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My SEO Guide for 2017 | Nirvana (32)

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Hi all,

I was writing a response to tmp767 and thought I'd post the reply here instead so the post could reach a lot more people. You can check out tmp's orginal thread here.

Hi tmp,

First of all keyword research is KEY. You need to make sure you target the right keyword. Try semrush.com and see what competitors are doing. Make sure you focus close on kw difficulties on semrush and stay away from 2 word or 1 word kws that are dominated by huge 1000+ page sites or reputable brand. Its possible to rank those tough kws.. I go for them all the time. They require a budget and a lot of blackhat techniques... which I obviously cant summarize this second as its soo much content. Long tails can get you enough traffic to put a smile on your face, trust me. Longtails are a longer version of your keyword.

Example: Main kw = leather shoes.. Long tail = cheap leather shoes online.

Once you find some nice keywords.. start by sending some social media links first. This means BEFORE any other link type. Think about it.. a genuine website gets shared on social media first.. then people find out about it and THEN link to site. Be natural, use your brain. The technique above could work for let's say a vaporizer product..BUT now let's say u were promoting a specific treatment product (I have not tested this niche, but the logic applies).. common sense would say that these users are going directly on google and searching... unless its a paid marketing camp on fb wth solid targeting, no company would naturally share something that has high potential to ruin user experience as who wants to exposed to a disease when "socializing".

Next you need to build some solid foundation links. Articles, bookmarks, directories, PR, and more! This is your all sorts of links. Again, NOT spam. Legit high spun (if you are on a budget, spun content , if not all original and HQ) content on relevant sites (this technique is a mix of white and grey hat). Let all these links settle for 2 weeks.

Then you need to be VERY dirty. All SEO'd affiliate sites are somewhat dirty. SEO's run parallel to Google. They catch us fast and we find a way a new way quicker. I really mean it when I say this. As a SEO, if you snooze, you loose. It took me 4 months to get back into the loop once I stepped back for a few months as a result of sickness. Unlike hackers, SEO's are still in Google's reach when it comes to finding what we do and how we do it.

Clarifying the dirty links point point above, you will need Sape or PBN links. These links are expensive. I personally own my own site network. Setting is up is not too expensive, but not many SEO's can do it. Your network needs constant maintenance and there are soo many techniques you apply on the posts itself as well. In your case, do not build anything yourself. Find the right sellers and test. I wont give you too much detail as to where to go but I will one thing.. You are looking at about $15 for a good PBN (Private blog post) link and about $150/m for 100 sape links.

Sape produces results faster (as little as a month) and is sometimes more expensive. Disclaimer - I DO NOT mean top 3 positions always. When I say results = movements.

Pro: fast results
Cons: gets caught faster and all content, time, and energy wasted. Well for noobs it is, a few ways to recycle everything. I won't spill that here as I'd be revelaing you info that you would eventually figure out after getting burnt. The idea is to show you direction, not how to get there.

PBN produces results fast (1-2 months with a good pbn) and is STRONGER than sape, in the long run.

Pro: Very whitehat if you hide your pbn. Less chance of getting caught. Links are very strong provided your content is good and the pbn site is setup properly.
Con: Very easy to get caught if its a SHIT pbn network. Usually all sites in the network get a ban at one. A bit expensive for someone on a budget. Hard to setup. Requires intermediate skills.

You can also run the kws by me if you'd like. Btw bud its all 100% bs that you can rank a site that quick. Chrun and burns is what you should explore if you want to flip quick $$$$. <- No fun.. test and see why.

Here is an example of very competitive niche. Insurance companies with $xx,xxx/m SEO budgets compete for top positions. Here is a snap of one of my sites and a few kws.

A good mix of 1, 2, and 3 word keywords below



As you can see, keyword comps at times are in the 100's of millions. This means for a particular kw, 100m+ results show = VERY COMPETITIVE.

Follow my guide and track your keywords. Small product sites are very easy to rank provided you do it right. *cough* keyword research.

Its possible to rank anything. It's just not possible for everybody to rank everything.

Some area's I did not cover:

1. On-page SEO - This is a make it or break it. Onpage has to be good on your money website and PBN sites.

2. Overall anchor text ratio - This means anchors linking to your site.. example.. site x links to your money site. HOW they link to you is called the anchor. Let's say your website is about shoes. Site x has an article about your business and links back to you in a sentence link this: tmp is an American company that produces high quality leather shoes that provide a warm and comfortable experience. The word "leather shoes" is the anchor linking to your money site. Google looks at anchors and determines how relevant or irrelevant your website is for "leather shoes". Keep in mind, if you spam all anchors and target only kws... then you would show Google unnatural behavior while will lead to a penalty. Keep it natural. Spy on competitors and even notice their competitors. Get inspiration and create your own masterpiece. It works best if you are inspired and not copying other peoples work. How many times have you seen 2 or 3 websites on the first page of Google showing VERY similar content? Really think about this one before you execute.

3. Site experience - Make it fast, current, and engaging. I will not talk too much on this topic as we all know what this point means.

4. Content length. Spy comps and try to write more than them, always. Dont fluff. If you comp has 500 words on the page thats ranking #1... look at their content..Re-write what you like.. add unique info that no other competitor has.. Pics and videos help.

5. Local SEO - If your product is local, setup a google business and seo the shit out of it.

6, 7, 8, 9. ....I can keep going. I hope what I wrote helps you and others. If you would like a detailed SEO guide, I can definitely write one.

SEO is no different from running a pop campaign if we are talking about conversions. If anything in your funnel is not working, it will throw the whole project into the dump. I personally would not just start a dummy project and see where it goes.

The guys I compete with in certain industries are experts. Far better than the avg seo who still uses low grade content and links. If you are going to start a project, have a minimum budget of $1000 USD. Make sure the product pays well and see how much volume is for a particular geo for a given kw. If all looks good, take it slow and pay attention to fine details.

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Thanks for this great share, Nirvana! #makeSEOgreatAgain

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Great to hear that SEO still works these days!

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Hi Nirvana,

i totally agree with most of your points - when you want to rank fast in competitive markets. But on the other hand if i want to build a long-lasting whitehat site in not so competitive markets,
my approach is totally different. As you mentioned keyword research is absolutely the key for success. You can rank very well with only a handful of links but it needs much more time.
But there are a lot of hats in this game and i use them all for different purposes. It's always the same, test, test, test..
Thanks for your good guide.

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Thanks for the response guys. Glad to see it helps!

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The spam sites are pouring into our market. SEO jobs are going to India and China. If we keep going this way, we wont have a country anymore.

I just want to make SEO great again haha

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Thinking about starting a SEO follow along for STM. Ill do a poll and we together pick a market/product and I launch a camp. No pharmas or casino. We track the climb the whole way. This way I can break down what exactly I do.

What do you guys think?

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This would be an awesome idea actually! I'm sure many members would love to follow such an experiment, myself included. I used to be into SEO heavily for many years, my PBN was several 100s domains heavy ... I start to miss the days of passive income

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Awesome idea.

Are there any somewhat public marketplaces for PBN links? Different GEOs, categories/topics?

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www.blackhatworld.com

Make sure you ask PA DA TF CF, OBL (out bound links.. lower than 10 better), and how long will posts stay on homepage (longer the better). Ask to see some samples before placing order.

To check PA, DA, TF, CF use majestic.com, ahrefs, moz... You can not verify OBL upfront BUT there are 2 ways. First, make a judgement based on sample sites (Quality sellers will not disclose ANYTHING).. Second, after you place order, monitor links being built to your site and analyze them on majestic.com, ahrefs, moz. Takes 2 weeks for links to be indexed (found by google and given power). Good links from high traffic sites or very well done PBNS will index under a week.

PA - Page authority - Its important to have links from authoratative sites. Compare avg PA from different sellers.
DA - I would not worry too much as making judgement on DA requires manual inspection. Tons of sellers lie.
TF - Trust flow - This is an indicator that trust worthy sites are linking to the site you will buy link from. 12+ TF is good for mid comp.
CF - Citation flow. Not worth worrying about. I can build 10k spam links and have a high CF.

One thing I want to warn you about. Good PBN sellers DO NOT provide any report or proof that the blogs have actually been posted and linked to you. It's exactly like operation on good faith. That is a judgment and risk you have to take based on reviews, convo with seller, and seller volume. Actually look at the buyers on the thread and zero in (focus) on who post reviews or order confirmation. Notice who they are and their forum authority to make judgement. OBV (obviously) if old/repudiated members are buying, must be a good service.

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a SEO follow along would be great- Would love to see that

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Sape direct or via 301?

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I do direct.

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OK, I don't see much results from SAPE anymore -- or it's very hit or miss. If anyone in here are keen on doing a solid SEO slack group, that would be cool.

Advanced strategies, limited # of members, grey-hat-ish stuff (I guess it depends on where you set the limits, but blackhat == hacking/cloaking/hacklinks). Test focused, trackable and documented results/methods.

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I consider myself to very bh with most sites but ive never had to do any of the above to rank a site. Sape is hacked links but then it depends on who you know and what they sell you.

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Another new site looking promising today. Very strong growth.



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I am looking for some niche suggestions for a SEO follow along. What do you guys want to see me crush?

Please leave your niche suggestions below. Something that you have wanted to rank.

No casino, pharma, hacking, and nutra.

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I'd love to see an SEO follow-along. That'd be a great addition for STM readers.

I don't have a specific suggestion on niches, though - at the end of the day, the money from all niches spends the same Do whatever works for you!

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I have decided to rank kws regarding some of the 'gurus' and their products.

Will be building a brand. I will be creating a follow along shortly.

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Will be pushing this project back until later this year... FB & pops are starting to looking promising and time is of the essence.

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Ah what a pity, I was really looking forward to this

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I most definitely will make the guide as time permits. Is there anything specific you were looking to know about? Anything you want to confirm about 2017?

One thing

PBNs took a HUGE hit over the past 2 weeks. The recent algorithm update caught tens of thousands of sites and I know am pretty sure I know the reason why. How can I be soo sure? Well 15 of my own PBN sites got deindexed. What did I do next? Talk to EVERY credible person I know and found like 10 different speculations (reasons). I was not at peace so I decided to dig into my own sites and after 2 hours I had a solid answer.

How

After spying pbns of competitors, who did not hide their network well, I found out their backlinks dropped in majestic & ahrefs and after visiting those links and analyzing the sites, vallah, similar reasons as mine behind the de-indexing of their network (Penalty, etc). You won't believe this. According to my data, I did a great job at everything, except one thing. That one thing was the design of the PBN sites. When I first made my PBN, I was rolling out generic wordpress themes, and truth be told, I was using the same theme all across. You guessed it. Its the first 15 sites that were caught.

So why is this soo bad? Who cares about design!

Well you are right. Design actually has very little to no influence when it comes to PBNS. If anything, it actually sometimes even has a negative impact if you have weird codes, animations, scripts, etc on the page you are trying to rank. Some people rank their pbns! A real pbn is suppose to be a huge network of sites that are all organically ranking as well. But thats like saying be a vegan, workout everyday, and do not drink. Who the hell wants to live there. The point - you can fake this. Any avg successful SEO can do this.

BUT

What I left was a HUGE footprint.

Foot print - Think of a footprint as something we leave behind that others can follow and catch us. The 15 sites being similar and those same sites linking to the same other multiple sites shows something unnatural. What is the likely hood of 10 sites being the same design and them 'coincidentally' (by chance) linking to the same sites. Yep, I left a footprint that google followed and found part of my network.

As a result of this, I was caught by google and instead of punishing the sites these pbns link from, they just removed them from their engine. Here is a nugget. Link a random page of your competitors in the same article but with a non competitive anchor so your pbn does not give them a boost for the kw you are competing them with. Now if the pbn gets caught, your enemy goes down with you.

But as you grow as a SEO. You will notice that this isnt really worth it as talent and hard work beats almost everything except power, which money brings. You want to use such techniques when others do it to you. When I get guys playing dirty games, I usually only have to fight back once.

From now

I invite anyone to ask questions they may have. About absolutely anything SEO related. Ill try my best to answer it!

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Do you have advice on whitehat methods? I run a small handful of sites and I plan to expand them further by investing a portion of my PPC earnings once I hit solid numbers.

Most of my linkbuilding has been stuff from Backlinko like guestographics, guest post links, or just outreach for lists/interviews/mentions to get links directly. I very much respect the PBN strategy and it's probably the strongest way to earn serious money with SEO.

I may be in the minority but I'm actually interested in keeping my brands stable & well-maintained for years. This means very low risk tolerance of penalties by big G and no interest to setup/maintain a PBN. So I'd be interested to know if you have tips/suggestions for someone playing by the rules.

FWIW I currently run all my SEO sites through ecommerce aff programs like Amazon, eBay, and Etsy(and a couple other small niche programs). I've never done big offers like dating, insurance, gambling or anything like that. So my idea of SEO affiliate might be totally different than yours. But I'm always interested to learn from others! It's a big world out there with so many kws to earn from.

And if you don't have any whitehat tips I'd love to know what you suggest for someone who isn't going the blackhat route, at least from your experience. What do you think is the best strategy if your intention is building maintainable brands rather than churn&burn/flipping?

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Oh and regarding the follow-along I think that's a sweet idea. Heck, I'd even be willing to start my own once I can make PPC/PPV traffic work better for me. I've always wanted to run something like this where I talk about specifics and how I invest money to scale the sites I run. But I'm still in my earlybird learning phase with paid traffic so I can't contribute a good SEO followalong until I build my revenue in paid traffic first.

SEO doesn't really have the same capacity for earnings compared to paid traffic but I still think it's a big area with plenty of money to make. So I'd be happy to contribute a bit more to these types of threads here on STM even if it's only relevant to a smaller portion of the userbase

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Hi thepinkcat,

My apologies for the late reply.

Its a great thing that you know your risk tolerance and how far you are willing to push.

Here is what I can suggest

1. Stay away from kws where the top positions or guys coming up are blackhat. They will eventually beat you if you do not adapt. In your case, go keywords that are very low comp, yet profitable. This would usually be the communities neglected... long tail keywords.

2. Since you can not go dirty, you have to make up somewhere else. Somewhere else meaning... the website itself. Make sure your content is very high quality, informative, has small faq in the body, and flawless onpage wise as well.

3. If you cant create a PBN, that does not mean you lose necessarily. Turn your website pages into your pumpers by naturally interlinking pages.

4. Update your blog with content that has to do with pages that you want to rank. For example, you want to rank for kw life insurance canada... and you already have a fully optimized page about life insurance thats optimized to target kw life insurance canada... now what you want to do is update your blog with 2 or 3 nice, long, and detailed articles about relating topics. Such as... best way to get life insurance with pre-existing conditions in canada or how canadians can save the most when buying life insurance or how long does it takes to get quotes for life insurance from a canadian insurance company.

Once you do that, naturally, link to the page you are trying yo rank with the kw you are targeting, so life insurance canada in this case.. Also interlink those blog pages if possible, naturally.

With this approach, you are creating super authority.

Hopefully my words help. Good luck man!

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Few random tips:

1. Test your target keywords & landing page combo on Adwords first. SEO is expensive, you don't want to spend months trying get rank for unproven funnel.

2. What's better than rank #1? Get your other pages rank on #2, #3, or even #4 and of course the Adwords too (Make sure do tips no.1 before doing this, duh)

3. Parasite SEO still work.

4. Title tag matter more than you think.

5. Repeat after me "Rank doesn't mean shit". The only thing that matter is Sales, Sales, Sales.

6. Look at your competitor, how they build their funnel, what offer?, where they get link?, are they use paid traffic too?, get inside their funnel. Don't copy, steal.

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Some nice tips there apinandrobin. Thanks!

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Quick update to this post.. I pushed SAPE + PBN on this insurance site to get it on the first page for some good kws. This site is now generating a few leads a day

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Quick update:

After pushing some good power to this site, it was still struggling for some money kws. After a certain point, diminishing returns kick in with links. So I knew that build more links will most likely not help.

After spending a few mins on ahrefs/majestic.. I was able to conclude that my money kw anchor texts were a bit TOOO aggressive.

Fix:

I built some nice and juicy diversity links with nothing but brand and url anchors pointing to the website. 10 days or so, I can see solid improvements.

What did I learn?

Make sure my guys always build money kw anchors under 5% of the total anchor portfolio. Example... If my website is about black shoes and that is the kw i want to rank for... then out of all anchors, the anchor text black shoes should always be under 5%.

Cheers!

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Wish organic had more of traction here on STM! good thread.

Im wondering if you really think that the recent updates were only about pbn's, as we are quite sure it wasnt.
There were several 'blows' lately to organic optimizers and things are quite in the dark.

Is it targeting link / anchor distribution? is it something to do with Rank Brain? Might be reevaluation of link by G, while some people swear is about 'Ad Heavy / affiliate' sites..
Lot's of geo related changes as well like in the UK.. In any case, lots of minor updates lately!

Wondering what niches are you focusing on? Are you promoting any iGaming in different languages?
We are looking for more sources for legit links (guest posting etc.) for a wide array of websites, any legit connection outside of BHW?

Lets spark the SEO debate! PM me to start an SEO group where we could share resources.

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PBNs did take a huge hit! I lost a part of my network and that did impact rankings across all pages that were targeted.

Do you own your own network or usually outsource? Check your links in majestic for the last 2-3 months + see the change in TF and CF. What I notice on my end is a lot of di-indexing of low quality blogs I had purchased links from and some of my own sites. Also I noticed a drop in the suffering sites metrics (TF + CF).

Saying PBN is the only reason would be foolish so if I did come across that way, my apologies, I take that back.

PBN's in my opinion, make or break sites as they are powerful, yet lethal.. So they have a lot to do with the recent fluctuations.

There are over 200 factors that Google's algo accounts before your site jumps in serps. PBNs are just one thing. Saying that, I cant imagine how those factors link or affect each other.

Link targeting in my opinion does not matter as if you are using PBN links, its done naturally... that backlink coming from a PBN is already contextual and coming from a niche relevant article. Also a portion of your foundation links such as web 2.0's are also niche relevant so yes... link targeting is important as it is more of a competitive edge, not a deal breaker. Saying that, if your competitors are throwing $2k on a forbes link.. you get the point.

Anchors - 100% they matter. No doubt.

My focus is mostly towards insurance websites for products such as commercial insurance, life insurance, disability, etc.. on google.ca

Regarding links.. I may be able to help myself. Shoot me a message with your niche and possibly a site or 2 to look at.

Again, PBNs took a gigantic hit. I would think they are a huge part of the reason... especially if you bought links from sellers who block spiders keeping you in the dark when you prosper and when you fall.

One more thing, your niche also determines your strategy and how G looks at you.

and would love to chat - nirvana.affiliate

Cheers

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All #1

Cheers!

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Update on these



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Slowly all creeping up.

Cheers!

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