Hey im a bit of a newbie to SEO and am looking to make my first site. I have a keyword with 40K+ searches a month. Tools like traffic travis and market samurai tell me it should be relatively easy to rank for, as there are almost no sites with the keyword in the title, H1 tags, domain name or description. However most of the top sites are big name sites with 10's to 100's of thousands of backlinks to the domain (not the ranking page), are at least 3-5 years old and are typically page rank 3 to 6. Do you think this keyword should be easy to rank for or am I kidding myself? Any help would be much appreciated!
Yes I believe you can get there... Other sites are not optimized for that keyword so if you can do it, you should be easily able to rank on that...
since there is no site with the exact keywd as title,you can definitely rank for that term.Just remember to concentrate on the link anchor text.You will be able to rank in just three or four months if you do the right link building. By the way,it is good to see you choosing a keyword that is easy to rank for.Since you are a newbie,this will be a great opportunity for you.do it!
while building links,it is very important you do not make the anchor text to be always your target keyword.You need to mix it up. for example,say your target keyword is "panic attacks books",you have to make sure you use the following phrases as the anchor text apart from the target key phrase[just for example]: panic attacks anxiety panic attack prevention and so on ...
You didn't mention whether your competition was ranking for the said keyword upon their tld ( top level domain) or sub pages? This in my experience is very valid taking into consideration your other points. It is good practises to experiment with keyword investigations in the early days but don't get too ahead of yourself by trying to dominate tough niches until you are more proficient. I would start out with easier to rank for keywords within your site which will provide you with priceless experiences whilst also giving you the taste of success. It is all too easy in this environment when starting out to become demotivated by failure. It's a matter of picking your battles based upon your knowledge base and working towards tougher niches as you gain experience. Posted via Mobile Device
The domains ranking highly are all sub domains (at least i think - they arent the home page for the site if thats what you mean?).. ive placed a screen shot of my competition analysis (using the free traffic travis tool). Let me know what you think. For example check out the site in rank 10. Its the only site thats optimised for the word completely in the top 20 sites, has a PR of 4 and has the page registered in the dmoz directory, however its 0 years old and has no backlinks...you think it should be easy to beat that and get on first page? file is also attached
Without a doubt you can get there, however it's always wise to have a plan. As others said above, vary your links (meaning where they are coming from) and also your anchor text. A rule of thumb I've used for a site I now have on Page 1 Google is 70 ti 80% of my links are using my main keyword as the anchor text, then I'll vary the others... "click here", "good site", etc. Additionally, I don't always link to the home page, but deep link to pages in my archieves. Works for me... Currently I'm #5 About 345,000 results (0.47 seconds) (no quotes) About 103,000 results (0.40 seconds) (with quotes) Interesting my video for the same niche is one slot above.
cheers, thanks for all the help. my site just got indexed today and im on page 5. Shouldnt be too ahrd to get a few links and move up rapdily. How long does it usually take for google to recognise your links and adjust you position? Also, ive noticed a few people saying your site opften goes down in ranking for a while before increasing in the long term when u add new content, links etc. have you guys witnessed this? Also, would you recommend making hub pages and squidoo lenses etc?
