As you may know, your search engine rankings, largely depend on relevant, quality backlinks (related sites that link to you.)

However, when it comes to less competitive keywords (which make up the majority of my search engine traffic for all my sites), your content and other on-page criteria may have more influence in certain cases.

So it’s still important to make sure your pages are as optimized as possible, and this includes ensuring that your source code displays your main content as close to the top of the page as possible.

The problem is, most CSS templates (static websites and blogs) are not coded this way by default.  Check the source code of your site (right click and View Source on your page.)  If you have a left nav, I bet that content comes up before the main content.

Just to experiment, I changed Flat Stomach Exercises (my Site Build It! site) last August.  Now the content displays right after my header in my code.

Shortly after this change, my search engine traffic grew dramatically and I haven’t updated the content in over a year.  I also haven’t actively promoted this site in several years.

Coincidence?  Could be.  I’ll never know for sure.

It would be very irresponsible for me to assume this change was the sole reason.  Please read that last sentence again because the last thing I want to do is mislead you.

Nevertheless, why wouldn’t you want your content to appear as close to the top of the page if you understand how search engine bots read web pages. (They view the source code from top to bottom.)  To me, it just make sense to make this change.

This is especially true for those of you with long, busy navigations with a lot of links, ads, etc.

And even if it only moves your pages up a few spots in the rankings, multiply that impact by hundreds or even thousands of different keyword phrases your site gets found for every month. Think about it.

This tip is probably not going to impact your rank for most competitive keywords, but could have the greatest impact on long-tail (less competitive) keywords. I don’t know about you, but long-tail keywords make up the majority of my search engine traffic.

Watch the video below and tell me what you t

Can’t see the video?  Click to watch.

Good News for Thesis and Site Build It! Owners

If you own Thesis (blog) or SBI! (static website), both of their default templates code the content before the left navigation by default. There may be more themes/products out there that do this, but these are the ones I own so I can only speak on them.

The reason I had to change my SBI! site is because I use a template that I created from scratch.  So if you use the basic float: left attribute for your left nav (CSS sites), more than likely this is true for your site too.

When I registered 2CreateAWebSite.com back in January, 2002, it was all about using your “important” keywords in your domain for SEO. No question.

Since createawebsite.com was already taken, I simply put the “2″ in front.  At the time, it was a no-brainer — anything to get those all-important keywords in my domain.

For the first couple of years, no doubt it was helpful for SEO, but as the Net matured, it became less about the keywords in your domain and more about content and link popularity.

I’m not saying to forgo using your important keywords in your domain. They are still somewhat important. I’m just saying it is not as important to squeeze every major keyword in your domain for maximum SE traffic.

Here’s an example.  Search for create a website on Google. The number one ranked site is weebly.com.  There’s not a website-related keyword to be found in that domain name.

However, they are ranked #1 because they are popular and people use keywords related to creating a website to describe the site. So it earns a top ranking for that phrase even though they don’t use “create a website” in the domain.

Don’t Feel Too Sorry.

I’m not complaining.  I’ve had a tremendous amount of success with my site, regardless of the name.  But if I could do it all over again…

1) I would not use a number. It confuses people. When verbally telling people my domain name, they assume it’s “tocreateawebsite” and I always have to clarify it’s the number 2.

(Yes, tocreateawebsite is already taken — otherwise I’d buy and redirect.)

In addition, I’ve caught people misspelling my domain name in their write-ups.  Some forget to add the 2 altogether.  That is one reason I wanted my new logo to emphasize the “2″.

2) I would choose a shorter name. Shorter names are easier to read and remember.  Plus, you don’t run into spacing issues when using it on various websites, business cards, logos, etc.

The funny thing is, people register similar variations of my name (with the “2″, same keywords, etc.) because they assume that is the key to my traffic.  Once upon a time it was, but these days it’s more about content and quality inbound links.

Yes, having your important keywords may help with SEO, but only to a point.  I don’t think it’s worth making your domain name awkwardly long just to get all your important keywords in it.

If you become popular in your niche, you can still earn top rankings for important keywords.  Search engines see the big picture, which means they factor in your content and inbound links too.  Gone are the days where the domain matters most.

How about you?  Do you regret anything about your domain name? Would you do anything differently today?

There’s been a lot of buzz about the value of directory submissions on my forum, so I thought I’d do a video that gives my opinion on this topic.

If you’re reading this post via an RSS reader or email, click this link to view the video on my blog.

Here’s the link to Matt Cutt’s video that I mention in the video where he discusses what Google thinks of directory submissions.

What is your ritual for creating a web page to rank high in the search engines?  Do you spend time counting the keywords in your meta tags?

Do you obsess over the number of outbound links you have, thinking they might be hurting you in some way?  Do you copy your competitor’s meta tags hoping you can steal their rankings?

Maybe you’re puzzled by the lack of traffic you’ve been able to receive from popular search engines like Google and Yahoo.

If any of this sounds like your SEO habits, you’ll want to watch this video…

Sad but true, many Webmasters still stuff the keyword meta tag and stress over how many (or which) words to use.

Most search engines don’t even read this tag anymore so it certainly does nothing for your search engine rank (at least for the search engines that really count.)

I know some people will disagree, but from my own testing, I’ve seen no proof it has weight anymore. In fact, I haven’t for years.

I found a newer page on my site where I neglected to add the keyword tag. Yet the page ranks #1 on Google for the main keyword phrase I was targeting and several variations of it.

So Should You Use The Keyword Tag?

It certainly is not going to hurt you. And many believe contextual ad networks like AdSense and YPN may use it to help serve relevant ads on your pages. That makes sense, so no need to completely abandon it.

But if you’re expecting miracles in your rankings just because of it, you’re fooling yourself.

The days of keyword stuffing and meta tag optimizing are long gone. Write enticing meta titles and descriptions to encourage clicks in the natural results, but don’t waste your time coming up with a zillion keywords and variations.

Who knows… these days you could even get penalized for that. I certainly wouldn’t be surprised.

Long-term SEO is about building useful content, acquiring good backlinks and building a fan base who trusts and likes you. Forget those old school techniques and focus more on your writing, and marketing.

If more Webmasters took that keyword-selection energy and channeled it toward writing better content, imagine the results, eh?

People love and reward well-written websites that offer value.

And as a result…

So will the search engines.

People often stress over domain name choice because they worry if they choose a certain name, they’ll only be found for the keywords in that domain and nothing else.

While the domain name is important for branding, letting people know what your site is about etc., don’t stress over getting every “important” keyword in the domain for fear of alienating other phrases.

If there are secondary keyword phrases related to your main theme you’d like to rank for, then you can still target them by publishing other articles that focus on these words.

The search engines are getting smarter. They don’t just rely on your domain name and meta tags to determine where your site will rank for certain keywords.

(That is soooooo 1999.)

They look at the complete picture. The content of your homepage, additional pages, how often your content is updated and more importantly off-page criteria all play a role.

In fact, off-page criteria has become a much more important factor in how your pages will rank.

What is Off-Page Criteria?

In other words, how other sites link to you is far more important than how many times you mention your main keyword in your body, meta tags, etc. (Also called backlinks or inbound links.)

So you could list “blue widgets” in your meta tags 3 times, mention the phrase 20 times on your homepage and even choose the domain blue-widget-101.com.

However, if there are no quality sites linking to you using “blue widgets” in their link title or description, then it’s going to be hard for the search engines to deem your site popular for that phrase.

When you see a site at the top of Google for a particular phrase, a big part of that is the number of related sites who have voted for them by giving them a complimentary link.

How Do You Get Complimentary Links?

If you want to simplify it, it really comes down to how useful and interesting your site is to your target audience… plain and simple.

People generally link to sites they find useful, informative, unique, or entertaining, and in some cases, all (or some) of the above.

Look at your site through the eyes of other Webmasters? Why would they want to link to you? Does it offer something fresh and unique or is it just like all the other sites in your niche?

Every time a site in your niche links to you, that is considered a vote for your site. And the more votes you have over time, the more popular your site will be according to the search engines.

And links coming from related sites that are already “popular” in Google’s eyes are even more credible.

Sure, your body content, title tags and other on-page criteria still play a role, but Google (and other engines) are much more interested with how others describe and link to your site.

Continue to follow the basic meta tag guidelines on every page (check selfpromotion.com), but don’t get caught up in all the tweaking and keyword placement to try to please Google and every other engine out there.

Don’t write for the engines. Write to please humans.

And if they like your site, chances are, the search engines will follow.

Literally.

Get it?