I think that

you need to start focusing on off site SEO at this point. There is only so much you can achieve with on site SEO anymore.

I would say that 80% of useful SEO is off site SEO, especially the more competitive the keyword.

I understand that it is a lot of work but there really is no way around it, unfortunately. Well, unless you go black hat, of course. But then that's a whole other can of worms and is just as frustrating and time consuming as white hat SEO (something people don't realize), especially for competitive keywords.

If you do not want to do any off page SEO at this point, then what you probably need to do is forget about Mr. Giraffe for now and work on the rest of the site. But at some point, if you really want more traffic you'll have to tackle the off site aspects of SEO.

I know your feelings about this, but you don't need to necessarily contact other sites to get them to link to you. But what you can do is start a blog and link to your pages using the proper anchor text, not just raw URL links.

And one more thing, have you submitted your site to DMOZ. Anymore, they are hard to get listed in even though you have a useful content site and I hear they have suffered some corruption in the recent past which makes it even harder to get listed unless you bribe them or know someone that works for them, but it's still worth a shot since it's free and it takes little time (just submit and wait). Also, you should submit to other directories as well.

There is a lot more you can do as far as off site SEO is concerned but all of it takes time and/or money and none of it is particularly easy.

Good luck.

Bluto

PS: Another thing you can do is write articles with a link to your site/pages in your by-line and submit the articles to the free article directories.

> Next time I seem to be drifting in this direction...

> WILL SOMEBODY PLEASE SMACK ME UPSIDE THE HEAD??????

> Holy crapoly!!

> Luckily, I decided to experiment with a page that was Result #451 on
> Google when I did a search for "giraffe," so I really had
> nothing to lose.

> That's a darn good thing, because the same page -- optimized to the best
> of my ability and the last of my hair -- is now nowhere to be found in the
> FIRST THOUSAND RESULTS on Google.

> BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!

> Mind you, it is showing up as something like #18 on a search for
> "giraffe facts," which is just dandy except for the fact that
> "giraffe facts" is searched a few hundred times each month, and
> "giraffe" is searched roughly 38,000 times.

> The reason I subjected myself to this kind of torture is simple:

> I don't get any traffic from common animals that get the most searches,
> and if I could remedy that situation, I feel sure I would be able to at
> least double my Adsense income, more likely quadruple it.

> Anyhoo, when I set up my last form of interactivity, I checked it upside
> down and sideways and all the links worked; mysteriously, the interior
> anchor links no longer work on IE (dead as a doornail going down, work
> fine coming up, which is 100% worthless)... so I guess it's probably a
> good thing visitors didn't come swarming to my Giraffe Encounter.

> Well... back to the drawing board.

> I wish I could just scrap the whole bloody SEO thing, but I'm much too
> obsessive compulsive for that.  I can't rest until I conquer the
> beast!!

> Now I'm debating whether I want to cut my Giraffe into several pages;
> i.e., Giraffe Habitat, Giraffe Behavior, Giraffe Whatever... or keep it
> whole.

> Ohhhhhh, decisions decisions.

> AAARRRGGGHHH!!

> Luv,

> MaaMaw