Case Study: SERP Position tracking for a new site

Hey everyone! I wanted to share some data on my new authority site that I've been working on for the last month. In here I will share as much information as I can except for the keywords I'm actually ranking for, and the actual domain of the site. Feel free to ask questions and I'll be happy to answer them below.

Site: Longtail keyword EMD with a .co extension. (Think.. "how to" + keyword)

Age: I started the site in mid december of '11

Content: I add 1 outsourced 500-600 word article on the site every day since it launched. I use Easy WP Seo to optimize every post to 91-95% with a 1-2% kw density on my 500 word articles. Anything above this looks to be like keyword stuffing IMO. I also link back to the homepage with the keyword on all articles.

SEO: I Outsourced my SEO to jstover (he has a thread on the services section, tell him I referred you if you hire him for work!) and he takes care of everything. He is ranking 10 keywords for me, all pointing to my root domain, instead of the inner pages for a specific kw. I did a couple tests on fiver and a few other services here to see how well they affect inner page rankings, but a lot of them have yet to really index fully in google, so I won't be covering their performance yet. I attribute the keyword rank data I'm about to share wholly to jstover's work, which I am very happy with.

The following is a snapshot of my rank position data from market samurai for the 10 keywords I've had ranked. You'll notice that 9 of the keywords have a very similar ranking pattern....they start off well (positioned in the first 100 after being indexed and the first set of backlinks showing up) and then drop to the 200-300's (the google dance as it's known).. and now.. it's finally risen up to a strong positioning.. 3 in page 1, 3 in page 2, and 3 in page 3. The 1 stubborn keyword of my 10, spent most of its time in the 500-600 position range, but is now around 250. I'd expect it to keep climbing over the next few days as well.

Keyword 1: Now ranked at position 5!


Keyword 2: Now ranked at position 7!


Keyword 3: Now ranked at position 8!


Keyword 4: Now ranked at position 12!


Keyword 5: Now ranked at position 13!


Keyword 6: Now ranked at position 16!


Keyword 7: Now ranked at position 21!


Keyword 8: Now ranked at position 21!


Continued on Post #2 due to attachment limits.

Keyword 9: Now ranked at position 25!


Keyword 10 (The Stubborn Keyword): Now ranked at position 254


I'll keep updating this thread as rankings continue to increase.

Thanks for reading!

Nice Case Study! 1 article everyday? Wow thats quite a lot dont you think?

Getwhatchuwant said:

Nice Case Study! 1 article everyday? Wow thats quite a lot dont you think?

Click to expand...

I'm building an authority site, not an MFA or MNS. I want google coming back daily, indexing my new articles (each one targeted on a different keyword).. and ranking them all. The longer I wait to post a new article, the longer it will take to get it ranked in the top positions.

All my other kw's that I don't have jstover ranking for me have been increasing in ranking as well.. due to the increased authority my site is getting overall. I have at least 5 other kw's in the top 50 results as well, and without any linkbuilding being done.

I'm also now alternating article posting with product reviews that are related to my niche so that I can diversify my monetization for the site, and again make my site look more authoritative.

southbayboredom said:

I'm building an authority site, not an MFA or MNS. I want google coming back daily, indexing my new articles (each one targeted on a different keyword).. and ranking them all. The longer I wait to post a new article, the longer it will take to get it ranked in the top positions.

All my other kw's that I don't have jstover ranking for me have been increasing in ranking as well.. due to the increased authority my site is getting overall. I have at least 5 other kw's in the top 50 results as well, and without any linkbuilding being done.

I'm also now alternating article posting with product reviews that are related to my niche so that I can diversify my monetization for the site, and again make my site look more authoritative.

Click to expand...

Very nice! I had a site that I wrote about 10-15 articles did some backlinking and was also doing very well with short and long tails....Took a review copy of what should be a GOOD service (high PR blog posts) and I may be dancing but most of my KW's have dropped pretty significantly. I am thinking that this might be b/c in the past I paired new links with new content. Since this was a review copy I did not plan on any new content. I am thinking that the new links w/o the new on page content might be the culprit.

The thing to remember is that the dance takes time. I see so many threads on this site with people expecting immediate results, and the truth is.. it just doesn't happen like that. It takes time, and hard work.. but it all pays off in the end.

I put up a site about the same time, I'm seeing the same exact results. But right now I'm stuck in the flat lined part where just about every page seems non existent, or in 200th place. Frustrating!!!! But I know not to expect results for about 2-3 months, but STILL!!!

Thanks for showing this!

Good to see your case study. The thing is you are targeting only main domain for backlinks. It doesn't seems to be natural..though you diversify the anchor texts. Start building external links for your inner pages too. Those links will also boost up your main domain and it's easier to rank for those inner pages/long tail keywords due to less competion....Good luck !

jimwells987 said:

Good to see your case study. The thing is you are targeting only main domain for backlinks. It doesn't seems to be natural..though you diversify the anchor texts. Start building external links for your inner pages too. Those links will also boost up your main domain and it's easier to rank for those inner pages/long tail keywords due to less competion....Good luck !

Click to expand...

That's actually my plan for the next phase. I'm going to be using services like linkpushing to build up the rank/authority of my inner pages. Will be rolling that out once I'm seeing a positive ROI from things.

Actually, articles can bring lots of traffic to new website for not only long tail keywords, but also competitive keywords. You can get lots of free backlinks when others republish your articles. This can happen.

Just wanted to share what my traffic is looking like now that i have a few first page rankings. I fully expect this to take off even more once I start reaching top 3, but it's definitely motivating.

Yay! Man, I'm in the dance bog down depression. It's nice to see you get some rewards. Theres so much instability when your out of the top 100 or not even showing up, especially after a lot of work.

Then you think, should I even bother moving on? What if I put all this work into something that just gets dropped. lol

Dance screws with you hardcore!!!!

It definitely can feel demoralizing. This is my first time building an authority site (or any site for that matter) so the entire process is a learning experience for me. I'm committed to make it work for at least 6 months before i even consider starting to question my decisions.

Very cool. Thanks for sharing, and keep us updated with your progress.

you've done good result dude.

just curious, what is your niche and how do you build your backlink?

all i'll say about my niche is that it's health/beauty oriented. Backlink building is all done by jstover, who I pay to do all my off-site seo.

Shit, nice job on the traffic for a new site.

This is very cool. Nice results man

Great case study I look forward to seeing your results after a month or 2!!