My SEO Journey to Ranking #1 - Follow & Learn

[JamesF]

Hey Warriors,
So I decided a few weeks ago that I am going to create a transparent blog series & forum thread on my SEO campaign to rank for the keyword 'freelance web designer'. Most people usually don't share work details in their SEO campaigns thinking their competitors will copy their steps and try to rank for them too; but I believe the benefits of people learning off of me and work/progress/results far outweigh the threats of a competitor.

I actually meant to write my first post a couple weeks ago, but finally got around to it today. So the first post is basically catching you up on what has happened in the past 3-4 weeks since I first posted a 1-page splash site up on the domain.

Anyways, here's my first post: Introduction And Current SERP Ranking – Part 1 SEO Journey | Freelanceful Blog

Enjoy, and feel free to leave any questions or comments on the blog or in this thread and I'll be sure to check back often. I'll post any new updates to this thread as well. Coming up next is: my keyword research I did & on-page optimization on the site..

- James F.

[owenlee]

Good luck in your journey...all the best...

[abbypeng]

Good luck. Thank you for share.

[JamesF]

@owenlee & @abbypeng - thanks!

[trishseo]

Originally Posted by JamesF

Hey Warriors,
So I decided a few weeks ago that I am going to create a transparent blog series & forum thread on my SEO campaign to rank for the keyword 'freelance web designer'. Most people usually don't share work details in their SEO campaigns thinking their competitors will copy their steps and try to rank for them too; but I believe the benefits of people learning off of me and work/progress/results far outweigh the threats of a competitor.

I actually meant to write my first post a couple weeks ago, but finally got around to it today. So the first post is basically catching you up on what has happened in the past 3-4 weeks since I first posted a 1-page splash site up on the domain.

Anyways, here's my first post: Introduction And Current SERP Ranking – Part 1 SEO Journey | Freelanceful Blog

Enjoy, and feel free to leave any questions or comments on the blog or in this thread and I'll be sure to check back often. I'll post any new updates to this thread as well. Coming up next is: my keyword research I did & on-page optimization on the site..

- James F.

Thanks James. I love a good case study. There is far, far too much fodder that passes as firsthand knowledge online. This is how you really learn about what works and what doesn't.

[bigwillstyle]

I really appreciate the great input. As an up and coming Seo Champ I'm willing to glean a little something from everyone's Seo experience.

[Amenda Jessera]

Good luck James, I just bookmarked your site and I am gonna follow you and learn from your experience.... Thanks

[dannyintampa]

Let us know how your results and good luck my friend!

[majikz10]

Good luck mate great!

[MoBuck$]

Hey make sure you install "Platinum SEO Pack" it's the best one out of the many that are out there

[JamesF]

thanks guys and gals.. should have the next two updates coming soon. probably about every 7 days..

[marcolav]

Hi there

your site won't load from here?

[JamesF]

@marcolav - the freelanceful.com or the blog? both seem to load for me.

[pats311CList]

great stuff apreciate it and cant wait for the results keep em coming sir

[marcolav]

Originally Posted by JamesF

@marcolav - the freelanceful.com or the blog? both seem to load for me.

freelanceful.com was not loading, it's fine now though

[JamesF]

Hey guys,
I finally updated a new post to the Part 2 SEO Journey series.

This new post covers 'keyword research' and more specifically 'keyword relevance'. Keyword research and selecting the best ones to target for SEO breaks down into three main parts: keyword relevance, search volume, and competition for that keyword to rank.

Anyways, check the link out below for more..

Coming Up With Your Target Keywords – Part 2 SEO Journey | Freelanceful Blog

Thanks,
James F.

[JSProjects]

Originally Posted by JamesF

Hey guys,
I finally updated a new post to the Part 2 SEO Journey series.

This new post covers 'keyword research' and more specifically 'keyword relevance'. Keyword research and selecting the best ones to target for SEO breaks down into three main parts: keyword relevance, search volume, and competition for that keyword to rank.

Anyways, check the link out below for more..

Coming Up With Your Target Keywords – Part 2 SEO Journey | Freelanceful Blog

Thanks,
James F.

Thanks for the update. I always enjoy following case studies.

Bookmarked your blog and will be checking it from time to time.

[JamesF]

Thanks @JSProjects

[JamesF]

Hey guys,
I'm on a roll and got Part 3 up today. Just going over a few tips about estimating the amount of searches certain keywords and phrases it has on Google per month. Definitely helpful if you're still on the fence on which keywords to focus on and spend time to try to rank for, or even coming up with one to target.

Finding Out How Many Times A Keyword Is Searched Per Month – Part 3 SEO Journey | Freelanceful Blog

Thanks,
James F.

[jimmy69]

It is interesting to learn your success story, thanks for sharing the experience.

[Sparda]

Thank you for sharing the experience. Your story will give people great insight.

[outwest]

I thought this thread was helpful tips, I dont see any tips, or many updates

[scott g]

Good luck with that! Let's analyze a bit... Shall we...?!?!?





CHEERS!

[outwest]

I would rather find someone who is number one and telling how I did this

instead of following someone who says I WANT TO GET TO NUMBER 1
follow me

[JamesF]

@sparda - thanks!

@outwest - check the links. I labeled this thread as journey, which is more of a progress and not a how to. As far as being number 1, I've ranked several sites before for #1 spots in competitive keywords. Last two: employee scheduling software & twitter backgrounds - both are quite stiff in competition. I cannot name the sites due to privacy clauses after I sold the sites.

@scott_g - thanks. So far, Freelanceful is at the bottom of page 2, around 23-26ish, depending on what ip location you're doing your Google searches from.

[scott g]

Originally Posted by JamesF

@scott_g - thanks. So far, Freelanceful is at the bottom of page 2, around 23-26ish, depending on what ip location you're doing your Google searches from.

This is true --- Geographic searches differ. That's why I always use multiple keyword SERP tracking tools:

Scroogle Scraper
Rank Checker - Track Google, Yahoo! Search, & Bing Rankings Free
Free SEO Software | The Best PPC & SEO Management Tool -Traffic Travis
Google SERPS Search Result Position Tool
Pagerank checker :Google SERPs checker: results many countries Google Pagerank SERPs index results web SEO tools

CHEERS!

[JamesF]

Hey Warriors,
Continuing on my roll; I got Part 4 up.

It's about how to judge the competition for your keywords or keyword phrases. For example; if you found yourself a great keyword that gets lots of search volume per month; but it is over-dominated by big dogs in your industry; it's going to be a total uphill battle. These are just a few tips of mine that I learned to quickly judge which keywords to stay away from and which ones to attack full-head on.

Judging And Estimating Keyword Competition To Rank Page 1 – Part 4 SEO Journey | Freelanceful Blog

- James F.

[JamesF]

Put up another post up. This one is about 3 common SEO myths I see a lot of people do when they try to estimate the amount of traffic a keyword gets.

1. Page rank
2. Competition bar
3. Number of search results

Hope it helps out somebody.. Common SEO Myths In Estimating Keyword Toughness & Competition – Part 5 SEO Journey | Freelanceful Blog

- James F

[JamesF]

Made another post today. We are getting into the meat and bones of SEO; and I covered on-page optimization with this post. My opinion on the top 4 and few other things. I laid it out by telling what I did with freelanceful.com and why I did it.

Like: 1) Meta Title 2) H1 Tag 3) Meta Description 4) Keyword Density

Top 4 On-Page Optimization Techniques That Works – Part 6 SEO Journey | Freelanceful Blog

- James F.

[outwest]

Whats the total monthly EXACT LOCAL searches the main targeted kw is getting?
thats the one you are trying to rank number 1

if its low, anyone can do that (100-300 searches per month for example)
if its 10k 20k per month, then the results will be interesting

[wadezwd]

BRAVO~
I will follow your journey and learn then apply to my own sites.
Thanks for your sharing.

[outwest]

This to me is not legit
The poster has made very few posts on the board, and not really responded much to questions , such as the one I posted above

What is the exact monthly searches (local) (exact) for the term you want to rank for

If this is a 500 searches per month term, then a child could rank that number 1 within a month or two with not much SEO background

Also I would like to see a screenshot of the top 10 competition on market samurai

[Cash0ut]

Originally Posted by outwest

This to me is not legit
The poster has made very few posts on the board, and not really responded much to questions , such as the one I posted above

What is the exact monthly searches (local) (exact) for the term you want to rank for

If this is a 500 searches per month term, then a child could rank that number 1 within a month or two with not much SEO background

Also I would like to see a screenshot of the top 10 competition on market samurai

If you re-read the OP you'll notice that he is trying to rank for "freelance web designer", and if you take a look at post #23 you will see the top 20 for the term plus the exact searches.

[outwest]

Originally Posted by Cash0ut

If you re-read the OP you'll notice that he is trying to rank for "freelance web designer", and if you take a look at post #23 you will see the top 20 for the term plus the exact searches.

LOL
I will eat my hat if he can get to number 1 in a year
the number one site has 250,000 backlinks and is a PR5 site

yes it is not SEO optimized for all the title, url , header , desc, but
250,000 backlinks? and a PR5 and he is going to try to beat that?

Seems people are just saying "good luck" without really looking at what this guy is trying to do

How in the Hell is someone supposed to outrank a 250k backlinks site within a year, a PR5 site?
I can tell you that sure, if the site was N N N N for the onpage SEO, he may have a chance of going past it assuming the guys backlinks and PR are not that good

but with that kind of backlinks? no way in heck can he outrank him, even if he got that many backlinks the other guys backlinks are more aged

LOL

I would say within 6 mos he can rank #3, possibly one year
if he can rank #1 on this term in a year he should be on the international news, since that will truly be something amazing

[nicnac03]

Your blog is filled with amazing information. I'm curious what theme you are using.

[junne]

Good job mate

best of luck!!