Questions about ranking in Google

Hi - I recently bought 10 articles at 1,000 words each in 10 different niches on all new websites. The 10 keywords I picked were chosen from Long Tail Pro with a keyword competitiveness of under 25. Out of the 10 only 3 are currently ranking and I'm wondering why. And when I say ranking I mean position 78 to 168.

My articles have my main keyword in the url, first sentence, h2 tag, then 3 more random times in the article. My image file name and alt tag is also my main keyword. My question is should the keyword also be under the h2 tag's section or does that matter? Is there anyone else I should be doing?

Is the reason I'm not ranking on the first page because I should of targeted a keyword competitiveness of under 20 and not 25 for new sites?

Should my articles employ some type of lsi keywords into the article as well? For example lets say I want to rank for "how to bet on college sports" is there a program that looks at the first page of google and sees what keywords those articles share so I can use those in my content.

Or should I just use lets say 5 random lsi words using: http://www.lsigraph.com/

Using the above example I picked:
[TABLE="width: 1415"]
[TR]
[TD]how to bet sports online[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]how to place bets on sports[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]the best bet on sports[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]how to bet on sports in vegas[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]how to bet online

[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
Should I sprinkle these keywords in the article? Or do I need to do something different? Any advice would help. Thanks.

The reason that you're not ranking on the first page is usually due to backlinks more than on-page SEO.

You seem focused on keyword density. The general rule of thumb is 1-3%. I use it enough without it being spammy (e.g. keep it looking natural) and it works for me. I also abuse the hell out of long-tails and LSI. Rarely will I use the main keyword on its own. It's almost always written in the form of a long-tail or LSI..

Based on your page critique, I'm guessing you're using the YoastSEO plugin? That plugin does provide a good guideline to follow for on-page SEO, but I wouldn't make it a point of emphasis to follow if you're going to sacrifice the flow of your content.

But yeah, to circle back to the beginning. You need quality backlinks in order to rank on the first page. Unless you're going after a keyword that has zero, and I mean zero competition, you're not going to rank on the first page with only on-page SEO.

Google do this by assuming that people link to sites they trust, find interesting or offer them something.Thinking about your own web usage, you'll probably see that this is true.

Hi,
I think you have just focussed on the keyword density rather focussing on the uniqueness of your article. You should not concentrate on only one thing, you should cover all the things...

You can rank and bank using 2 method
HQ link and Content,,, you can't rank very well without link!
try to build some web.20, PBN and Guest Post

So far, I understand that you concentrate only on on-page SEO as JamaicanMoose said. So, I do recommend to concentrate on building links as he said.

Okay, you've got 10 keywords right? Well, I just recommend you to create sub-pages using those keywords respectively & link back to the main page on it's content. So, here comes interlinking where you can earn some links without doing anything. Hope it helps you. Feel free to ask your questions if you've any. Best Wishes - BB

deanmoney said:

The 10 keywords I picked were chosen from Long Tail Pro with a keyword competitiveness of under 25. Out of the 10 only 3 are currently ranking and I'm wondering why. And when I say ranking I mean position 78 to 168.

My articles have my main keyword in the url, first sentence, h2 tag, then 3 more random times in the article. My image file name and alt tag is also my main keyword. My question is should the keyword also be under the h2 tag's section or does that matter? Is there anyone else I should be doing?

Click to expand...

JamaicanMoose said:

The reason that you're not ranking on the first page is usually due to backlinks more than on-page SEO.

You seem focused on keyword density. The general rule of thumb is 1-3%. I use it enough without it being spammy (e.g. keep it looking natural) and it works for me. I also abuse the hell out of long-tails and LSI. Rarely will I use the main keyword on its own. It's almost always written in the form of a long-tail or LSI..

Based on your page critique, I'm guessing you're using the YoastSEO plugin? That plugin does provide a good guideline to follow for on-page SEO, but I wouldn't make it a point of emphasis to follow if you're going to sacrifice the flow of your content.

But yeah, to circle back to the beginning. You need quality backlinks in order to rank on the first page. Unless you're going after a keyword that has zero, and I mean zero competition, you're not going to rank on the first page with only on-page SEO.

Click to expand...

Thanks for all the information. Yes, I am using the YoastSEO plugin so I'm trying to get my main keyword at least in the article 5 times (including in 1 heading) at 1000 words to be a 0.5% and get that green light lol

When you say that you "abuse the hell out of long-tails and LSI" can you please elaborate? Like if my keyword is "how to treat acne overnight" and I used that long tail five times. Do you mean not just use that same long tail but what google suggests 5 times with words in the front/back of it:

how to treat acne overnight at home
"how to" treat acne overnight home remedies (I had to remove "how to" in order to get another suggestion)

And then something that breaks my long tail and adds the word like cystic for the LSI part in the middle?

how to treat cystic acne overnight

Or would that be too close to the main word so use a site like http://www.lsigraph.com/ that I would pick 5 similar long tails like:

diy overnight acne treatment
overnight acne solutions

I know that I need to develop backlinks but I'm trying to get my content structure down first. Thanks for any help.