Texas SEO Company Blog

Google Webmaster Central, a few days ago, posted that PageRank sculpting is a waste of time. Today there’s a post over at Search Engine Optimization Journal saying that PageRank sculpting might actually work if your site is big enough. But he’s really repeating what Rand Fishkin said. Who’s right?

I’m going to fall on the side of Webmaster Central. I think for most of us it’s a low pay off activity and you shouldn’t bother.

If you don’t know what PageRank sculpting is, here’s a quick definition: Use nofollow tags in your links to keep search engines from crawling pages that you don’t want crawled for the purpose of cutting off PageRank distribution to those pages and sending it to other pages where you want it to go. The reason webmasters like Rand Fishkin say to do this is because search engines evenly distribute PageRank authority to linked-to sites rather than send the complete PR checkbook to every site being linked to. For instance, if you have a PR 7 web page linking to a PR 5 and A PR 3 then both of those pages being linked to will get a PR 3.5 link credit. If you nofollow one of the links then the other page will get a PR 7 link credit. Perform this equation several times for several pages and you can see that in high numbers you can transfer pretty decent PageRank credits to the pages you want it to go to, but the problem is two-fold:

• Time spent nofollowing your links
• The number of pages on your website

It takes time to go in and add that nofollow tag. For most of us, the pay off is so low that the time spent isn’t worth it. Secondly, most small business websites have so few pages that spending time on such a low pay out activity is worthless. And that’s why webmasters at Google Webmaster Central say don’t both with PageRank Sculpting. I say there are other SEO activities you can spend your time working on.

You are likely losing traffic, and valuable inbound link juice, if you have any 404 error pages on your website. These are pages that can’t be found by the search engines or by human visitors to your website. Whenever a visitor tries to visit one of these pages they’ll get a 404 error page “not found” message. Many users will just go away and not come back. You lose traffic.

But you also lose valuable links because you could have other websites linking to those pages. These are pages the search engines aren’t crawling and therefore you aren’t getting credit for inbound links to those pages. That translates into less link juice and a lower search ranking for your important keywords.

How do you fix it?

First, you need to find out which pages have this problem. Sign into Webmaster Central and click on the website you want to check. Click on “Diagnostics”. Next, click on “Web crawl” then on “Not found”. You’ll see a list of pages on your site that deliver 404 error pages. You’ll see a number of pages that is a hyperlink (on the right side of the page). Click one and you’ll see the web pages that link in to that error page.

You can fix traffic issues by redirecting those pages to another page on your website. But you’ll also want to notify webmasters linking in to your site that you have other pages they can link to. This should fix those inbound links and you’ll get credit for those.

The Google Webmaster Central Blog is in the midst of a four-part series on links. Today’s post deals with link architecture.

If you’re not sure what link architecture is, in a nutshell it is simply how the pages of your website link together. I’m going to summarize Google’s take on link architecture and try to make it relevant for geotargeted Texas websites like yours.

According to Google, here are the most important aspects of link architecture:

• Intuitive navigation
• Crawlable links
• Descriptive anchor text
• Sitemap submission

Here’s the word on each of these link architecture basics as they relate to Texas-based geotargeted SEO:

Intuitive Navigation

Intuitive navigation simply means that your site users find what they are looking for easily. If you have a website devoted to teaching football fundamentals, don’t put tackling under the offensive maneuvers menu item. That wouldn’t make sense. Anyone who knows the basics of football would look for information on tackling under defensive maneuvers.

So the basic principle for your link architecture involves linking pages logically so that they fit according to common perceptions that your site visitors will have regarding the information you share.

Crawlable links

A crawlable link is an link the search engines will find useful. using rel=”nofollow” tags will not help you as you are essentially telling the search engines not to crawl those links. You’ll also want to stay away from php, dynamic, and Flash navigation menus. A good, crawlable link is one that uses basic HTML code and doesn’t require mouse actions in order for the user to activate the link. Search engines cannot use drop down menus so stay away from those types of navigational structures.

Descriptive anchor text

Descriptive anchor text is the text that you use to link from page to page. The linked text should tell human visitors what to expect on the next page and it should be crawlable by the search engines. For instance, if your website is about Texas high school football teams then make your links the names of the high school and their mascots. That is descriptive for both the search engines and your human visitors.

Sitemap submissions

Sitemaps are the least important of the link architecture items on Google’s list. If your site is small, say 20 pages or less, then you may not need a sitemap. Larger sites require them more than smaller sites. If you set up your link architecture correctly in the first place then you can get away without a sitemap. The key is to make your website crawlable and if you stay away from dynamic navigation menus, use HTML code instead of Flash or PHP, use descriptive anchor text and crawlable links then you will do far more to make your website search engine friendly than you’ll ever do with a sitemap.

Texas Cowboys Are People Too

What does any of this have to do with cowboys? Well, maverick or not, you are still human. I know Texans like to feel special, and in many ways you are, but SEO is SEO. The same rules and principles apply to the cowboys as applies to every one else. Search bots can’t see your cowboy hat, but they can see your link architecture.

Geotargeting is the process of SEOing your site for a specific geographical area, be it Texas or a specific community like Dallas. Your anchor text can play a part in that geotargeting. Not only should you use anchor text for your industry-related key terms, but you should also have a few geotargeted anchor text phrases in there as well. That will increase your geotargeted link structure and if you combine the industry-related key terms with the geotargeted key terms for your descriptive anchor text then you’ll hit the power button on both fronts.

It’s time to don the attire of search engine reality and build a crawlable website that both Google and Aunt Mae will love. Link architecture is the key to doing that successfully.