Blogs, Keywords, and Yahoo SEO
I was doing research again yesterday on my Yahoo SEO project, and noted how much of the top results are big sites with lots and lots of pages/blog posts. My largest site looks itty-bitty next to these sites. It’s not that I’m not trying – heck no, I post to my blog almost every day twice a day. Seeing those other sites just made me realize I can’t STOP doing that any time soon. It’s going to take me some time, but as long as I keep posting I’ll get there.
The other thing I noticed on the top results of Yahoo was high amounts of incoming links, most coming from internal pages on the site. Does it really make a difference, or is it just because of the size of the site? I don’t know. I’m still studying Yahoo, so all my “theories” are just guesses.
One thing I know can’t hurt is to add keyword rich blog posts, including links to same-topic pages on the main part of the site. I figured by doing this I could be doing one or all of the following:
- Adding pages to the site as a whole
- Adding internal incoming links
- Adding relevancy to the topic and current keyword phrases
- Adding extra “search result doorways” with different keyword phrases
Let me go back to that “relevancy” point real quick and explain what I mean. It’s possible Yahoo may be using relevancy as part of their ranking (again, just guessing here). Niche sites seem to rank well despite their lack of links and size. But the focus of the entire site is on the topic being searched for. Making the page that appears hold a lot more weight that a site with only one page on the topic.
For example, let’s say I’m searching for blue widgets. Site A is all about blue widgets of all shapes and sizes, but lacks links and is not a large site. Site B has a single page about blue widgets, with the rest of the site on something total different from widgets. But site B is a HUGE site, with over a million pages. Both show up in the search results for “blue widgets”. Even though site A is a baby site, it’s relevancy to the topic is very, very high.
So my theory is, the more pages you have focused on a given topic, the better you will rank in Yahoo (and Google to an extent, but it doesn’t seem to be as important as Yahoo). Which would explain why my site is doing so horrible in Yahoo right now. It’s not a huge site, and I have several topics I focus on. Granted they all have one thing in common (they are targeted towards moms), but Yahoo sees them as unrelated topics. Recipes and birthday party ideas are two different things, thus the relevancy of the site is split. So blogging on topics directly related to things on the site I’m hoping will add relevancy to the focused topics. My thinking is, the more pages on specific topics the better.
I did some searching on keyword phrases yesterday, and was pretty surprised what I found. Those of you that search for keyword phrases for pages should take notice here. When I searched on terms I was using for one main page, I found lots of smaller more specific terms. Granted they were too small and too specific for a page on my site, but not for a blog post! I wrote down all those keywords, and now have topics for 20 new blog posts, and 2 new pages. Yes you read right – TWENTY. I’ll be keeping busy!
Again let me stress these are only theories. Yes I’ve seen a few others with the same theories, but they are still just a guess. My plans to blog are based on these theories yes, although they are for sure going to help in SOME way. Blogging is NEVER a waste of time or bad idea. 
Your fellow WAHM in success,
Kara
Topics: Business Stuff | 3 Comments »
January 15th, 2008 at 10:44 am
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January 15th, 2008 at 11:00 am
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January 17th, 2008 at 8:44 am
You got a nice observation on how Yahoo plays with search engine rankings. I agree that the more specific your site’s topics are (i.e., a niche), the more it weighs. I also second you that blogging is not a waste of time or a bad idea. It’s simply fun and brings a lot of learning — and socialization.