Ask the SEO Guy Anything!

[laurenceh]

Ok I know I shouldnt be getting too wrapped up with ranking but I have a site which has been targeting a keyword with only 170k competition (exact) for the term.

I have onsite SEO and been doing articles, bookmarking, linking etc but can't be found in the top 1000 on google or yahoo.

I know links take a while to seed but can there really be 1000 sites beating my seo work?

It's not a IM, or weightloss niche at all so not oober competitive.

Getting a little worried.

[LookItsMeTerryG]

TheDebtEliminator - I've already answered this and you've asked like 3 times, did you not get the answer?

caroline42 - Write .de targeted content.. I hate to say this but, if you're having this many problems with this tld, you might want to drop the client or refer them out to someone better suited.

edpudol1973 - Yes, that's exactly what that means. IMHO, those mass links are good for continued efforts after you've exhausted the authority/trusted backlinks available.

erikorganic - I consider it pretty accurate, but always install statcounter too (I like realtime stats, I'm impatient).

imvaltaylor - I do a lot of local stuff and I've never had an issue here... and man, I make up PO boxes and buy new phone lines with skype and all kinds of shady stuff - I know this doesn't answer your question... I just don't have any experience here.

tonykoay2002 - Can it rank? Yes. Would I do it? No. Too much info here for me to type a reply, but read on BHW (www.black hat world.com) and you'll see tons of people trying this to no avail.

chini - Yes, old site 100% of the time if its in the same niche.

Lorens - I'm still struggling with time management after all these years. I constantly take on too much work and my social life and sleep schedule suffer as a result. However, spreadsheets, daily lists of tasks, intelligent delegation and reliable employees/friends are essential.

edpudol1973 - 100 backlinks from different IP's would be superior, yes.

[LookItsMeTerryG]

2d0k - The SEs will reindex the content.. normally it takes 5-10 days, sometimes longer but normally less.

justinsane187 - I can't really make sense of those stats, can you post a screenshot? Also, looked at the site, the ad placement isn't that bad.

writetale - 1. It really depends on the goal of the site and the niche it's in. 2. It's not true that you shoulnd't focus on building internal links, but it is true you can hurt yourself if you're too aggressive.

Scott Million - Yep, I've promoted some podcasts and am aware of the boons of the niche. I can't really recommend any software though, I'm just a simple marketing guy

laurenceh - How old is the site? How long have you been at it?

[caroline42]

Originally Posted by LookItsMeTerryG

caroline42 - Write .de targeted content.. I hate to say this but, if you're having this many problems with this tld, you might want to drop the client or refer them out to someone better suited.

Thanks Terry, appreciate your advice but I never drop a client before I got his problems solved (don't want to comment on the last part of your advice ). As far as I can see my latest tasks are slowly starting to show results.

[RockStarMarketing]

Hey There Terry G!

I have been DOMINATING the local map listings for over a yeah in PHX for a few geo-modified key terms. Its been my biggest money maker. As of yesterday......NADA!!!!

All but a few are nowhere to be found? They are stilllisted as active in my local business center backend - but now....PHOOEY!~

Any ide whats happening here? I was pointing 10 - 12 at 2 phone numbers, but all the same URL.

Do you reccomend i take them down, relist with a different account? Or new phone number - or subdomains???

Thanks Bro!

[AshleyAA]

Hi,

I dont know if you will be able to answer this question, it actually has something to do with a site other than my own, but nonetheless I dont understand it!

I was researching a forum, i went to yahoo site explorer and they had A LOT of links pointing to them. I clicked on a few but could not find their link anywhere on that page. Until I looked at the source view. And at the bottom of the page was this ...

(I changed the names to avoid anything)

</table>
        <BR class='clear'>
        <CENTER>
            
<!-- href='/Resources.html'>Resources</a> |-->
<a href="http://www.theforumilookedat.com/postt14608.html"></a><P>


        <B>&copy; companyname.com 2006</B>
    </CENTER></P>
        <BR>
    </div>
</TD>
</TR>
</TABLE>

But as I said, no link was on that area on the page, no where.


I went back to site explorer and found that most of the links to him were the same, and they were from the same domain. This domain seems to have just a bunch of sales pages on it. And each one has this same peice of code at the bottom.

The only reason I ask is because I wanted to know if these links carry any weight with the search engines? As I said he has a bunch of links pointing to him, but how many are legit in the eyes of google?

Any thoughts?
Thanks!

[johnhoefer]

Terry, great thread and WSO. I am looking forward to the Local SEO Bonus.

I am trying to rank for an very competitive keyword in the insurance niche. When I look at my competitions links in Majestic SEO, I click to follow their links and they appear to be broken or not loading etc. The top site has 11k links and another site in the top 10 has 230k links in the past year! Will they get the google slap at some point? There are other sites in the top 10 with 1k links, so I can beat them.

I will be starting with Trust and Authority links, then making my way into more spammier territory. Do you think its worth the chase?

My keywords are home insurance california, california home insurance, homeowners insurance california, california homeowners insurance, home owners insurance california, california home owners insurance.

Thanks for taking the time to answer!

[code888]

Hi Terry, Just stumbled upon this thread yesterday (SEO'ers, BEWARE! A Quantum Shift is coming - Google Caffeine!) and wondered whether you have a clue about what could possibly make the difference between the current Google ranking mechanism and that of the Google Caffeine?

[ThomasMeyers]

Originally Posted by LookItsMeTerryG

Well for general advice then..

* Target trusted, authority sites: the closer you can get to bbc.co.uk, cnn.com, whitehouse.gov, etc... 1 link hop away is great, 2 is good, etc .

* Remove/Stop building spammy links

* If you've got mainly 1 type of links (say.. directories for instance) balance out a bit. A diverse link profile is an effective one.

What are some SEO tricks to get hubpages to rank higher?

[skatir]

Hi,
what is the best resource to find Trust and Authority links ?