SEO Tip: The Power of Cross-Linking

Many engines tend to score keywords found in the hyperlink text higher than words appearing in the body area. Even more helpful is to have links containing keywords that link to your page from other domain names. Therefore, you may wish to consider logically dividing your content across more than one domain name and then cross-linking the sites using keywords in each hyper-link.

Make sure each domain name has its own IP address and preferably is in a completely separate IP address range. One way to ensure this is to host each domain name with a separate hosting service.

You must also make sure that each domain has multiple pages on it, preferably no fewer than five pages. Search engines do not like to see Web sites with very little content.

Group your pages by topic or "theme." Some search engines prefer to see a common theme to a Web site. If they can establish one, then keywords falling into that theme are more likely to be ranked higher.

Lastly, it's a good idea to create your page names based on your best keywords. That way you'll score a little higher for the search engine that indexes the page name portion of the link tag. However, avoid using names like "digital-cameras-for-google.htm." Search engines naturally become suspicious of pages that are optimized for a particular search engine. To avoid calling unnecessary attention to yourself, use a more subtle type of coding system to identify pages that you may have fine-tuned for a particular search engine.

This article is copyrighted and has been reprinted with permission from FirstPlace Software, the makers of WebPosition Gold. FirstPlace Software helped define the SEO industry with the introduction of the first product to track your rankings on the major search engines and to help you improve those rankings. A free trial of WebPosition Gold is available from their Web site.

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