How to Rank - A Quick Guide for Newbies

Thanks! this was helpful as I am new to SEO

Good Job... very powerful info

Hi,
I have website where there are lot of inner pages and each is based on some topic which has its own keyword set. If I have to buy blogposts(PBN) and build Tier 1 web2.0s, where should i direct them ? Home page with naked URLs or inner articles with its respective keywords.


I had earlier build all my backlinks to home page. This bought 800 keywords to second page but only few to page 1. May be because there were no backlinks to inner articles.


Now, the rankings have dropped. If I have to buy blogposts(PBN) and build Tier 1 web2.0s, where should i direct them ? Home page with naked URLs or inner articles with its respective keywords.


Building blogposts(3 each), and web2.0s(10 each) even to selective 20 inner pages would cost a lot but would that be worth it?

Hi,

I've got a question too. I actually want to understand what exactly can be referred to as "easy" competition? I know you mentioned that no optimized and authority sites on page 1 means low competition, but what if there are big authority sites on page 1 but not at all optimized for the keywords I'm looking to rank for (I'm talking about long tails here)?

One of the biggest forum articles.


I'm having trouble with a keyword with high searches and hard of 34% (based on MOZ)


I did not get the first page yet, even though TF, CF, DA, PA and greater social signals and backlinks than competitors.


I do not know what else to do to get on the first page.

Great post. Definitley agree with keyword research being the most important step

amarinder said:

Hi,
I have website where there are lot of inner pages and each is based on some topic which has its own keyword set. If I have to buy blogposts(PBN) and build Tier 1 web2.0s, where should i direct them ? Home page with naked URLs or inner articles with its respective keywords.


I had earlier build all my backlinks to home page. This bought 800 keywords to second page but only few to page 1. May be because there were no backlinks to inner articles.


Now, the rankings have dropped. If I have to buy blogposts(PBN) and build Tier 1 web2.0s, where should i direct them ? Home page with naked URLs or inner articles with its respective keywords.


Building blogposts(3 each), and web2.0s(10 each) even to selective 20 inner pages would cost a lot but would that be worth it?

Click to expand...

You want the back links to point to the page you are trying to rank. That means yes, you want to point links at your inner pages.

PassionateWriting said:

Hi,

I've got a question too. I actually want to understand what exactly can be referred to as "easy" competition? I know you mentioned that no optimized and authority sites on page 1 means low competition, but what if there are big authority sites on page 1 but not at all optimized for the keywords I'm looking to rank for (I'm talking about long tails here)?

Click to expand...

The real easy to rank KWs have no authority sites anywhere to be seen. Because the domain is so strong you can have superior backlinks and not rank against them.

I would put that type of KW in relatively easy. I would also target that type of KW.

Too many people get caught up in top ten. Look at top 5 - 25 and ask yourself, 'Can I easily beat these guys?' If no one is optimized in that range, you can safely assume that you can rank in top five with no real work.

For some KWs number one is not worth the work. So look at this in a holistic frame of mind. If you think you can get to top ten with no real work, that is a good KW especially if the top ten has a couple of authority sites ranked but not targeting the KW. With some time and decent links you should pass that authority site up.

Warriorne said:

One of the biggest forum articles.


I'm having trouble with a keyword with high searches and hard of 34% (based on MOZ)


I did not get the first page yet, even though TF, CF, DA, PA and greater social signals and backlinks than competitors.


I do not know what else to do to get on the first page.

Click to expand...

Use a service to check the back link types your competition is getting. I would make some assumptions as well:

1. The competition is using a PBN metrics ignore
2. Metrics are not a true indication of page strength
3. More often than not, in this situation, On Page may be the issue.

Under these assumptions (Which covers most situations I see and experience) I would suggest you look at on page again and then get a semrush or another service to scrape the competitions back links and look for any pattern. You can also go a google search for the URL of the competition to try and drag up PBNs and some networks use a naked URL and I have been able to find some missing links that way.

The purpose of looking for a pattern is if the competitions rank increases but the back links do not justify this increase, you can assume it is a PBN.

The back links report should answer you questions in respect to age of the post, inbound links, and if something seems of it often is.

Hi,

Thank you for the great post. I have been trying it out for the 10 days.

I just have one questions regarding the 2.0 pumper sites, in particular regarding Weebly. When I select to make a free page, it tells me that it will not be found by search engines such as google. Does this mean that I need to sign up for a proper account, as in, pay the monthly fee?

Thanks!

very nice guide for starters .

Some 2.0s require you to pay. Ignore them and move on.

Although I have not heard of that with Weebly. The free one should work just as well.

Hey Lightningblitz,

Thank you for the post and assistance for everyone it is much appreciated!

I manage several sites and have been stuck for several months (all websites) on pages 2-3, and some keywords on pages 4-5 for months. I can never seem to get them to move past page 2 for some reason.

Here is my strategy that gets them to pages 2-5:
Keyword Research using Google Adwords, go for keywords that have "buying intent" and atleast 100< or more searches
Onpage SEO - optimize URLs if applicable, Titles, descriptions, alt image text, Headings
Content - Most pages of content have an image with anywhere from 200-600 words with 2 mentions of keywords on average.
Web 2.0s - I use Aged Web 2.0s that are not niche specific but the article with the link is
PBNs- I post about 10 links each month from my own PBN with niche relevant content
Public Website Links - I use public website links but never had great results and have tried at least 20 providers before
Social Bookmarks & Pinterest - create profiles on popular social bookmarking websites and create new pinterest page
Authority Sites - Create profiles on popular profile sites like Purevolume, Crunchbase, Zimbio etc.

Anchor text ratios according to Majestic SEO tool:
On average naked URL 20-25%
brand name 15-20%
main keyword 15-20%
Multiple LSI keywords 20-40%
Generics (Click here, learn more etc. 10%

Then each month I try to rinse and repeat the linkbuilding process mentioned above.

Do you have any recommendations on something that I may be missing here?

A couple things:

1. Add more words to your money site article. Google bots pick up the KW but determine what the article is about by context in my experience. Too few words tend to not pick up as well. I find for this reason alone 500 + words works best without KW stuffing.

2. Aged Web 2.0s are great. You said 100 + searches, but what is competition level? Your aged 2.0s need to be beefed up like pumper sites or if they are expired 2.0s the should move a KW on their own. If they do not, I suggest looking at competition level again.

3. Page one is a lot about CTR and on page in my experience. I have two KWs dancing between two and three position and no amount of hammering with links moves them to number one. It is about the CTR. When I change the meta description to make it more appealing, my KWs normally move up due to CTR. Once you get to page two re - look at how your site shows up in SERPs. That makes a bigger difference when getting close to number one.

4. Blast your profile links with spam and GSA. They normally do not get indexed on their own. I use the kitchen sink and make sure to include stuff like Blog Comments, Guest Book, Social Bookmarks, ect. They tend to help the profile get indexed and they pass a good amount of link juice.

5. Lower your main KW percentages. For contextual links, Google can figure out what word you are targeting with enough content on the page. Due to this, you can quickly reduce your percentages. I am not a huge proponent of percentages making a big difference, but when you spread them so evenly is screams 'I am a SEO'. Mix the stuff up a bit and target some more LSI KWs.


If you are still struggling, a lot of factors can be at play. Domain strength and age makes a difference with some tricky KWs in my experience but I would suggest you expand your networks (PBN and Web 2.0) and drip a link in a week and wait for it to make a difference. It should not take long to bump up some of your KWs that are already at page two.

Thank you, this is some really good advice. I will put what you recommend to action and provide an update in case others are reading and interested

Hopefully that does the trick.

One thing I see a lot (Have not done extensive testing myself) is using a service like Insane Google Ranker once you are on page two / three to improve CTR. That usually has a dramatic improvement once you get to page one. Just like natural CTR, ten or so clicks a day once you are on page one should shoot you up quickly.

wow..so comprehensive . Thanks op

Cool guide. Let's see if it can help a beginner like me

i just read this post for i think the 50th time. the best place on the internet for seo is right here.

ok let me ask you a question if i may

for 301 redirects does the domain you are 301ing have to be indexed?

if it does how do you index a domain without building it out?
i want to register expired domains that could be used as pbns and use them as 301s, but sometimes they are not indexed.

ty !

aarongoldsten said:

i just read this post for i think the 50th time. the best place on the internet for seo is right here.

ok let me ask you a question if i may

for 301 redirects does the domain you are 301ing have to be indexed?

if it does how do you index a domain without building it out?
i want to register expired domains that could be used as pbns and use them as 301s, but sometimes they are not indexed.

ty !

Click to expand...

Just build links to the 301. You should see it picked up that way.

I build back links as a way to get Google to crawl things. For example, if I put an article up on a site I do not add content on often and Google does not pick it up, I build a few Bookmarks and it gets picked up.

I use that same logic for everything. Build a few links and watch it get picked up.

Thx very much for this great post

I'm a newbie and i find this helpful.
For real, thanks!