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Am I trying to rank my post or the whole homepage?
bigarsenalbear
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28 Oct 11 8:44 pm

Am I trying to rank my post or the whole homepage?

Hi there,

I've asked a similar question before but this has been bugging me for a while and I'd like to get it sorted it out once and for all!

Background - I have a wordpress.com blog with about 7 posts on the homepage, and 3-4 other pages.

The top post (the one at the top) on my homepage is the one that I want to drive traffic to (as it contains a product review and affiliate links).

So my questions are:

(1) Does Google rank my whole homepage? Or each post?

And if it's really the top post I want to get traffic to, and, if Google ranks individual posts, does that mean I should build my links to the top post? (rather than to the homepage as a whole?)

I mean my homepage url is:

(a) www.mydomain.com

and the url of the topmost post is

(b) www.mydomain.com/my-first-post

If it's the post that I want to convert people on, should I build my links to (b) rather than (a)?

Best

Adam
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newstart
Posts: 194
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29 Oct 11 12:15 am

 Each of your posts should be written around a keyword or keyword phrase. As such each post will draw visitors searching for that specific key word (keyword phrase). You need to build backlinks to each post so that each individual post can produce traffic to your blog.

Each post should be monetized with a call to action for a product. The product chosen should fulfill the need that the post answers through your post. Thereby each post has the ability to convert sales.

All posts / pages should have backlinks built to them. Your primary method of building backlinks is through article marketing. Your unique articles will be published by other blogs as well as sites such as Go Articles or Ezine Articles.

Secondarily your effort should be tied around producing traffic to your site through social networks and forums. Your activity on forums provides your site with attention that will drive traffic to your website. Your comments on the forums should provide value to the other forum members. As you build a relationship with the members the members will have a greater likelihood of visiting your website.

Matt Carter a couple of years ago created a product titled "Backlink BluePrint". This product is excellent for teaching the basics activities required to build backlinks as well as traffic to your website.

Matt Carter has recently opended a service called SEO Experts Academy. I have barely began this program. The lessons taught are excellent cutting-edge techniques.

Act today. Corrections can be made down the road. Start with article marketing.

Margene Smith
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heavysm
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29 Oct 11 12:19 am

 Build links to both. I personally like my homepage to have more links than other pages of my site since its the focal point of the site. Your pr or pagerank can affect any page on your site, it isn't just the homepage. I have had a homepage for one of my sites get pr 2 while a post of my site got pr 1.

But if you want people to see your post rather than your homepage you should concentrate links on that page of your site, namely this one: www.mydomain.com/my-first-post
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bigarsenalbear
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29 Oct 11 8:30 am

 Thanks Margene and Thanks heavysm.

I wish I'd known this earlier - I built all my links just to www.mydomain.com rather than to www.mydomain.com/my-first-post

I will start to build some to the individual posts from now on!
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Site Admin
michellerana
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29 Oct 11 9:44 am

 Select one post to be your homepage so that not all of your posts are listed on your site's first page. That way, you'll be able to optimize it to a specific keyword.

To set a particular post as your homepage, please go to Appearance > Theme Options and then, on the Whole Page tab, look for Choose a Homepage. Click on the dropdown and then select a post for your homepage and save the changes.

A welcome page would make a good homepage. It's a good way to introduce your site and develop a relationship with your visitors so that they will trust your opinion and be more receptive to receiving offers.
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Michelle
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bigarsenalbear
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29 Oct 11 1:48 pm

 Hi Michelle - thanks for the advice.

Is there any real disadvantage to having multiple posts on the homepage, and then backlinking to a particular post on that page? (namely the one I want to rank at the top of the search engines)

Adam

P.S. This is assuming that Google ranks posts (and not just pages) - can you or anyone else confirm or disconfirm this?
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jpastorizo
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31 Oct 11 7:45 pm

 Hi Adam,

There's a link ratio I've read somewhere in the past. It said that 20% of your links must point to your homepage and the rest will be to your internal pages. The reason being is that the homepage can only go so far as to giving the real searchers the exact information they need.

For example, if you have a weight loss website and maybe your main keyword for your site is "how to lose weight". Although this keyword is considered a long tail and it might get a lot of searches per month (I didnt check so Im not sure), the content on your homepage mainly talks about "how to lose weight" in general. Now if you have a post about "how to lose weight during a pregnancy" then you will build links to it with the anchor text "how to lose weight during a pregnancy" in order for that post to get top search engine rankings and get highly targeted visitors. It doesnt make sense to build links to your homepage when your main content targeting your right audience is in your post.

It is always better to build links to your internal pages anyway, because it is easier to rank for 2nd tier keywords (long tail, low comp, low traffic). Once you start ranking your internal pages, they should slowly get some PR. And once this happens, it's time to go after your main keywords. It will then be easier for you to rank your home page because of all the internal linking within your site (you have to have a silo'ed structure). And because your internal pages have gained PR it will help boost your homepage.

Hope this helps.


Regards,
Jon
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bigarsenalbear
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31 Oct 11 9:03 pm

 Hi Jon,

Thanks for posting such a thoughtful and detailed reply!

I've started to link to my posts now. What's been confusing (for me) for so long is the fact that on a wordpress blog, the home page also has posts on it. So there's post/page ambiguity.

I'd been linking to my homepage, which obviously has the same content on it as the top post (since the homepage contains the post).

I assumed I was optimizing the whole page. Now I'm starting to get the impression I should focus on the posts themselves.

I don't know if it really counts as an "internal page" though (?) I mean sure the top post's url is longer and has forward slashes etc. but it's still on the homepage.

Anyway, thanks!

Adam
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jpastorizo
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31 Oct 11 10:14 pm

 Hi Adam,

That's one setting of a wordpress site. You can set it in such a way that the home page is the only one showing and then just have a separate page for the blog posts.

Anyway, the post might show on the homepage and if you have a well optimized homepage then you will get your visitors to go to your post just below the homepage. However, these visitors will not be as targeted as the ones that found your post through your search engine ranking specifically for that post.



Regards,
Jon
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bigarsenalbear
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01 Nov 11 9:07 am

 Hi again Jon,

Thanks for that. I was getting confused because people were saying "optimize the page" but it seemed to me that it was each post that needed optimizing.

Especially if Google ranks individual posts.

Like on my current homepage (setting), with 10 posts. Suppose each post targets a different keyword, then presumably I need to optimize each post for that keyword, which would (I suppose) mean
- making the title tags, H1 tag, H2 tag etc, include keyword
- building links to that specific post with keyword as anchor text

Am I right in thinking that I should aim to rank each post, rather than the homepage itself (given that it currently has 10 posts on it)?

thanks again for your help!

Adam
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jpastorizo
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01 Nov 11 3:53 pm

 Yes. That is correct Adam. That is how I will do it. And like what I've said, your posts pages will eventually rank in the SEs and have page rank. Then you will have a fun time going after a more competitive keyword for your homepage.

Dont be confused with the whole seo stuff other people are saying. You will hear a lot of different strategies from different people but always think for yourself if the strategy somehow makes sense and then test on your own. Soon enough you will have your own way of doing seo that gets results. They say: "There's more than 9 ways to skin a cat". I say: There's more than 9 ways to rank your site!

Hope this helps.


Regards,
Jon
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bigarsenalbear
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01 Nov 11 4:47 pm

 First of all, thank you very much for taking the time to help me learn. I really appreciate it, Jon. I find that all the affilorama team are extremely helpful.

So I will start trying to rank each post (rather than the homepage as a whole). I've seen different options:

(i) Make one post the homepage (so that even though it's a wordpress blog the homepage has only one post, which is more or less like a static page)

(ii) Have a homepage with loads of post and try to rank the whole page

(iii) Have a homepage with multiple posts and try to rank each post

If I go for (iii) and try to rank each post, the presumably I don't need to think about optimizing the homepage as a whole.

So when people say "optimize the title tag, the H1 tag, the H2 tag" I can take that to mean in the post rather than on the homepage

Thanks again for your help!
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Moderator
jpastorizo
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01 Nov 11 7:07 pm

 You are welcome Adam. Just post your questions here in Affilorama whenever you're not sure of anything. Although I'm not an expert in anyway nor do I claim to be one, I always enjoy sharing what I've learned.

As for your statement:
bigarsenalbear wrote:So when people say "optimize the title tag, the H1 tag, the H2 tag" I can take that to mean in the post rather than on the homepage!


Yes, you will have to put your target keyword in your title tag, H tags and description. You have several good options for free SEO plugins. You can get the All-in-One SEO, Platinum SEO or SEO Ultimate. Platinum SEO is simple to use just like All-in-One SEO, although I've been using Platinum SEO quite a bit.

Just recently I tried SEO Ultimate, which has way more options than the previous two plugins I mentioned. However, if you're pretty new to all this SEO stuff I will recommend going with the simpler plugins rather than the SEO Ultimate as you might just get confused with all the options.



Regards,
Jon
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bigarsenalbear
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01 Nov 11 7:59 pm

 Thanks for all the advice Jon. I am sticking with all-in-one seo and will take on board your tips!

Hope everything is going well for you personally as well,

Adam
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onlycubs
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15 Nov 11 7:02 pm

 you just comments posting forum posting or article submission eith that particular keywords
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