Search Engine Optimization For New Sites
Welcome to the neighborhood
When you put up a new site, you're not just throwing a site up on the World Wide Web. You're moving into a new neighborhood. If you think about it this way, you'll start to see how the search engines see the internet, and how you can position your site to gain the maximum exposure.
Trusted sites = good links
It's old hat in the SEO world that if your site is about molecular physics, then a link from a top-ranked celebrity gossip site is not going to do you any good. In fact, too many weird links like that might harm your site's ranking. What the search engines are looking for is good links (think of them as "votes") from sites in your area, in this case, molecular physics. To put it another way -- your neighborhood is the molecular physics neighborhood.
Why links from trusted sites are important
OK, so you've arrived in the neighborhood, with your brand new, excellent website all about molecular physics. How do you get found? Answer -- you need to rank high in the search engines, for the terms that best describe your neighborhood. But how do the search engines know that your site is any good? Well, they don't, unless some site that they can trust tells them so. And hence the concept of trusted sites. You're new in the neighborhood, and the fastest way to gain a foothold in the search engines is to get some links from trusted sites in your field, demonstrating to the search engines that you are "ok," can be trusted, and can be ranked. There are tons of other things you can do to enhance your search engine rankings, but this, for a new site, is crucial.
How are you going to get links if no-one knows you?
Ah, the million-dollar question. How do you get those "trusted" sites to link to you? First you need to identify them. For that, you can use a tool like HubFinder. It helps you find the top sites that are linking to multiples of your competitors. Then you can use metrics like checking their Google Page Rank, checking Alexa ranking, checking backlinks, and so forth. Plus, a big helping of common sense.
Once you have identified some of the trusted sites in your neighborhood, you are going to ask them to link to you. How do you do that? You simply ask, one at a time. Hopefully you have built a good, value-added site to begin with, because otherwise none of them will want to give you a link. If you don't know the SEO importance of starting with a great site, you should read The Essentials of Search Engine Optimization asap. (It's a webpage, not a book, so give it a try). If your site offers something of value, you will get some links. Not from everyone, or even from many, but you will get some. And if they are trusted sites, that will be enough to get the ball rolling. If you need to get the creative juices flowing, check out 101 Ways to Build Link Popularity in 2006. And for a continuous healthy diet of sound link building advice, subscribe to The Link Spiel blog. Happy link hunting!
When you put up a new site, you're not just throwing a site up on the World Wide Web. You're moving into a new neighborhood. If you think about it this way, you'll start to see how the search engines see the internet, and how you can position your site to gain the maximum exposure.
Trusted sites = good links
It's old hat in the SEO world that if your site is about molecular physics, then a link from a top-ranked celebrity gossip site is not going to do you any good. In fact, too many weird links like that might harm your site's ranking. What the search engines are looking for is good links (think of them as "votes") from sites in your area, in this case, molecular physics. To put it another way -- your neighborhood is the molecular physics neighborhood.
Why links from trusted sites are important
OK, so you've arrived in the neighborhood, with your brand new, excellent website all about molecular physics. How do you get found? Answer -- you need to rank high in the search engines, for the terms that best describe your neighborhood. But how do the search engines know that your site is any good? Well, they don't, unless some site that they can trust tells them so. And hence the concept of trusted sites. You're new in the neighborhood, and the fastest way to gain a foothold in the search engines is to get some links from trusted sites in your field, demonstrating to the search engines that you are "ok," can be trusted, and can be ranked. There are tons of other things you can do to enhance your search engine rankings, but this, for a new site, is crucial.
How are you going to get links if no-one knows you?
Ah, the million-dollar question. How do you get those "trusted" sites to link to you? First you need to identify them. For that, you can use a tool like HubFinder. It helps you find the top sites that are linking to multiples of your competitors. Then you can use metrics like checking their Google Page Rank, checking Alexa ranking, checking backlinks, and so forth. Plus, a big helping of common sense.
Once you have identified some of the trusted sites in your neighborhood, you are going to ask them to link to you. How do you do that? You simply ask, one at a time. Hopefully you have built a good, value-added site to begin with, because otherwise none of them will want to give you a link. If you don't know the SEO importance of starting with a great site, you should read The Essentials of Search Engine Optimization asap. (It's a webpage, not a book, so give it a try). If your site offers something of value, you will get some links. Not from everyone, or even from many, but you will get some. And if they are trusted sites, that will be enough to get the ball rolling. If you need to get the creative juices flowing, check out 101 Ways to Build Link Popularity in 2006. And for a continuous healthy diet of sound link building advice, subscribe to The Link Spiel blog. Happy link hunting!
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