Using tags in web 2.0 sites
- SEO |
Hi all,
I thought I'd knock out an article about tags today.
You should really consider using tags more in your web 2.0 promotions.
Lots of people I speak with have no real idea on how to use tags, other than figuring that they may need them and that they could be handy.
Well, they are all that and a lot more!
Here is just a few uses.
But first, a definition.
Tags are really just keyword phrases, or categories, and they can provide an excellent link to your websites (yes an internal link, but it can still be powerful).
If you start looking at existing tags for popular sites like wordpress.com and squidoo.com, it's not hard to find tag pages with decent pagerank.
For example check out wordpress.com/tag/law-of-attraction
The page has a pagerank of 5. And pretty much all it contains is links to websites on wordpress.com that use that particular tag.
But don't get too excited (at least not with wordpress.com). These pages are nofollow's so you won't get any of the link juice from them.
But many other web 2.0 sites have tag pages like this that are dofollow. So it's an easy link to your website for some lovely link juice if you take the time to find them.
Another great advantage of tag pages like these are that they often rank really well on their own accord in SERP's.
As an example, do a search for mind movie creation kit in google.
position 7, page 1 for me comes up with
wordpress.com/tag/mind-movie-creation-kit/
Not bad. A tag page with no real content,just links ranking on page 1.
Sure it's not that competitive a search phrase, but I've seen tag pages ranking for far more competitive keywords.
Want a quick indirect link from a page 1 website? In the case above, just use the tag mind-movie-creation-kit, on a wordpress.com page and blam you're linked.
How do you choose your tag?
Well do the obvious ones (your major keywords, a couple of secondary ones), but also go out and take a look and see what people are using. But be sure to have a think of some extra ones.
In the case of wordpress.com if you're the first to use a tag, you get a featured position at the top of the page (and will ALWAYS BE ON THE TOP). So your link NEVER goes off to page 2,3,4,etc when lots of people start using that tag.
This is a hidden trick for new affiliate promotion launches. If you hear about a new product coming out, go and put up a post on wordpress.com using that tag in preparation.
Then when you are ready to start promoting you will always be the first link on the page. And you will find they your competitors, who are themselves using this tag will actually be assisting you, because you're the first link on the page.
Remember every wordpress.com page using that tag links to that tag page, and it's a dofollow link. That's why the tag pages often rank so well. And of course the people using wordpress.com blogs are trying to rank their pages, so they are probably getting some backlinks to their page, etc.
All of this will assist you as the featured listing at the top of the page. So this is a case where you can truly say the more competitors the better
I've been using wordpress.com as an example here, but the principles apply to many other web 2.0 websites out there.
And the web 2.0 sites are getting smarter with tags now. Squidoo has always seemed to have understood tags, because it has an excellent tag suggestion tool when you create/edit a lens. It gives you popular related tags to use automatically.
This is becoming more relevant now that squidoo lens are dofollow again.
For many of the promotions I have been involved with, wordpress.com is right up there in terms of traffic sent to my money page.
squidoo is up there, but the sheer number of other links they put on your lens (pointing to other people's squidoo content) means you tend to lose a percentage of clicks. But certainly still worth using.
Tags also means it's possible to get ranked multiple times.
For example with a simple wordpress.com page, I can get ranked for the root url. e.g. myname.wordpress.com, and then the article myname.wordpress.com/2008/09/09/blah-blah-blah
And then if you are the only link (or the featured entry on the tags page) you might get ranked for
wordpress.com/tag/myname
and others.
I've had 4 entries on page 1 from wordpress.com alone using this simple little technique.
Finally, don't get too hung up whether the page is a dofollow or nofollow. This has no bearing on how it will rank in the search engines.
I'd still rather have a link from a page that is sitting on page 1 to my website, whether it is a dofollow or a nofollow.
I'd also like to have my other pages on page 1 as well. Can be a little off putting for other affiliates to try and break into a market if they see you controlling most of page 1.
In my experience the competition will try for a little while, and then move on and find another niche that looks to be "easier to crack".
In summary, do some research and start using tags, I think you will be pleasantly surprised by what you find and the results you can achieve.
Cheers
Tim
I thought I'd knock out an article about tags today.
You should really consider using tags more in your web 2.0 promotions.
Lots of people I speak with have no real idea on how to use tags, other than figuring that they may need them and that they could be handy.
Well, they are all that and a lot more!
Here is just a few uses.
But first, a definition.
Tags are really just keyword phrases, or categories, and they can provide an excellent link to your websites (yes an internal link, but it can still be powerful).
If you start looking at existing tags for popular sites like wordpress.com and squidoo.com, it's not hard to find tag pages with decent pagerank.
For example check out wordpress.com/tag/law-of-attraction
The page has a pagerank of 5. And pretty much all it contains is links to websites on wordpress.com that use that particular tag.
But don't get too excited (at least not with wordpress.com). These pages are nofollow's so you won't get any of the link juice from them.
But many other web 2.0 sites have tag pages like this that are dofollow. So it's an easy link to your website for some lovely link juice if you take the time to find them.
Another great advantage of tag pages like these are that they often rank really well on their own accord in SERP's.
As an example, do a search for mind movie creation kit in google.
position 7, page 1 for me comes up with
wordpress.com/tag/mind-movie-creation-kit/
Not bad. A tag page with no real content,just links ranking on page 1.
Sure it's not that competitive a search phrase, but I've seen tag pages ranking for far more competitive keywords.
Want a quick indirect link from a page 1 website? In the case above, just use the tag mind-movie-creation-kit, on a wordpress.com page and blam you're linked.
How do you choose your tag?
Well do the obvious ones (your major keywords, a couple of secondary ones), but also go out and take a look and see what people are using. But be sure to have a think of some extra ones.
In the case of wordpress.com if you're the first to use a tag, you get a featured position at the top of the page (and will ALWAYS BE ON THE TOP). So your link NEVER goes off to page 2,3,4,etc when lots of people start using that tag.
This is a hidden trick for new affiliate promotion launches. If you hear about a new product coming out, go and put up a post on wordpress.com using that tag in preparation.
Then when you are ready to start promoting you will always be the first link on the page. And you will find they your competitors, who are themselves using this tag will actually be assisting you, because you're the first link on the page.
Remember every wordpress.com page using that tag links to that tag page, and it's a dofollow link. That's why the tag pages often rank so well. And of course the people using wordpress.com blogs are trying to rank their pages, so they are probably getting some backlinks to their page, etc.
All of this will assist you as the featured listing at the top of the page. So this is a case where you can truly say the more competitors the better
I've been using wordpress.com as an example here, but the principles apply to many other web 2.0 websites out there.
And the web 2.0 sites are getting smarter with tags now. Squidoo has always seemed to have understood tags, because it has an excellent tag suggestion tool when you create/edit a lens. It gives you popular related tags to use automatically.
This is becoming more relevant now that squidoo lens are dofollow again.
For many of the promotions I have been involved with, wordpress.com is right up there in terms of traffic sent to my money page.
squidoo is up there, but the sheer number of other links they put on your lens (pointing to other people's squidoo content) means you tend to lose a percentage of clicks. But certainly still worth using.
Tags also means it's possible to get ranked multiple times.
For example with a simple wordpress.com page, I can get ranked for the root url. e.g. myname.wordpress.com, and then the article myname.wordpress.com/2008/09/09/blah-blah-blah
And then if you are the only link (or the featured entry on the tags page) you might get ranked for
wordpress.com/tag/myname
and others.
I've had 4 entries on page 1 from wordpress.com alone using this simple little technique.
Finally, don't get too hung up whether the page is a dofollow or nofollow. This has no bearing on how it will rank in the search engines.
I'd still rather have a link from a page that is sitting on page 1 to my website, whether it is a dofollow or a nofollow.
I'd also like to have my other pages on page 1 as well. Can be a little off putting for other affiliates to try and break into a market if they see you controlling most of page 1.
In my experience the competition will try for a little while, and then move on and find another niche that looks to be "easier to crack".
In summary, do some research and start using tags, I think you will be pleasantly surprised by what you find and the results you can achieve.
Cheers
Tim
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