Seo - Misc.

Hi Rain,

SEO is such a tricky industry. Search Engines always changing they're crawlers

Talking about CSS and changing the <H1> tags. This does not affect the SEO because search engines see the "original.htm" without the style.

I was unable to read all the post, so I apologize if I step on anyones foot, but if you are using Cold Fusion, CFINCLUDE would be a viable option. I have developed on CFML Platforms, as well on PHP, and I use inlcudes when I can.

Nothing against SSI, but if your scripting language allows for global includes use them instead of SSI. The reason is they have more robust and allow for more control.

Originally Posted by RainMaker Do the search engines differentiate between singular and plural or does it see the singular within the plural. For example, if I am optimizing for the word COUPON, would it see COUPONS in the plural or within my domain: WITHCOUPON.com or does it have to be an exact match?

IMO, the exact match would be identified first.

Originally Posted by SEO-LAD IMO, the exact match would be identified first.

Here is why I asked:

Everywhere I have mentioned my site name: WithCoupon.com, I have created a link back to the home page. (obviously, I am optimizing for the keywords "Coupons" and "coupon.") It recently occurred to me, that I could have made only the "coupon" portion of my name the link (creating backlink text that says "coupon" instead of "withcoupon.com." )

Of course, I never think of these things BEFORE I have already done the work. Do you think it would be worthwile to go through my pages and change each of these links from "withcoupon.com" to "coupon"? Because of my lack of SEO experience, I cannot determine if there would only be a nominal benefit or a decent benefit from making this change.

Finally, will ranking for the singular "coupon" be of any use in ranking for "coupons" anyway (which is a much better keyword).

Advice?

Originally Posted by RainMaker Do you think it would be worthwile to go through my pages and change each of these links from "withcoupon.com" to "coupon"?

Yes. The "anchor text" should be the keywords you are targeting for the landing page.

Originally Posted by RainMaker Finally, will ranking for the singular "coupon" be of any use in ranking for "coupons" anyway (which is a much better keyword)

In my opinion, "yes". If you believe that "coupons" is a much better keyword is there any reason why you are opting for "coupon"?

Originally Posted by SEO-LAD Yes. The "anchor text" should be the keywords you are targeting for the landing page. In my opinion, "yes". If you believe that "coupons" is a much better keyword is there any reason why you are opting for "coupon"?

It is incidental because it is in my domain name which has many references and links on my site (in the singular form) and I was not sure if it would help because it is a subset of the word "coupons" (plural).