Tutorial
Most of the MemberGate sites which achieve very good search engine listings let the MemberGate software do the work for them. They don't have a lot of extra code which can have negative effects on the site's ranking. Because MemberGate applies all the SEO that Google recommends, Membergate will quickly get you a top ten ranking in Google for every page on your site.
To use MemberGate's SEO to it's fullest potential we suggest the following:
1. Post links from your site onto other external sites. The search engine robots will begin indexing your site as soon as they find a link to any page on your site, or any already indexed site on the web. - When you are posting messages on MemberGate's support forum, include your link! - Go to other sites related to yours and post messages in their forums (if they have one) and include your site's link with your signature. - Ideally at least three already indexed sites should have links to your site
2. Place your web site address in the signature part of your email program. Google's Gmail program "reads" and follows links found in emails going to and from Gmail users.
3. Place a google adword ad pointing to your site. Doing this will force Google spider your web pages.
4. Include at least 300 characters of text - Write at least two paragraphs of text on each content page to maximize SEO
5. Use search engine keywords in your article headlines and teaser text for each article - Use keywords in the caption portion of any images that are included in the article - MG's software turns the captions into alt image tags for additional SEO - Use the tool at http://textalyser.net/"> http://textalyser.net/to analyze the text on your front page for search engine compatibility
6. Include lots of related articles (if possible) with each article - this provides more links to follow within your site - At the bottom of the 'Add Content' or 'Edit Content' pages is the option to include 'Related Articles'
7. Update the front page of your site often - this allows the search engines to see your content is fresh and not stale - Consider placing recent 'Discussion Forum' posts on the front page - this allows for automatic continuous updating of your front page without any work from you
8. Be sure the title tag matches the headline of the page - Google gives a page higher ranking when they match
9. Make sure your member pages are getting attention too! - Provide paths to the member area articles on your site - MemberGate is setup to automatically create multiple paths in the members area through the archives department, department links, clumps and the portal pages. - Include the article on your portal page for at least a week - The departments should have a portal page - For Members only departments choose 'Build Public Portal Page' in 'Edit Department' - Add new articles to your site at least twice a week
10. Focus on social media likes. Facebook and Youtube likes which reference back to your site are a strong indicator to Google that your content is viewed positively. Google knows how much some things can be manipulated on the site itself. Social media is harder to directly manipulate and because of this, it is becoming an increasingly important aspect of search engine rankings.