OK, here’s my question:

We recently got asked to build a website for a brand of liquor. They need to have an “age wall”: (Are you 21 Y/N) to prevent minors from getting into the site. (Because you know, minors never lie about their age.)

Anywho, they’re very interested in SEO. Outside of maybe putting some keyword-rich text on the home page (which might even be questionable) and creating a link building campaign, what other SEO techniques might we use?

Has anyone run into something similar in the past?

Hey Rich,

I’m not an SEO expert, but what if the “age wall” was a YouTube video instead of just a question? What if there was a creative video stating the fact that you have to be 21 to enter and then there was a YES and NO button below the video. That could help things – if the video is tagged appropriately. 

You might suggest they take a look at the way Gary V has his site set up.  they might get some ideas

Hi Rich,

Have you done the research to figure out what keywords to use when you plant “keyword rich” text on the page?  Start there.  Make sure you’re using words that people actually use to search with.

Then, you may be competing with a lot of sites to rank in the top 10 for your preferred keyword phrases, but you really only have to worry about what the top 10 are doing.  Plug your keyword phrase into Google and see what the top 10 are already doing in terms of title tags, headings, number of words on the page,etcetera. Then copy them or go one better.  I don’t mean copy their text; I mean copy their methods. 

As I’m sure you know it’s not quite that simple, but it’s a good place to start.  You are right to focus on the text on the page and inbound links.  Once people find your page, you want them to stick around, come back, and refer you to others.  As @devanianjali has stated, videos are an excellent way of doing that.  Use happy folks from your client’s targeted demographic to best resonate. 

Good luck!  You’re on the right track.   

Not sure if this will help but…SA seems to have inserted links and text and image on their page asking to get into that brands area. Check it out here…http://www.ab-inbev.com/go/brands/brands_ageControl.cfm Are there parts of the site that you don’t have to be 18 to access that can be conspicuously added for SEO purposes? I would definitely make it look a lot better than AB did though! My favorite alcohol designers of choice the past few years has been Blue Moon Brewing Co. Check them out here http://www.bluemoonbrewingcompany.com/ They have one of those landing pages too. They have a bunch of key words at the bottom but does a redirect from the landing page to the home kill all the SEO anyway you look at it?

I’m happy to chime in and share insights on Social Media Examiner and wonder if there is double value to it. My intention is to answer questions where I think I can bring value, so that’s hopefully considered valuable, to someone. But I’m wondering if there is any SEO value to my participation… 
Anyone know?

@rich-brooks, this is such a good community, All the comments above have Great inspiration juice. Here’s one additional thought about ‘keywords’. Very commonly, folks go after the top keywords, trying to find ways to best cramp them into their content. What comes with the top keywords though, is the top competition. And unless you have big SEO bucks, it will be pretty tough to compete. Don’t ignore the ‘bottom’ keywords. They will have less competition, making it Far easier to compete, and hijack multiple. Also think about the titles of the pages and the metatags. Google reviews & Yelp reviews about the product will be really good SEO juice as well.

As far as the video, I feel the need to mention the basics: title, description/transcribing, Tagging, making sure you link to other 2.0 realestate and annotations