MySpace Page Helps When Site Is In 300's On Google

[logodesign77]

I found something interesting with reference to one of my websites and mySpace. I don't know if anyone else has noticed this or not.

I have a website that as of today is number 365 on google.com for the primary search "bbq festivals"

The site is bbq-festivals.com which is a directory of festivals, restaurants, cookoffs, etc....

It has been in existance for about 9 mos and slowly but surely growing.

I have a page on MySpace at www.myspace.com/bbqfestivals. I have the same keywords and a link back to my site both in text format and a banner.

The mySpace page pops in at number 15 for the same search on google. This has been a definite plus for me and for people finding their way to the main website. I am number one on msn and yahoo but as i said 365 on google.

Now I have a great doorway on google and I am hoping that it will help my main site advance over the next couple of months.

Has anyone else seen a MySpace page help with exposure on google???

[meinking22]

Originally Posted by logodesign77

Has anyone else seen a MySpace page help with exposure on google???

Of course...I create a MySpace companion page for every single website I do. They are great for social search support and rankings...

Steve

[incrediblehelp]

I agree this social networking component of SEO is necessary. To be truthful it is the future of IBL's as well and SE's love these types of links.

[Prometheus]

Well, I have tried it with only one site, www.kittycoupon.com , and I'm not certain what the results are. I will try it with my car-themed sites like gmtruckclub.com and will report back how it does.

I am also typically in the top 2 or 3 on MSN or Yahoo, but pretty high on Google. I'm in a pretty crowded space too with terms like Chevy tahoe, Chevy Suburban, etc.

[JacobRusso]

Does this violate any of the MySpace conditions or rules? If not, I would like to add two sites to MySpace... Imaging101, Inc. and PC Networks, Inc.

Oh, and actually one more question... Should these URL's be posted to separate MySpace's or a single one?

[davidredwine]

I am going to go out on a limb here, but I think there are plenty of things you could do to get higher placement.

The first thing I would assert is that you broad spectrum of targeted keywords is hopelessly diluting your positioning. There aren't that many Barbeque Festivals or BBQ Festivals, but there are billions of Restaurants, billions of "competitions" of every imaginable kind from music competitions to quilting and canning competitions to poker competitions. Mentioning the names of states and cities and things like "Grilling" "Rubs" and "Sauces" in your keywords adds to the dilution by dumping you into an environment in which you are competing with millions and millions of sites that offer everything from toaster ovens to french cooking.

Cut your keywords down and your title and description down to just Barbeque Festivals, BBQ Festivals and maybe one other keyword phrase like "Barbeque Recipes". The competitions are a part of the Festivals and your target audience will know this. No need to dilute your keyword relevance by adding those unneccesarry things that are a innate part of the BBQ Festival experience. I am stretching it with Barbeque Recipes, because this goes back to the dilution. If you are going to add any more keywords, be VERY conservative about their selection. They should be relevant to your prose and your core website mission.

You should also create some prose on your front page where the term Barbeque Festivals is linked to sub pages.

Barbeque Festivals - South Carolina (is linked to a subpage about festivals in that area.

Barbeque Festivals - Competitions ( is linked to a subpage about these events)

Barbeque Festivals - How to Win (linked to a subpage about rules and tips for winning)

and so on and so forth.

Each one of those categories should be h1 tagged. You don't make very good use of h1 tags on your site. You should always h1/h2 tag prose (when possible) that contains a keyword (in your keywords tags)....if you are going to have to have more than just BBQ Festivals in your keywords, then be sure to poke those keywords into your prose at least 3-5 times (h1 or h2 tag them and link them to subpages with relevant content every chance you can)

Your images make no use of the alt image tags. YOu really should use those for every image you put on your site. Those alt tags should contain your keywords if at all possible, (if you can stand it...) The 2 images on your front page might be labeled "Barbeque Festival Grilling" and the other one "Barbeque Festival Plate Dinners" for example.

You don't have enough prose on your website front page to support the keywords you have used. You are subsequently being severely punished by the Google relevance algorithm. If you put the word in your keywords you MUST use it in your prose. Beef up the prose on your page, make these changes then post me a note when you make it to page one or two of google. I am looking forward to seeing you get the position you deserve. You have a nice website and more people should see it.

P.S. My son's myspace page. http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm...endID=70833901

dr

[logodesign77]

Hi...thanks for the info. After 4 years of the website development world, I still consider myself a beginner. You have given me and others who read this some good advice that I will certainly use.

The use of MySpace was not planned... it just happened. I started the mySpace page as it was an easy way to communicate with other BBQ folks..... I am now wondering what a link exchange program within MySpace will do. If each person I have as a friend on MySpace puts an anchor link back to my main website, will it bump me up that much.

Once again, thanks for the input, instruction and thoughts.........much appreciated.

eric

[KlickThis]

I have been shamelessly using this technique for almost a year now.

Much like yourself I stumbled across this SERP anomoly by pure accident.

It works incidentally on Flickr, PBase and Wikipedia related topics. It doesn't matter if you are on the 1000th page, thanks to those sites high ranking they will get to you some other way.

Give Googles Blogger a shot and you will be amazed. Watch out for that one though, the spam filters are very very sensitive and you could be shooting yourself in the foot and get the blog deleted.

Once you figure out the way it works... needless to say you can play around with it. I have found it to be quite predictable.


Martin Galloway.

[SemAdvance]

Originally Posted by davidredwine

I am going to go out on a limb here, but I think there are plenty of things you could do to get higher placement.

The first thing I would assert is that you broad spectrum of targeted keywords is hopelessly diluting your positioning. There aren't that many Barbeque Festivals or BBQ Festivals, but there are billions of Restaurants, billions of "competitions" of every imaginable kind from music competitions to quilting and canning competitions to poker competitions. Mentioning the names of states and cities and things like "Grilling" "Rubs" and "Sauces" in your keywords adds to the dilution by dumping you into an environment in which you are competing with millions and millions of sites that offer everything from toaster ovens to french cooking.

Some valid points however you forgot the fact the search engines Google especially "theme" websites so it would not include a BBQ festival in the same catgory as toaster overns...

Originally Posted by davidredwine

Cut your keywords down and your title and description down to just Barbeque Festivals, BBQ Festivals and maybe one other keyword phrase like "Barbeque Recipes". The competitions are a part of the Festivals and your target audience will know this. No need to dilute your keyword relevance by adding those unneccesarry things that are a innate part of the BBQ Festival experience. I am stretching it with Barbeque Recipes, because this goes back to the dilution. If you are going to add any more keywords, be VERY conservative about their selection. They should be relevant to your prose and your core website mission.

Actually only use keyword terms once in your title and meta description tag. <title>Barbeque Festivals BBQ Competitions Cookoffs</title>

Originally Posted by davidredwine

Each one of those categories should be h1 tagged. You don't make very good use of h1 tags on your site. You should always h1/h2 tag prose (when possible) that contains a keyword (in your keywords tags)....if you are going to have to have more than just BBQ Festivals in your keywords, then be sure to poke those keywords into your prose at least 3-5 times (h1 or h2 tag them and link them to subpages with relevant content every chance you can)

You can also overuse things and show the engines you are optimizing for the engine and not users..

Originally Posted by davidredwine

Your images make no use of the alt image tags. YOu really should use those for every image you put on your site. Those alt tags should contain your keywords if at all possible, (if you can stand it...) The 2 images on your front page might be labeled "Barbeque Festival Grilling" and the other one "Barbeque Festival Plate Dinners" for example.

Actually only the two top images should contain keywords all other images on the page should contain the word "image"

when using the keyword in the alt image tag, you should also use the word image.

"barbeque festival image"

No need to capitalize here as speech to text readers cannot see. By using capitalization you may be tipping the enigne that you are optimizing for search engines.

Originally Posted by davidredwine

You don't have enough prose on your website front page to support the keywords you have used. You are subsequently being severely punished by the Google relevance algorithm. If you put the word in your keywords you MUST use it in your prose. Beef up the prose on your page, make these changes then post me a note when you make it to page one or two of google. I am looking forward to seeing you get the position you deserve. You have a nice website and more people should see it.

Actually a good part of this is a good idea as you should have good original content on your pages.

However one can also use high valued anchor text links pointed to the page to rank well if all the other SEO steps are taken.

For example the keyword term 'search engine' brings Google in the #1 or 2 positon... (MSN is #1 currently on Google);-> however nowhere on Googles home page does it say "search engine"

Or if you search 'gucci' the # 1 site is Gucci.com and if you visit the website there is no text whatsoever on the home page.

credit card # 1 is Visa.com but the word is nowhere to be found in the text on the page.

Just wanted to clarify an otherwise excellent post.

[SeoSem]

credit card # 1 is Visa.com but the word is nowhere to be found in the text on the page.

But in the index HTML code you can find this:

<head>
<title>Visa - Credit Cards and Other Payment Solutions</title>
<meta name="keywords" content="visa credit card creditcards creditcard visacard Visa Credit Cards Online, Visacard Creditcards, VISA get a card visa debit visa classic gold travel money cash visa international travelers cheques travellers checks global atm network travel destinations visa business financial institutions small business,personal commercial credit cards sponsorships shopping international global credit check cards consumer credit cards chip cards 3-d secure global data security visa inc, visainc, visa restructure, visa merger, visa announcement">
<meta name="description" content="Visa - The number one payment card used by people around the world, Visa cards offer exceptional convenience and reliability. Use Visa cards to pay for purchases in more than 150 countries, as well as at Internet merchants.">

[okparrothead]

Hello All,

In reference to mySpace, I'd like your opinion about creating a page on mySpace vs. trying to list on DMOZ.

Which do you think would be more helpful? While Google is supposed to be using DMOZ for it's directory, it seems futile to list there. Further, do you think a mySpace page would be more valuable than bothering to list on smaller search engines?

Another question.

With the purchase of YouTube, do you think Google is beginning to weight listings in social networking sites in general more favorably? Could this be the "new" directory for Google?

I anticipate much discussion... ;-)

Peace

[anyshare]

It is no secret now that by listing your sites in higher ranked websites also do wonders for your web ranking in search engines most of time. So wether you create your site at Myspace or some other place it will help you get better ranking.

www.Weblo.com is another way to promote your business and websites for free or $1.00 or so. You can create free membership account and then create a Celebrity page free and of course that celebrity can be yourself as well. Also you can get a page for your business address where you can leave your web links and almost the virtual copy of your website including audio and video. I think people looking to increase their ranking and looking for good quality back links should give it a try.

If anyone of you have already created page at www.weblo.com, could you share your experience with others.

[Hi-Tech]

Originally Posted by anyshare

Also you can get a page for your business address where you can leave your web links and almost the virtual copy of your website including audio and video. I think people looking to increase their ranking and looking for good quality back links should give it a try.

I wouldn't put toooo much on there from your website - you may get penalized for duplicate content.

[incrediblehelp]

[quote="Hi-Tech"]

Originally Posted by anyshare

you may get penalized for duplicate content.

Their is no duplicate content penalty. Straight from the horses mouth:

Rand Fishkin (SEOmoz.org) interviews Vanessa Fox of Google

[Hi-Tech]

Thanks for clearing that up ... I coulda swore they penalized sites for duplicate content...

[phx-keith]

I'm in the process of creating a directory site much like the BBQ guy but on a much broader scale. The site is http://www.DoPhoenix.com.

I have several questions:

1) I hear outbound links help if linking to a higher PR site, competitors sites help the most, and keywords need to be in anchor text, is that true?
2) What about those search pages. The ones with the selection box say by city and gives a URL line http://www.SomeSite.TLD/home.php?sec...BQ&city=Dallas

Are these ok?

3) What would happen if the BBQ guy got a link from all those site he links to? Wouldn't that help them all?

4) It seems from everything I hear that Google is moving towards web 2.0 ranking. Linke outbound links, ability of visitors to leave or make a comment... ETC is that true.

Eagerly awaiting your reply.

[incrediblehelp]

Originally Posted by phx-keith

1) I hear outbound links help if linking to a higher PR site, competitors sites help the most, and keywords need to be in anchor text, is that true?

Sure they help if they are relevant. Don't worry about what he PR is. Think about end users first, SE's second when linking out. If it makes sense to use keywords in the anchor text go ahead.

Originally Posted by phx-keith

2) What about those search pages. The ones with the selection box say by city and gives a URL line http://www.SomeSite.TLD/home.php?sec...BQ&city=Dallas

What about them?

Originally Posted by phx-keith

3) What would happen if the BBQ guy got a link from all those site he links to? Wouldn't that help them all?

Then they would be reciprocal. I guess the only person that "may" have an affect on are the other websites losing the one-way link because they are now liking to you.

Originally Posted by phx-keith

4) It seems from everything I hear that Google is moving towards web 2.0 ranking. Linke outbound links, ability of visitors to leave or make a comment... ETC is that true..

Having user generated content is essentially what I think of when someone says Web 2.0. Not sure if Google is moving in that direction, but many of the popular websites online seem to be.

[phx-keith]

2) What about those search pages. The ones with the selection box say by city and gives a URL line http://www.SomeSite.TLD/home.php?sec...BQ&city=Dallas

It used to be the search engines could not handle these, or so I've been told. But that has changed right?
- - - -
So if I have thousands of outbound links on my site from the local area and a bunch of them link to me isn't that a good this - doesn't that speak to community. I was hoping those in the local area would want to link to my site, if these links don't help much, I'm kinda at a loss. My site is local only and it seem kinda unlocal to get links from sites that are not local. Help me see through the haze.

Thanks for all your advice.

[incrediblehelp]

Most search engines can handle these links fine now.

For future reference (building new websites) considering rewriting the URLs using slashes. Don't worry about it now. The history they have earned is worth much more than the effort of rewriting them.

[phx-keith]

http://www.SomeSite.TLD/home.php?sec...BQ&city=Dallas

Not sure how how re-write with slashes.

[incrediblehelp]

http://www.yourhtmlsource.com/sitema...rewriting.html

[phx-keith]

Lets say I have a page that allows you to search for donut shops by zip code. Metro Phoenix has about 200 zip codes.

So if I understand, what you are saying is create 200 pages with url's like http://www.MySite/donut/85000.html . Add 14 cities and I would have about 220 pages for every search term. I like it, lots of pages (content?) however I think it's going to be a lot of work.

[incrediblehelp]

I don't understand the question. Why would you have search function that produces these results dynamically, from a database, on the fly?

[michellek]

ok - obviously this comment does not come from a web pro! how do you add keywords to your MySpace page?

[incrediblehelp]

Originally Posted by michellek

ok - obviously this comment does not come from a web pro! how do you add keywords to your MySpace page?

huh?

[michellek]

wow .. incrediblehelp indeed!

[incrediblehelp]

Originally Posted by michellek

wow .. incrediblehelp indeed!

michellek you might be better served if you would type so all of us can understand what you are referring to or what help you need. Much better than fragments of sentences with bold.

[michellek]

Originally Posted by incrediblehelp

huh?

Originally Posted by incrediblehelp

michellek you might be better served if you would type so all of us can understand what you are referring to or what help you need. Much better than fragments of sentences with bold.

ok, this is silly. i agree, it's better to type so people can understand what you are referring to. "huh?" can be interpreted in a number of ways ..

my post was pretty clear. i was looking for advice on how to add keywords to my MySpace page. simple as that. if the question is too simple for a forum like this then it would be appropriate to refer me to another forum .. that would be .. how can i put it .. incredibly helpful

[incrediblehelp]

Originally Posted by michellek

i was looking for advice on how to add keywords to my MySpace page.

Not sure how to do this. Consider starting a new thread. That would be helpful, instead of hijacking this one.

[michellek]

hijack
1. To stop and rob (a vehicle in transit).
2. To steal (goods) from a vehicle in transit.
3. To seize control of (a moving vehicle) by use of force, especially in order to reach an alternate destination.
4. To steal from as if by hijacking.
5. To swindle or subject to extortion.

Oh my!

Not sure how to do this. Consider starting a new thread.

I will start a new thread, per your suggestion.
I felt this particular discussion was an appropriate one to post on as logodesign77 wrote:

I have a page on MySpace at www.myspace.com/bbqfestivals. I have the same keywords and a link back to my site both in text format and a banner.

[phx-keith]

I know nothing about MySpace. However if I were wanting to let the SE's know what my page was about I would do so with H1 tags, Bold tags, ETC.

Not sure you will have access to someone else's Title, Description, and Keyword tags.

I hope this helps.

[incrediblehelp]

hijack is a just a normal forum expression. Guess your not familiar with that.

[michellek]

Originally Posted by incrediblehelp

hijack is a just a normal forum expression. Guess your not familiar with that.

i guess not! i've learned something here today

Originally Posted by phx-keith

I know nothing about MySpace. However if I were wanting to let the SE's know what my page was about I would do so with H1 tags, Bold tags, ETC.

Not sure you will have access to someone else's Title, Description, and Keyword tags.

I hope this helps.

thank you keith ..