A few days ago Google updated the visible PageRank for websites. I got a pleasant surprise when I checked it for Drupal Mill. It went directly from 0 to 5 (10 is max), which I can only assume is pretty good. I am by no means an SEO expert, but regularly read articles that catch my eye on the topic. Thus, I got a fair idea what is involved and what you need to think of both when building sites and creating content for it.
On the site building front I have done very little, basically the only SEO modules, outside Core, that is used are Pathauto and Page Title. There are many more modules available, but they are either not ready for production sites or I haven't got to them yet.
That makes it even more interesting that the PageRank got so high for such a new and small site as this. After all, its only half a year since I made it live and there isn't very much content on it yet.
A lot of so called SEO experts say that the PageRank for a site is constantly updated and that when Google makes an updated that is publicly visible it should not really affect the site. I'm not to sure about that. The same day as Drupal Mill got its PR5, the number of search referrals hit a new record, the day after it was even higher. Same goes for the number of visitors, it more than doubled compared to the average before the update. I have seen this happen on other sites as well, so I don't buy that these updates don't affect traffic to a site.
My hunch is that Drupal 7 is more SEO friendly than previous versions and that the RDF inclusion (I only use the default settings still) in Core has an impact as well. Then combined that with thinking twice when creating the patterns in Pathauto and the titles for content makes a good base.
Another reason I can think of is that I have so far focused on trying to provide good unique content, not quantity. Due to limited time, in combination with that I am waiting for some modules to be ready, I haven't got to add more structure, content types and features here yet. It will come soon though, so it will be interesting to see what happens at the next update.
Yesterday SEOptimes published an article about 30 ranking factors that they believe affects the PageRank, or not. When I read it, I was happy to notice that a lot of how I do things is on their list of methods that they believe does affect it. Those I have skipped is gladly on the list that doesn't.
So, getting fixaded with maximising SEO on a site is something I am glad I have been able to avoid. The search engines are far to good today, and getting better, to make that a big waste of time. Better is to focus on creating good unique content and spice it with being clever using the right modules to automate the rest as much as possible. Plus, I want to focus on producing content for people like you to read, not machines.
Have you noticed any difference for your Drupal 7 site since the 27th? Especially interesting is if you have a site that has been updates from earlier Drupal version and if that has made any dramatic changes in the PageRank and search traffic to your site.
from
http://www.drupalmill.com/commenhttp://www.drupalmill.com/comment/163t/163
On the site building front I have done very little, basically the only SEO modules, outside Core, that is used are Pathauto and Page Title. There are many more modules available, but they are either not ready for production sites or I haven't got to them yet.
That makes it even more interesting that the PageRank got so high for such a new and small site as this. After all, its only half a year since I made it live and there isn't very much content on it yet.
A lot of so called SEO experts say that the PageRank for a site is constantly updated and that when Google makes an updated that is publicly visible it should not really affect the site. I'm not to sure about that. The same day as Drupal Mill got its PR5, the number of search referrals hit a new record, the day after it was even higher. Same goes for the number of visitors, it more than doubled compared to the average before the update. I have seen this happen on other sites as well, so I don't buy that these updates don't affect traffic to a site.
Drupal 7 seems to be great for SEO
Since I also use Google Webmaster-Tools on all sites, I can see where various keywords are ranking. Its quite a few that is ranking high there and generates traffic. GWT lags a few days behind so it doesn't say anything about the number of SERP impressions DM got since the 27th when the update was made.My hunch is that Drupal 7 is more SEO friendly than previous versions and that the RDF inclusion (I only use the default settings still) in Core has an impact as well. Then combined that with thinking twice when creating the patterns in Pathauto and the titles for content makes a good base.
Another reason I can think of is that I have so far focused on trying to provide good unique content, not quantity. Due to limited time, in combination with that I am waiting for some modules to be ready, I haven't got to add more structure, content types and features here yet. It will come soon though, so it will be interesting to see what happens at the next update.
Yesterday SEOptimes published an article about 30 ranking factors that they believe affects the PageRank, or not. When I read it, I was happy to notice that a lot of how I do things is on their list of methods that they believe does affect it. Those I have skipped is gladly on the list that doesn't.
So, getting fixaded with maximising SEO on a site is something I am glad I have been able to avoid. The search engines are far to good today, and getting better, to make that a big waste of time. Better is to focus on creating good unique content and spice it with being clever using the right modules to automate the rest as much as possible. Plus, I want to focus on producing content for people like you to read, not machines.
Have you noticed any difference for your Drupal 7 site since the 27th? Especially interesting is if you have a site that has been updates from earlier Drupal version and if that has made any dramatic changes in the PageRank and search traffic to your site.
from
http://www.drupalmill.com/commenhttp://www.drupalmill.com/comment/163t/163
