Dan Cristo is a co-founder of Triberr and SEO gunslinger who has been working for elite brands for years. And last week he graciously took an hour out of his weekend to share some excellent Search Engine Optimization (SEO) expertise with the Triberr community.
15 SEO Tips from Dan Cristo
Dan Cristo is a SEO badass.
Not somebody who is generally knowledgable but a genuine SEO badass.
It’s All About Authority
Establish your authority. Write with authority. Don’t waste time with fluff pieces. Build authority through content, LOTS of content. Don’t have time to write? Pull in a few guest bloggers to help (something Dino Dogan does really effectively). Reach out to people you know and offer them an invitation. Check out sites like My Blog Guest. Ask around your tribe and/or bonfires.
Google Measures Authority by Backlinks
Good quality backlinks. Don’t focus on volume, focus on quality. Sites with .edu and .gov domains, Wikipedia, etc. are considered highly respectable.
Your Blog Authority
Your job is you prove to readers that you are an authority on a topic. Forget keywords, link building, etc. every article should reflect your authority. If Google feels your authority on a topic is high, you will rank higher than non-trusted websites.
Reciprocity Doesn’t Help
Engaging in link exchanges is a waste of time. Reciprocal links don’t help. Focus on one-way inbound links to your sites.
Mix up your anchor text links.
If every link to your site has the same anchor text it Google thinks you are trying to scam the system. Mixing it up looks more organic.
Use YOAST SEO Plugin
It’s the best one.
CommentLuv Backlinks Don’t Help
It may help generate some traffic (especially leaving comments on popular CommentLuv enabled sites) but the backlinks, even if tagged as dofollow, are largely invisible to Google.
Use rel=”author”
This tells Google what content you write. This also involves interlinking your site, content, and Google page profile (check the linked article for more information on how and why this makes sense).
Speed it Up
A slow loading site will annoy both your readers and Google. Remove slow loading images and start using W3TotalCache. Not sure how slow your site is? The YSlow Firefox plugin can help. High traffic sites may need to invest in a Content Delivery Network or CDN (you can find a list of free and for-fee CDNs here.) A CDN creates multiple copies of your content on servers around the globe so your content doesn’t have to travel as far to reach your site visitors.
Remove Unnecessary Graphics and Ads
The Panda Google update penalizes for ads. Look at the composition of your page (content, images, advertising, etc.). You want to have at LEAST 80:20 ratio of content to ads/images.
Link Location is Key
Links below the fold are far less beneficial. Links in the sidebar are totally ignored by Google.
Tools and SEO
Google’s Webmaster tool is not great for measuring backlinks. SeoMoz or Majestic SEO are better. The Google Keyword tool (via Adwords) is very inaccurate but all other tools USE Google so they’re no better. SEOQuake is a useful Firefox plugin to enable you to quickly see other sites SEO efforts and effectiveness.
Forget PageRank
The PageRank checking tools are all guessing at what Google perceives as your site rank or authority. Further they tend to be 6+ months out of date.
Images Pass Less Page Rank than Text
So all those blog badges which bloggers share to connect with and show appreciation for each other probably aren’t doing much good.
This was the second awesome Triberr hangout (via G+) I’ve attended with really knowledgeable speakers and interesting, supportive participants. They’re only available to people on Triberr and information about them is posted in Triberr Bonfires. If you’re not on Triberr, you’re missing out. If you’re on Triberr and not taking advantage of these great hangout opportunities then you’re REALLY missing out.
Did I miss anything important?
Great list, seems like I have been wasting my time with a lot of SEO work. At least I can focus in the right places now. Thanks
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Awesome recap Alexis! Thank you so much for taking the time to jot down the notes and put this post together. You are an awesome part of our community at Triberr. Loved having you attend the Hangout and appreciated your questions.
Hope your weekend is going well.
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Very useful information, and a lot of old habits to break. Thanks for the recap, Alexis!
Thanks, Alexis. Very interesting. You know, after you told me about my slow-loading site, I got W3TotalCache AND a CDN, and I’m not sure the site is running that much more quickly. It’s probably better than it was, though. Thanks!
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Greetings Alexis I really liked your great article on Dan Cristo Shares SEO Brilliance with Triberr Peeps. Great website…and cool article man…thanx for the great post…keep on posting
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Thanks Sam. Actually I take no credit because it was really all Dan’s info (I’m just the typist
.
Hello Alexis I liked your great article on Dan Cristo Shares SEO Brilliance with Triberr Peeps. Thanks for taking the time to discuss and share this with us, I for one feel strongly about it and really enjoyed learning
Alexis, love this article. Have bookmarked so I can start optimising my blogs as suggested here. Will look on Triberr bonfires for the next hangout. As I’m in the UK do you know if the hangouts are recorded so I can access?
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I highly recommend the Triberr hangouts. They don’t happen often and you have to keep an eye on the “bonfires” to know when they’re happening. But I’ve attended 3 (run by Dino, Dan, etc.) and have learned a TON from them!
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Hiya Alexis I really liked your informative blog post on Dan Cristo Shares SEO Brilliance with Triberr Peeps. Regards for helping out, excellent information.
My pleasure! This was all news to me (I took copious notes while Dan talked) so am happy to share
Alexis recently posted..Blog Bash Home Technology Montreal
Hello Alexis I really liked your informative article on Dan Cristo Shares SEO Brilliance with Triberr Peeps. This is really helpful. Thanks for sharing this information.
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This is the perfect blog for everyone who wishes to understand this topic. You know so much its almost tough to argue with you (not that I personally would want to…HaHa). You definitely put a brand new spin on a subject that’s been written about for decades. Great stuff, just wonderful!
Everything is very open with a clear explanation of the issues. It was truly informative. Your website is very useful. Thanks for sharing!
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There a lot of good points here…still. Backlinks still seem to be the bread and butter of rankinga website but it is a lot more complicated after Penguin. Well probably not more complicated so much as less susceptible to gaming linking techniques that mainly consist of anchor text of keywords.
There are a lot of good plugins like the Yoast one mentioned that can really help with on page optimization, it is key to have good on-page in order to be able to rank.
Lastly, the PR debate. When a page score is given and changed on no set schedule, it is really hard to justify putting a lot of stock into it. I think as long as you are providing good unique content that wants to be shared you should be all set.
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