Google and PHP

[timhysniu]

Hi there,

I am new to all this optimization thing.
Yahoo and a few other search engines are finally showing my site and this is good. Google, however, won't do it.

So, I read a few tutorials and a bunch of messages and I realize that there are a few potential problems that I might have:
- My site is dynamic and it is using sessions. I could remove the sessions for now because it's not that important. Will that improve anything?
- Site is all written in PHP. Is this a problem for search engines. Do they just like html files or is PHP ok too? My site is a local forum so basically all of it is PHP.

Also, can someone suggest me a way to get backlinks. I hear this all the time and I'm not sure if I understand it correctly. I know I can get a few ie. partners to link to my site. But is there any other way of getting backlinks. Can you give me an example of how this is done?
What I'm thinking is that these links that are linking to my site might make my site rank higher. However, a funny thing happens often; usually the search keywords I'm using for my site will bring up the sites that are backlinking to me. hmm, thats no good?

Any feedback for an amateur?

Thanks so much

tim

[jewboy]

Hello SEO Newbie:

Step 1: I recommend adding your site's URL to your signature here on DaniWeb, so we can diagnose the problem you address. You will also get a free backlink that is crawlable, and will increase your link popularity!

Next: Google, Yahoo, MSN, and Ask can read and index your PHP files. Kudos for programming in PHP!

Yahoo and the 2nd/3rd tier engines usually will include your site in their index before Google, so don't worry :) - it often takes time for inclusion into Google. It can take months in many cases.

Surely your site has static pages as well. Are they indexed yet?

If your site is dynamic and uses sessions, I strongly recommend you rewrite your URL's. If you are using Apache, you use "mod_rewrite". If you are using Microsoft, use "IIS rewrite". There is no shortage of quality content on this topic.

Before you even think about off site link building, make sure that your site has a solid internal linking structure. Avoid Javascript links. A good site map can be a strong page that will solidify your internal link structure.

External link building is an area of SEO/SEM that is often the most challenging. The more commercial your product/service, the more difficult it becomes.

The first rule of thumb is to offer free quality content on your site, so that other sites will naturally link to you. But this won't happen until they know you exist.

Thus you should start by submitting your site to a few directories to get traffic and and targetted IBL's.

Use PPC to drive traffic to your new site! I cannot think of a more efficient way to market a new site on the web. You can start with as little as $5. Let your target audience know you exist!

I recommend you don't overagressively build links at first, since your site is new. This may trigger red flags in the search engine algorithms. Do not go out and buy text links with high PR, or sitewides - just yet! Start small. Buy on topic text link ads that are relevant, and inexpensive. Text link ads should serve the purpose of driving traffic and help you rank for your chosen anchor text (note that you will not rank for your anchor text for a few months at least). Make sure you use your keywords as the anchor text (the text that is hyperlinked to your page). Don't aim for the sky just yet by choosing high volume search words. Start with targeted phrases that are not very competitive. Work your way up over time.

Participate in blogs and forums, and link out to your site.

Locate targeted niche directories to submit your site to, as well as the some SEO friendly directories. I usually recommend a Yahoo directory listing for $299 / yr. DMOZ.org is free, but can take years for inclusion.

Stay away from off topic link exchanges! Only swap links with partners if the links you place on your site benefits your site's users!

Write articles with your hyperlink included. Submit your article to relevant sites. Many webmasters will jump to include your article if it is well written and on target to the site's audience.

There are many forums, web sites, ebooks, pdf's, and tutorials dedicated to link building. All the major search engine sites have lots of information relevant to this topic.

Good luck with your new site, and keep posting on DaniWeb.

[Cygnet_Info]

Hi,

Just make fresh content and relkevant to your content and get a proper seo suggestion for your page and get more back link for the particular keyword.

Regards

[Mr.'BackUp']

A tip to get relevant backlinks : go to google and type in the following "add url + toys" - keep the speech marks, replace toys with whatever your keyword(s) is , I just used that as an example. That will return websites that will allow you to 'add your url ' to their site / directory and thus providing you with a relevant 'backlink'. I personally wouldnt add my url to a site / directory that looked dodgy / had PR 0 or was greyed out on the google toolbar

[seo_expert]

Google is usually is the last one to index your website after all the SEs have visited your site.

To get your website indexed quickly, place a link to a website which is being indexed regularly. This way your site will also be indexed. The idea here is to do link building with quality and theme based website..Stay away from Link Networks or Link Farms. Mose so now after the latest Jagger updates..warns Matt Cutts.

Once your website is indexed (even if it is NOT), generate an Googlw XML site map and submit to Google. This way all your webpages will be indexed. This is a veru effective method of getting all pages of your website indexed.

PArticipates in lots of quality forums and do NOT forget to add your signature. But don't just join with this objective. :D

[lconvoy]

What about directories that have a high PR on the main page but a low or 0 PR on deeper pages that have the actual links on them....is it worth the link? Will the PR be transferred?

[stymiee]

What about directories that have a high PR on the main page but a low or 0 PR on deeper pages that have the actual links on them....is it worth the link? Will the PR be transferred?

The PR of the page is what matters. If the page your site is listed on has a PR of 1 and the home page has a PR of 9, you still only get a small part of that PR1.

[newonlineinfo]

Hi there,

I am new to all this optimization thing.
Yahoo and a few other search engines are finally showing my site and this is good. Google, however, won't do it.

So, I read a few tutorials and a bunch of messages and I realize that there are a few potential problems that I might have:
- My site is dynamic and it is using sessions. I could remove the sessions for now because it's not that important. Will that improve anything?
- Site is all written in PHP. Is this a problem for search engines. Do they just like html files or is PHP ok too? My site is a local forum so basically all of it is PHP.

Also, can someone suggest me a way to get backlinks. I hear this all the time and I'm not sure if I understand it correctly. I know I can get a few ie. partners to link to my site. But is there any other way of getting backlinks. Can you give me an example of how this is done?
What I'm thinking is that these links that are linking to my site might make my site rank higher. However, a funny thing happens often; usually the search keywords I'm using for my site will bring up the sites that are backlinking to me. hmm, thats no good?

Any feedback for an amateur?

Thanks so much

tim

Hi,

Contact me if you need any help regarding this. I have good experience in this work :mrgreen:

[lconvoy]

That's what I thought. So in your opinion is there any value in getting this backlink from an SEO point of view? I.E. Down the road the PR of that page may improve vs. the structure of the site is poor so there is never a chance of the PR improving.

[lconvoy]

The PR of the page is what matters. If the page your site is listed on has a PR of 1 and the home page has a PR of 9, you still only get a small part of that PR1.

That's what I thought. So in your opinion is there any value in getting this backlink from an SEO point of view? I.E. Down the road the PR of that page may improve vs. the structure of the site is poor so there is never a chance of the PR improving.[/

[stymiee]

That's what I thought. So in your opinion is there any value in getting this backlink from an SEO point of view? I.E. Down the road the PR of that page may improve vs. the structure of the site is poor so there is never a chance of the PR improving.[/

Definitely. It is still a link with good anchor text (I am assuming) and also on an on-topic page (also an assumption). Plus its PR may go up in the future like you said.

[newonlineinfo]

Definitely. It is still a link with good anchor text (I am assuming) and also on an on-topic page (also an assumption). Plus its PR may go up in the future like you said.

Hi,

Yes, you are 100% correct :)

[lconvoy]

Definitely. It is still a link with good anchor text (I am assuming) and also on an on-topic page (also an assumption). Plus its PR may go up in the future like you said.

Thanks much. I guess that means on with the submissions...Can you offer any recomendations when it comes to software or tools for directory submission? I'm disappointed in many tools that have a static list of directories that they update periodically and don't have a good way of manually adding directories on your own to keep track of.

[stymiee]

Thanks much. I guess that means on with the submissions...Can you offer any recomendations when it comes to software or tools for directory submission? I'm disappointed in many tools that have a static list of directories that they update periodically and don't have a good way of manually adding directories on your own to keep track of.

Don't use software for directory submissions. They suck.

Firefox has a couple of extensions that make manual submitting easier.

InFormEnter: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/673/
This is the one that makes the biggest difference. It lets you fill in form fields in seconds.

Clippings: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1347/
InFormEnter can only hold so much text. This one can hold much longer text (like for a description of your website).

Combined, these two should cut down on the time it takes to submit a website by at least 80%.

[timhysniu]

PArticipates in lots of quality forums and do NOT forget to add your signature. But don't just join with this objective. :D

This is something I dont understand very well when it comes to writing content and making use of them for SEO.

Can you explain how does adding your signature help with SEO? (I am assuming this is not a a backlink since most URL's are removed by moderators/admins in most sites)

Thanks
tim

[stymiee]

Most forums allow you to link to your own websites and advertise them in your signatures. Daniweb is one such forum.

[lconvoy]

Hi,

Yes, you are 100% correct :)

Article in SiteProNews today contradicts this. Author suggests not to submit to directory with 0 PR on home page. He is going to write another article about checking the directory page
http://www.sitepronews.com/

[stymiee]

Article in SiteProNews today contradicts this. Author suggests not to submit to directory with 0 PR on home page. He is going to write another article about checking the directory page
http://www.sitepronews.com/

That's just bad advice. Period. The fact that he is using PR as his measuring stick is awful.

[lconvoy]

That's just bad advice. Period. The fact that he is using PR as his measuring stick is awful.

Did you read the article?

Also, out of curiosity, what do you suggest as a good number of directories to submit to?

[stymiee]

Did you read the article?

Didn't need to. There's no such thing as a bad incoming link. Some may be worthless, but they're never bad.

Also, out of curiosity, what do you suggest as a good number of directories to submit to?

As many as you can humanly do.

[timhysniu]

Most forums allow you to link to your own websites and advertise them in your signatures. Daniweb is one such forum.

I guess I understand 'having URL' on your signature, but not 'having just a plain text signature'.

but I thought DaniWeb snipes URL's :)
Or if not DaniWeb, I had another site remove my signature; they kept the article of course. And this was just a curiosity article that I had written before. So I guess you're at the mercy of admins? Kind of. Or maybe there are reputable sites that officially allow URL signatures and have good popularity.