Use These Ten Steps For Success With SEO

[sledge]

Originally Posted by jobayer007

hi graham,
Exceptionally gr8 tips, thanks for it, hope this will help all of us to understand SEO and work on it for better benefit. Cheers!

With Regards

Hi,

Your welcome and I hope it is helpful to you going forward.

Regards
Graham

[sledge]

Hi Guys,

It seems as though Google is doing a lot of testing and may be introducing further changes to their algorithm again. I have been noticing some strange movement with some sites both up and down for no particular reason.

The word from the SEO community is that another change is imminent. I will keep you posted.

Regards
Graham

[sunithaseo]

great post, actually works to add more add good relevant content because a good content can see one through ranking well in search engines.

[SEOtraveler]

quite a few SEO experts discourage people from using wordpress and instead encourage webmasters to build link equity on their own domain... your thoughts on this?

also seo spyglass is another backlink checker alternative for finding competitor backlinks, a bit more comprehensive than traffic travis, in my experience at least

[sledge]

Originally Posted by sunithaseo

great post, actually works to add more add good relevant content because a good content can see one through ranking well in search engines.

This is true. After Panda this has been particularly important. Article writers are raking it in now!

Thanks for your contribution.

Cheers
Graham

[sledge]

Originally Posted by SEOtraveler

quite a few SEO experts discourage people from using wordpress and instead encourage webmasters to build link equity on their own domain... your thoughts on this?

also SEO spyglass is another backlink checker alternative for finding competitor backlinks, a bit more comprehensive than traffic travis, in my experience at least

Hi,

I am not entirely sure what you mean here regarding Wordpress. I am referring to a Wordpress installation on your own domain and not creating a blog at Wordpress.com. The link structure in Wordpress is great for internal linking and you can get plug ins to make this even better.

I use the SEO Spyglass tools as well. They do yield more results you are right but if you want a quick and dirty analysis then Traffic Travis is great especially for those people that are new to SEO.

Thanks
Graham

[Matt Baker]

Matt Cutts said that creating great quality content will help you rank on Google.

[sledge]

Originally Posted by Matt Baker

Matt Cutts said that creating great quality content will help you rank on Google.

Hi Matt,

Yes he did and of course that is what Google wants to stay king of the search engines. I follow what he says closely but don't believe everything that he says!

Cheers
Graham

[sledge]

Originally Posted by sam1216

good tips mate

Thanks Sam

[waitingforyou]

good article. our company are trying to post video in the article. may it will be success.

[west1]

Originally Posted by sledge

Hi Warriors,


I have been doing SEO and ranking web sites for seventeen years and have seen a lot of changes in that time. I have been doing this for so long that I remember the time when Google didn't exist!


Following a defined plan is the best way to succeed with SEO. It is not necessary to do all of the work yourself but understanding the most effective SEO strategy is vital for your success. The following ten steps need to be undertaken for any web page that you want to rank high in the search engines:



1. Start With Keyword Research



This is the starting point of your SEO. You need to research the market to see what your potential customers are searching for and what the volume of searches for the keyword term is to decide on whether the term is worth going after or not. Of the many online research tools available, the Google Keyword Tool is free and the best to use.



2. Know Your Competition



For any keyword there will be other web sites competing to rank highly for it and you need to know how strong they are so that you can evaluate whether it is worth going for it or choosing other keywords. This is not rocket science. The more competition there is for a keyword, the more time and effort it will take to get on the first page. Don't rely on just searching for your keyword in quotes to assess competition as this never reveals the whole story. The free Traffic Travis program is a very good tool to use to conduct an assessment of the competitiveness of each keyword in your list so make use of it.



3. Get To The Top With Wordpress



Wordpress is an open source content management system that is easy to install and has a lot of useful plug-ins that will help with SEO. It is easy to add new content to Wordpress sites and the other benefit that it has over static HTML sites is that it will automatically ping RSS sites and inform them that new content has been added. There is a lot of search engine love for Wordpress and they will often achieve a much higher ranking than other forms of web sites.



4. Use A New Page For Each Keyword



Don’t try and rank for a number of different keywords with the same page. For each new page you create, make sure that you include the keyword in the page address or URL. If your site is about weight loss then an example of this could be yourweightlosssite.com/lose-belly-fat.



5. Create New Unique Pages Often



Create your own unique content for each page. You can write this yourself or outsource this task for a few dollars. It is not advisable to use PLR content for your pages but if you must then totally rewrite it before posting it. It is best to create at least 400 – 500 words per page and write more if you can. Add new content at least once a week to begin with and once a month when your site is more established.



6. Post Videos In Your Content



Search engines will improve your rankings if they find videos on your site as different content types always do well. It is easy to find videos of relevance on the video sharing sites or make them yourself. Videos are good for your site.



7. Optimize Every One Of Your Pages For The Keyword



Placing the keyword in the page title is a MUST and ensure that the keyword is used a few times in the content too. You need to give the search engines as much help as possible to understand what your page is about. All web site platforms allow the use of H1, H2 and H3 or heading tags for sub headings so use them with your keyword included.



8. Now It Is Time To Get External Links



The way that search engines rank sites is based on many factors but the number and quality of external links pointing to your site is considered to be the most important. There are a number of ways that these links can be gained and some examples are commenting on other people’s blog posts, creating newsworthy press releases, gaining contextual links from private blog networks and creating articles and submitting them to article directories. Be consistent with your link building and be sure to get different types of links from different sources. Get as many links as you can.



9. Social Networks Are Good For SEO



If you do not have an account at Twitter or Facebook yet then get them today and get as many followers and friends as possible. The reason you need lots of friends is to spread the word about your web site on their walls by sending broadcast messages to them all. Tweet your followers in Twitter with your links in the tweet. The search engines are now factoring your social network standing as a contributor to your rankings.



10. Do SEO Regularly To Keep Your Gains



When you reach the number one spot it is very easy to get complacent over SEO but if you do this a competitor that isn’t taking a break will surely overtake you. Keep at it!



I hope this brain dump helps you all!


Regards
Graham

Great post. Thanks for sharing this post. I was doing SEO but going your way really helped me.

[sledge]

Originally Posted by waitingforyou

good article. our company are trying to post video in the article. may it will be success.

Hi,

Thanks. I have found that using videos in your content helps a bit with ranking. It is all about providing as many different media types as you can and getting a different variety of back links that look natural.

Cheers
Graham

[sledge]

Originally Posted by west1

Great post. Thanks for sharing this post. I was doing SEO but going your way really helped me.

Hi,

That's great news! Really glad I could help.

Cheers
Graham

[celiasmith]

Pretty useful tips especially for newbies, thanks for the share.

[hsvdm]

Really good tips, from my experience if you focus on one product to promote per site I need 1-3 weeks to get first page listings. Sometimes it goes very fast and I implement the majority of the tips.

I think the most important factor is to keep the visitors attention and to reduce the bounce rate. If you write good targeted content and add a video or audio for your visitors google will recognize that they stay on your site because you provide useful information for them. And this ends up in better rankings. So, good quality backlinks and great informative content is the key.

Thanks for your great tips
Mirko

[sledge]

Originally Posted by hsvdm

Really good tips, from my experience if you focus on one product to promote per site I need 1-3 weeks to get first page listings. Sometimes it goes very fast and I implement the majority of the tips.

I think the most important factor is to keep the visitors attention and to reduce the bounce rate. If you write good targeted content and add a video or audio for your visitors google will recognize that they stay on your site because you provide useful information for them. And this ends up in better rankings. So, good quality backlinks and great informative content is the key.

Thanks for your great tips
Mirko

Hey Mirko,

You are welcome. Bounce rate is a big thing these days with Google. I know many people that have been ranking well and then installed Google Analytics which really exposes their bounce rate. Their sites dropped! Great content including video and quality diverse backlinks is the key.

Cheers
Graham

[bastion]

Originally Posted by sledge

6. Post Videos In Your Content



Search engines will improve your rankings if they find videos on your site as different content types always do well. It is easy to find videos of relevance on the video sharing sites or make them yourself. Videos are good for your site.

Does this really improve your rankings? And does it need to be new video, unique, or you can embed for youtube?

[sledge]

Originally Posted by bastion

Does this really improve your rankings? And does it need to be new video, unique, or you can embed for youtube?

Hi,

It did for me for 2 of my sites. It is not a miracle though I only went up a few places (I was already number 10 and I went to number 7 by placing the video). I couldn't guarantee that this will work for everybody as there are so many factors that determine rankings.

It doesn't matter what kind of video it is either your own or a YouTube video is fine.

Hope this helps

Graham

[franhawes]

Thanks a lot for the detailed and useful tips.

[JettH]

Originally Posted by sledge

Hi Warriors,

Don’t try and rank for a number of different keywords with the same page.

I have noted some people are advising (post Panda) to create longer (higher quality) posts.

While a longer post may not be specifically designed to target multiple keywords, by their nature long good quality posts should attract "hits" from a wider variety of search phrases than shorter highly targeted posts.

[sledge]

Originally Posted by franhawes

Thanks a lot for the detailed and useful tips.

You're welcome. I hope this will help you with your SEO efforts.

Cheers
Graham

[sledge]

Originally Posted by JettH

I have noted some people are advising (post Panda) to create longer (higher quality) posts.

While a longer post may not be specifically designed to target multiple keywords, by their nature long good quality posts should attract "hits" from a wider variety of search phrases than shorter highly targeted posts.

Hi,

Yes but I would still recommend one keyword per page. There is no reason that you cannot use keywords from other pages in long posts in fact it is a good idea and then you can link to the relevant pages on your site using these keywords to improve your internal linking.

Longer posts are also good for improving bounce rates which is an important factor with Google these days.

Cheers
Graham

[phpdevelopment]

Hi Graham
nice tips it's very useful for me.thanks for it

[sledge]

Originally Posted by phpdevelopment

Hi Graham
nice tips it's very useful for me.thanks for it

You are welcome my friend.

Cheers
Graham

[2Dth]

Wow, Great information. Good thing i stopped here before spending $$$ on SEO products.

Again, Great information.

-Thanks Graham & Warriors

[sledge]

Originally Posted by 2Dth

Wow, Great information. Good thing i stopped here before spending $$$ on SEO products.

Again, Great information.

-Thanks Graham & Warriors

Glad we could all help you and save you money! That is what this forum is all about.

Cheers
Graham

[Jan Hurst]

Graham, thank you for sharing your expertise. This thread is loaded with valuable tips I'll be putting to use.

[matrixv]

I have been contemplating switching my website from network solutions website builder onto a wordpress site. Maybe I will give it a shot seems wordpress is the best way to go huh?

[abrahamgpg]

Thanks for these tips.

I always try multiple keywords per blogpost, but it seems I must change my strategy a bit.

[vjandroid1]

Excluding your first two points because I had done that before only..All other points are very much helpful..what I was planning these days matches all other points you described..actually few weeks before I became too much frustrate because I was knowing these ways but the problem was I was unable to apply them because I was doinh them in zig-zag format and it was the main problem I thought that it much more tough job..but when I started doing these things in a proper manner what got is that I'm now enjoying this work...thanks man for giving my ways a confirmation to carry ON..i was missing with that video point and now I'm going to follow that too..
atlast I believe that I will succeed..

[capitulation1945]

Thank you for sharing ur knowledge!

[sledge]

Originally Posted by Jan Hurst

Graham, thank you for sharing your expertise. This thread is loaded with valuable tips I'll be putting to use.

You are welcome Jan

[sledge]

Originally Posted by matrixv

I have been contemplating switching my website from network solutions website builder onto a wordpress site. Maybe I will give it a shot seems wordpress is the best way to go huh?

Wordpress is great for SEO. I have tried lots of different platforms in the past and nothing beats it!

[sledge]

Originally Posted by abrahamgpg

Thanks for these tips.

I always try multiple keywords per blogpost, but it seems I must change my strategy a bit.

You can rank the same page for different keywords but I always find it more efficient to keep it simple with one keyword for one page. It's certainly more work but then your site gets bigger which Google also likes.

[sledge]

Originally Posted by vjandroid1

Excluding your first two points because I had done that before only..All other points are very much helpful..what I was planning these days matches all other points you described..actually few weeks before I became too much frustrate because I was knowing these ways but the problem was I was unable to apply them because I was doinh them in zig-zag format and it was the main problem I thought that it much more tough job..but when I started doing these things in a proper manner what got is that I'm now enjoying this work...thanks man for giving my ways a confirmation to carry ON..i was missing with that video point and now I'm going to follow that too..
atlast I believe that I will succeed..

I am so glad I could help. Following a structure makes things easier for me and it gets good results.

[sledge]

Originally Posted by capitulation1945

Thank you for sharing ur knowledge!

You are welcome my friend. I hope you put it to good use.

[mollygrove]

Nice tips, very useful. Thank you.

[brodiewyatt]

great list, very useful indeed. Thank you.

[sledge]

Originally Posted by mollygrove

Nice tips, very useful. Thank you.

You are welcome

[sledge]

Originally Posted by brodiewyatt

great list, very useful indeed. Thank you.

It's a pleasure. I hope you will get good results from it.

[sledge]

Originally Posted by JTringer

Hi Graham,

Could you elaborate a little more on the time frame for ranking improvements? For example, on my first main niche site I have added almost all of my content and have done minimal backlinking so far and am ranking for my main keyword and a few ltkw on page 3+ of google. This week I am ramping up the off-page link building, focusing on social bookmarks/blog commenting/article submission for ~1 hour/day for the forseeable future. Can you give any approximation as to the time it will take to rank on the first page for any keywords?

Thanks,

Hi,

It is really difficult to provide time frames for SEO. There are so many variations such as keyword competition, age of your site, the consistency of SEO that you do and so on. Download Traffic Travis and analyze your keywords and then use this as a reference:

Traffic Travis Assessment Estimated Time To Page 1

Extremely Difficult 12 Months
Very Difficult 9 Months
Difficult 6 To 9 Months
Medium Difficulty 4 To 6 Months
Relatively Easy 3 Months
Easy 1 To 2 Months

I hope this helps
Graham

[gokhanfil]

thanks for sharing.

[sledge]

Originally Posted by gokhanfil

thanks for sharing.

No problem I hope it helps you.