OMG YES! #1 for a highly competitive keyword :D

[orvn]

I got my first non-local competitive #1 rank on Google today (keyword='costume rentals')
It took me 3 weeks, shot up from #63.

feels pretty gosh darn good.

YESSSSSSS.
WIN

More to come !

Quick outline of strategy used was:
- 5 dofollow inbound links / day (for 20 days, CONSISTENTLY),
- Basic on-page optimization (titles, headers),
- Sitemap,
- 301 redirect,
- FAQ editing to include targetted keywords,
- Linkbaiting some pictures of pretty girls showcasing themselves in costumes, lol.

PS: I'm not going to stop link-building.

[sOliver]

Congratz! Ranking first feels good and will get you the most traffic. You won't believe how much of a difference it makes if you rank first or second.

You could be making a killing on rank 1 but on rank 2 you will already start making A LOT less money if it is a highly competitive keyword.

[L41db4ck]

Originally Posted by orvn

I got my first non-local competitive #1 rank on Google today (keyword='costume rentals')
It took me 3 weeks, shot up from #63.

feels pretty gosh darn good.

YESSSSSSS.
WIN

More to come !

Quick outline of strategy used was:
- 5 dofollow inbound links / day (for 20 days, CONSISTENTLY),
- Basic on-page optimization (titles, headers),
- Sitemap,
- 301 redirect,
- FAQ editing to include targetted keywords,
- Linkbaiting some pictures of pretty girls showcasing themselves in costumes, lol.

PS: I'm not going to stop link-building.

costumeholidayhouse?

[orvn]

Originally Posted by L41db4ck

costumeholidayhouse?

Actually A Masquerade
I swear it was #1 a few hours ago?! WTF? Google can't be dancing that fast

I have a screenshot.
What's going on here..?

[attorneydavid]

Congratulations and it's great to hear stories like that gives me hope for my dreams and aspirations of developing a debt management site and getting it ranking and not spending $100k

[paulgl]

a masquerade? Yours? Not bad!!!!!!!!

If this is indeed yours, I love it mostly because it kills the myth
of keywords in a domain.

In fact, that domain matches exactly how I preach to come up with one.
cool, short, to the point.

I love the site setup as well.

I always say, go big or go home. You went big.

But now you have to keep going big. You may be all over the map.

Paul

[yukon]

Your #2 when I search your keyword, on Google.

Cool site!

I need to get me one of those purple fur Pimp hats!

[askloz]

you got a typo in your description tag

cosutmes

should be costumes

[pianochris]

Well done, trick is to stay there.

[orvn]

Thanks guys!

It seems one of my social sites (stumbleupon) affected the Google rankings in such a way that it pushed the site up a little.

When I sign into my account it's no longer #1, but #2.
I need to keep building, my competitor is at 5k links! ARGH.

[orvn]

Originally Posted by paulgl

a masquerade? Yours? Not bad!!!!!!!!

If this is indeed yours, I love it mostly because it kills the myth
of keywords in a domain.

In fact, that domain matches exactly how I preach to come up with one.
cool, short, to the point.

I love the site setup as well.

I always say, go big or go home. You went big.

But now you have to keep going big. You may be all over the map.

Paul

It is mine indeed!

This has inspired so much confidence I'm just all over the place right now!
Even though it is only position #2, I can still work it to #1.

Actually, for a lot of the sites I optimize, I find existing business owners (often with a retail location), so I don't really have to option of using domain name keywords.

But that gives you a slight brand creation advantage though, doesn't it?

Originally Posted by yukon

Your #2 when I search your keyword, on Google.

Cool site!

I need to get me one of those purple fur Pimp hats!

Oh man, these guys keep A LOT of cool stuff in stock. I found myself browsing through their collections a lot over the past month & a half!

[FredJones]

Hi budddy Orvn, great job - osadharon (Bengali for awesome) ... Congratulations.

Well, this keyword is not exactly too competitive - I would call it low-medium going by its allintitle and allinurl status, but nevertheless, it is a very inspiring job done by you. Now for even bigger guns!

How did you get the 5 links per day? Blogs? Articles? Videos? Social bookmarks? A mix of most/all?

[wsotoolz]

Originally Posted by orvn

- 5 dofollow inbound links / day (for 20 days, CONSISTENTLY),

I would love to hear more about how you got your dofollow inbound links. Are you using a particular software or service? If not then how are you locating the places to get them. Thanks!

[orvn]

Originally Posted by FredJones

Hi budddy Orvn, great job - osadharon (Bengali for awesome) ... Congratulations.

Well, this keyword is not exactly too competitive - I would call it low-medium going by its allintitle and allinurl status, but nevertheless, it is a very inspiring job done by you. Now for even bigger guns!

How did you get the 5 links per day? Blogs? Articles? Videos? Social bookmarks? A mix of most/all?

Thanks!
Here's how I generally build my links:

+ First I find relevant directories to submit too. This is really just a bunch of pointless Googling around. They're all Dofollow though, so I can't complain.

+ Now I go to my competitors. Particularly my top competitors, in both the keyword of choice and other, similar keywords. These are mostly sites who have employed other SEOers. I analyze their links and copy their sources. A lot of them are places where I can submit and ping my own link.

+ Forum signatures are great for me, because I like to talk about stuff. I create a new account on a relevant forum and start posting in a whole bunch of places (especially the more popular threads)

+ Scrapebox has given me a LOT of links. I've only been using it for 10 days or so, but wow, powerful stuff. It is sort of spam sometimes though, so I try not to over do it.

+ Lastly, some fantastic free tools:
Find Do-Follow Blogs - Blogs with no "Nofollow" help you rank better
Downloads | Fast Blog Finder (I just use the trail version)
Finding Do-Follow Blogs the Easy Way : Slightly Shady SEO slightly shady is right

[paulgl]

Originally Posted by orvn

Actually, for a lot of the sites I optimize, I find existing business owners (often with a retail location), so I don't really have to option of using domain name keywords.

And if people would realize that, they would not spend a month fretting over
some domain choice. Just pick the darn thing and have at it!

Paul

[orvn]

Originally Posted by paulgl

And if people would realize that, they would not spend a month fretting over
some domain choice. Just pick the darn thing and have at it!

Paul

I'm in complete agreement with you here. Everyone seems to over focus on keywords in the domain name.

At times it can even make the site feel less professional, especially when you hyphenated, however good that may be for SEO.

[askloz]

that;s cos of your cookies re: second position (after logging out - loggin in turns on the preference search, even if its turned off - at least thats what i gather when I do my rank checkings and some times the rankings are different if i turn off instant search).... delete your cookies before running any searches ... google little way of saying they tricked ya, dont worry about getting more backlinks.. the crafty buggas.
this happened to me when i was optimizing a friends page for a while, when i deleted my cookies and ran the search again, i got the true rankings of that page.

Originally Posted by orvn

Thanks guys!

It seems one of my social sites (stumbleupon) affected the Google rankings in such a way that it pushed the site up a little.

When I sign into my account it's no longer #1, but #2.
I need to keep building, my competitor is at 5k links! ARGH.

[orvn]

Originally Posted by askloz

that;s cos of your cookies re: second position (after logging out - loggin in turns on the preference search, even if its turned off - at least thats what i gather when I do my rank checkings and some times the rankings are different if i turn off instant search).... delete your cookies before running any searches ... google little way of saying they tricked ya, dont worry about getting more backlinks.. the crafty buggas.
this happened to me when i was optimizing a friends page for a while, when i deleted my cookies and ran the search again, i got the true rankings of that page.

Sneaky!! hehe, I'll watch out for that in the future (:

[Vappingo]

That's a great achievement, I am still hovering around the page 2 mark for my keyword phrases but will keep on trying!

Thanks for the tips.

[carlo_sim]

Hi,

Great work! Congratulations! =) keep it up and thanks for sharing it here =)

Gian Sim

[rinor81]

Great work and great news for you!
It really gives a lot of hope and motivation to continue with IM and hopefully making a living out of this.
Thanks for sharing and good luck man.

[WealthWithin]

Brilliant work!


Thanks for sharing.

Keywords in domain are way too overrated. The same goes for exact match domains.

[theentry]

Originally Posted by orvn

+ Lastly, some fantastic free tools:
Find Do-Follow Blogs - Blogs with no "Nofollow" help you rank better

Going to try this one, thanks

Tried it, but they sent me only a list with irrelevant sites

[olamilekan2]

Hey, This is brilliant and an inspiration for those that still based there business concept only on targeting the Micro Niche, This shows you can target the more competitive keywords in your niche and get on top of SERP if you are consistent and know what you are doing.

Thanks for the headup, now keep up the work to stay on top.

I wish you more of that.

Moruf

[FreshPLR]

That's a very impressive result, orvn! Perhaps I could just say that you will get more visits as a result of your other keywords, which are not as competitive. There will be many not-so-long as well as long-tail keywords which get you traffic. In the aggregate this word you are focusing on might only get you say 2-3% of overall traffic, but it doesn't matter.

[Mwesty]

Your showing at #7 for me on Google UK? Is that right?

I know the feeling.. I managed to get the site I'm working on at #1 for a number of national keywords including 'bouncy castles', 'bouncy castle', 'bouncy castle manufacturer', 'bouncy castle for sale'.

And it's true, ignore the myth about the keyword being in the domain. My domain couldn't be any further away from my keywords.

[JasonValens]

Congratulations sir, jolly well done.

[Mike Anthony]

Nicely done. You are also in position for some of the longer tail to that search phrase as well. Site looks good too so conversions will start coming in which makes you look even better.

[orvn]

Originally Posted by theentry

Going to try this one, thanks

Tried it, but they sent me only a list with irrelevant sites

I had that problem myself a few times. Try a longer tail keyphrase.
Also, everytime I use it, I take advantage of flexible gmail addresses.
username+x@gmail.com
username+y@gmail.com
username+z@gmail.com

Originally Posted by Mike Anthony

Nicely done. You are also in position for some of the longer tail to that search phrase as well. Site looks good too so conversions will start coming in which makes you look even better.

That pretty AJAX/JQuery is all me (did some redesign)

I spoke to my client today who is absolutely thrilled with me. I could sense a slight bit of disappointment that this didn't happen before Halloween season, but oh well!

[yanivkalfa]

400k in search results is hardly a competitive keyword man.

but congratulations .

Nice job.

[dburk]

Hi orvin,

Congratulations, I show your page at position #4 in the USA.

Based on your screen shot, you are seeing "personalized" search results. Other folks don't see what you see. To see where you rank without personalized results add the following string to your address bar URL and hit enter:

&pws=0

costume rentals - Google Search

[kazlas]

Congratulations man, you inspire me to keep on rolling to a light in end of the tunnel

[mayorlan]

Nice job,It feels nice to see top spot in google.So how long does this takes you if I may ask.

[orvn]

Originally Posted by mayorlan

Nice job,It feels nice to see top spot in google.So how long does this takes you if I may ask.

Under a month in this case.

[yukon]

Originally Posted by askloz

that;s cos of your cookies re: second position (after logging out - loggin in turns on the preference search, even if its turned off - at least thats what i gather when I do my rank checkings and some times the rankings are different if i turn off instant search).... delete your cookies before running any searches ... google little way of saying they tricked ya, dont worry about getting more backlinks.. the crafty buggas.
this happened to me when i was optimizing a friends page for a while, when i deleted my cookies and ran the search again, i got the true rankings of that page.

Yep, that's why I only use Google Chrome Incognito for manual Google searches.

[Marhelper]

Congrats and keep backlinking.

[yukon]

Originally Posted by orvn

I had that problem myself a few times. Try a longer tail keyphrase.
Also, everytime I use it, I take advantage of flexible gmail addresses.
username+x@gmail.com
username+y@gmail.com
username+z@gmail.com




That pretty AJAX/JQuery is all me (did some redesign)

I spoke to my client today who is absolutely thrilled with me. I could sense a slight bit of disappointment that this didn't happen before Halloween season, but oh well!

The thing is most costumes can be used next year & the years after.

So that client needs to work all of this year to keep building backlinks, & double check everything on-page (SEO) to make a stronger site next Oct. when everyone starts shopping for costumes again.

[Fraggler]

Originally Posted by yanivkalfa

400k in search results is hardly a competitive keyword man.

400k in search results has practically nothing to do with competition.

The top 10 consists of sites with an average PR of 3, all except the OP's site are aged domains, most have > 100 backlinks to the page with 1000's to the domain. You would have to do a backlink anaylsis to get a better idea but the PR to the pages indicate that they are of reasonable quality.

The keyword has a lot of 'commercial intent' too...

2400 exact and 22k+ phrase searches per month - I am sure the client is very happy with the results and there are probably some envious ones too.

It isn't the toughest keyword but there is some decent competition there and the OP has every right to be happy with what has been achieved.