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Domain Stop Words, Duplicate Web Sites, & Increasing Article Backlinks
By Ross Dunn – StepForth Placement (www.stepforth.com) (c) 2007

Three SEO questions are answered in this Q&A article: 

•  Do search engines ignore stop words in domain names?
•  I created a duplicate website to target my services to a different state. 
My intention is not to dupe Google but I don't know what else to do. How 
would you approach this?  
•  What can I do to increase the number of backlinks I am getting from 
articles? 
 
Question 1) " I know search engines ignore stop words in meta tags and 
title tags. Do search engines ignore stop or common words in domain 
names? Example www.therealestate.com or www.arealestate.com " - 
Corey M. 

Answer: Yes, to the degree in which the keywords have any effect the 
more common words within a domain name would be ignored. It is, 
however, important to keep in mind that search engines only place a 
limited amount of weight on keywords in a domain name. In my opinion 
the only time where a site keyword within a domain name wins a ranking 
war is when all other elements are equal between you and near-ranked 
competitor. 

Additional Info: I like to do my due diligence before answering any 
question because frankly I need to be sure the rules have not changed 
overnight. Here are a couple links to pages that relate to this question: 
•  WebmasterWorld Posting (membership required) 
•  What are stop words? By Danny Sullivan at Search Engine Watch.
 
Question 2) “ Hi Ross - I just finished reading your blog... "SEO Answers 
#7: " What Determines Duplicate Content SPAM? "and I have a question 
for you. Allow me to give you a little background: One of my clients has 
expanded their business into another state with a different name, but it is 
ultimately the same business. In order to develop a Web presence for this 
new, duplicate company in a new area, we created a second Website that 
has its own unique design, etc, but is ultimately a take off on the original 
site, using the same content, just minor differences to allow for the new 
name, geographic area, etc. The original site is optimized and of course 
contains the original content. The duplicate site is not optimized. In no 
way is our intention to "dupe" anything, but will this cause problems with 
the engines? We are not trying to get mileage off of the content by 
duplicating it... this is simply a second company that offers the same 
services, just in a different state. Each site is in its own domain and has its 
own URL. Your input? Your suggestions for a different solution? Thanks 
for your time." 

Answer: Simply put if you are truly not looking to get any mileage out of 
the content then you do not want rankings for it which implies that the site 
should be blocked to the search engines. I would recommend using your 
robots.txt file to block the spiders entirely to that website so you do not 
negatively affect your rankings on the original site. The fact is that 
duplicate content, good intentions or not, is frowned upon by the search 
engines and you are gambling by having the site available for spidering. 
If, however, you do want the search engines to spider the content then you 
must rewrite it to avoid duplicate content penalties. 

As a final note I would like to pose a question; did your client absolutely 
have to create a secondary website? In many cases I find that a client need 
not have created a second site; they just needed to add a new section to 
their site to manage the new target marketplace. The other option, which 
may have been appropriate in this case, is to add a subdomain to enjoy the 
benefits of a secondary home page on a pre-branded domain and fresh 
marketable URL; nearly the same benefits of having a secondary domain 
without the headache of marketing an entirely new website. Even in this 
case, however, you would not be able to use duplicate content so you 
would be faced with the same issues; either rewrite the content or block it 
from spiders.
 
Question 3) "Ross, in an attempt to improve my ranking in the search 
engines, I have been writing articles for article directories in the hopes of 
receiving quality backlinks. Recently I came across a site mypagerank.net, 
which I decided to check on my link popularity. The result indicated that I 
only had 18 backlinks. What can I do to increase the number of backlinks 
I am getting? I would have expected more as I have written many more 
articles and submitted my URL to many directories. Thanks, enjoy reading 
your articles" - Peter 

Answer: First, good work making the effort to write articles, they are an 
excellent medium for promotion and I commend you for dedicating the 
time to writing. I certainly understand the significant commitment to time 
and research required to write usable content. Fortunately, there are a few 
techniques that may help you squeeze some extra benefits from your hard 
work: 

1.	Be Clear - Request Credit  

Are you being very clear to those republishing your content that 
you expect a linked credit for the copy? Simply stating that you 
allow syndication but request credit laid out in a particular linked 
format will do wonders. At StepForth we clearly request credit and 
we occasionally troll Google looking for those who have 
republished our content without credit; it is usually a simple matter 
to have the content removed or the appropriate link added. Hence, 
if you see this article does not give credit and provide a link to 
StepForth.com then please drop me a note, ross@stepforth.com :-) 

2.	Pick a Powerful, Timely Topic  

Have you noticed a topic coming up regularly in forums? Perhaps 
a question that appears to be asked regularly? This is usually a 
good indication that an article discussing the topic would do well. 
Remember that many of the syndication networks online are 
looking for topics that will get readers and ultimately provide 
impressions for their advertisers. As a result, picking a hot topic 
will make a world of difference in how widely your article will get 
picked up. 

3.	Optimize the Title  

The title of your article needs to clearly relay the topic and should 
engage readers and editors alike. The title can make or break a 
story if it is too vague or boring. 

4.	Refer to Your Own Content  

It helps to provide inline links from your article to relevant 
previous articles or pages on your website. With practice and once 
you have built up a healthy reservoir of linkable articles it will 
soon be second nature to refer to links in a manner that is crucial to 
the article; so that editors note that the backlinks are relevant and 
play a legitimate role in the purpose of the article. Legitimacy of 
backlinks is crucial to make the ‘cut' because editors are more 
likely to remove a link than keep one if it appears merely 
promotional. 

5.	Give Praise Where it is Due 
 
Within an article don't be afraid to link to other sources where you 
have noted particularly good information, particularly other small 
business blogs. The fact is that some bloggers take a real shine to 
those who syndicate or give credit to their content and may just 
link back to you in thanks. 

6.	Put RSS On Your Side 
 
If you have not already done so ensure that your articles are 
syndicated on your website in RSS format as well. This can be 
easily accomplished by using a blog to publish your articles 
because most blog systems include automated feed creation. Many 
of the article syndication networks use articles solely through RSS. 
So as soon as you get a RSS feed you should go out and tell the 
world about it. Try using Google and search for " submit feed " or 
" add blog " and you are certain to find some great sites to submit 
your syndication feed. 

There is a lot more information on this topic so I will provide some links 
that should help you further: 
*	Article Writing Tips - excellent resource I stumbled across
*	Related forum thread in SEO Chat 
*	Related forum thread on Digital Point 

After all this work is done, keep in mind not every proper (credited) use of 
your article will deliver the benefits of a backlink. The search engines are 
frankly too smart to give credit to every article link because of the obvious 
duplication and the unfortunate proliferation of article scraping sites (sites 
that republish articles to try and make their sites appear authoritative). 

That said, the links acquired from truly authoritative sites would pay off as 
backlinks and hopefully with the more important benefit - direct traffic. 

As a final note remember that articles are meant for human consumption 
so be sure to proofread your work and ensure that the topic is either timely 
or originally written enough to be useful. I am not saying this applies to 
you, however, it is important that the quality of the content is high enough 
to merit wide spread syndication. 
================================================================
Ross Dunn is the founder and CEO of StepForth Search Engine
Placement Inc.  Based in Victoria, BC, Canada, StepForth has provided professional search engine
placement and management services since 1997. Ross is a search engine optimization and placement
expert with over 9 years of marketing experience and is a Certified Internet Marketing and Business
Strategist (CIMBS).  Blending his experience in the art of web design and search engine optimization,
Ross offers a unique and informed perspective on obtaining top search engine placements. Ross can be
reached at ross@stepforth.com.
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