Using Keywords Within Title Tags
Title tags are considered the #1 ranking factor of any page served to the search engines. The words in the title of the page go a long way in describing the content of the displayed page, or at least they should, and thus provide a useful element in the engine’s determination as to the content contained within it. It is a highly visible element of any page, and likely to be used by most webmasters as a descriptive passage regarding the content.
It’s also a widely accepted SEO practice to put your most important keywords early in the title of the page, as search engines are suspected to place the heaviest emphasis on the first words presented in the title tags.
Anchor Text Usage
Anchor text on inbound links is given a lot of weight by the search engines. When another page links in towards your page, the text used for that link has a tendency to say a lot about what the user can find on that page. This is a strong signal for search engines in determining the content contained within. This is given a lot of focus by most link builders in an attempt to drive keyword rich text links towards their sites. Webmasters and publishers tend to use keyword rich text links meaningfully or otherwise, and this is well known by the engines.
Domain Authority
The Global Link Authority metric is used as opposed to the linking authority of single pages with intent on determining the overall authority of the entire site which is providing your inbound link. Pages with strong authority across their entire site are given more weight and are viewed as having a stronger overall authority. There are a few key methods in determining the global authority of a web site.
View the Page Rank of the site’s home page. Even though it has long been known that the Page Rank algorithm has its flaws, the PR of the main page can be used to develop an overall sense of the site’s global popularity, even though the homepage is not always the strongest ranked page on the site, it will give you a feeling of the entire site’s strength.
The Yahoo! Site Explorer search is another method webmasters have made use of for determining total number of inbound links. Up to 1000 inbound links to a site can be exporting to a spreadsheet and further analyzed by keen site owners.
Using Linkscape’s domain mozRank is a further option you may wish to explore too.
Domain Age
Some people are at first shocked to learn that this metric is given consideration, but there is no question as to the weight given to it. Spam sites don’t tend to hold a long shelf life, and in the eyes of the search engine’s a site with a long and healthy lifespan, must be doing something right in terms of serving its viewers. Sites built 10 years ago were generally not so spammy, so in the eyes of the engines a site which has survived that long and is still going strong, must be a valuable informational resource.
Internal & External Considerations
Searches engines lay a lot of faith in the publisher’s internal linking structure to show them what they feel are the most important areas of their own sites. If a page is hidden where it can only be found after 4 or 5 clicks from the home page, the search engine is not going to put a lot of weight upon that particular page. Sites that are linked to from the global navigation of the site, and are thus accessible from any point within the internal structure on the other hand, are obviously considered to be strong in terms of interest and popularity. Relevance of the internal links are also an important factor.
Relevance of Inbound Links
The topical relevance of sites and pages which send inbound links towards your pages is a big factor in SEO. While it is generally accepted than any inbound link is a boost, those that come from strong pages of a related topical interest, are given much more credibility in the eyes of the search engine. They count for much more than an inbound link from a site with no relevance to your subject matter.
Keyword Usage
Another key factor in the on page optimization of web sites for the engines, is the use of your targeted keywords in the body of content being displayed. In addition to having the keywords in your title tags, it is beneficial to make mention of them within the written context of your content.
Don’t worry too much about stuffing your content with keywords however, this can work against you, and the use of synonyms and synonymous phrases can be beneficial too, as the engines often search for these in an effort to legitimize and reinforce the relevance of the page.
Global Link Popularity
By now you should be able to easily picture the strength of this metric in SEO. All trends tend to lead towards the relevancy and strength of your site and those linking towards. Links from strong, trusted websites, are highly beneficial to your own projects. If the site linking to you is trusted as a strong resource in its field, it will likely be represented by its own global link popularity.
