PHPBUILT's Idiot-Proof Guide to Authority Site Building

[MrBeastsOnToast]

Great guide. Without any of the barking of the other authority site thread!

 

[umerjutt00]

Almost done It comes with a guide to using them this time.

A guide for using web2.0s is necessary because few people do it right.

More to come on that pretty soon.

Ok Thanks.. I will wait... My main problem comes with the ranking and making backlinks... I am good at making up sites, doing keyword research and writing tons of articles... The articles I write do get in the 20-30 spot but then they need backlinks ... and that point I fail...

 

[phpbuilt]

Ok Thanks.. I will wait... My main problem comes with the ranking and making backlinks... I am good at making up sites, doing keyword research and writing tons of articles... The articles I write do get in the 20-30 spot but then they need backlinks ... and that point I fail...

If an article settles at 20-30 ... it doesn't mean that "the best my site qualifies for is 20-30 and it won't do better than that unless I get backlinks".

Did you know you can take an article ranked at #15 ... write it better and then it ranks #5? Google doesn't say "your site is limited, you can't rank above ____". If you write a great article, it will rank better.

Also, did you know the difference between #5 and #15 could also be keyword stuffing? In the guide I made, I mentioned that you can get penalties if you keyword stuff, and you won't even show up in the top 1000. That's when you keyword stuff alot, like a 6% keyword density.

However, the difference between #5 and #15 could also be the difference between 1% keyword density and 2% keyword density. If you stuff just a little bit, it might mean you lose 10 slots.

Personally, if I write an article and I know I write it well, and it settles at #25 ... I don't care. Because age will make it rise. More quality content on the site will make it rise. Future articles that I write, and link back to that article, will make it rise. A quality, growing website doesn't get "stuck" with an article fixated at #30 and never rising -- if your content is good and you're grooming your website, it will hit the teens and top 10 all on its own, though it might take a month or two.

The best thing you can do to help that article rise is to continue growing your site with new articles, chasing after similar (but not overlapping) keywords.

 

[Numbuh362]

You should probably do "gucci" "rayban" no need to stuff sunglasses anymore since people will know its a site that sells sunglasses.

Thanks, now that I think about it RayBan Wayfarer sounds better than RayBan Sunglasses

 

[phpbuilt]

So I've been asked why I don't do backlinks. Sure you can get content to rank with no links, but obviously they rank better when you do link.

I probably haven't been very clear on this, so I'll make it clear now.

I don't do backlinks while I am constructing the site. The reason for this is I like to get the content ranking without links, because I know that when I do link it'll be that much better.

If you write a piece of content with no backlinks, when you get good at this you pretty much know where you'll come in with no links. I'll write an article expecting to hit 30s. If I do better, great. If I'm 80s ... that article didn't meet my expectations for that article. I'll tweak it and it will rank better.

Then when I feel its ready after some 100 or 200 posts, balanced, great content and most importantly -- every single page ranks top 50 for my desired keyword (on difficult keywords) and in the teens for easier keywords ... thats when I start backlinking.

Thats when I tweak the incoming backlinks. With my blog network I'll give 1 link to a page that is in teens and give it a week. I might hit a page in the 30s with 2 links. I guess what amount of links a page needs and I might backlink like 5 pages a day. Suddenly all the pages on the site do better because that PR is flowing all through the site.

Most importantly, I know I'm not wasting PR that way. High PR/DA/PA blog networks aren't free, and I don't want to hit a page with a gallon of backlinks if a cup would have been sufficient.

Now compare that to linking from day 1. When I don't link, I write an article it hits 30 I'm satisfied -- it hits 50 I consider adding another paragraph. But if I'm backlinking from day 1 and I hit #12 ... why am I 12? Do I have great content but a weak link? Maybe a great link but bad content? And then suddenly every page I write after that has these extra-weighted internal links coming to it and I don't know if its ranking under the weight of internal content or because of the PR/DA/PA I flooded it with. Without links -- I can troubleshoot my content. I like to know exactly why my pages rank, and identify problems to correct them.

In my mind, the few extra products I might sell earlier if I link earlier doesn't compare to the sales I'll make later because I was able to tweak the content to be the best it can be.

 

[Griggs]

Great read here, definitely looking forward to some more info. I do have one question for you if you don't mind. Say you're aiming for a huge keyword, let's go with something stupidly difficult like payday loans. I see where you're not targeting that specific keyword up front. However, I do expect you'll be looking to see where you fall on the SERPs to know that your correctly optimized. If you're targeting something that competitive, where do you look to land to know you've optimized correctly?

 

[TwistedSEO]

Could you elaborate a bit more on "tweaking" the content? What exactly do you change to make it "better"?

I have never been able to rank any keywords in top 50 (on a new domain) without building backlinks, unless it was in a super uncompetitive niche. Most of my articles show up in top 200 without backlinks, top 100 for long tails, and it's only when I backlink that they jump to page 1-2.

Does this only work with aged domains?

 

[phpbuilt]

Could you elaborate a bit more on "tweaking" the content? What exactly do you change to make it "better"?

I have never been able to rank any keywords in top 50 (on a new domain) without building backlinks, unless it was in a super uncompetitive niche. Most of my articles show up in top 200 without backlinks, top 100 for long tails, and it's only when I backlink that they jump to page 1-2.

Does this only work with aged domains?

I start usually with a 400 page article. I target a 3-word keyword at 1.5%. I submit it and it only comes in at 50 when I was thinking it'd probably be 30. I go to the page to "tweak" it ... wondering why it didn't rank. At that point, I realize that of the 3 word keyword combo I was trying to rank for ... it contains 2 words that I'm actually at 2.8% keyword density on ... which is stuffing. Oops. I tone that back to less than 2%. Then I add another paragraph of 100 words to get that percentage down even more. Basically if its not ranking, something like that is going on so I have to review it.

It could be that YARPP is suddenly importing 4 URLs that all have the keywords in it too and so I inadvertently stuffed even more. So I started at 1.5%, then later on wrote more articles and those articles went onto the YARPP of that page bumping it up to over 2%, and as such I lose 5 or 10 slots.

That sounds like a lot of fuss to do when everyone else would just assume blast it into the top 10. But this type of thing is why a page (blasted) might only rank #5 instead of #1 ... so you want to ace your onpage as best you can.

On my new authority site, started at the end of November, I just wrote an article on a 2k exact and it came in at #14. I'm in the teens to low top-10 for 500 to 1500 exacts ... some others that are lower volume searches but still highly competitive, I'm under 50 on. There's only 1 keyword I targeted that is 150ish which is a 14k exact. It can be done.

Age of domain has nothing to do with this. An aged domain can take a heavier pounding of spam and rank. Doing this, we're not spamming -- this is on a new domain.

 

[thanhclix]

What do you think about how external links affect a page's ranking?

I have lots of posts that link to at least 5 authority sites' links per post. I'm considering remove them to see if these posts can jump in serp.

 

[TwistedSEO]

I start usually with a 400 page article. I target a 3-word keyword at 1.5%. I submit it and it only comes in at 50 when I was thinking it'd probably be 30. I go to the page to "tweak" it ... wondering why it didn't rank. At that point, I realize that of the 3 word keyword combo I was trying to rank for ... it contains 2 words that I'm actually at 2.8% keyword density on ... which is stuffing. Oops. I tone that back to less than 2%. Then I add another paragraph of 100 words to get that percentage down even more. Basically if its not ranking, something like that is going on so I have to review it.

It could be that YARPP is suddenly importing 4 URLs that all have the keywords in it too and so I inadvertently stuffed even more. So I started at 1.5%, then later on wrote more articles and those articles went onto the YARPP of that page bumping it up to over 2%, and as such I lose 5 or 10 slots.

That sounds like a lot of fuss to do when everyone else would just assume blast it into the top 10. But this type of thing is why a page (blasted) might only rank #5 instead of #1 ... so you want to ace your onpage as best you can.

On my new authority site, started at the end of November, I just wrote an article on a 2k exact and it came in at #14. I'm in the teens to low top-10 for 500 to 1500 exacts ... some others that are lower volume searches but still highly competitive, I'm under 50 on. There's only 1 keyword I targeted that is 150ish which is a 14k exact. It can be done.

Age of domain has nothing to do with this. An aged domain can take a heavier pounding of spam and rank. Doing this, we're not spamming -- this is on a new domain.

Just wanted to make sure I'm calculating keyword densities the same way as you.

A 1000 word article with a 3-word keyword at a density of 1.5% is 5 occurences?

 

[_Chip_]

1) If I want to optimize the article for 4 three-worded keyphrases..
example: blue cups in 2013, blue cups in 2014, fresh blue cups 2013, fresh blue cups 2014, and so on.. May be I want to include 10 more like these in the same article because they are all similar.. How should my approach be? I mean trying to get 1% for each keyphrase invariably the density for "blue cups" is sky rocketing coz of all the occurances due to other keyphrases..

2) About backlinking: How should I start getting links if I have to start with 100 pages.. ?
Some plan like 5 HQ guest post links, some social signals per post for 5 posts per day or something?
Some bookmarking, webs, comments for some other 10 posts?
and randomise this the next day and so on?

 

[hardcorebiker]

Can confirm that this works. Tried this for a low competition niche. Site is hardly 3 days old(brand new domain),around 10 pages added with 1% keyword density and no backlinks done yet. Taken care of over-optimization too. Except one, all pages are ranking.

 

[phpbuilt]

Just wanted to make sure I'm calculating keyword densities the same way as you.

A 1000 word article with a 3-word keyword at a density of 1.5% is 5 occurences?

You have to account for keywords that your template has there by default, that will inflate it. I just use Quirk Searchstatus (firefox plugin) ... highlight a keyword, right click and select "keyword density".

 

[eveneven]

This is, hands down, one of the best posts I've read in here. The onsite SEO is something I haven't considered myself.

What is your thought on adding "filler posts" to keep up social momentum? For instance, if I was working in the round the world travel niche, and I add posts like "top five travel pictures in March" ... When I already have a "Best Travel Pictures" page ... Just as an example. They sort of target the same keyword group.

 

[manolo12399]

So how diluite the % example in the title writing longer titles?

by the way this is a 2 words keywords.

 

[catwithhat]

What about micro niche site overoptimization? Does this tutorial goes with MNS too? Also im using Wordpress SEO by Yoast and try to do 100% as plugin says. Am I good with doing so?

 

[manolo12399]

this keyword used to rank about spot 7 to 10 on first page, then with the pinguin and stuff went off the charts, I want try to tweak and bring it up, with out links at first.

So I can target less than 2% on all the page, between all?

So keep the keyword in the Title, but write a better and longer Title, to lower the %.
Body, will write another paragraph to lower even more the %
H1/H2/H3 keep the keyword in the H1 and remove from H2?
Links I am not sure
Bold remove it

Meta Description, lower the % writing a longer description?
Meta Keyword are they important, I need to write more?

also I am looking tha the link to other articles are like: example if the main keyword was cement roof, the other links are , "old roof", "white roof", so the word roof is repeated several times more into the pages, basically stuffing that single keyword, shoud I remove the roof, and live old and white only?

I have analyzed the same page using http://tools.seobook.com/general/keyword-density/

and I get for the keyword that is made from 2 words 3.40%, for the one word that is part of the keyword I am targetting 4.91%, this is in all text, in the body I get 2.93 for the keyword and 2.70 per the single word part of the main keyword.

 

[dragonrage01]

I use tags all the time. I've never seen a problem with using them. I have like 30 tags for the major keywords I'm ranking.
It is because wordpress creates a summary for each tag. To me it always looks like a great way to have internal link structure.

 

[phpbuilt]

Great read here, definitely looking forward to some more info. I do have one question for you if you don't mind. Say you're aiming for a huge keyword, let's go with something stupidly difficult like payday loans. I see where you're not targeting that specific keyword up front. However, I do expect you'll be looking to see where you fall on the SERPs to know that your correctly optimized. If you're targeting something that competitive, where do you look to land to know you've optimized correctly?

I wouldn't do this method for payday loans. With the difficult keywords I use private blog networks with 100% exact match anchors, and web2.0s with 0% exact match anchors. You need to underoptimize your incoming backlink portfolio with the web2.0s and increase your nonexact match anchors with those so your blog network can exact match keywords without getting penalized.

edit: when I say "I wouldn't do this", I mean I wouldn't try it with no backlinks. I'd be doing the optimization recommendations though.

 

[phpbuilt]

What about micro niche site overoptimization? Does this tutorial goes with MNS too? Also im using Wordpress SEO by Yoast and try to do 100% as plugin says. Am I good with doing so?

Overoptimization can happen on a 1 page website, so yes ... this applies to a micro niche site.

I don't know about Yoast, but I used to use something called SEOpressor (plugin that tells you your keyword density and gives you SEO advice). GUARANTEED if you follow its advice you're penalized. Its giving you a red checkmark if you don't have a keyword in H1 AND H2 AND H3 AND 2%+ keyword density in body and on and on ... its a wordpress plugin. Wordpress plugin programmers are not SEO experts by default. I'm quite sure with all the misinformation in the industry that the concepts in this thread are unknown to most of the SEO world.