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Promoting Your Site

I've never actually tried to increase my rankings, I've just been at it so long (since 1997) and it just happens that my old-skool style of site ranks well. I get around a million hits a month throughout my empire, mostly through google. Low-tech and link-intensive sites like mine are google-candy :)

Basically the points to get ranking are:

• Sincere content - no attempts to stack keywords or anything.
• Lots of text. eg, put reviews of products and businesses you recommend, including links to any sites, MySpaces etc
• Relevant cross-links with well-ranking and long-established sites.
• No frames. Frames are EVIL.
• No Flash. If you really want Flash (or embedded video, audio etc) just think of them as added optional extras that aren't key to how the site operates, and that aren't important to google.
• No dynamic data-base driven content - it's invisible to google. Like Flash, if you've got to have it, then just try to compensate by having enough other content that IS seen by google.
• The simpler the html, the better. I use all tables, no layers, no CSS. Makes it harder to change the look of the site, but operationally it's more stable and google-friendly.
• Use MySpace and YouTube as bait. Their traffic is huge and you can network there to point people to your 'real' site.
• Give something away for free. eg Funky wallpapers with your url subtly branded. I think that was a big part of making http://fork-you.com rank so well.
• If you're a local business, mention your service area regularly throughout your site.

I never actually even bother asking for link-backs from other sites, although often sites see traffic coming from me and then put a link-back (as they know it will help their own ranking too). The standard etiquette is to put a link on your own site then email the target site with a personal, specific suck-up about their site or their company and tell them you've added a link and perhaps hint you'd appreciate a reciprocal.

I get emails every day asking to add links and I never add them, since 99% of the time, they have the "you go first" approach - and with my traffic, why should I bother? Whereas if we work with a business or a band or whatever and we like them, we automatically add links on our sites, eg http://VJzoo.com. A number of acts we've worked with get tracked down through our site, since their own are silly Flash sites or whatever with forgettable urls that are impossible to find. I consider links to businesses etc that we trust are added content for our site - and I use the links myself, more portable than bookmarking on one computer :)

Summary - this site is currently in the process of being transferred from http://retrokat.com/rescue/

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