[fitkoh]

Remember we are talking about a free service so it's little easier to rank than with highly competitive keywords like Web Hosting or VPS Hosting. There aren't many real free hosting providers ranked for those keywords so it give us even better chance.

I know we can't do a real SEO process here. But, There are several simple techniques we can use for these. For example we can create a 'Vibe'. This is how u do it,

01. Make a list of practical keywords. Phrases people use for search.
02. Check first 4-5 pages and save urls of page where you can leave a comment.
03. Then write a small comment about Post4VPS. Not copy and paste but something different in each page.
04. Don't use Post4vps url. All you have to do it mention the keyword 'Post4VPS'.
05. Share the list with others who are willing do the same. But never post the list in public.

This doesn't have a huge impact on ranking but it does have a psychological impact on those who read comments in those pages. They see the word in different places and start wondering about it. Also it helps on Google bot in a minor way too since it pick up the keyword in many different domain names.

Your idea about FB is good but carefull not to spam. There are other ways to do it too. Create a FB group like 'Game Server Support Group' or 'Game Server User Base'. Post about related stuff and leave a pinned post about Post4VPS  give aways.

This is a wonderful post, especially for people that aren't well versed in SEO. I like the presentation of the idea and the methodology. I really like the "vibe" concept and the detailed instructions about the way to leave comments. For myself, when reading comments, I'll naturally pass over spammy-looking 1liners with links. Just mentioning a name, however, without a link, eliminates a lot of the spam feel. Also, if people are curious, they will go on google and search for it. While I don't know much about google ranking, I would assume that more searches for a term is a good thing if that term happens to be the name of your website.

[tryp4vps]

....... I know we can't do a real SEO process here. But, There are several simple techniques we can use for these. For example we can create a 'Vibe'. This is how u do it,

01. Make a list of practical keywords. Phrases people use for search.
02. Check first 4-5 pages and save urls of page where you can leave a comment.
03. Then write a small comment about Post4VPS. Not copy and paste but something different in each page.
04. Don't use Post4vps url. All you have to do it mention the keyword 'Post4VPS'.
05. Share the list with others who are willing do the same. But never post the list in public.

This is a very solid SEO suggestion indeed. Honestly, this kind of good suggestion is rare in this forum.

But I have a question: will it hurt our ranking in Google for the keyword 'Post4VPS'?

I mean if many popular pages contain this keyword 'Post4VPS', when people go searching this particular term in Google, then I am wondering Google will return with these popular pages instead of our forum.

[xdude]

No it won't hurt the site rankings. That's the beauty of this kind of techniques. Now that would happen if we use the site url or site name like post4vps.com. But we only use a word. So we won't get direct SEO benefit from this either. But this will build the authority of the site since Google Bot see the keyword in related web hosting websites. Since it's just a random keyword in comments it won't help those site since those sites are not optimized for that keywords. Even lets say Google rank those pages still it will help us since those sites will be promoting the Post4VPS brand involuntarily.

In simple words,

01. The forum has been ranking for this keyword for a long time now, so Google see this site has the authority over it. So it won't hurt site rank. It will help forums DA (Domain Authority) since so many domains mention this keyword. What we do here is Brand optimization using Search Engine Optimization.

02. Our main goal is to get quick traffic from popular sites using a parasite method. But we are not doing it in spammy way by dropping links. We just let visitors to wonder about what is Post4VPS and make them curious enough to Google search it. Its like baking a new generic keyword. Those search will give us visits from people interested in free VPS. Also when people search for this keywords Google will see it's something related to their search patterns and will decide this keyword and the site as authority over Free VPS Hosting.

03. It's important all these comments have to be personal and unique. Here we are targeting real people to read these not search engine spiders. People can easily sense what is spam. Also it has be catchy to make them curious to do the Google search.

There are methods like these which are used by professionals. Some are lot complicated than this. Not often you see new methods in public forums because if those end up over used to used in spammy way then Google notices that and would do something to fix it. Traditional SEO is outdated now. Not totally gone but doesn't work just as it is. We have to think different because Google always try to change their algo according to new trends.

[fitkoh]

03. It's important all these comments have to be personal and unique. Here we are targeting real people to read these not search engine spiders. People can easily sense what is spam. Also it has be catchy to make them curious to do the Google search.

I spent a little time making a few (3) comments about post4vps on the places I could find where comments are allowed. I think the best one I found was a youtube page with 50k followers. 

It was a little frustrating; I'm amazed at the number of fake sites that rank high on google. Sites where things are broken. Brand new pages not a month old already ranking at the top of the pages. There has to be a piece of the puzzle I don't understand... I don't get how a page created Dec 2 can already be beating out so many others. I thought ranking took time, a lot of it; but apparently I'm wrong. Like everyone BUT google knows that woomhost and alavps and the like are fake. How have these fake sites been able to consistently stay ahead of algo changes for so many years, and a good site like post4vps goes unnoticed?

[tiwil]

04. Don't use Post4vps url. All you have to do it mention the keyword 'Post4VPS'.

This doesn't have a huge impact on ranking but it does have a psychological impact on those who read comments in those pages. They see the word in different places and start wondering about it. Also it helps on Google bot in a minor way too since it pick up the keyword in many different domain names.

This tips is awesome though. We're playing with user's curiosity about what they see and ask them to search on Google instead of giving the link to the forum directly. Probably this will build something in psychological way so it just works? Maybe like, if we have to search on Google and see Post4VPS, we already spent our time and energy in this and probably just go and try to check out. While on the other hand if we get the link directly, no time or energy spent to search, so it's OK to just scrap it up when we see the requirement.

[deanhills]

Wow!  This is turning into a brilliant discussion.  Thank you in particular to @fitkoh and @xdude.  I'm particularly blown away by your simple suggestions.  Like doing the keyword search, and then checking up on the results for comments.  How simple, yet at the same time brilliant too.  We often look for solutions along more complicated lines.  But yes, this makes sense, particularly with how Google works as well.

It was a little frustrating; I'm amazed at the number of fake sites that rank high on google. Sites where things are broken. Brand new pages not a month old already ranking at the top of the pages. There has to be a piece of the puzzle I don't understand... I don't get how a page created Dec 2 can already be beating out so many others. I thought ranking took time, a lot of it; but apparently I'm wrong. Like everyone BUT google knows that woomhost and alavps and the like are fake. How have these fake sites been able to consistently stay ahead of algo changes for so many years, and a good site like post4vps goes unnoticed?

Me too @fitkoh except I'm not amazed, I'm very irritated with this, particularly when the dudd search results are ranked high in the list. Guess those sites had some SEO employed.

Having a free shared hosting service is a good idea too. With limited resources with a chance to upgrade into Sponsors paid hosting with a good discount. I don't think Post4VPS staff can do it and better use the sponsor method for that too if sponsors are willing. Otherwise it could be way too much work for staff. Plus it needs an cPanel license. Sponsors already have these and providing few shared accounts is more economical and cheaper for them too.

Does it have to be cPanel though?  @fitkohreated a service that makes a very good statement for how good cyberpanel really is.  Like it's in my opinion much better.  I probably need to create a topic about this elsewhere or find one that is more relevant for this point, but just to comment on the above statement. It could be good not to use cpanel shared hosting.  To be honest one doesn't really need cpanel hosting.

As I previously stated: content is king; without it SEO won't help much. What this forum needs is content generators which may trigger further discussions and so on in an upward spiral (generating more forum activity, more traffic, more sponsors exposure and potentially more positive fallout for the service as a whole.) The quality content will get indexed and search engines will send you the AdHoc audience looking for it without needing any SEO optimization gimmickry.

I think every one agrees content is king, however if one checks the search results there are always  results that get to the top that have rubbish content and should not be there (irritatingly so).  So there is something to be said for SEO techniques that get Websites, that don't necessarily have very good content to the top of the results.

I like @xdude's suggestion of searching on keywords applicable to post4vps and then trying to beat the system at its own game.  It's simple and doable.  And that those keywords should be what people who use Google want vs what we want.  Like free VPS vs post4vps.  Visually too the post4vps at first glance has no meaning either - nothing talks to you - maybe one could think of changing the name?    FreeVPS instead of post4vps?  Probably a little dishonest but not many people who venture into free hosting and VPS specifically think of post4vps.  They think of getting a free VPS.  They want a VPS that is reliable, fast, and can be used for games.  I think that is a good SEO direction to move into.

The suggestion by xdude about having YoutuBe content is also a good one. Wish we could do that, but it probably will be very labour intensive. Someone who likes doing something like that would need to do it. But if it could be done, it could work for us. We could run a competition for posting videos, and the one that is the best one gets a month off posts. Runner up gets 10 posts off. Something along those lines.

[xdude]

@deanhills

About Shared Hosting, No it doesn't have to be cPanel. We can use Cyberpanel. We can use the same Sponsor system for few shared hosting accounts too if Sponsors willing. But in General we can just run a Cyberpanel or some free panel based Shared Hosting Service. Nothing fancy but just basic shared hosting package for those who just need a simple package.

About Fake sites ranking batter, That's what SEO is. It's all about manipulating Google search algorithm. Ether you do SEO or you need a high authority site. For example Imagine there is a Town, A Town bulletin board where people get all news and there is a desert nearly by. There you have amazing shop in middle of desert but nobody knows. Maybe you had a notice in the board when you opened the shop but its been a while now so its gone. New Shop open in town with all fake goods. But they are active. Hand over leaflets, Big notice in the board etc. So people see whats in the bulletin board and use it. Bulletin board just show what they have. Same in SEO. Either you have to be a household name or you need to work for it.

The problem with Post4VPS is SEO wise site hasn't change from the start. As forum content we talk about many things but we don't talk a lot about free vps hosting much. We don't have pillar pages with content explaining what we offer here. We really don't have an active social media presence. So its not a big surprise nobody knows about it.

Content is still the king but even that slowly changing. Like written content slowly loosing it's ultra value. Today most of use search YouTube more than Google when we need to find out tutorials and stuff. Even in Google you can see bunch of videos always rank at top than most relevant sites. In Mobile marketing and SEO it's slowly becoming a fact that long content can do more harm than help since most mobile users prefer to watch videos than read.

[tryp4vps]

No it won't hurt the site rankings. That's the beauty of this kind of techniques. Now that would happen if we use the site url or site name like post4vps.com. But we only use a word. So we won't get direct SEO benefit from this either. But this will build the authority of the site since Google Bot see the keyword in related web hosting websites. Since it's just a random keyword in comments it won't help those site since those sites are not optimized for that keywords. Even lets say Google rank those pages still it will help us since those sites will be promoting the Post4VPS brand involuntarily.....

Good points. And thanks for the top-quality answer.

If I understand your answer correctly, there is still a small risk Google may rank those pages for the keyword 'Post4VPS'.

Yes it will still help our Post4VPS brand, but when people wondering what is 'Post4VPS' and cannot find our forum in the first page of Google search for that keyword, then they may just give up.

So I think we better run this SEO campaign in a controlled way. For example just doing it on no more than certain number of pages per month.

[xdude]

@tryp4vps

If the forum has on-page SEO done properly then there is no chance anyone else rank above us even how big those sites are. Only exceptions can be Social Profiles under Post4VPS keywords. It's impossible to rank just by adding comments to a page. If this work then life would be lot easy for us and it would be a hell for all those blog and other sites owners who has comments sections.

Remember Pos4VPS is a brand Keyword not a Generic Keyword like Web Hosting or VPS Hosting. So nobody would want to rank for it and nobody would have pages optimize for that. If Someone create profiles for the forum in major Social media platforms then we can easily control the whole first page in Google search result for the keyword.

[tbelldesignco]

I have been writing some post for my business and SEO is a huge thing to get yourself the digital marketplace you need. I will link the post here once I've completed it, but I found a really great resource that goes into great detail on how to boost your SEO "Score". I think what would really help Post4VPS is to have more users posting relevant content in the terms of VPS tutorials, reviews and like you said using targeted keywords that we want search engines to pick up on when we post about Post4VPS and our other partners of the site. This not only boosts out SEO scores, but it helps build an aware brand with our Sponsors and boosts their SEO in the process. Here is the link to the article I was reading about:

https://www.searchenginewatch.com/2016/0...your-site/