SEO tips = better search engine ranking

Getting started with SEO

A while back I wrote about how having an active message board is worth a lot. And my health message boards are doing OK.

But internal links are not as good as links from other sites. So I'm working on my health web directory. It still looks a little weird, but it's getting there. The important thing is that people will start using it soon...

Google vs. comment spam

An interesting thread over at Sitepoint about how blog comment spam is messing up Google's results and what they are prepared to do about it...

New header

I haven't done the whole site yet, buy my ESL go forums probably account for a majority of the pages I have indexed in Google.

Besides the new color scheme, the most important thing is that the header navigation is all html/css wheras my old header was a graphic. I used to use footer links but Google started ignoreing my footer in September 2004 or a bit earlier.

Let's see how these rankings change when Google notices my new header. Today I am:

#10 for "English class"
#9 and 10 for "English classes"
#11 and 12 for "free English"
#6 and 7 for "free ESL"
#14 and 15 for "ESL quiz center"
#17 for "English practice"
#55 and 56 for "ESL teacher" (and #55 is a page being removed soon).
nowhere for TESL/TEFL resources

And the big ones:

#26 for "ESL"
#9 for "English as a second langauge"

Google's SEO tips results

I'm up to #3 for SEO tips despite the fact that I've done nothing to help myself other than posting a few more entries. Google seems to be getting more random nowadays, as my friend Rainbo Rick's site is down to #13. We were 5 and 6 not too long ago...

Google shuffle

Yesterday I thought it was strange that I was #26 for the very competitive "ESL" and the less competitive "English as a second langauge". Must of been a temporary reshuffle by Google, because ESL go is now up to #11 for "English as a second langauge" with no change for "ESL".

Strange parallels

On Jan. 1 I bragged about being #9 for "English as a second language" and in the thirties for the much more competitive "ESL". Now, strangely enough, I am #26 for both. It's very weird because ESL is so much tougher than English as a second language.

Language drirectory PR

I just noticed that my language directory now has PR. I'm surprised that it only has PR 4 but each category has PR 4 and I expected that. Interestingly my WebQuests subcategory has PR 5...

Reasons to join the Digital Point ad coop

One repeat and one new reason why you should join Digital Point's free coop advertising exchange network:

My ESL site is still #9 for "English as a second language" on Google. That's the old reason.

The new reason is that I'm up to #26 for "ESL"

Thanks to the ad coop, my backlinks went up from 305 to 1,430! How else can you get results like that without spending a fortune?

Dedicated Server information site

If you're tired of the limitations with "shared hosting", then maybe it's time you take a look at acquiring a dedicated server. It's not as hard as it seems, and it could end up being economical if you have many sites or if you are planning on developing sites in the future. There are many advantages to leasing a dedicated server, too many to mention here. Take a visit to this site Dedicated Server News. You'll find a resource of information that can get you started.

More luck with Yahoo!

My travel blog is still #1 for "travel idea" on Yahoo! and has moved up to #8 for my other targeted phrase "travel plan". I'm also #5 for "travel blog".

Google is still turning up poor results with pages that link to my travel blog beating my travel blog for all three pahrases. Why can't they be more like Yahoo! and put me on the first page?

First Page SERPs

So my English as a second language site has made it to the first page for one of the big keywords I've been targeting! I am #9 for English as a second langauge (16,000,000 results and Overture shows about 330 searches/day while Wordtracker reports 400).

While I'm still in the thirties for "ESL", that word is still sending me twice as much traffic as "english as a second langauge" even if it is only since Jan. 1 and Jan 1 saw little traffic (I guess no one was studying).

New year new ranking

While I wait for everyone to wake up, I figured I'd check out the SERPs. I found some surprises. The results for "NFL Giants" on Google (I've been complaining about those SERPs for a while) have improved. I am #2.

My stock market blog is up to 21 for stock market investment. I'm getting lots of offers to link to certain very expensive research tools in return for free access, but I think that soon I'll be able to start selling advertising for cash rather than research tools I don't need.

Then again, with all the traffic Yahoo is sending my travel blog, it's hard not to spend all my time working on that one. It is already earning many times more than the stock market site with Adsense...