I started my SEO campaigns about three months ago or so. I must say it's quite an experience. There's a HUGE difference between reading some theories about SEO and implementing it. Thought that it might be useful for my fellow SEO beginners, I decided to share some of the practical lessons I've learned thus far. It sure won't help your money sites rank high in SERP. But hopefully it can help your SEO journey less painful...
ON SEO TOOLS
Common Question: Which SEO tool is the best?
Lesson Learned: First of all, how do you define the best? Top SERP, user friendliness, robustness, stability, or something else? I'm afraid the only way to know it is to spend some time playing around with the software. It's not an exact science, there's a little bit subjectivity here. What's good for others may not be good for you. My suggestion is, stop pondering the question for too long. Give them a try and see how it goes. Researching other people's opinion is good but if you do it forever, you'd only be wasting your time. The vast majority of SEO tools out there offer either free trial or money back guarantee. So, take advantage of it.
Moreover, as far as I know, tools don't get you penalized. It's how you use it. It's much like using a knife. You can use it for plenty good use. But if you're not careful you may cut yourself. Practice makes perfect. Unfortunately, there's no way getting around it. At least that's what I know.
ON 3rd PARTY SEO SERVICE
Common Question: Should I run SEO campaign myself or use 3rd party service?
Lessons Learned: I've used a couple of 3rd party SEO service but not many so my conclusion is not conclusive (far from it). One thing I learned though, with 3rd party service you have little to no control over how they do things. You literally are at "their mercy". If they do things badly you're out of luck. With all of them claiming to offer quality service, it's hard to find out which one is the real deal. So, it takes a little bit of trial and error until you find a decent one and this means lots of money. Please note that I'm not saying it's not worth it. All I'm saying is be aware of its consequences.
On the other hand, running the campaign yourself takes a bit of time as you need to familiarize yourself using the software. You're bound to make mistakes here and there even blunders. But in return you'll get maximum control not to mention valuable skills. This sure is not everyone's cup of tea.
My suggestion is weigh each option in terms of your personal preference, availability of time, budget, etc., make the decision and see how it goes. Again, don't spend your time forever pondering which one is the best for you. You'll never know until you try.
ON CHURN AND BURN CAMPAIGN
Common Question: Does it still work?
Lessons Learned: I've only launched my campaigns for a few months now. So, my conclusion is very far from conclusive. But here's what I found out thus far.
Campaign A: I build backlinks directly to money site using 3rd party service. I use super spun original content on the money site with 80%+ uniqueness. Amount of backlinks built per month +/- 2,000. Result? SERPs run wild from 0 to 40 something to 200 something and then to oblivion in a week or so. It happens to all keywords and stays that way up to today. Keyword competitiveness is hard.
Campaign B: I build around 100 backlinks per day myself using tiers. Content on the money site is "clean" spun mash content, not authentic. Readability decent, not terrible but not great either. No spelling error, etc. Result? Higher and more stable SERP than campaign A, at least up to today. Keyword competitiveness is hard.
Conclusion, perhaps it's too early for me to conclude anything but looking at the data thus far, tiers linking strategy yields a better result in my case. Don't take it for granted though, experiment yourself.
ON ORIGINAL CONTENT
Common Question: Is original content better than spun?
Lessons Learned: I have campaign C that uses 100% original content. I built the site about 2 months ago. I build no backlinks to the site. Result? SERP 2, 3, 5, 12 for some of its keywords. Does this means original content is the way to go? Not sure because the level of competitiveness is relatively low, which arguably also affects the ranking. I even get the felling it is the major factor. The site went straight to top 10 SERP in day one and stays that way up to today. There's a little bit of SERP dance but overall it always stays in top 10 - 15. But then again I don't think I can compare it head to head with campaign A and B.
ON NUMBER OF CONTENT
Common Question: How many content my money site should have?
Lessons Learned: Campaign A has 100 or so articles. Campaign B 1,000+ and Campaign C only 5 or so. Each article on all sites has roughly 1,000 words. Conclusion? Not sure due to the huge difference in keyword competitiveness and mode of backlinking strategy. So, I leave that to you to "conclude". One thing that seems to be obvious here is the importance of keyword level of competitiveness.
Okay folks, that's it for now. I hope this is useful for someone somewhere. Comments and feedback would be highly appreciated. I'd like to learn from your experience too. Take care...
ON SEO TOOLS
Common Question: Which SEO tool is the best?
Lesson Learned: First of all, how do you define the best? Top SERP, user friendliness, robustness, stability, or something else? I'm afraid the only way to know it is to spend some time playing around with the software. It's not an exact science, there's a little bit subjectivity here. What's good for others may not be good for you. My suggestion is, stop pondering the question for too long. Give them a try and see how it goes. Researching other people's opinion is good but if you do it forever, you'd only be wasting your time. The vast majority of SEO tools out there offer either free trial or money back guarantee. So, take advantage of it.
Moreover, as far as I know, tools don't get you penalized. It's how you use it. It's much like using a knife. You can use it for plenty good use. But if you're not careful you may cut yourself. Practice makes perfect. Unfortunately, there's no way getting around it. At least that's what I know.
ON 3rd PARTY SEO SERVICE
Common Question: Should I run SEO campaign myself or use 3rd party service?
Lessons Learned: I've used a couple of 3rd party SEO service but not many so my conclusion is not conclusive (far from it). One thing I learned though, with 3rd party service you have little to no control over how they do things. You literally are at "their mercy". If they do things badly you're out of luck. With all of them claiming to offer quality service, it's hard to find out which one is the real deal. So, it takes a little bit of trial and error until you find a decent one and this means lots of money. Please note that I'm not saying it's not worth it. All I'm saying is be aware of its consequences.
On the other hand, running the campaign yourself takes a bit of time as you need to familiarize yourself using the software. You're bound to make mistakes here and there even blunders. But in return you'll get maximum control not to mention valuable skills. This sure is not everyone's cup of tea.
My suggestion is weigh each option in terms of your personal preference, availability of time, budget, etc., make the decision and see how it goes. Again, don't spend your time forever pondering which one is the best for you. You'll never know until you try.
ON CHURN AND BURN CAMPAIGN
Common Question: Does it still work?
Lessons Learned: I've only launched my campaigns for a few months now. So, my conclusion is very far from conclusive. But here's what I found out thus far.
Campaign A: I build backlinks directly to money site using 3rd party service. I use super spun original content on the money site with 80%+ uniqueness. Amount of backlinks built per month +/- 2,000. Result? SERPs run wild from 0 to 40 something to 200 something and then to oblivion in a week or so. It happens to all keywords and stays that way up to today. Keyword competitiveness is hard.
Campaign B: I build around 100 backlinks per day myself using tiers. Content on the money site is "clean" spun mash content, not authentic. Readability decent, not terrible but not great either. No spelling error, etc. Result? Higher and more stable SERP than campaign A, at least up to today. Keyword competitiveness is hard.
Conclusion, perhaps it's too early for me to conclude anything but looking at the data thus far, tiers linking strategy yields a better result in my case. Don't take it for granted though, experiment yourself.
ON ORIGINAL CONTENT
Common Question: Is original content better than spun?
Lessons Learned: I have campaign C that uses 100% original content. I built the site about 2 months ago. I build no backlinks to the site. Result? SERP 2, 3, 5, 12 for some of its keywords. Does this means original content is the way to go? Not sure because the level of competitiveness is relatively low, which arguably also affects the ranking. I even get the felling it is the major factor. The site went straight to top 10 SERP in day one and stays that way up to today. There's a little bit of SERP dance but overall it always stays in top 10 - 15. But then again I don't think I can compare it head to head with campaign A and B.
ON NUMBER OF CONTENT
Common Question: How many content my money site should have?
Lessons Learned: Campaign A has 100 or so articles. Campaign B 1,000+ and Campaign C only 5 or so. Each article on all sites has roughly 1,000 words. Conclusion? Not sure due to the huge difference in keyword competitiveness and mode of backlinking strategy. So, I leave that to you to "conclude". One thing that seems to be obvious here is the importance of keyword level of competitiveness.
Okay folks, that's it for now. I hope this is useful for someone somewhere. Comments and feedback would be highly appreciated. I'd like to learn from your experience too. Take care...
Spam is still ALIVE and WELL.
