There’s an interesting discussion on Google Groups this last week talking about “How can you tell if a website is being penalized?” in terms of page rank for searches on Google. The conversation includes a lot of great pointers for SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and other purposes as well as telling if you think your website isn’t searching as well (or as high) as you’d like it.
One metric being touted to see if you’re being penalized which has been re-blogged a couple of places (including here and here) involves AboutUs:
If aboutus.org outranks you for your domain name, you’ve got problems and it probably has something to do with links, how you manipulated them, got them, or distributed them.
Simply put, the idea is if you search in Google for your domain name and the AboutUs.org Wiki Page article is higher in the search ranks you’re being penalized somehow. In our experience, this is a bit of a misnomer, mostly because we think “penalized” is too harsh of a term. It’s just as likely that the robotic spiders and algorithms Google uses to rank search terms can’t understand your website. A few simple SEO tricks can solve this and get you, rightfully, above AboutUs for your domain search.
Here are a few tips/thoughts we’ve found that can help:
• Fixing SEO for Flash-based sites – As noted in this comment, one thing we see often is this happening for websites that are entirely Flash-based. Because Google’s spiders love original content but don’t know how to read Flash-content well, often Google ranks Flash pages lower than AboutUs.org. One solution is to make sure your website includes text and HTML elements (including metatags as well as original text content) that the spiders can interpret in addition to (or to the exclusion of) the Flash-content. Doing a Google search for “SEO” and “Flash” pulls up a veritable bounty of SEO firms and websites with more pointers on this.
• Have great links – A good linking structure for your website can be instrumental in how well Google ranks you. Do you have deep rich links to a variety of websites that also link to you? It might seem counter-intuitive, but having a link to the AboutUs Wiki article for your domain is a good place to start if you don’t have a lot of other deep links.
Because we are a vast website with millions of pages on good original content and information Google ranks us well, you can benefit by having a direct link on your website to that page. A suggestion would be to place an AboutUs Badge in a prominent place on your website, like in the sidebar or footer.
• Build out that great AboutUs article – We don’t want this to sound too much like a promotional post, but it is true that AboutUs offers a place for over 7 million visitors a month that attracts attention to your website and offerings AND increases traffic and search engine hits. Building out a solid AboutUs article (combined with a badge on your website) links your domain to our great search ranking.
• Content is king – It can’t be said enough, the best thing you can do on your website is build out great original content that Google’s spiders will find. Do a search for “SEO” on Google and you’ll see this is foremost on getting noticed by Google.
At AboutUs.org, we certainly don’t want to co-opt your domain’s place in the Google rankings; we’re more than happy being a resource that supports your website or organization’s messaging and outreach. As always, if you have any questions on how AboutUs.org can collaboratively work with you to improve you’re website’s search ranking or outreach, please contact us.
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The trick, if there is such a thing, is variety. Make certain you collect a steady and varied collection of links