SeaWaves Blog

At SeaWaves, we specialize in search engine placement. We manage over 50 websites and this gives us a fine-grained and diversified picture of how the search engines organize search listings.

One thing we’ve noticed over the last year is that static websites are at a disadvantage. Over the past few years, search engines have added elements to their algorithms that often prefer fresh data. Or, at the very least, the search algorithms of today tend to prefer domains that provide a steady stream of new content.

At SeaWaves, we tried an experiment by setting up a series of static, informative websites called Guru Guides. For example, we created a guide to online colleges. When we first put this content up, it did quite well in the search engines. And it continued to do well for about 9 months. But then, search referrals started to fade significantly.

There’s a rule on the web that most search professionals now recognize: the websites you work on and develop are the ones that will succeed.

If you are a website owner, keep this in mind. Don’t just let your website sit and go stale. Add to it on a monthly basis, at minimum.

SeaWaves Technology has focused almost all of its efforts on doing SEO for local niche blogs and websites. The great thing about local niche blogging is that the competition is much less fierce, the advertising dollars are much more targeted, and the path to success is much clearer.

In fact, with every project we’ve taken on, we’ve managed to get front page Google results for some important local search phrases.

Most online experts agree that the next major revolution on the web will be the local web. The development of networks and websites that facilitate local interaction. We’re excited to be positioned to help businesses leverage search as this trend continues.

When customers come to us looking for linkbait, they are usually really looking for a short term spike in traffic from Digg or some other social media venue.

But the short term traffic spike from Digg is not worth very much on it’s own. In fact, there only two reasons that we continue to use Digg:

1. Authority link snowballing
2. Branding via Mainstream media recognition

Authority Link Snowballing

This is the idea that if your article is good enough to get a few solid mentions on some well read sources, you’ll likely get picked up by all the other sites that use them as sources. As an example, we recently had an article picked up by Sports Illustrated. Within an hour, the article was picked up by over 15 additional sports blogs. A few of those were powerful sites themselves, and resulted in even more coverage.

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As I’ve been doing SEO consulting, I’ve noticed that sites will rank for keywords but some of the ranking pages (the landing pages) don’t fit the keywords they rank for.

For example, currently WatchPart.co.uk ranks 36th and 37th for omega watch parts. However, the two landing pages are not the best pages on the site for the keyword phrase.

Here are the two landing pages:

1. http://watchpart.co.uk/dials-bezels-bezels-c-58_113.html
2. http://watchpart.co.uk/blog/2007/06/18/omega-watch-dials/

The first one looks like a blank page. The second page is a short blog entry about Omega watch dials. However, what if the searcher was looking for an Omega watch part other than a dial?

The best landing page for omega watch parts is

http://watchpart.co.uk/omega-m-10.html

However, this page isn’t in the top 100 results of Google.

Here’s another example. Petersons.com currently ranks 7th for graduate law schools. Here’s the landing page:

http://www.petersons.com/GradChannel/code/search.asp

The landing page is a page where you can search through graduate programs in different degrees - not just law degrees. A better landing page would be

http://graduate-schools.petersons.com/bydiscipline/u/Law/d/Law/di/2530/sponsor/7997.aspx

This landing page has a list of graduate law schools. However, this page doesn’t rank in the top 100.

How to Get Your Relevant Pages to Rank

If you want to outrank your current landing pages with more relevant ones, here are some things you can do.

Insert the keyword in the title tag of the relevant landing page The closer the keyword is to the beginning of the title, the better.

Point more internal links to the appropriate landing page.

Build links from other sites that point to the more relevant page.

Finally, as you’re creating internal links and building external links, make sure to vary your anchor text. You can do this by using variations of the keyword as your anchor text. For instance, in the first example, the keyword was omega watch parts. You can use variations like

buy omega watch parts
quality omega watch parts
omega watch parts for sale
different omega watch parts
omega brand watch parts
omega parts for watches

By doing this, you’ll avoid tripping the Google anchor text spam filter. Also, you’ll rank better for the variations of the search term.

Not all blog directories are created equal. Most blog directories are a complete waste of space. Submitting your blog to the average blog directory is a waste of your time.

However, some blog directories are GREAT. Below, we’ve listed what we view as the 5 best blog directories. To be on this list, the directory must be more than a link farm. It must offer some added value to the Internet. They must be *worth* submitting to.

1. Best of the Web Blog Directory

This is the most selective, comprehensive, and perhaps the overall best quality blog directory out there.

2. Blog Catalog

Blog Catalog is a social community blog directory. User interaction and comments makes it stand out. Submissions to Blog Catalog still show up high in Google SERPS.

3. Blogflux

Blogflux is a great directory because of the tools it offers to bloggers. We especially like Blogflux Top Sites which ranks blogs by traffic.

4. EatonWeb Blog Directory

EatonWeb is cool because it algorithmically ranks blogs according to perceived quality. Surprisingly, the algorithm does a good job at showing the best sites first. EatonWeb also assigns each blog a score, which is worth monitoring.

5. Blog Hub

BlogHub shines as a community of blog owners. Submit your site to the directory and join the conversation.

So there you go. If you’re looking for a condensed list of ultra-effective blog directory submissions, this is the one to use. The directories are quality and will actually benefit your blog.

The community has all these little endearing qualities and I thought it would be cool to document them and also ask for additions in the comment section. I’m listing some of these as inside jokes that only certain people will get, sorry…

1. Black hats are always on the run
2. The best SEOs are silent SEOs
3. All the SEO girls want Rand Fishkin cuz Rand Fiskin is the pretty boy of SEO.
4. Text link ads are like crack - their addictive and carry heavy withdrawal symptoms
5. Andy Hagans and Aaron Wall are thankful for their college educations
6. White hats don’t get anything done
7. Shoemoney loves ringtones and photoshopped checks
8. Grey hats have all the fun