Successful SEO is built on a formula, that once you’ve internalised, you can roll out on any website and in any market and compete or even obliterate the big boys. Halfords for example have a budget 1000 times bigger than mine yet why are they not at the top of the search engines for every conceivable term in the parking sensor, car audio, camping, bike and car accessory market? They might have the budget but unless you know what to do with it, its pretty useless.
Having not only the experience but also some key associations with the worlds top SEO’s means that i’m constantly on the cutting edge so as soon as a new strategy comes out, i hear about it fast. This would literally take you years to find out. If you count on the forums currently for your SEO knowledge, forget it as most people on forums post incorrect and negative information on purpose to throw you off their SEO scent.
The foundation for Google, MSN and Yahoo the big 3 engines is always the same:
On-Site SEO Secrets:
1) Lots of good keyword and keyphrase rich and fresh content. Duplicate or plagiarised content is frowned upon by Google and the original content always scores the higher and if you’re not careful and you do steal content then you could even get dumped out of the engines.
2) Strong keyword rich Page Titles and H1, H2, H3 tags.
3) A strategic site design, structure and template that follows the 3 F’s – Fast, Functional and Familiar formula.
4) An easy to follow path for the search engine spiders and bots, ensuring the centre container loads first and then the header, footer and sides. More content must also be in the centre container than the other areas of the site template ensuring each page is unique.
5) The use of key strategies like the NoFollow tag. This passes Google Page Rank around your site structure to key pages and blocks non key pages from using up this valuable Google PR juice. See image below…
6) Using key internal linking strategies to not only boost link reputation and link popularity but also to gain indent listings in the Google search results. Indent listings equals more search result real estate which in turn results in more clicks.
7) The use of related terms within your content as this gives you an edge. Terms like car parking, sensor, ultrasonic, accident, reversing, etc, all add to the Google attraction as it deems you an expert and content machine.
Off-Site SEO Secrets:
Ultimately the more 1-way incoming links you have pointing to your site and key pages the higher you will score in the search engine rankings. However its not that easy. This formula only works if the on-site SEO is rock solid too, one without the other and forget it, you need a strong mix of good on-site and good off-site SEO.
But there is more… competitor, keyword and product research must be done so you know exactly which keywords and keyphrases to go after and what description to write that accompanies the links and also what to actually say in the link (anchor text). This anchor text is key, what you say in the actual link pointing at your site does all of the damage but again you need good related content surrounding this link.
Where do we get links from?
Keep this key info to yourself: Directories, Article Directories, Classified Ads, Forums, Social Bookmarking Sites, Related sites, Information sites. Plus some dynamite sites i can’t possibly disclose at this point.
Organic Link Building (A Big Bonus)
Once a website launches, if its good and newsworthy and people like the product and/or the design, etc, it becomes more popular and the brand gets exposure as people who have websites or use websites like blogs and forms start to talk about you. And from this, links are built naturally and the more exposure you get the more natural and FREE links people will make to your site.
This is called Massive Momentum! You’ve heard the scenario of the snowball rolling down a hill, this is it! And when building a website its a good idea to choose a domain name with the main keyword and then brand it. So when people naturally link to Parking Dynamics, they will typically use ‘Parking Dynamics’ or ‘Parking Sensor’ in the anchor text (the link pointing to the websites). This is key as mentioned above.
Main Keyphrases V’s Longtail Keyphrases
When doing keyword research you’ll typically get 20% of your keywords with big search volume numbers (Main Keyphrases) and you’ll get 80% of keyphrases that are much smaller in comparison (Long Tail keyphrases). This basically means that if you go after the Long Tail keyphrases (the lesser used keyphrases) you can get more traffic, as when you add these up they swamp the main keywords. If entering very aggressive and competitive markets this strategy is key.
– Main Keyword Example: parking sensor
– Longtail Keyword Example: car rear parking sensor reverse system
Typical Ranking and Sales Pattern of a well SEO’d Website:
Months 1 to 3: During this period Google has to a) find your new site, b) spider it and c) rank it. Typically just the home page and some top level pages get ranked with more and more deeper pages getting ranked towards month 3. Pages that are listed in the Google results at this point are typically low ranking and can bounce about between page 25 and page 5 with no random pattern. Some even go in and out of the index and back in again. by month 3 if you have run a solid and consitent SEO strategy you can begin to get some top 20 and higher results.
Months 3 to 6: You start to make some good gains in the results at the 3 month mark up to month 6 depening on the aggressiveness of the SEO strategy. Top positions for your Main Keyphrases are definitely achievable during this period and Longtail Keyphrase top postions are easily achievable.
Months 6 to 12: By this point you should be making good gains on your competiton if not overtaking them in the search ranking race and this ultimately depends on the competitiveness of the market and keyphrases targetted in addition to your SEO strategy. If you are targetting the global engines like Google.com you will start to get some top 10 plus rankings for longtail and main keyphrases.
Months 12 to 18: By this period you should be well in control of your local and targetted market for example Google.co.uk and UK visitors. The race for the Global engine rankings will be gaining good ground into the top 5 postions and number 1 results are definitely achievable depending on the competition, market and keyphrases targetted.
Months 18 +: Total and market dominance across the .co.uk search engines and the global .com search engines is easily achieved by month 18. This is when sales start to explode on a UK and International basis and you will never look back. Your natural organic momentum will be carrying you to heights that at month 3 seemed like they were impossible. Vistors will be landing on your website from all over the internet with natural links being built up to a rate of 1K to 5K per month depending on your product and market.
