YESSSSSS! Page 1 of Google, 450k searches per month, 107,000,000 competing sites!

[marcolav]

Took me a few months, as I was targeting a VERY difficult keyword and with a tough competition, but I got there and yes I am happy. Traffic is pouring in and revenue is growing.
Now I want to improve and consolidate both the ranking and the traffic, so I am thinking of adding something like a forum (it would suit this very well as it is a finance/trading related site so people can come and post about their strategies, trading tips etc) or a 'portal' type of page with graphs , charts, fresh content that would entice them to come back over and again. So the current index page would be changed to the portal/forum and the current content would be linked to from there
The site is currently based on Wordpress, and of course I would not want to lose the content that has been indexed already, bookmarked, linked to etc etc. Would like to hear opinions on how would you go about this, which forum/cms script would you choose for example?

marco

[LivingCovers]

Great going, man! That sure is an awesome feat. Mind sharing some tips how you got to the first page and number one on google?

[badboy_Nick]

Awesome stuff!

Care to share your secrets? Was it loads of backlinks?

Nick

[E-supreme]

Well done keep going and building links and adding content. You could just do a redesign of your site and add a clear Forum option on your website. When your forum gets going over time then maybe then swicth it over to be the index.

[Jesus Perez]

Judging from what you wrote, it sounds like you've built your entire business and revenue stream based entirely on Google's search engine positioning.

What happens when you're suddenly and inexplicably dropped to page 5? Will your revenue go with it?

Make sure you're aggressively collecting emails, building a list and monetizing it. This way a drop to page 5 won't impact your revenue.

Congrats on the front page ranking.

[Steve Crooks]

Hi Marco, brilliant stuff, well done! Don't change the index page though.. Just add extra pages and the forum and link to them from the index page. That is what I would do anyway.

Originally Posted by marcolav

Took me a few months, as I was targeting a VERY difficult keyword and with a tough competition, but I got there and yes I am happy. Traffic is pouring in and revenue is growing.
Now I want to improve and consolidate both the ranking and the traffic, so I am thinking of adding something like a forum (it would suit this very well as it is a finance/trading related site so people can come and post about their strategies, trading tips etc) or a 'portal' type of page with graphs , charts, fresh content that would entice them to come back over and again. So the current index page would be changed to the portal/forum and the current content would be linked to from there
The site is currently based on Wordpress, and of course I would not want to lose the content that has been indexed already, bookmarked, linked to etc etc. Would like to hear opinions on how would you go about this, which forum/cms script would you choose for example?

marco

[Pragun]

Bluesquares has put in a very wise piece of advice mate...
Do keep building your assets... i.e, a mailing list.

It's not only an insurance plan, but it's going to supplement your income now and in the future...

[tylerdrun]

well done...

[jazbo]

So has your income increased in line with your traffic? Was it worth the effort getting your site into that position in terms of payback?

[marcolav]

Originally Posted by LivingCovers

Great going, man! That sure is an awesome feat. Mind sharing some tips how you got to the first page and number one on google?

Well, I am NOT number one yet! just page one, but not bad anyway!
There was actually no 'special trick' no google backdoor etc ;o)
Just a lot of hard work, hooking up with other webmasters, creating backlinks, I used a mixture of all the various scripts we are all using , like SeNuke, Web2mayhem, EVO , Link Dozer and so on, had tons of content created, day in day out. And it is now paying back... ;o)

Marco

[marcolav]

Originally Posted by jazbo

So has your income increased in line with your traffic? Was it worth the effort getting your site into that position in terms of payback?

Yes the income spike is not as violent as the traffic.. but it did move nicely up

Marco

[marcolav]

Originally Posted by BlueSquares

Judging from what you wrote, it sounds like you've built your entire business and revenue stream based entirely on Google's search engine positioning.

What happens when you're suddenly and inexplicably dropped to page 5? Will your revenue go with it?

Make sure you're aggressively collecting emails, building a list and monetizing it. This way a drop to page 5 won't impact your revenue.

Congrats on the front page ranking.

Thank you!

That was part of the idea with building a forum, that way you get a nice list AND people coming over and again. As for dropping for page 5, well I am a superstitious Italian so I actually didn't read that line.

Marco

[DrewG]

Congrats man! Hard work does pay off, keep us updated.

[liite]

Very nice work. Goes to prove that going after the big markets is possible with the right strategy

[rapidscc]

Hey that's nice Marco.

After my present campaign, I'll be ranking blogs next.

I just have one question if you don't mind. How many months did it take you before you were able to rank in the first page of your target keyword?

Also, how many backlinks did it take you to accomplish it? Estimates will do ooops..that's two.

Thanks,

[Tomwood]

well done this persistence and faith is what you need to succeed many people fail to rank (me included) because they give up to soon.

[Marhelper]

Originally Posted by BlueSquares

Make sure you're aggressively collecting emails, building a list and monetizing it. .

Words of wisdom right there. Get that list going NOW (if you have not already).

[marcolav]

Originally Posted by rapidscc

Hey that's nice Marco.

After my present campaign, I'll be ranking blogs next.

I just have one question if you don't mind. How many months did it take you before you were able to rank in the first page of your target keyword?

Also, how many backlinks did it take you to accomplish it? Estimates will do ooops..that's two.

Thanks,

Hi Omar,

this was accomplished in about 5 months, the backlinks are not a huge amount (in the 1k range) but lots of high PR links, not profile links but in most cases links from guest posts or placed in highly relevant contexts (not sure if it really makes a difference but just pointing out , as this is my specific situation) , but a lot of time and activity was devoted to creating 'buzz' in social networks, I used heavily some of the 'co-op' systems like the one offered at web2mayhem and had outsourcers bookmarking, voting and commenting steadily.

Marco

[Anonymous Affiliate]

Geez... 5 months of hard work!

That's what scares me about SEO: if Google decides to change their algorithm 5 months of hard work goes down the loo...

[marcolav]

Originally Posted by Anonymous Affiliate

Geez... 5 months of hard work!

That's what scares me about SEO: if Google decides to change their algorithm 5 months of hard work goes down the loo...

Well, it took 5 months to reach page 1, I did not say that I spent 5 months working on just this!

Marco

[SimonHarrison]

Originally Posted by marcolav

Took me a few months, as I was targeting a VERY difficult keyword and with a tough competition, but I got there and yes I am happy. Traffic is pouring in and revenue is growing.
Now I want to improve and consolidate both the ranking and the traffic, so I am thinking of adding something like a forum (it would suit this very well as it is a finance/trading related site so people can come and post about their strategies, trading tips etc) or a 'portal' type of page with graphs , charts, fresh content that would entice them to come back over and again. So the current index page would be changed to the portal/forum and the current content would be linked to from there

marco

Wordpress has it's own forum which would be easy to integrate, personally I find it lacking and tend to use Vbulletin. If your members are logged into Wordpress there are some hacks and plugins around to consolidate the two databases so you have a single entry login.

Forums are good as they tend to create highly unique themed content on internal pages of your domain which is a bunch of win .

It's hard to comment on alterations to your home page, it could have a dire result on your SERPS, it could make no difference at all, if you have a winning formula I would be hesitant to screw with it and would simply make a feature on the home page which linked to the "charts, fresh content " etc.

Ensure you're running a well structured site map showing Google how to find those internal pages and you're golden.

[limesour]

That's amazing man congrats!

[TommyBussey]

Hey man great job. In addition to what @BlueSquares said about gathering emails, there's another great way to get the most out of your traffic. You may have heard of it before, but it is known as retargeting (or remarketing or remessaging haha). It's actually pretty advanced and still slightly underground right now, but it is VERY effective ;-)

Keep up the good work!

Live with passion,

Tommy Bussey

[bhagwat68]

Congrats for your succss and you deseve it. You have told about how you got backlinks and it will help many of us. Thanks for sharing.

- Pradeep

[yourreviewer]

Great work. And if your website is based on solid content, I doubt any changes in "Google algorithm" will do your website any harm.

[uzomaeze]

well done marcolav, but my take on this is you need to focus on creating a sublink and not changing the index or any of the internal pages, that may be disastrous to your hard work.

Just focus on getting things done and definitely you'll see the sky will be yours

[RohitShah]

Great news. Did you had keyword related domain? Or just a normal domain having great quality backlinks?

[semmyw]

Hi Marco congrat man! you already make it! nice job!

[kisk]

Originally Posted by marcolav

which forum/cms script would you choose for example?

vbulletin with vbseo

[Droopy Dawg]

Congrats! Are you building a list as well? If so... good stuff. If not... get on it!



Take care,

DeShon

[smplylvn]

That's good stuff, congrats on your achievement!

[John Romaine]

Originally Posted by marcolav

Just a lot of hard work

Wow, who wouldve guessed?

Nice work dude - now you know what it takes to hit first page for big keywords.

[Winlin]

Good Job , Well done.....

[Nyhm]

If you got a page 1 ranked website I would be careful about changing the index page.

[Rus Sells]

Gratz man! Hard work pays off in this business just like any business! Oh and by the way those highly relevant back links are worth more then you might be thinking.

Just keep churning out the back links and relevant content so your competition does not get ahead of you.

Again, Gratz!

[VeronicaD]

Congratulations! I haven't worked much with forums, so I'm afraid I'm not much help for your question.

[vfelcett]

That is awesome! Just read your posts... Keep up the good work

[Joseph Then]

It took me almost 8-9 months to ranking a very competitive finance-related keyword so I understand your point and excitement.

Just a lot of hard work, hooking up with other webmasters, creating backlinks, I used a mixture of all the various scripts we are all using , like SeNuke, Web2mayhem, EVO , Link Dozer and so on, had tons of content created, day in day out. And it is now paying back... ;o)

Yeah, you did almost about the same backlinking activities like I did.


Now, a few things that you can do:
1) As recommended by BlueSquare, build an email list, have a 10+ page report and put an opt-in form at your index page. In fact, I would put the opt-in form in EVERY PAGE.

2) Go to other related websites and ask for experts to make guest posts. Have a link like "Expert Tips" from your homepage to this guest posts.

3) If you want a forum, be warned that it can take a lot of time. I would suggest doing the above 2 activities (list building, expert tips) first before you start a forum. Once you have like 1000 subscribers and 6-10 experts posting in your website, you can divert them to the forum. This will ensure some minimal activities when you start it.

4) Offer advertising space. You can make good money too and make your website look more interesting.

5) Build a Web2.0 application in your website. Have it at the sub-directory. This will give you even more unique content as your visitors will have a chance to build their own website that is related to your niche. It's very very to install a Web2.0 application now. Just do a search and you'll know.


All in all, remember that you should not change too much things on your index page.

[Dennis Pippin]

Congrats marcolav

Always keep in mind the money is in the list.

[John Romaine]

How many actual visitors are you pulling from this keyword and how many "words" are in the keyword - must be a short one Im assuming, given that search volume.

[punksluck]

Well done mate, always good a success story on these boards.
No point in speculating as to if the Google algorithm will change things - if you have good original content then I'm sure you will succeed even further.

[MarkAse]

Nice work. The competitive keywords are so much more time consuming then the long tail, but the pay off can be so huge that it makes sense if you don't need the money immediately.

[marcolav]

Originally Posted by ramone_johnny

How many actual visitors are you pulling from this keyword and how many "words" are in the keyword - must be a short one Im assuming, given that search volume.

this is a 2 word keyword and currently getting about 350/500 visitors per day, this is from a page 1 position 5 to 9

Marco

[jasonthewebmaster]

Originally Posted by marcolav

Took me a few months, as I was targeting a VERY difficult keyword and with a tough competition, but I got there and yes I am happy. Traffic is pouring in and revenue is growing.
Now I want to improve and consolidate both the ranking and the traffic, so I am thinking of adding something like a forum (it would suit this very well as it is a finance/trading related site so people can come and post about their strategies, trading tips etc) or a 'portal' type of page with graphs , charts, fresh content that would entice them to come back over and again. So the current index page would be changed to the portal/forum and the current content would be linked to from there
The site is currently based on Wordpress, and of course I would not want to lose the content that has been indexed already, bookmarked, linked to etc etc. Would like to hear opinions on how would you go about this, which forum/cms script would you choose for example?

marco

Congratulations on your page 1. I bet you are getting good traffic thats for sure!!!

I built a website recently for an investment firm and thought you may like this page: Investment Calculators

it has financial/stock calculators and resources. made it with joomla but all the calulcators are just embedded javascript so you could plug it into any website.

[jhonsean]

Originally Posted by marcolav

Took me a few months, as I was targeting a VERY difficult keyword and with a tough competition, but I got there and yes I am happy. Traffic is pouring in and revenue is growing.
Now I want to improve and consolidate both the ranking and the traffic, so I am thinking of adding something like a forum (it would suit this very well as it is a finance/trading related site so people can come and post about their strategies, trading tips etc) or a 'portal' type of page with graphs , charts, fresh content that would entice them to come back over and again. So the current index page would be changed to the portal/forum and the current content would be linked to from there
The site is currently based on Wordpress, and of course I would not want to lose the content that has been indexed already, bookmarked, linked to etc etc. Would like to hear opinions on how would you go about this, which forum/cms script would you choose for example?

marco

Could you post the methods on how you achieved that goal in number one page in google rankings with a difficult keyword competition. By the way keep up the good work my friend.

[Mychelyne]

Hardwork pays off. Congrats on your feat.

[Dele]

You must realize you have achieved a great feat since you are still being congratulated 8 months going.

Congrats man and maintain the tempo.