that matters.

Similarly, when you dial in the appropriate on page and off page SEO using website silo architecture, then regardless of whether your website is aged or new, a website which previously had zero presence can instantly sprout wings and start ascending the SERPs (search engine result pages) to the top 5 results.

On the contrary, if your execution lacks the proper structure for the granular ingredients, then lackluster results are sure to follow. You have to (a) understand your topic (b) create a top down model (starting from broad phrases to specific categories and supporting content) and (c) put each thing in its proper place.

So, what is the proper way to structure a result-driven SEO campaign? Here’s our take on five fundamental methods which we have deemed evergreen SEO principles we’ve used for years to create proven results.

1. Proper Title and URL structure.
2. Proper H1 Use (to mirror title and URL).
3. Proper site structure (cascading tiers of relevance).
4. Theme relevant internal linking.
5. The proper amount of link flow (to reach and exceed the tipping point).

Proper Title and URL Structure

By using specific shingles (groups of words) in the title (with prominent keywords first) you send the strongest SEO signal to search engines (as they attempt to determine the topic of your page).

The more diffused (or verbose) a title is, the less effective it is for SEO. For example, if I am trying to rank for insurance rates, then those shingles should be the sole or primary page title as well as the URL structure should follow suit such as domain.com/insurance-rates/

While conversion cues must be balanced with SEO, it is possible to get the best of both worlds through using synonyms or plural variations in the title while keeping it succinct and relevant.

For example, a title such as -  Insurance Rates: Find the Best Rate at Affordable Prices (which also includes keywords like best, prices, rate and rates) in case consumers use a long-tail query, then your landing page can rank for all potential variations of any of the shingles.

Proper H1 Usage

Using the proper H1 tag (header tag) is a common tried and true SEO technique; if you use WordPress then your permalink (page title) can easily be switched to your H1 tag by simply changing your style sheet.

If you are using other CMS (content management systems) or static html pages, similarly, the suggestion to mirror your title and URL structure with the primary keyword is ideal. Such as the example above, the H1 tag should be “Insurance Rates”.

One little trick is, you can also make the H1 (Header Tag / Text) a link and link that either to the home page or pass that ranking factor on to another page you intend to rank. If you are properly theming your website using website silo architecture, then it is possible to feed the primary silo landing page from your category pages this way (to page rank flows up and back to the primary landing page) from nested pages that support the category.

Proper Site Structure

Think of your website in tiers, those tier represent the natural data hierarchy of your website. Starting with your home page (in the root folder), this is tier 1 and the starting point for your SEO.

The root folder is the natural destination for your most prominent pages and should house your primary landing pages in the first tier. This is because eventually, all the nested pages will pass their link-flow back to the root and you can scale laterally with multiple silo landing pages for competitive keywords and markets.

Here is a visual aid to assist provided by Network Empire.

Sample of Properly Siloed Website

Using the example from above, domain.com/insurance-rates  – would be my Silo Landing Page, i.e. the keyword I want to rank for. Now, by adding relevant categories and supporting articles, you can give any landing /silo page wings in the SERPs (search engine result pages).

Theme-Relevant Internal Linking

To implement theme-relevant internal linking, It is linked from my homepage with the keyword “insurance rates” as the anchor text to reinforce it. I would also use contextual anchor text links to any other silo landing pages that need tier one link flow to support them.

By writing a contextual article and linking to the silo landing pages from the homepage, any link juice my homepage receives, get ring-fenced and passed along to the on page editorial links (the silo landing pages / preferred keyword landing pages) by design.

The next tier is your category pages; these will become the hub page that sites on tier 2 one folder away from the root.

The category page and primary landing page share a similar URL structure, but the primary landing page is the grandparent and the category parent, next up the posts or supporting articles are the children of the parent/category page.

For example (to support my silo landing page, I would create a category called “affordable insurance rates” since it is thematically relevant to the silo landing page.

On that page, if I wanted to use the H1 tag to link back to the primary landing page with “insurance rates” it would pass along that link flow, when I add the tier 3 pages (blog posts/products or articles) depending on the type of site you are building.

Domain.com/insurance-rates/affordable-insurance-rates/ – whereby the silo landing page becomes the grandparent, the category the parent and the post/supporting article becomes the child.

The third tier would be used for adding supporting content under the nested theme relevant category which has the primary purpose of acting as a controlled portion of the website to administer all content that contains the primary or secondary keywords associated with the primary silo landing page.

Adding the Proper Amount of Link-Flow

Link flow is created from linking from page to page with the appropriate anchor text. Link-flow also takes the number of inbound and outbound links in addition to the strength and thematic relevance of the links. Siloing passes maximum link flow by capping contextual links (from only linking within the silo) and each page is linked via navigation by virtue of the category.

As an example, if I added supporting articles to the affordable insurance rates category they would also be theme related and contain a contextual link that linked back to my category page, which in turn links to my silo landing page (primary landing page in the root).

I would add pages like:

• Best insurance rates
• Save money on insurance
• Compare insurance rates

And each would become a post attached to the category, such as: domain.com/insurance-rates/affordable-insurance-rates/compare-insurance-rates

And have navigational links to everything in that category, while linking back to the silo landing page with the contextual keyword it is trying to rank for “insurance rates”.

The benefit to this type of siloing (using a helix link structure for the data hierarchy) is that the primary keyword (the most competitive phrase) gets ranked from the pooling link flow becoming buoyant underneath it and the category and supporting articles also get ranked as a side benefit (from the internal linking from the navigation).

To take this a step further, you can mix the anchor text shingles and link back to the category / or silo landing page with multiple anchors (to create keyword stemming).

Or, if you wanted to purely silo the page, then you would link in your navigation from the tier 3 pages back to your category page and use the contextual links from the nested supporting articles to link to the primary silo landing page (and not link across to other silos or silo landing pages from any category) only the parent or grandparent (Silo Landing Page).

Building sites in this method produce tectonic shifts in rankings, the only thing you need to is (a) continue to drip fresh content and (b) start link building using deep links to the silo landing page or the category pages.

There is no need to link to the supporting articles, unless you want to give them a boost, since, over time, they too will rank (from sharing the collective PageRank and link-flow of the theme cluster you created).

Website Silo Architecture SEO Tools Under Development

Siloing can be difficult, which is why to make this simple, this feature has been integrated into our upcoming theme WP Ultimate (which is still undergoing fine tuning). We will however, be releasing our plugin the WP Silo Importer that works in tandem with Domain Web Studio and allows you to build theme relevant optimized Wordpress sites in minutes (instead of painstakingly publishing dozens or hundreds of pages by hand).

In order to use the advanced silo importer, you will require a subscription to DWS. But we also have a basic silo importer inside “The WP Ultimate Theme“ that allows you to quickly and easily create categories and nested posts on the fly.

The advanced silo importer however is far superior and adds a parent silo landing page, ties the category (using a page not a post) to keep link flow buoyant (so your rankings stick) and then uses the posts as the last tier after the categories.

The WP Silo Importer Plugin (released within 7-10 days to the DWS community) also uses shortcode which you can inject into pages or sidebars to instantly build our all of the navigational elements for theming your content. Doing this by hand on a 100 page site would take hours, with our plugin, merely seconds.

So, the takeaway is, proper planning from theming the website at the beginning of a campaign, combined with tactful supporting content and site structure can save you months on the way to page one and allow you to rank for multiple keywords with 1/10th of the links as a mixed-fruit website.

-Jeffrey

Related Posts

1. SEO Video about Website Silo Architecture
2. How to Easily Create Silo Site Architecture
3. SEO Video: How to Properly Silo Your Website!
4. How to SEO Your Website
5. WordPress SEO Tip: Implementing Theming and Siloing

3 SEO Tools To Crush Your Competitors

Whether you are an agency (who has clients), an affiliate (looking to leverage your assets for maximum ROI) or a small business owner (trying to carve you own slice of  a market), these tools represent the pinnacle of market research, SEO implementation and syndication, allowing you to create an unfair advantage over your competition.

There are 3 videos below (each is over 1 hour) and shows you how to unleash the power of DWS (using data from the Krakken and Last Keyword Tool).  Consider them your training videos (after you sign up) and you can watch the layers unfold. Keep in mind, these offers will not last long, so take action or pay the full price later (you have been warned).

These are not common ideas or loose theory, they are methods we use to literally dominate search engines for competitive verticals for our clients and ourselves.

We start with the silo framework module and take keyword research and theme the website architecture, from there, we move on the the DNA braid and put together the on page and off page internal / backlink profile and see how steep the competition is, then we move to the third step in the Project Management Module and coordinate the team, structure the on-site content and then push the site live and start promoting it through the syndication blueprint. Trust me, give yourself a few hours, watch the videos and then get access to these tools before they go underground again.

The Silo Framework Module

To get the job done you need the right tools and having advanced SEO tools like DWS, Krakken and The Last Keyword Tool are critical for accessing intel that allow you to (1) assess your market (2) data mine competitors and (3) implement exclusive tactics from a vantage point that few competitors are privileged enough to observe.

Superior intel allows you to work smarter and identify weaknesses, overlooked niche phrases and markets that overlap on the way up the ladder to the more lucrative / crowning market-defining keywords.

But, if you didn’t know what those market defining phrases were, or whether or not those keywords have “actual” dollars attached to their rankings (once you reach the top 3 positions of the traffic band); then you could waste weeks, months or years of time chasing phantom-like silhouettes that merely deliver a fraction of the traffic you had over zealously anticipated.

Wasting time is not an option.  Insulate yourself from futility of targeting duds by using metrics like the Krakken’s Total Search Market Value (TSMV). TSMV is an assessment for each market that corresponds to a dollar figure based on organic and PPC ranking value.

This way, once you now where the money is, and whether or not there is commercial intent, you can tactfully implement website silo architecture to scale a plethora of lucrative keywords (like layers of an onion) through using one or multiple websites.

Using multiple properties allows you to liberate your revenue model from being overly dependent on any one property. To accomplish this feat, you need a solid strategy and system based repeatability that targets entire cluster of phrases, (The DNA Braid) vs. a few poultry keywords.

The DNA Braid Module

Would you rather rank for one keyword or rank for hundreds to thousands of keywords, that allow you to reach that “one” keyword faster while you enjoy the fruit of keyword stemming (ranking for stemmed variations) along the way?

Time is the real asset in SEO and the extent of the volume of work you can accomplish depends on the tools you have at your disposal, and the team that you have to implement those tactics; especially when it comes to SEO and competing in saturated markets.

To use an analogy, working with the wrong tools (against a seasoned competitor) is like bringing 3 men to a battle when your adversary has an army. No matter what strategy you implement (with those 3 men) their limited scope and resources will fall short when the numbers game creeps into the equation.

For a website to knock an authority site off the pedestal of the #1 position, it needs both (1) a foundation that is broad enough to support the ascent (by leveraging semantically structured supporting content) and (2) enough vertical milestones (categories and landing pages) to reach the apex for the primary phrase. This means for competitive markets, you may require thousands of pages (to support the mid tail and lucrative / competitive keywords) and dozens to hundreds of links to critical internal pages to reach the aggregate tipping point to reach the apex of a market.

But also keep in mind, that for every primary keyword, there are dozens of mid-tail and long-tail keywords that are equally as lucrative (if you devour the entire market along the way).

The Project Management Module

To create websites and manage the process (using clusters and co-occurrence), you need a scalable system that allows you to (a) identify keyword and markets (b) model data, cost, time management and resources and calculate ROI from click through rates, time to rank, the volume of content and internal links required per keyword or the number of deep links you will need (that was our proprietary algorithm and you can see it work in Video 1 on the silo framework module above) – that is the power of DWS, Krakken and The Last Keyword Tool; that is the collective suite known as Network Empire.

The volume and extent of the work you execute depends on the system and tools you have at your disposal, especially when SEO and competitive saturated markets are the battleground.

Working with advanced SEO tools allows you to plan your roll-out with more depth, a more robust array of theme relevant supporting articles, categories and landing pages and allows you to work smarter and not harder when chipping away at market defining phrases.

I have had the distinct honor of working with some of the most brilliant minds (the team from Themezoom) over the past 5 years and I can assure you that there are only a handful of people who understand and implement SEO on this level.

While this was our best kept secret for years “The Krakken”, now it is time to borrow a phrase from Hades from Clash of the Titans and “Release the Krakken”!

This suite will allow you to walk into a market cold and within 20 minutes have the creamy keywords that float to the top in which to base your existing legacy site (by breathing life into it with a new blog) or start anew and scale the market in a fraction of the time.

If you are struggling to find theme relevant keywords (based on sophisticated information retrieval algorithms such as sparse matrix clustering, co-occurrence, Bayes, PaIR, LSI and semantic connectivity) then the Krakken (which drills into 60-90,000 keywords in under 5 minutes) only brings you back phrases which are (1) theme relevant to the parent cluster (original keyword) and (2) either have organic search value or PPC search value.

When you continue to refine, add synonyms and keep drilling, you end up with the perfect blueprint (like a skeleton) in which to build out your website into a robust authority site or niche specific entity.

This means that if you include these phrases (in their respective website silo architecture) then the entire cluster gets devoured and you rank for more keywords with fewer inbound links (since your own website becomes its own PageRank and link-flow spewing, top 10 ranking juggernaut).

Keep in mind that the Krakken transcends ordinary keyword research and uses the same type of natural data hierarchy information retrieval structures (such as Google, Yahoo and Bing) use to ascertain relevance.

In short, a blueprint from the Krakken is like mirroring the ideal on page SEO elements, synonyms and synonymic sets search engines grade relevance score with as a conditional metric when analyzing authoritative websites and sorting the wheat from the chaff for positioning.

Rarely would I share the exact tools we use to inspect, enter and dominate markets, but in the spirit of the New Year I do have one special offer I have been permitted to pass along (for a very limited time) to all of you who either get our email / blog posts, read whitepapers and updates from our plugin SEO Ultimate or know who we are and what we do.

In this special offer you get the opportunity to (1) unleash the Krakken in your market (2) it’s powerful and quite formidable little brother “The Last Keyword Tool” and (3) the DWS (Domain Web Studio) the most powerful SEO management suite ever conceived for:

a) mapping out markets

b) creating properly themed websites with silo site architecture

c) managing all elements of the campaign from outsourcing content creation, project management, web development and SEO tasks and most importantly

d) having a syndication blueprint that creates a timeline for every keyword, assesses its cost, time to rank, ROI and even lets you know how to cross the tipping-point with every keyword in a blueprint.

Put simply, this bundle is a must! We have paid $12,000 a year just to use the Krakken, in this offer, you will have to click and see for yourself the savings you can receive.

Do yourself a favor; you can win the battle before you even step on the field. I speak from experience on this one, we can do more in less time and completely crush seasoned competitors (such as brands, Wikipedia results, Amazon, Target, Wal-mart and other “strong sites”) using the formula’s developed from building sites (and links) in tandem with a search engines natural data hierarchy – and that is what you will learn from using this suite .

In essence, Network Empire silently slays competitors and uses unstoppable algorithms (that search engines love and reward), and now, for a limited time you can save hundreds by following this link and getting your subscription for a hefty discount.

In closing, for those naysayers, here are links to an exclusive webinar on the DWS 3.5 launch and other videos on the Krakken and The Last Keyword Tool.

This is not a marketing ploy; this is a special offer with bona fide savings for those of you who are serious about dominating your market. This offer will not last and will be pulled in the next 24-48 hours. Act now, or pay full price later. I leave the rest to you…

-Jeffrey

Related Posts

1. Domain Web Studio 3.0: SEO Tools for SERIOUS Online Marketing!
2. The Last Keyword Tool You’ll Ever Need
3. 4 Indispensable “SEO TOOLS” for Competitive Research
4. SEO Marketing Analysis: How to Gauge The Competition
5. Real SEO Tools, Serious Results!

Take WordPress and Rankings to a Higher Level with SEO Ultimate.

Global Link Mask Admin Interface

The Link Mask Generator module, which first came out almost exactly a year ago, has been overhauled with a brand new administration interface that lets you create link masks that apply globally across your entire WordPress-powered website.

As in previous versions of SEO Ultimate, Link Mask Generator scans your posts for links and gives you the option of generating an alternate URL that redirects to the “real” URL.

For example, if your post contains a link to www.amazon.com, you can use Link Mask Generator to change that link URL to www.your-website.tld/go/amazon/. When your visitors click the link to go to www.your-website.tld/go/amazon/, they are seamlessly redirected to the original URL at www.amazon.com.

Link masking has two benefits: First, it lets you replace lengthy affiliate URLs with short, clean, internal URL masks (using 301 redirects, which have no search engine penalty). Second, Link Mask Generator automatically generates robots.txt rules that disallow your masked URLs, effectively neutering the juice-flow of the link, without resorting to the rel nofollow attribute. This combination makes Link Mask Generator a perfect tool for affiliate marketers.

The latest releases of SEO Ultimate expand on this existing functionality by adding a new global interface which lets you see all your link masks in one place and which lets you apply a link mask globally instead of just to one post as before.

Just go to the new “Link Mask Generator” menu item under SEO Ultimate’s “SEO” menu in your WordPresss admin to view and edit the alias list. The alias table includes a field for the actual URL (e.g. www.amazon.com), a field for the alias URL (e.g. /go/amazon/), a “test” link that lets you check that the alias URL is working, and an optional “Only on This Post” field that lets you limit the application of the link mask to a specific post (thereby emulating the functionality of the previous version of Link Mask Generator).

If you have an affiliate URL that you use in multiple posts across your entire site, the new version of Link Mask Generator lets you mask all instances of that URL in one fell swoop.

Deeplink Juggernaut & Link Mask Generator Integration

One of the great things about having all your SEO features in one plugin is that the modules can integrate with each other. Deeplink Juggernaut and Link Mask Generator can now work together starting with SEO Ultimate 7.1, allowing you to use link masks as autolinking destinations in Deeplink Juggernaut.

Let’s say you’ve already used Link Mask Generator to mask all your www.amazon.com links with internal /go/amazon/ URLs. Now let’s say you want to autolink all instances of the word “Amazon” to your new /go/amazon/ URL. Just go to the “Add a New Link” section of the “Content Links” tab of Deeplink Juggernaut, type “Amazon” in the “Anchor Text” box, and type “amazon” in the “Destination” box. Then click the /go/amazon/ item that appears in the dropdown beneath the “Destination” box. Then just click Save Changes to add the new autolink.

Now all instances of the word “Amazon” (in our example) will autolink to http://www.your-website.tld/go/amazon/. When a visitor clicks the link, he or she will be silently redirected to the original URL at www.amazon.com.

This conjunction of Deeplink Juggernaut and Link Mask Generator functionality is a perfect combo for affiliate marketers looking to autolink all instances of a relevant keyword to a masked affiliate URL.

More Features, Changes, & Fixes

Those 2 features are the headline additions to the latest versions of SEO Ultimate, but there’s even more worth mentioning:

• Permalink Tweaker now includes a new setting that lets you handle URL conflicts between pages and categories/tags that can arise when you use Permalink Tweaker to remove category/tag URL bases. For example, if you have a category called “Blue Widgets” and a page called “Blue Widgets,” and if you have configured Permalink Tweaker to remove the /category/ portion of your categories’ URLs, then both the page and the category will have the URL of http://www.your-website.tld/blue-widgets/. As of SEO Ultimate 7.2, Permalink Tweaker includes a new “URL Conflict Resolution” setting that lets you choose whether the category or the page should get the URL in case of a conflict.
• In previous versions of SEO Ultimate, modules had multiple help dropdowns (in the upper-right-hand corner of the module admin pages) containing module documentation, such as “Overview,” “FAQ,” “Troubleshooting,” etc. As of version 7.0 and later, SEO Ultimate now uses the new help system of WordPress 3.3 that places all these documentation sections into a single “Help” dropdown with multiple tabs.
• Deeplink Juggernaut’s “Tag Restrictions” setting should now handle nested tags with aplomb. If you’ve configured Deeplink Juggernaut to refrain from autolinking within <h3> tags, for example, this setting will now take effect even if that <h3> tag has a nested <span> tag or <br /> tag. If this bug has been giving you trouble, upgrade to SEO Ultimate 7.2.1 or later and let us know whether the fix is working for you.
• Meta Description Editor now lets you differentiate your meta descriptions on paginated subpages of categories, tags, and pages. For example, you can use Meta Description Editor to automatically tack on “Page 2″ to the end of the meta description of page 2 of a category archive. This new feature helps avoid “duplicate meta description” errors in Google Webmaster Tools.

Download version 7.2.1 today to enjoy the new features and multiple enhancements. If you’re already one of the thousands who use SEO Ultimate, you can upgrade for free via your WordPress plugin admin section. If you’re a new user who’d like to take advantage of this powerful free plugin, you can download it from WordPress.org or search for “SEO Ultimate” on your blog’s plugin install screen.

Also, you can view or download All of SEO Ultimate’s Features by right-clicking and saving this convenient PDF file (The SEO Ultimate Feature List).

Related Posts

1. SEO Ultimate WordPress SEO Plugin Version 2.9.1 Released
2. SEO Ultimate WordPress SEO Plugin Version 5.7 Released!
3. SEO Ultimate WordPress SEO Plugin Version 4.8 Released!
4. SEO Ultimate All In One WordPress Plugin Version 0.4 Released
5. SEO Ultimate All-In-One WordPress SEO Plugin Version 0.2 Released

The WP Ultimate Theme: So Powerful, It Should Have Its Own Cape!

Our objective is simple, to provide users with fine-grained control over multiple on page settings (such as nearly instantaneous site architecture injection, custom navigation options, multiple layout and theme choices, breadcrumbs, internal links, widgets, typography controls and more) for the optimal WordPress SEO framework.

Rather than spill the beans now, I will be posting sneak previews of the features as well as preparing some unique use-case examples of how to leverage the power of WP and SEO Ultimate in tandem.

If you know us by now, you know that SEO Design Solutions is not about shallow or flimsy SEO tactics or tools; everything we do is cutting-edge and is founded on years of battle tested tactics that dominate search engines and produce real-world results by their very design.

WP Ultimate is no different – there simply isn’t anything like it as a WordPress framework (more on that later) and this is not to knock the competition.

Stay tuned for videos, strategies and more from our upcoming product launch (which will change the way you think about SEO Themes for WordPress once and for all).

The countdown for the launch is scheduled for  1-2-2012

Until the next post…

-Jeffrey

Related Posts

1. Sneak Peak of The WP Ultimate Theme by SEO Design Solutions™
2. WP Ultimate Theme Underway by SEO Design Solutions
3. SEO Ultimate WordPress SEO Plugin Version 4.8 Released!
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5. Introducing – The SEO Basics Optimized WordPress Theme!

Aside from the glaring monetization prowess of “The Digital Juggernaut” known as Google, just remember “your clicks equate to revenue”.

Let’s take a peek behind the numbers from Google’s 2010 profits to answer any questions about how profitable search as a viable business model is.

From: BusinessMBA.org

From Humble Beginnings to Market Dominance

Who would have thought that two college students (Sergey Brin and Larry Page) attending Stanford University 14 years ago would create a content-devouring search engine that re-purposes crawled content (yours and mine) and then makes (others) competitors or yourself bid on related keywords using display / pay per click (PPC) advertising or SEO in the interests of commercial intent / “relevance” would grow to such epic proportions.

Fact: “88% of online search dollars are spent on paid results, even though 85% of searchers click on organic results”

- Vanessa Fox, “Marketing in the Age of Google”, May 3, 2010.

In closing, I believe Google is one of the most brilliant and profitable websites (that wrapped an empire around itself) ever created. But the double edge sword is, Google also has their own agenda!

At the end of the day, what will they do with their power and wealth to make the world a better place?

With power comes responsibility and while Google has an 80% stake in search / market share, perhaps Google could think less about “making others conform to their terms of service” or “penalizing them” if they fail to comply and more about giving back to those whose content they are overtly “borrowing” and leveraging for the sake of profit.

And a profitable market it is indeed, as we can see above… Share your thoughts below or pass this along to others if you enjoyed it.

-Jeffrey

Related Posts

1. CTR Stats to Change Due to Google Instant
2. CTR Stats to Change Due to Google Instant
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5. Keyword Research: Find Profitable Keywords using Related Search

Where is the SEO Backlink Tipping Point?

Based on our heuristic testing, absolutely!  Just like wine, links get stronger with age – if they are supported by (a) sufficient internal links within the site linking out or (b) have deep links from other websites augmenting them.

If properly augmented, then those pages become hub pages (pages with trust and ranking factor) which can rank additional spokes (pages) on the wheel via links.

Internal page augmentation can be as simple as using an RSS feed, syndicating a page and providing a link back to the published page.

Do this with 5 RSS aggregators and you could get 5 backlinks for every page or post you create. Do this with hundreds of RSS aggregators or syndication sources and you can get hundreds of links per day (just from adding one page of content).

This method is easy to implement with WordPress (if you have a content development strategy in place) to drip fresh content.

Each new page or post published represents another opportunity to leverage and syndicate that content (to build links back to the original page) which can eventually sprout PageRank and pass ranking factor to your preferred landing pages.

Those link-rich hub pages also double as places to build solid secondary navigation or internal links to your commercial landing pages or other hub pages in your website to enhance search engine positioning.

Link Signals

One often overlooked aspect of search engine optimization is that search engines are programmed to suppress new link signals (for passing ranking factor) until they pass a certain criteria of trust.

The link/trust threshold  is the secret sauce known only by a select group of developers from Google, Yahoo and Bing. The prime directive of this filter to keep their search engine indices less polluted (from aggressive link building tactics).

The good news is, if you are building links properly, you can get past this filter by layering permanent one way links strategically over time.

I have witnessed:

• the first phase at approximately 10-14 days (to sprout a ranking from inbound links)
• the second phase of a the link /trust cycle is estimated at 40-45 days
• the third phase in the link-flow cycle typically occurs in the 90-120 day range and
• the fourth phase occurs after 6-8 months – and continues to pass more value as time progresses.

After the 8 month threshold, a backlink is stable and well on it’s way to gaining trust and passing along its total link flow to the target site. This suggests that as links age, they pass more ranking factor.

The three primary factors that impact this algorithm are  (1) the age/time of the link and (2) the relevancy of the link and (3) page strength as determined by the number of inbound / outbound links on the page providing the link.

As an aspect of link velocity, the rate in which you gain and / or lose inbound links impacts a website, but also, the age (as mentioned above) dramatically impacts ranking.

We can speculate the reason for this, but rather than look at the nuts and bolts of the algo, simply think like a developer and put yourself in the shoes of the programmers crafting the coding symphony known as Google’s search algorithm.

How would you keep new links from being disruptive (if automated or otherwise) if they passed 100% ranking factor out of the gate? This would be an open invitation for automation (which could easily skew search engine result page results) from a barrage or spike of links.

Factoring The Link Grandfather Effect

The answer to this quandary, merely think of it as an algorithmic link-throttle that essentially limits how much link-juice links produce based on specific thresholds.

Put simply, as links age, they pass more trust, trust translates into (a) PageRank (b) link-flow which in turn pass ranking factor along the link graph to the target page (which eventually becomes more buoyant (until it collides with the next page above it who has more relevance score) and then subsides in the search engine result pages.

Aside from the off page inbound links, their age and relevancy,  typically on page factors or the degree of your on page efficiency determines how many off page inbound links are required to cross the tipping point.

Each website varies based on the competition in the marketplace, the on site architecture, the volume and integrity of the internal links, the age of the site, how each page is fed in the hierarchy and how many shingles (supporting keyword occurrences) or internal links based on semantic overlap are present.

So, if you understand that it’s not always backlinks that push rankings higher, it’s capping link-loss and trust from the pre-existing inbound links or strong internal pages getting more link-flow and pushing it to the appropriate silo (preferred landing page) of the semantic theme that make this a powerful on page and off page SEO combination.

One quick way to give your rankings a boost is (a) build links to your links or (b) go back to published URL’s and syndicate them across multiple feeds (to get more page level citation) which in turn translates into buoyant rankings.

The takeaway here is (1) use content syndication and aggregators to steadily build a stream of inbound deep links to internal pages and (2) use the collective link-weight they produce to rank multiple semantic themes within your website.

-Jeffrey

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Gain Access to the Vault!

For a brief history lesson, Michael Campbell is a man who has been silently slaying markets online since 1988 and is either innovating evergreen methods (from revenge of the mininet) which now applies to social media and web 2.0 properties (whereas previously it applied to how to create your own network of sites to dominate search engines) or raking in 6 to 7 figures yearly from their application.

In either case, the information provided inside “The Vault” is nothing less than battle tested methods and strategies that you can use to monetize websites, CPA offers and conversion tactics, such as his free report / whitepaper on 9 proven templates, their ideal ad and content placement and which positions earned the highest click through rates using heat maps and statistical test data conducted over a 6 month sample set for the data.

You can Download >>>The Ultimate HeatMap Report<<< here – but to truly gain access to over 150 hours of podcasts, conversion tests, strategies, hardcore / real world tactics that you can put to work – spend the money (aff link) to become a member.

It’s a one-time fee you won’t regret, and quite simply, you won’t find information like this floating around the web, since people typically keep this stuff close to the chest (and behind closed doors).

Fortunately, Michael is generous and truly enjoys giving back to others. Don’t take my word for it, check it out for yourself and you be the judge there are dozens of hour-long podcasts, useful guides and more inside the vault!

Hope to see you on the inside and this truly is one tool in your internet marketing arsenal you can leverage time and time again.

Enjoy!

-Jeffrey

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2. Are Personalized Results The Future of Search and Social Media?
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5. A/B Split Testing Concludes Higher Social Media Engagement on Sphinn for Shorter Posts

Should You Obfuscate Your Links?

In this context, the pattern is anchor text obviousness (linking to a page with the same anchor text with minimal variation). Failure to add variety to inbound or internal anchor text (links) can lead to over optimization as a result of link velocity and how people link from the web.

For example, if a large percentage of your backlinks are all from similar IP sources, have appeared in clusters in a timeline that seems (to good to be true), then chances are they could leave a trail that suggests that some type of intentional promotion / link building being done.

While it is no surprise (as a capitalistic system denotes) competition can bring out the best and the worst of us. While the moral climate of promotion is questionable, it all boils down to intent. The quandary about link building (between Google and SEO) is based on the intent of the link.

Their argument is, are you linking to other websites because you want to share a resource or because someone is paying you to do so? While their position on links is clear, expecting the web to conform is highly unlikely (considering what is at stake) high rankings and traffic for positions above the fold for businesses who bag the best links with ideal anchor text.

Considering that links were around before search engines and links are the only thing allowing you to move from page to page and website to website about the web only validates their importance. Your interpretation of link building should be (links come in various types but if used in the right context, each type has a place) if you are using a tiered approach (to deep to discuss in this brief post).

Implementing Shingle Diversity

While there are no absolutes, merely consider these suggestions ideal guidelines for building a more robust and / or natural link profile.

• Use the domain name or website address  in 10% of inbound links (ideally to the homepage)
• Use the primary shingle “exact match” keyword to a preferred silo landing page (a page built specifically for that keyword” approximately 35% of the time while keeping link velocity in mind (not building or losing links too fast) while linking to it from the homepage or other strong navigational or silo landing pages from “contextual links”.
• Use an alternative variations 15% of the time (to mix up the natural inbound link diversity) such as juxtaposed shingles, or synonyms mixed with the primary keyword.
• Use long tail variations 20% of the time (whereby the keyword is surrounded by the primary keyword and / or additional modifiers either before or after the shingles.
• Use the plural variation 20% of the time (building both singular and plural variations ensures you rank for both).

Also remember, the same applies for internal links, except for the diversity should be less, but still incorporate a variety of shingles, depending on the method you are utilizing. For example, in order to boost one keyword, then:

• Build the same anchor text shingle (group of words) to the primary landing page from within the site.

To make the page rank for additional keyword variations / keyword queries (that either appear on the page or are linked form pages designed to rank for those shingles) which are in essence “passing along” their link-flow and authority to the target page. For that method of on page / off page SEO ratios use:

• Use a mixed ratio of primary internal links to the target / preferred landing page
• Use a mixed ratio of off page inbound links to make the page rank for the spread of aggregate links in the anchor text.

The extent of the result depends on (a) competitors (b) domain and page strength (c) trust passed from the citation of the collective links and (d) the percentage of on page and off page inbound links to a page.

The takeaway here is diversity is the spice of life, and also applies when building internal or inbound back links. So, mix it up (your anchor text) to get past stale rankings and strengthen the link profile of your websites. Ultimately the ratios are up to you, but at least you have a method to fall back for a skeleton when it comes to shingle usage and links (either internal or inbound).

-Jeffrey

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3. SEO Tips to Create Backlinks using RSS Feeds
4. Why Forward Linking is as Important as Backlinks
5. SEO and Internal Links: Building Internal Link Volume

Which Links Pass the Most Link-Flow and Link Weight?

However, before you initiate any type of off page SEO (building inbound links); make sure that you aren’t building your internal links by relying on minimal navigational links alone.

If you fail to map out your on page elements, it’s the equivalent of trying to fill a leaky bucket full of water to no avail. No matter how much water you pour into it, the bigger the puddle on the floor. In essence, the container becomes null (regardless of the volume being poured into it).

This is often the case with most SEO practitioners who fall into the vicious cycle of relying heavily on off page ranking factor (links) to perform the heavy lifting and overlook the on page SEO finesse required to create the proper balance.

Like the analogy above, within your website, the premise of link-weight and link-flow similar to the bucket.

The second layer to this quandary is the volume of outbound links on a page (even if they are to other internal pages) should be balanced by a fair text to link ratio in addition to inbound links from other internal and external pages.

For example, a page with 10 outbound links is 10 times stronger than a page with 100 outbound / internal links. Which would you rather have boosting your internal pages? More on that later…

During the interim, feel free to peruse related posts on the topic below:

• Understanding Link Volume Velocity and Diversity
• Balancing Link Velocity and Link Volume
• Google Website Analysis – Live Site Review

Does a link count on the page more than once?

Yes, a link does count on the page more than once and there is a distinct difference between the amount of link-flow from a link in the navigation, footer or sidebar, an image based “alt attribute link” and a contextual link “a text link linked amidst supporting semantically related keywords”.

Fortunately for advanced SEO’s who map link flow and shingles as part of the on page SEO process, there are tools like SEOEngine that (1) crawl, analyze and provide invaluable feedback on the link-flow percentages of each page in your website (2) whether or not the shingles (groups of words) are aligned with the market focus (the purpose of the page) as well as (3) how many inbound and / or external links are present or (4) whether or not the market focus is supported by sufficient link-flow – in addition to dozens of other critical metrics; and then translates it into a 1 out of 100 scoring system.

Optimize Your Website NOW!

If you’re curious about your on page SEO score (on a scale of 1-100), enter your domain name in the SEOEngine toolbar above for a behind the scenes look from the eyes of a search engine.

What About First Link Priority?

The notion behind this theory was that the first crawled link was the only one that mattered if you had more than one link to a target landing page (with the same or multiple anchors). My response…

Yes, there is a scoring system that search engines utilize to sort, sift and assign weight in the eigenvector, despite the first link priority suggestion made popular years ago from Leslie Rohde (whom I have the utmost respect for). Despite the theory, yes, more than one link on the page passes weight and ranking factor, even if those links are to the same destination page and have the same anchor text.

Aside from search engine metrics always changing, I can assure you that search engines weight different areas of the page with different integer values (such as the body area and contextual links carrying more weight than footer or links in the sidebar).

Not to say that each type of link does not have its place for conversion cues and visual appeal, some more so than others, but you should understand what type of inbound anchor text link flow is required to rank for more competitive keywords.

One algorithm that pays particular attention to page layout dubbed VIPS which is a Vision-Based Page Segmentation Algorithm dating back to 2003. This algorithm uses a top down approach and can intelligently decipher relevance based on visual blocks and degrees of coherence.

Let’s just say, things have evolved since then, but layout, positioning, proximity and where content and or links matters based on position on the page to a search engine. The SEOEngine does an excellent job of this as well when scoring link-flow within a website based on link type, location, and multivariate shingle analysis in addition to anchor text.

Link Value Trumps Link Volume

Sometimes it’s not about the volume of links as much as it is about the efficiency of the website and its propensity to leverage on page link flow properly. Combine this with website silo architecture and a powerful collection of strong, topical backlinks to your silo landing pages and you have a trifecta that makes Wikipedia, Amazon and Fortune 500 companies a ripple in your wake as you devour the top 10 positions on your way to the top.

We do with a few hundred links what most do with thousands. Rankings are driven from understanding (a) the proper amount of shingles, internal links and deep links, backed by (b) the amount of trust and authority developed as a byproduct, percolation and time to achieve the authority set in Google (the page in which all other less perfect pages deemed by the algorithm) are measured.

By chipping away with semantically aligned topical nodes of content, supporting synonyms and blanketing the relevance landscape, your websites base expands and the process of keyword stemming is no longer a theory, but a byproduct of tactful content development aligned with on page and off page citation (via internal links)and syndication (validation from citation from off page sources).

To keep the post from spilling over into a 4000 word whitepaper, we can continue the conversation at a later date. I plan to create a video to follow up and showcase how (with the proper understanding) you can map and / or correct link-flow imbalance within a website particularly when mapping out shingles for on page content and internal links, in addition to deep links to create a ranking juggernaut.

In the meantime, if you want to schedule an SEO consultation for your website to map out link-flow, visit this page or email us to get started (hourly rate billed at $400/hr).

Link-flow is the lifeblood of your website. Once mastered, you will think before you link and understand how each page, each word and each type of link within a website works cohesively to achieve a common goal.

In the meantime, we hope you enjoyed our SEO tips and tactics to distinguish your website in search engines from the SEO Design Solutions Blog.

Make sure you follow us on twitter, like us on Facebook or subscribe to our RSS feed for additional search engine optimization tips and techniques.

-Jeffrey

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5. Managing Link Weight and Building Link Insurance!

Ready, Aim, Fire!

From Florida updates to Panda maulings, despite the ups and downs, certain metrics remain intact.

As a webmaster, these evergreen metrics are the focal point to remain relevant amidst the rise and fall of questionable flavor of the month SEO methodologies before they get leaked, peak and go the way of overused and abused SEO tactics like keyword stuffing and other dated practices from our fabled list of 10 SEO techniques to avoid.

Search engines are stepping up their game, and so should you. Today’s topic is a refresher on strategy, ROI and scalability when determining which keywords are worthwhile to engage.

Aim for Lucrative Keywords

The type of keywords you target matters. Ranking for obscure, less popular keywords never made anyone rich, nor will keyword duds recover their vested interest or the financial return on investment anted up to get ranked in the first place.

The moral of the story is to watch where you point your SEO, more specifically, target the best keywords based on the climate for conversion.

Of the three types of keywords:

• Long tail keywords (easy to rank for, not as much search volume, but you can target more of them with less effort).
• Mid tail keywords (they take more time, but have a steady flow of traffic and conversions) – or -
• Primary root phrases (they take the longest, but are often educational keywords that lack commercial intent).

Certain keywords produce click throughs and others create conversions. Depending on your business model (if you get paid from CPM advertising, CPA offers, Direct Sales, Lead Generation, or other means) determines which type of traffic is more important for your business and where you should put your attention.

If you find yourself in an organic SEO campaign, make sure you stay away from the bright shiny objects and focus on profitable keyword clusters laced with conversion opportunities fermenting with intent that turn browsers into buyers and not browsers into a high bounce rate (which can impact and undermine your websites’ trust and relevance score).

Employ Relevancy and Recency

Two things make search engines tick (1) relevance and (2) recency – making sure the breaking story is still hot or newsworthy or making sure that someone looking for the best sewing kits or fly fishing rods finds a website worthy of praise.

Your goal is to become that site by catering to the full spectrum (not just the tip of the iceberg) and use the secret sauce of co-occurrence (using various phrases found in the most authoritative websites on the topic) to ensure your website is the definitive go to destination for not only one type of query but rather a full spectrum of semantic variables within a market or niche.

You accomplish this through topical relevance and by applying constant pressure though content creation or content curation to provide leverage and scale past complacent competitors.

Keep in mind that Google looks at more than just site structure and links. They observe the stickiness of the page, social signals, bounce rate and uniqueness.

However, if you need to scale and conquer, then content curation (if done properly) can still yield favorable results through leveraging the inbound link opportunities that exist (for creating shingles to your primary landing pages) even if the supporting article or page is intended to rank or just serve as eye candy to entice a larger audience.

If you generate hundreds of visitors to your website daily, search engines will take notice and start sending more theme relevant traffic your way (if you intended it or not).

The key is to understand the effect and keep enough unique content in play (while remaining relevant and recent) such as using trends data from Google, what’s hot in Alexa or trending topics in Twitter or Facebook to find the happy medium that can generate a stream of new visitors to your website.

Flowing with the go instead of merely treading water or getting swept away in a competitive current instead of leveraging the “what’s hot / it factor” and integrating some newsworthy topic or recent event can mean the difference between a couple of clicks from random sources or a flurry of traffic.

Replicate: Syndication Equals Impact

How influential your website becomes is dependent on (1) the audience (2) their propensity to share and (3) the curb appeal of your headlines, writing style, verve or the appeal of the content, tutorial, newsflash or entertainment value therein.

Expand your reach intelligently by straying away from flimsy content and provide quality through and through to develop genuine domain authority. In other words, target behaviors not just keywords.

So, before you write your next post, remember, search engines are designed to follow trends, and prefer a full spectrum of topical content on a subject rather than the tip of the iceberg randomness.

So, before you start writing about dust mites, automotive parts and health and fitness and trying to make it all work, you are only setting yourself up to fail. Snipe a few keywords starting with some low hanging fruit, use those pages or posts to provide internal links to the more competitive mid-tail keywords and then leverage those landing pages using links via syndication to tackle the more competitive traffic-bearing keywords.

If you target keywords in phases, then you can test, measure, determine what works then lean into the phrases bringing your revenue to scale and replicate through content curation or syndication of current and legacy content.

Once mastered, search engines will follow you, not the other way around!

-Jeffrey

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