Being that the new year is around the corner I am sure many of you have the goal of improving your Google’s Page Rank. Some obvious tips, don’t get too spammy with your favorite keyword, and keep that new content coming. There are some hidden pitfalls though, and some of them are not that easy to spot.
One PR killer can be the simple switching of the IP address for your server. Over the years I have had a couple of sites simply tank after I upgraded my servers. The results were new IP’s, I didn’t even think about that, and I got a sudden drop in PR. I also learned from that lesson PR isn’t everything. I still receive great traffic for those sites from the search engines. It’s hard to think about long term decisions for the things we do online, but when picking out where you will host your site and how will you host your site should be big ones. WebHostingRating has a lot of web hosting articles that go into more detail about the effects of PR and your server’s IP. What’s the PR of your hosting company?
Another killer is hosting several domains on one IP. It’s common practice for hosting companies to do this, but you may get some SEO guys telling you that ideally that IP should be all you. It’s similar to registering your domain for ten years or life. You are descretely giving your site authority by appearing as a professional orgarnization, and not as a turn and burn site.
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Nofollow in Comments
I have seen many discussions on whether or not you should use nofollow for a comment author’s URL. I honestly didn’t know which way to go so I decided to go right down the line with a neat little fix. First a little bit about the pros and cons.
Allowing the Follow
The major pro? It can encourage people to write comments on your posts. The major con? It leeches your PR, and could bring you down a little in the rankings. Get enough comments on a post, and your site might even look spammy to a search engine.
Being Mean, NoFollow
The major pro? All those visitors comments, if you get any now, will not hurt your search rankings. The major con? You may not get as many comments. I call it mean, because I feel it’s similar to having someone come into your store, and not saying thank you for visiting.
My Solution
My solution to the problem is to incorporate a little bit of both worlds. I give the first three comment authors their full credit. Comments made after the third, incorporate rel=”nofollow”. Immediate input is encouraged, and having a list full of outbound links prevented. I keep getting posters, and keep my SEO dignity.
Plugin
So I am also guessing some of you might want this as a plugin for WordPress. I am going to make one in the next day or two. It was such an easy fix to my template though, I just had to get it going without one. Edit four lines of code or write an entire plugin? Let me see:)