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Example of an SEO best practice site

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Subject:  Example of an SEO best practice site Dave Chaffey
Author:   DaveChaffey:   view profile | all posts by this author | add to favourites
Date:   06:32:07 26 May 2006
 
Interesting case.

Despite the comments about phrase inclusion in the domain name and external links, i think Jon's original post highlights a key reason Cheapflights performs well - the internal linking strategy.

It seems to be a meshed / interlinking structure which helps distribute PageRank throughout the site. A more hierarchical site would have declining PageRank for flight locations and these locations would not perform so well. Many say 'Page Rank' is unimportant these days, but IMV it is crucial in the sense that Google does rank pages from within a site higher if they have a highish PR.

If you Google link: on the top page for the classic 'Cheap flights malaga' for which they rank top (PR=5), you can see there are links to internal links to Malaga page from a wide range of UK airports:

link:www.cheapflights.co.uk/flights/malaga

It's very inclusive - i didn't know there were flights from Benbecula (Outer Hebrides) to Malaga - I guess they;re via elsewhere.

So their internal link structure and specific pages/search results for each route is a key factor for me. That must have taken some thinking through and execution...SEO is a long-term play.

This also makes the site as a whole bigger - sometimes called domain popularity - site:cheapflights.co.uk gives 831K pages for Cheapflights - I'm sure Google take this into account as one of their 200 ranking "signals " recently mentioned by their VP of engineering (he didn't say what they were but previous guestimates were 100 ranking factors...).

Google Press day link

One final point - if you use this internal linking strategy then unlike most competitors, your deep page will be favoured in the SERPS (rather than home page) and will have a <title>, description and URL that match what the user is searching into account, so users are more likely to click on it - greater relevance and i'm sure this is another factor - it will have a higher CTR than competitors!

Dave Chaffey
www.davechaffey.com

 

 
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  • Example of an SEO best practice site, JonBov, 16 May 17:20
    I have been carefully watching (http://www.cheapflights.co.uk) Cheapflights UK, for the last couple of years, particularly with respect to their SEO practices and rankings. I wo ...
    • Example of an SEO best practice site, DanielPhillips, 17 May 09:23
      The site definitely does well in the rankings for many relevant search phrases, and that is obviously the first battle in terms of search engine optimisation.  For this they should ...
      • Example of an SEO best practice site, scaifea, 17 May 14:19
        I would agree with Daniel, but for a pure-play internet travel company, if they are not ranked top10 through SEO or PPC, then they will not be on anyones radar, and you MUST be the ...
    • Example of an SEO best practice site, scaifea, 17 May 14:07
      (http://www.weboptimiser.com/resources/cheapflights.html) http://www.weboptimiser.com/resources/cheapflights.html ;-) ...
    • Example of an SEO best practice site, RobPassmore, 17 May 18:03
      JonBov, Many thanks for the comments on Cheapflights. We've been working hard at providing a site that provides both user value and strong placement across all search engines. ...
      • Example of an SEO best practice site, scaifea, 17 May 20:50
        Shahin, good to hear from you, can you share your strategy?  I would be very interested in hearing it, if you want to you can contact me offline :-) On 18:03:46 17 May 2006 RobP ...
      • Example of an SEO best practice site, Loz, 22 May 12:03
        Shahin, CheapFlights ranks number 1 for 'cheap flights' on Google UK. But you advertise for that key phrase as well (coming top too). Is that (expensive) top AdWords top s ...
        • Example of an SEO best practice site, JonBov, 22 May 12:05
          I suspect that Shahin aint gonna answer anything about Search in specific terms. Would you give anything away if you were doing that well? Particularly when it looks like CF is ...
          • Example of an SEO best practice site, Loz, 22 May 12:08
            You never know... he might have a hangover and inadvertedly tell us all his secrets! ...
            • Example of an SEO best practice site, RobPassmore, 23 May 10:44
              Ha Ha :) Nice one - no hangover I'm afraid. By appearing top in Paid and Natural Search you are increasing the brand awareness and association with that keyword "cheap flight ...
    • Re: Example of an SEO best practice site, Ashley , 23 May 15:21
      With all due respect to Rob and the Cheapflights team and their SEO efforts I strongly suspect that the reason Cheapflights ranks so well on search phrases like 'Cheap flights to X ...
      • Re: Example of an SEO best practice site, scaifea, 23 May 16:10
        Your right of course, but the URL just stems from the core proposition of the business!  And the SEO (including URL) just stems from that. I haven't checked, but I am pretty sur ...
      • Re: Example of an SEO best practice site, Loz, 23 May 18:41
        The second position for 'discount flights' goes to (http://www.etn.nl/dttickets/) http://www.etn.nl/dttickets/ - no keywords there. Also, would Google be able to read 'cheapflig ...
        • Re: Example of an SEO best practice site, Alan08, 24 May 14:14
          I totally agree with you Loz. The SE's will not read cheapflights (one word) as cheap flights (two words). Three main things contribute to the success, inbound links, relevant ...
      • Re: Example of an SEO best practice site, jmt, 24 May 14:58
        I agree entirely with Ashley: Of course there are many important elements to SEO (especially including good quality in-bound links, and especially since "Big Daddy") but the num ...
        • Re: Example of an SEO best practice site, Loz, 24 May 16:49
          I'm not convinced by the domain name argument, to be honest. The company I work for comes top for 'Professional Education' whilst the URL is bpp.com. (http://www.ukwda.org) www. ...
          • Re: Example of an SEO best practice site, DanielPhillips, 24 May 17:09
            It's an interesting question regarding Google's ability to distinguish individual words such as 'cheap' and 'flights' in the domain cheapflights. If you search for 'pizza', Pizz ...
      • Re: Example of an SEO best practice site, JonBov, 24 May 15:01
        Ashley, I agree with the gist of your comments. However It does raise questions though about the 'totality' of the domain as a single phrase. ie. Try removing 'Cheap' For ...
    • Example of an SEO best practice site, DaveChaffey, 26 May 06:32
      Interesting case. Despite the comments about phrase inclusion in the domain name and external links, i think Jon's original post highlights a key reason Cheapflights performs we ...
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