How I Bumped My Page to #1 for my Keyword

[yukon]

This is how I got my page to the #1 spot for my keyword.

The keyword is semi competitive, & most sites are authority type sites that are well established. The competition page I bumped down to #2 was created in 2000, & is optimized for my keyword (page title, <h1>, external backlinks with anchor-text, etc...).

I had a page on one of my sites that had been at the bottom of page #1 for my keyword (keyword1 keyword2), the page kept bouncing back & forth between about postion #5 - #10 (on page #1).

My page has zero external backlinks.

I do heavy on-page seo, on all my pages.

This one simple thing is the only thing I've changed (on/off page) since the page was first created at least 6 months ago.

My page has a single image, & less than 10 words (text), I run an image type website.

The one thing I did change was I linked (hotlinked) directly to the existing image with keyword anchor-text (keyword1 keyword2) & made the hyperlink open in a new browser window (target="_blank").

Test it for yourself, If you have any stuborn pages on page #1 of Google that you can't get to the #1 position.

Traffic jumped from 100 (position #5) to almost 300 (position #1) per day, on that single page.

[edit]
Here is a more detailed PDF, no optin.

.

[stodary2000]

yes please, it is very interesting to read about it

[coronaborcalis]

Hi Yukon. I really interested to read your report because I think your method is unique and I notice most IMer doesn't optimize their images so it will be great to optimize it and get free traffic from G

[charu.seo]

yes..pls update more details...

[Luke McCormack]

Yukon. Would be interested in more details on this very unique method.

Best regards

Nigel

[mmsearch]

Sounds very interesting- please tell us more- I happen to have just this type of predicament for a few of my sites

Thanks- looks like i may have to try this out

[JamesM]

Hi Yukon,

This sounds interesting. Please could you elaborate - where did you place the text link? Was is on the page you were trying to rank?

Thanks,
James

[Osawa]

what factor onpage-seo that you use? please exaxmple like <h1>...etc

[MartinJ]

All things are normal, Using keyword in title, H1 , one image less and good content, One thing that may effect you ranking is
"The one thing I did change was I linked (hotlinked) directly to the existing image with keyword anchor-text (keyword1 keyword2) & made the hyperlink open in a new browser window (target="_blank")."
Which links you have given and where? Please elaborate more as its still mystery for new one like me.

[Osawa]

I'm interest please make pdf I'm in too.

[JanisG]

I'm interested to see the detailed description as well!

Cheers!

[GeronimoBee]

Sounds interesting Yukon.

Pretty dang curious about what your "image sites" could be all about.

Reckon that'l stay a mystery tho lol.

But yea, I'd throw some $$ at this info.

Can't really understand exactly what you mean in the OP.

[RellGins]

Yes, please elaborate!

[cantaxian]

@ Yukon,

Nice share buddy . Please make a PDF for the benefit of other people including me . Do include the tutorials on How-to. In the PDF

Thank you
Cantaxian.

[SimpleSEOTips]

The people demand it
Seriously though it does sound like a very interesting approach from which a lot of us could apply and test. It would be very appreciated if you could share a pdf of this.

[monitorit]

please make a pdf!! im stuck at position 42 constantly would love the number 1 spot.

[mesmerist]

Thanks yukon. I'm interested in your detailed pdf.

[Metropoli i Shqiptareve]

please elaborate

[Lulu Chil]

It would be nice if you could make the pdf please. Thanks

[linkassistant]

This sounds really amazing and proves we often underestimate the value of on page seo. Still I would advise you to support your top rankings by backlinks at this point.

[myseoclub]

Yes, please. I'll wait for your update.
Thanks!

[mazdak]

Could you provide us more information about your way?

[Carl Fridsjö]

Would be interesting to do some testing and see if other websites would get an equally increased ranking..

[easyrider7]

Yes, please tell us more Yukon!

[Chris Sweeney]

Yeah, this sounds interesting. You might just hafta make that PDF!

[markowe]

So that's it Yukon, well, I didn't expect it from a respected WF member - you toss out a bone like that and then just chill and watch us scrabble for it! The BIG SECRET of how to bump your site to no 1, the Holy Grail, and you have fallen silent.

Hey, maybe Matt Cutts sent a hit squad round . "HQ, we have a problem in WF sector, possible discovery of Fatal Algo Weakness #452. Requesting permission to go in!"

Just having a laugh

No, I know about HTML etc. as much as the next man, but I don't quite understand this explanation!

[yukon]

Ok guys, sorry to leave you hanging.

I've updated OP with a link to the pdf (no optin).

It's all about internal linking without creating new pages. This isn't an end all solution for every page/keyword on the net, it helped my page maybe it will help someone else, test it & find out.

Keep in mind this was for an already good ranking page, I just needed to get from the bottom of page #1 in Google SERPs, to the top of the page (and I did).

[Becker13]

sweet man good share

[Ominous1]

Sweet, thanks!

[markhimeb]

thanks for sharing

[markowe]

Thanks for this, will probably try tweaking a site of mine along these lines. You never know what on-page factors might tip your site over the edge. This or some similar technique, like adding a related video, linking back to the page internally from another page - like you say, keep testing...

(or did Matt Cutts' Truth Squad get you and this is all smoke and mirrors!!??)

[markowe]

P.S. OK, just my take on why this might benefit the rankings of a page - so people don't think they have found some magic bullet, but just some sound on-page SEO: by linking a thumbnail of your pic to a large-format picture using keyword loaded alt tags you are giving the Images algo a very good reason to rank your picture well in Images search (even though this is not the primary goal) because it has a nice thumbnail, plus a larger-sized version of the same picture. In doing this, presumably we are also giving the main web search algo another very strong on-page indicator of the theme of the page. All other things being equal, who knows, this could be just the extra factor needed.

I have done it on a page I am currently working on, and will report back , though I have been heavily linking it, so the cause of any changes will be debatable! I have another page that is totally sandboxed which I might try it on too!

[StoneWilson]

I'm sure I've read this thread in somewhere else, either someone posted this before or you've posted it in somewhere else.

[xnice]

Great tips, and I think this works with low competitor keywords. When I search some things, some of image on first spot. Thanks for sharing

[dagaul101]

Nice tip, the major factor was that your site was probably established

[yukon]

Originally Posted by markowe

Thanks for this, will probably try tweaking a site of mine along these lines. You never know what on-page factors might tip your site over the edge. This or some similar technique, like adding a related video, linking back to the page internally from another page - like you say, keep testing...

(or did Matt Cutts' Truth Squad get you and this is all smoke and mirrors!!??)

Lol (Matt Cutts) like a politician, talks for hours & never says anything helpful.

[yukon]

Linking out to relevant content/pages is a good idea for seo, myself, I would rather link out to my own content/pages rather than some site I don't own, when possible.

The key to any type of linking is you need keywords at both ends, the page linking out + the page being linked to. If you can get the keyword in the page title that's a plus. In this case the keyword is in the large images file name/URL.

Originally Posted by markowe

P.S. OK, just my take on why this might benefit the rankings of a page - so people don't think they have found some magic bullet, but just some sound on-page SEO: by linking a thumbnail of your pic to a large-format picture using keyword loaded alt tags you are giving the Images algo a very good reason to rank your picture well in Images search (even though this is not the primary goal) because it has a nice thumbnail, plus a larger-sized version of the same picture. In doing this, presumably we are also giving the main web search algo another very strong on-page indicator of the theme of the page. All other things being equal, who knows, this could be just the extra factor needed.

I have done it on a page I am currently working on, and will report back , though I have been heavily linking it, so the cause of any changes will be debatable! I have another page that is totally sandboxed which I might try it on too!

[GlobalTrader]

Thanks for the info....have already implemented it on one of my similarly positioned pages.

Just wondering approximately how long it took for you to see the bump?

[yukon]

Originally Posted by GlobalTrader

Thanks for the info....have already implemented it on one of my similarly positioned pages.

Just wondering approximately how long it took for you to see the bump?

I think it took about 2-3 days before my page hit the #1 position in the SERPs.

Nothing will happen either way until Google crawls the page again.

You can keep an eye on the Google Cache date to help give you an idea If Google is going to bump the page up or not.

Keep in mind, I doubt this will do anything for very competitive keywords, for example the keyword insurance. It should however bump longer tail keywords, when I say long tail keywords I'm not talking keywords that nobody ever searches for.

My keyword that I used this on was a 2 keyword phrase & gets around 250-300 unique traffic hits per day, which is good IMO for an internal page that took me less than a 1/2 hour to create (content + web page). Multiply that single internal page times a few hundred more internal pages/related-keywords & traffic should be flowing into the site everyday.

[airbusbarkley]

Yukon,

Thanks for the pdf. I have a keyword that has been stuck at the bottom of page 1 for a while and I want to test out your theory.

I am using a WP theme, so what would you recommend I use the code you provided or fill out the proper title boxes in WP when I upload the image?

WP also has a thumbnail option to link to the larger picture in the gallery. Would you recommend using this or direct linking to the larger picture off site?

Thanks,
Shawn

[yukon]

Originally Posted by airbusbarkley

Yukon,

Thanks for the pdf. I have a keyword that has been stuck at the bottom of page 1 for a while and I want to test out your theory.

I am using a WP theme, so what would you recommend I use the code you provided or fill out the proper title boxes in WP when I upload the image?

WP also has a thumbnail option to link to the larger picture in the gallery. Would you recommend using this or direct linking to the larger picture off site?

Thanks,
Shawn

Hey Shawn,

What I did was use the code I provided in the pdf, for the small image.

For the large image I used a free program called FileZilla to upload my large image.

Sounds like your way should work. If your way does the same thing, click on small image & large image opens in new browser tab/window then it should be ok.

[markowe]

I applied this optimisation three or four days ago to a page I have been trying to rank for a while. Last night it jumped from no. 16 to no. 10 (i.e. onto page one)! Coincidence?

Well, it could be - I have been working on this page for months, so maybe it's my almighty Link Pyramid of Doom (TM) kicking in, and just in the last few days I have thrown some high-PR blog comments into the mix too.

So what can we really say? It didn't do my site any harm, and it's always worth trying any optimisation in combination with everything else you are doing. Mostly in SEO it is hard to know exactly what really did the "trick" in the end, but you might as well try this one! Course, if we're all doing it then, er...

[airbusbarkley]

Originally Posted by yukon

Hey Shawn,

What I did was use the code I provided in the pdf, for the small image.

For the large image I used a free program called FileZilla to upload my large image.

Sounds like your way should work. If your way does the same thing, click on small image & large image opens in new browser tab/window then it should be ok.

Thanks for the response. It sounds like both options will accomplish the same goal. I will implement and report back with results in a few days.

Shawn

[yukon]

Originally Posted by airbusbarkley

Thanks for the response. It sounds like both options will accomplish the same goal. I will implement and report back with results in a few days.

Shawn

One thing I suggest when doing this seo, is to do that exact same seo for a few pages (4-5 pages) on the same site/domain, each page would be a different related keyword. This way you have a better idea If your pages are going to move up in the SERPs with a simple seo tweak like this thread.

We all know some keywords are just plain stubborn & will require extra work, still every little bit helps get to closer to the #1 spot in the SERPs for our keywords.

[yeshuaisiam]

Thanks, I needed this.

[RayW]

Anyone tried this? Did it work?

[GlobalTrader]

Originally Posted by raxr

Anyone tried this? Did it work?

I did this to one of my main money pages that was stuck in position 5 and after about 5 days it was bumped up to position 3 and has held there - I am not sure I can get to number one on this KW since it is occupied by an .edu site but improving 2 notches in such a short period of time and the only change I made was what Yukon has provided, I say it helped!

I have made the change to 3 other pages just within the last 5 days but Google has not visited the pages yet. The first page I tested is visited almost daily so that is why the change probably happened so quickly.

It's free, it worked for two of us so far, why not test it out?

[mesmerist]

I just implemented this 2 days ago so let's wait a few days more.

Just to make sure I do things right, the title that shows on the top of my browser for the larger image is the name of the larger image file (Example: keyword-2.jpg 1300x787 pixels). Is this correct?

Thanks

[mesmerist]

It's been a week since I implemented this technique but still stuck at #9, no movement. Not sure if I did anything wrong. Tempted to start building backlinks to this page. Should I wait few more days or should I start building links?

[Matt Gannon]

Internal linking helps, but i don't know if having the hyperlink open in a new browser window helps at all.