Greg's SEO\Ranking Tutorial... (21)
Hey everyone, this is my SEO tutorial for ranking websites (or properties).
I am including both a video version and a written version at request. Note that the video version will have more in depth explanations as it is a 50 minute long video (and my usual way of teaching), but I did my best to translate the video into a written tutorial as best I could…
Also note that the written version has a few tips that the video doesn’t have (more in the linking section) just because I wrote it after I did the video and used the video as a guide.
Lastly, I’m going to put up the video version as an unlisted Youtube video. This is for STM members ONLY. If that video starts getting too many views I’m going to take it down, so please don’t share this. Thank you!
I hope you enjoy…
*Broken into 3 posts because of size of tutorial
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GKHa29m0OI
Written Version:
Quick Intro:
Started internet marketing in 2006 and found some success. Took time off, went through all the money I made, but made a strong comeback in 2011-2012 when I found out my son (now 6) was on the way.
I started with local SEO and did millions in local. Eventually moved into affiliate as well and have also done millions in affiliate SEO – have experience with quite a few different niches.
Co-founded OMG Machines where we train people how to build digital marketing agencies. We have over a thousand success stories and my main job with OMG is SEO consulting (teaching SEO).
I swear to you I am not super smart, I’ve been hanging on the forum and I can tell there are way brighter minds here than mine…my big secret for both my own success and the success of my students…keeping it simple…
Mistakes Most People Make & How Google Works
The biggest problem that I have seen after coaching thousands of students is they try to do too much. They try to focus on too many things. They pay attention to stuff like this:
https://backlinko.com/google-ranking-factors
Which lists the 200 Google ranking factors.
They try to do too much and they get lost in the shuffle. Or completely flustered.
“I need to optimize my image tags. My keyword density needs to be 2-3%. My site needs to look better or I’ll never rank. I need some likes and shares. Need to get my site loading quicker. Must use AMP. Must use schema! Must keep updating my content! Content must be pretty – use bullet points and numbered lists! Must have a contact page! Server must be in right location. Need SSL. Need privacy page. Must be hummingbird compliant! Penguin! Turkey! Rooster! (kidding, kidding)”
AHHHHH.
And they get totally lost and frustrated and confused.
When it comes to on page SEO, I focus on ONLY 4 ASPECTS.
Before we go into these 4 on page aspects, always remember that Google makes the hardest things to manipulate the biggest ranking factors!
LINKS ARE THE BIGGEST RANKING FACTOR. Don’t care what anyone tells you. Links are king.
As long as you get these 4 on page rules right that I’m about to explain and you get the linking right, you will rank.
And I’m going to show you examples to prove it. I’ll show you sites ranking that have no business ranking according to the “regular SEO rules”.
The 4 Rules Of On Page:
Keyword in Domain or URL
Keyword in title
Keyword in h tags
Keyword in regular content, but NOT over done. If anything under due it…content is the smallest factor of these 4 by far.</li>
It depends on what type of site you are starting, but if it makes sense – put keywords in the domain name. Keywords in domain is the biggest on page ranking factor.
If not then get the keywords in the inner URL, that is the #2 on page ranking factor.
Next is the title…always have keywords in your title. This is the #3 biggest on page ranking factor.
Then of course you have #4 being h tags and #5 being regular content.
I want to give some examples to help people vision this better as well. Remember that what keywords I pick depends on the type of site I’m doing.
If I’m JUST doing a site targeting 1 keyword like “Best electronic cigarette” – I’m want to get a domain with best electronic cigarette in it. For example
“BestElectronicCigaretteSite.com”
If I’m doing an authority site across a certain niche, likely you’ll use an inner URL. For example “VapingSite.com/best-electronic-cigarette”
Putting keywords in domain or in the inner URL just depends on the goal and vision of the site.
So if I have a site “BestElectronicCigarettes.com” here would be a simple example my 4 rule layout:
Domain: BestElectronicCigarettes (Best Electronic Cigarettes)
Title: The Best Electronic Cigarette Brands Of 2018
H1: Top E Cigarette Companies For 2018
H2: Our Recommended E Cig Brands
H2: Electronic Cigarette Facts
Notice how I use different versions throughout…”best electronic cigarettes” in domain (plural), “best electronic cigarette” in title (singular), “top e cigarette companies” in an h1 tag (synonyms – LSI, “e cig brands” in an h2 (synonym – LSI), “electronic cigarette” in an h2 (general niche)…
What I DON’T do:
Domain: “best electronic cigarettes”
Title: “best electronic cigarettes”
H1: “best electronic cigarettes”
H2: “best electronic cigarettes”
H2: “best electronic cigarettes”
Etc etc.
Now I will mention same keyword in domain\URL\h tags, but I will not do it over and over and over again. For example this would be fine for me:
Domain: “Best electronic cigarettes”
Title: “Best electronic cigarettes” (repeated)
H1: “Top E Cigarette Companies”
H2: “E Cig Facts”
H2: “best electronic cigarettes reviewed” (repeated)
H2: “safety info”
H2: “conclusion”
Major thing here is don’t keep repeating the same keyword over and over…it can be repeated but don’t keep doing it.
Also in the video I show plenty example sites that are ranking and I explain more in depth this whole concept so you can see it in real time.
Here’s some examples from video…
DelawareSEOGuy.com (#1 for Delaware SEO – and I also showed about 5 other sites or properties I have on page 1 for Delaware SEO – note these are JUST TEST SITES)
Domain: DelawareSEOGuy.com
Title: The Delaware SEO Guy – Best Practices For Your Business
*Note: When you have an EMD or brand name many times you WILL repeat keyword in domain and title.
H1: SEO Practices For Your Delaware Or Regional Business
H2: general
H2: general
H2: SEO
H2: Local SEO
H2: Delaware SEO
H2: Search Engines
H2: Delaware SEO
H2: general
H2: general
H2: general
As you can see it’s OK to repeat keywords, but mix in other stuff.
At OMG Machines I do what we call OTS series (over the shoulder series) where I take a site and rank it in real time on video so that our members can see it done (visually seeing it step by step is powerful).
I also go over these sites in the video:
Site 1: IowaCitySeo.net – has the top 6 spots for iowa city seo.
Site 2: CostaRicaSportfishingTours.com - #1 for the main targeted keywords “costa rica sportfishing” and “costa rica sport fishing. Also in the maps. And ranks for tons of other variations and keywords
Site 3: PrecisionMoldRemoval.com – first authority site over the shoulder series. This is our first non-EMD, but I still worked a keyword into the domain because it made sense. I know I’d be going after a bunch of “city mold removal” keywords so it helped me theme the site for general mold removal. #1 or #2 for terms like “los angeles mold removal”, “san diego mold removal”, “Houston mold removal” and tons of variations.
Also shown in video is another example where we have the top 4 spots for “Tennessee SEO”.
*Note: If you need more of an explanation and want an on page breakdown of the sites above watch the video, don’t want to bore you to death.
What you’ll notice about all of these sites is that I followed my 4 rules above…and I worried about nothing else.
Lets go to the Tennessee SEO example…
TennesseeSEOGuy.com is my site that ranks #1 for Tennessee SEO. Go visit it. Notice anything?
It’s really ugly. There’s no privacy page. There’s no contact page. There’s no contact information AT ALL. The content sucks. It’s only a few pages. It hasn’t been updated in over 2 years. People come to the site…and they bounce. Images are not optimized. No “social”, no likes, no shares. No schema. CTR probably even sucks because I still have 2016 in the title. No pretty bullet points. No well written content. This site sucks.
Yet it ranks…
Because I got the 4 basic on page rules right and I got my linking right. Literally worried about nothing else.
So do yourself a very big favor. Focus on these 4 on page rules and put the blinders on for everything else initially.
And I’m NOT saying the other on page stuff does not matter at all. But I’ve ranked site after site after site following only these 4 rules and getting my linking right. And THEN I change up things and worry about the smaller on page stuff when the time is right.
Keyword Research:
I’m not going to cover a ton about keyword research because this is a ranking guide, but I do want to cover a few important points.
Keyword selection:
Always think of buyer intent when selecting keywords. In other words ask yourself a question…”how far along in the buyer process is this person”?
Lets compare two keywords:
Electronic cigarettes
Best electronic cigarette brands 2018
Now most people, beginners especially, dream of ranking for keywords like “electronic cigarettes”. Trust me, I’ve done it and it’s not all that great. It takes a while (more on this soon) and it does not convert NEARLY as well. Buyer intent…
Someone typing in “electronic cigarettes” could be searching for anything about electronic cigarettes. Safety information. Health information. Facts. ANYTHING.
They are not nearly as likely to be far along in the buying process as…
“best electronic cigarette brands 2018”
Or even…
“what is the best electronic cigarette 2018?”
Both of these longer tail keywords show that the searcher has already likely done their research, and they are towards the tail end, about ready to buy.
They're sold on electronic cigarettes – now they just need to find the best one. ALWAYS think of buyer intent of keywords.
Long tail keywords are easier to rank and they rank much quicker. I always teach my students to use the long tail progression.
The Long Tail Progression:
“the best electronic cigarette brands of 2018”
“best electronic cigarette brands 2018”
“best electronic cigarette brands”
“best electronic cigarette”
“electronic cigarette brands”
I always encourage my students to start with long tails and work their way towards the shorter versions, for many reasons.
#1 long tails are easier to rank and rank much quicker
#2 as you rank for the long tails, it’s naturally working on the shorter tail versions for you
So for example a lot of times by the time I get “the best electronic cigarette brands 2018” to page 1, “best electronic cigarette brands” is likely only going to be a couple pages behind. And by the time I get “best electronic cigarette brands” to page 1, “best electronic cigarette” and “electronic cigarette brands” are only going to be a couple pages behind.
My long tails start getting traction going both with traffic and all around rankings.
Of course this is just 1 small keyword example…many times you would be going after multiple long tails with shorter tail versions in mind for each.
And this long tail progression can be especially useful for clients…
“The best chiropractor in Wilmington Delaware 2018”
“best chiropractor in Wilmington Delaware
“best chiropractor in Wilmington de”
“best chiropractor in Delaware”
“best Delaware chiropractor”
“Wilmington Delaware chiropractor”
“Delaware chiropractor”
The reason this can be so useful for clients is because you can show them ranking results fairly quickly and help gain their trust.
And I recommend you let them know when you start with them that this is going to happen. “We are going to rank for long tail versions of keywords first and work our way towards shorter versions. Google lets you rank for longer tail versions quicker…blah blah blah”.
Then when it starts happening (fairly quickly for long tails) – they’re going to say “oh wow this guy knows what he is talking about”. It buys you time and trust – because we all know clients can get impatient.
2 Important Concepts…
Now these 2 things would actually normally come before you start a site, but I wanted to explain the above concepts before introducing this section so it helps you grasp them easier…
#1: Always have a plan for your site before building it or even picking a domain
#2: Always gauge competition before starting a site
Have a plan for your site:
Do your research and know beforehand what type of site you’re going to build. If you are going after just 1 keyword, and EMD is fine! But a major problem I see students have is they get an EMD and then later they want to expand and they don’t get as much bang for their buck and ranking the expansions becomes much harder than it needs to be.
Let me give an example that I see all the time.
If I decide I JUST want to go after keyword “best electronic cigarette” then “bestelectroniccigarette.com” (or “bestelectroniccigarettesite.com” or whatever) is totally fine.
The problem comes when then a student wants to expand the site and also go after the best marijuana vaporizers and they try to do something like “bestelectroniccigarettes.com/marijuana-vaporizers”.
And it’s not that this can’t work, it can (at least in this case). But many times it can make ranking tougher than if they planned it out from the beginning. And it can look a little weird for visitors, but that’s the smaller problem.
If they thought ahead of time and knew they wanted to go after a bunch of different verticals in the same niche they could do something like this:
Vapingsite.com/electronic-cigarettes
Vapingsite.com/marijuana-vaporizers
Vapingsite.com/box-mods
Vapingsite.com/vape-mods
Etc etc.
THEN they could power up the homepage for the niche that ALL of the keywords are in “vaping” and make their inner URLs much easier to rank.
*Note: you’ll notice in my 2018 OTS site precisionmoldremoval.com I did the same thing. I power and theme the homepage for mold removal type keywords and the inner pages rank much easier…only needing a couple links to rank often. Imagine If I started with LosAngelesMoldRemoval.com then all the sudden I wanted to add a bunch more locations…happens all the time. Get a set plan ahead of time.
Gauging Competition:
This is super important, and so many people forget to do it. And they waste months and months of time often. And a lot of money. And it causes a lot of frustration.
Always do a check to see what type of sites are ranking on the first page for a given keyword you are going after.
I always run “initial keyword” and see what page 1 looks like. I use a tool an OMGer made that instantly shows the domain authority of all the sites on page 1, then I use AHREFs.com to dig deeper. But you can just run each site 1 by 1 on page 1 through a tool like AHREFs – it’s pretty quick.
OK, so example time.
I can’t tell you how many students come to me and they say “I’ve been working on this site for 6 months or 9 months or a year or whatever… I’ve followed everything you taught but I just can’t get to page 1…what’s going on?”.
So I do a gauge competition and the first page is littered with super high DA sites. DA 100, DA 83, DA 76, DA89, DA68, DA92, etc etc.
You have to understand there are certain niches that Google wants more trusted (authority) sites to rank. Especially in YMYL niches (your money your life google calls it).
All the time students will find a keyword, find out an EMD is available and just start working on it with no competition analysis…
“Oh, “BestProfessionalShampoo.com” is available! 10,000 searches a month! WHAT!? Then a year later they don’t understand why they aren’t on page 1 yet…
Lets look at the competition for “best professional shampoo”…
#1: allure.com – 30,000 referring domains
#2: beautybrands.com – 1,400 referring domains
#3: elle.com – 84,000 referring domains
#4: thecut.com – 34,000 referring domains
#5: beautyplussalon.com – 400 referring domains
#6: amazon.com – 3,000,000 referring domains
#7: bustle.com – 56,000 referring domains
#8: ranker.com – 30,000 referring domains
#9: instyle.com – 44,000 referring domains
#10: nymag.com – 175,000 referring domains
Not a good sign, although I’ve seen worse. A site at #2 with 1,400 referring domains and a site at #5 with 400 referring domains…this gives me hope. But you have to know this one is going to take a good bit of linking and time, and you need to make sure the juice is worth the squeeze.
To prove the point lets compare a different keyword…
Lets look at the competition for the keyword “Delaware seo”…
#1: delawareseoguy.com – 15 referring domains
#2: sbsbyjamie.com – 21 referring domains
#3: logicalseo.net – 42 referring domains
#4: youtube.com – millions of referring domains
#5: omgwde.com – 3 referring domains
#6: delawareseoagency.com – 6 referring domains
#7: delawaredigital.net – 41 referring domains
#8: accesswire.com – 2,400 referring domains
#9: darlingseo.com – 78 referring domains
#10: seodelaware.xyz – 4 referring domains
Notice a little difference there? These are two opposite ends of the spectrum a lot of times you’ll find stuff in between, but just be aware of it. When you see page 1 full of high DA sites you better be prepared for a battle and have some investment.
The risk of the second example is MUCH lower than the first.
And let me be clear…I’m not saying you can’t rank for terms that have all high DA sites on the first page. I have, and you can. But when you see that the risk\difficulty factor goes way up. Make sure that the juice is worth the squeeze.
If you get a client and they want to go after something that has all DA yet they only want to pay you $500 a month…you need to tell them you’ll work on it but it’s going to take a long time. Or just tell them no, of course, if that’s what you want to do.
Also know that there is plenty of keywords out there that are very profitable that are not littered by high DA sites, just so you are aware.
Always gauge competition so you can at least get an idea of what to expect and also what to tell clients what to expect.
LINKING:
Linking is the hardest thing to manipulate (linking the right way). And I don’t care what anyone else tells you…linking is THE biggest ranking factor.
Getting all of the on page stuff I listed above is pretty easy once you get the hang of it and doesn’t take a boatload of effort.
And although linking is not hard so to speak (once you learn what is working – which you are about to), it does take a lot more effort. And time. And patience. And that’s exactly why linking is the most important part – it’s the hardest thing to manipulate.
And again, in a sense it’s not HARD, but by far it takes the most EFFORT.
So maybe I should change my saying that google makes the hardest things to manipulate the biggest ranking factors…Google makes the hardest things to manipulate with the most effort the biggest ranking factors (I think that makes sense, you get the point).
This part of this guide was a little harder for me because there are so many different methods of linking. It would turn this “mini guide” into a full blown training course. But I’m going to do my absolute best to get moving confidently in the right direction when linking.
RELEVANCE:
The first and most important thing that you need to understand is that relevance is now the most important part of linking.
Power still has its place…but I always teach my students to focus on relevance, especially at the beginning stages of link building for a site.
I’ve had TONS of test sites where I’m able to outrank sites with 5-10 very relevant links (100% of my links are relevant), and they have 100 links with 20 of them being relevant (20% of their links are relevant).
Part of it has to do with me implementing the 4 rules of on page SEO better, but most of it has to do with relevance %. The higher % of relevant links you have, the less you need to rank.
And again….power will definitely come into play still.
If I have that same site with 5-10 links (100% of them relevant) and I now go up with a site that has 1,000 links and 200 of them relevant (20% relevant links) – my chances of beating them go down significantly. Because they have much more power than the first competitor with 100 links (they have 10x’s the power). So power definitely plays a large roll still. But if you get relevance down, you will minimize how much power you need and save a lot of time and investment.
LOCAL SITES:
So the easiest place to start explaining linking is with local sites.
And that’s because the process for local site is always the same…implement the 4 rules of on page and then order citations.
For any important projects, I personally like to order my citations from BrightLocal.com – note that I have no affiliation with them I just like them. There’s plenty of other places to get citations done. One of my partners Joe even hires a VA to do them manually. But for me personally, I like Bright Local for any important project.
Also note this…if you implement the 4 rules of on page…especially #1…the citations are going to work a WHOLE lot better for you.
Of course, if you want to appear in the maps you want to get your GMB (Google My Business). You don’t need a GMB to submit citations but you won’t appear in the maps without it (well, maybe not totally true, but if you want to appear in maps just get the GMB).
For example, DelawareSEOGuy.com has no GMB, but still ranks #1 for Delaware SEO and the citations played a big part.
When I’m doing this I go to Loopnet.com, hit the “for lease” tab, and do a search for the area I want an address for. I’ll find a huge office building and just put a made up suite # on the end of the address.
For example, if I type in Wilmington DE the first address that comes up is:
1201 N Market St
Wilmington, DE 19801
Just add a suite number and you are good to go…
1201 N Market St
Suite #1284
Wilmington, DE 19801
If you want to get a phone number as well you can use a service like Callfire.com where you can easily set up numbers with the area code you need and forward numbers to your phone, setup voicemail, etc.
DIVERSIFY:
One of the bigger mistakes that I see people make when they are building links is that they go and get a bunch of the same type of links.
Starting with a bunch of citations is fine…and even doing more of a bulk social property gig is fine (facebook, twitter, etc etc).
I’m talking about doing bulk blog commenting or bulk directory submissions or things along those lines.
I particularly see a lot of students messing with bulk directory submissions and I’m not sure why, but just don’t do that.
Diversify, especially when mixing in things like blog commenting, forum posting, directory submissions etc.
I personally use guest posting and PBNs a good bit, have definitely turned up guest posting a lot more lately.
But I do also like to mix in some blog comments here and there. And some forum posting here and there. And some directory submissions here and there. And some article submissions here and there. And some web 2.0 properties here and there.
Diversifying is usually what works the best. I’m usually heavier on the guest post & PBN style links (or any way you are getting links on “normal websites”), but do like mixing in the stuff above lightly (directory submission, forum posting, blog commenting, article submissions, etc).
For guest posting there are tons of services out there that you can use. PBNs I’m not going to touch on, just too much to cover here.
Outside of guest posting and PBNs, here’s how I like to find my links…
Favorite Way To Find Links
By far my favorite way to find links is by analyzing the competition.
*Note: to get a better picture of this checkout video around 38:50 mark where you can see everything.
Lets take my 2018 over the shoulder series (OTS) I’m doing for my OMG students…
If I throw it in my favorite analysis tool, AHREFs.com, you’ll see all the backlinks in the backlinks tab.
So you’ll see a lot of guest post and citations and some PBNs, but I always like mixing in other styles which I “steal from the competition”. I’ll show you an example of some of these…
http://greatervideos.blogspot.com/20...-carolina.html
That’s a blog comment I got by probably looking at sites ranking for something like “Charlotte mold removal”.
http://www.allconstructiondirectory....l-specialists/
Believe I found this one by analyzing sites ranking for “san Francisco mold removal”
http://mold-and-mildew.regionaldirectory.us/texas.htm
Found this one by analyzing some type of Texas mold removal type keyword.
http://www.poweredbythepeople.com/mo...ington_DC.html
Not sure what I was keyword I was analyzing but the above is another one. Think I had to pay for that one.
http://ballcapblog.blogspot.com/2010...w-removal.html
Another blog comment, not sure what I analyzed to find that one either…
You get the point.
I probably have 20 links going to my site that I stole from the competition.
But here’s the trick of the trade…you ONLY STEAL THEIR BEST LINKS. Any by best I mean their RELEVANT links. Leave the others.
Because when you have a higher % of relevant links, you need less links to rank.
And another trick is that you don’t need to just analyze the exact keyword you are going after.
Let me give an example…
If I’m going after “San Diego mold removal” (which we are #1 in maps and #1 in organic for)…I’m NOT just going to analyze sites ranking for “san diego mold removal”. I can analyze ANY type of mold related keywords. Even in other cities…
So if I run out of competition analysis for sites ranking for “san diego mold removal”, I can go and try “Miami mold removal”. Or any of the other thousands of cities out there. Think outside the box, there’s other ways to steal good links from the competition! Just remember to take the relevant ones and leave the rest.
*Note: I show an example of me searching for some terms and analyzing competition around 42:30 of the video
ANCHOR TEXT:
Almost forgot to include this! But there’s a lot of talk about anchor text not working…or it shouldn’t be used for local…or blah blah blah.
Anchor text is still very relevant. It still works very well.
But my general rule for anchor text is to always start with branded anchor text first (for the most part) to kind of give yourself a padding.
For example, here is the first 15 anchor text I used for the 2018 OTS example:
http://precisionmoldremoval.com
http://precisionmoldremoval.com
Precision mold removal experts
Precision Mold Removal
mold removal company
Precision Mold Removal
PrecisionMoldRemoval.com
http://precisionmoldremoval.com
precisionmoldremoval.com
Precision Mold Removal
http://precisionmoldremoval.com/
Precision Mold Removal
Precision Mold Removal
mold remediation & abatement
visit website
mold abatement company
As you can see I use a lot of branded\URL anchor. And at this point I’m focusing on RELEVANT LINKS.
So to start…RELEVANT LINKS + mostly branded\URL links.
As I get down towards the end of the list of 15 anchors…you’ll notice I then start working in some more keyword anchor text.
For the most part, that is my approach to anchor text.
Although it definitely depends on the type of site you are doing and all of that, a good rule of them is the above.
Focus on getting relevant links and use mostly branded\URL links to start…work your way towards exact match keyword anchor text.
To Sum it Up, Here Are The Steps:
1) Keyword research
2) Gauge competition
3) Implement the 4 rules of on page SEO
4) If a local site, start on citations
5) Start implementing linking, focusing on RELEVANCE & diversify links.
6) Use mostly branded\URL anchors and work your way towards exact match anchors
I know this seems simple but it's the exact process I follow. It will save you a LOT of time by just focusing on the major things that matter for on page (you see how ugly many of my example sites are); and then focusing on RELEVANCE for linking.
I hope you all enjoyed this tutorial!
Greg I thought you said a MINI tutorial!
Wow!!
I just quickly browsed this and can already tell that it's EPIC! Will read it in detail now and ask any questions later.
Thanks a million. Really!
Amy
Sent from my SM-G930W8 using STM Forums mobile app
Definitely great stuff here. I'll add my 2c and say I agree with mostly everything, although yes of course easier said than done 
On EMD's I don't see them mattering as much with general sites like webapps, content sites, or social sites/tools/etc. Maybe local matters more to have the KW in the domain, or like you said targeting just one keyword for the whole site matters for EMDs. I do notice that having a clean URL with the keyword matters a lot though. Specifically I'm noticing two things regarding domains/URLs:
A) keep the URLs as short as possible, ideally make the permalink match your exact target keyword(s) and nothing else
B) do not include any date in the URL, or if the content should appear evergreen do not have a date at all on the page
Those are just from my experiments with content-based sites and I see higher CTRs from those techniques. It seems like domain authority matters moreso when you want to rank for a bunch of keywords. But I have never built a site with the goal of ranking for 1 so in that scenario an EMD might help, but could limit growth potential.
Also regarding the competition, I'm sure this is a nuance but DA/PA is only a metric and really the key that I look at is relevance. I don't mind seeing Amazon, YouTube, Forbes, HuffPo, or anything else near the top because my site may be far more relevant than theirs. If HuffPo has an article ranking #1 for some keyword about how to crochet pillows, they're mostly ranking through their link power and "general" authority as a trusted digital publication. But a site centered around crocheting could likely outrank that post, even with fewer backlinks, because the content & site itself is more relevant to that subject matter.
I haven't done enough tests to make any solid claims here. But I do see website relevance & the vague sense of "topic authority" playing a big role in how easy it is to outrank other websites. It varies a lot in different niches too. Crochet tips won't be as competitive as "best web hosting" so you also need to understand the competitive landscape, how much money is available for the keyword, along with all the other stuff like DA/PA and authority and stuff. The way I wrote this makes it sound kinda vague because in a sense it is kinda vague... but I think the more you practice targeting specific keywords the more you learn to gauge SERPs properly for competitiveness.
But yeah, awesome guide. It's nice to see other people talking SEO on here. I'm not big into it TBH but I do earn more from SEO than paid traffic at the moment so I always have a toe in the water.
Thank you Amy and thepinkcat. I tried to keep it as short as possible but don't like things left unexplained...
And yes EMDs should be used more for targeting a keyword or small group of keywords.
I usually use them for local sites or specific affiliate terms that I've identified as profitable.
And I agree that relevance is huge.
But at the same time if you have all high DA sites on page 1 it can still be a warning sign.
What is a REALLY bad sign is when you have all high authority + Relevance on the 1st page....like all sites with thousands of links and all about the specific niche. But even somewhat irrelevant sites (homepage) that have high DA with a relevant inner page with a lot of links going to the inner URL you need to be careful with.
The example in the guide is just to give a baseline...I could go a lot more into all of the topics of course!
Thanks for feedback thepinkcat.
Oh wow Greg, excellent tutorial, thanks for taking the time to write it!
I was quite heavy into SEO couple years back and I see that some of the tricks I used are still relevant today.
That's a killer intro guide! A lot of us here started with SEO, most probably with mixed results before moving onto paid traffic. Definitely looking to get back into it, especially after one of the talks at the GeekOut event in Barcelona opened my eyes to the power of buying sites that are already ranking vs the grind of starting from scratch.
Do you do much with acquiring sites or just focus on building your own?
What a great write-up Greg!
Which tools you use these days for keyword research?
Also what do you think about the recent medical update, were any of your sites affected?
Thanks once again for sharing your knowledge with us!
Thank you for the feedback everyone.
I have definitely bought sites already ranking, but my advice for that is make sure you know what you are looking at as far as linking. You have to make sure the linking they have done follows the above outline and there are not things that can easily be pulled. For example if someone uses a bunch of PBNs to rank a site, they can just take them down. I like to see a relevant link portfolio for those sites with natural linking (and not things like PBNs). And you also have to make sure no "tricks" are being used like 301s etc that can be easily taken down and just used for a new site - people definitely do that type of stuff.
I'll also buy auction domains with good linking already going to it to get a jump start, but that's a different topic for different day.
Erik for keyword research I don't use any "keyword research" specific tools usually. I just use the suggested keywords that appear, and I analyze the competition in AHREFS.com
There is a section in AHREFs called "organic keywords" and it will show you what a site ranks for. I'll look at the top ranked guys and see what else they are going after and take it from there. Type in those keywords in google, get suggested keywords, etc.
Medical update really only effected one of my sites, but only because I got lazy with some PBNs going to that site and had quite a few deindexed pointing to that site. So basically those links got devalued and it dropped me about a page overall...working on building it back now and it's already moving up!
Hello,
I first joined OMG in 2013. I had already been doing SEO for 20 years by then. Back in the days before Google was in existence.
I have developed a method of creating incoming links with same niche relevance in the content, URLs, and titles as well as having power.
Really I have developed a team that does this for me.
These links work very well, exactly as Greg has described as long as the website is optimized properly.
I can confirm and endorse Greg's methods. They are currently the state of the art techniques for modern (2018) SEO.
Another OMGer here. I joined in 2016 and I can also confirm Greg's methods work. Follow it to the letter and you've already won. It works so well I'm using the same methods to build a lead gen site based on his OTS series for Precision Mol Removal. (Multiple locations!)
I can also confirm that this last update (whatever it's called) didn't impact any of my sites either. If anything, rankings went up a little bit. I wouldn't have even known there was an update if I hadn't heard everyone else talking about about it.
Quite a few OMGers joined us during the past 2 days, welcome on board guys
Yeah, welcome to the forums guys.
And feel free to post your SEO experiences, I think many people will appreciate getting more knowledge in this field as well!
And helping one another to create win-win-win situations is a concept that is very close to my heart. I believe that entrepreneurs would think about money less and how to help each other more, things would happen so much quicker and easier - and the money will just naturally come.
Many thanks to Mike and Greg and all the fellow OMG'ers that have joined us - I'm looking forward to creating more synergy together!
Amy
So, I made a shift about a year ago in the way I look at buying websites/ domains. Many of us in SEO absolutely buy websites at auction or those that are expired. They have a definite SEO benefit and much of the industry have called sites like this as "PBN Sites". The shift I made a year ago was this: I started looking at what we do in this regard as M&A (mergers and acquisitions). So I started looking at the sites I research and acquire as failed businesses, that I can buy for pennies on the dollar, and then upgrade for SEO purposes and create a profit generating business out of. More and more this is how I approach most of the sites I buy that have been previously owned. I started calling these sites "PODs" or previously owned domains. The still power a lot of SEO rankings, as Greg has mentioned, but they also can create profits as I engineer them to get traffic organically as well as have offers on them. I build my own from scratch as well, but links are powerful, and a way of looking at this business is finding ways to acquire powerful links pointed at your offers for cheap. Websites that went out of business are a great way of doing that.
Originally Posted by f13tch
Amy
WOW! Great Video and article. Is there more like that on the forum? greeting ken_proxy
Thanks for the video and article. Using it right now to promote a cleaning business
Hi Greg, Just curious if this is still relevant in 2021? Many thanks!
Originally Posted by anhka1990
Amy
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