Google/Seo Expert Advice needed! Pls.

[MoaddinFM]

Hi, here is my problem.

Keyword Research for a popular keyword with $$$$ inside:
Result:

~ 10 Mio Results.

So far, so good.

Well, the #1 on google was: mainsite.com/keyword.html

Now comes the crazy thing ... yahoo site explorer as well as google links command give me 4(!!!) links to this site.

Okay, checking the mainsite...

With both, site explorer (299 links) and links command in google (255 links), I get some weird results.

1) How the f*** can this site be ranking #1 with 10 mio competitors?
2) Any reason I should not attack?

3) My strategy: 3 Keywords, 75 articles with these 3 keywords. Post them through the article directories.

If everything goes as it should I will get #1 spot easily, as all the article sites are PR6,5,4. Content related and at least 75 articles are unique so they are quality backlinks, right?

Is there something I forgot? Just can´t think of ranking so high that easily. The idea of taking over a niche with 10k searches a day and my own product selling for 49,95€ is getting me crazy and I can´t sleep anymore tonight (Imagin a measily 2% conversion rate: still 10k € / day ...)

Any thougts?

[MoaddinFM]

anyone? I´m somewhat desperate guys

[Big Al]

No idea mate, I feel your pain!! One for the SEO forum here and maybe grey/black hatters?

[JMichaelZ]

I am not sure that people know what this means -- 10 Mio searches.

Can you write out the number?

[MoaddinFM]

sorry, 10 mio searches is wrong.

I mean 10 mio (10,000,000) competing sites for that specifiv keyword. What I don´t get is how can someone be #1 vs that many competitors without even having some links

[dcmarketer]

I wouldn't get too excited.

If I were you I would analyze the backlinks of the top 10 (if not 20) websites that rank for this term, average it out, and use that as your benchmark. This first one could just be an anomaly or perhaps you're not looking at it right (you need to look at backlinks to the overall domain, not just that specific page - you might be but just thought I would mention this). Also you need to be sure you're using the right metric to measure your 10k visitors per day... this might not actually be the case.

Best...

Duncan

[MoaddinFM]

Originally Posted by dcmarketer

I wouldn't get too excited.

If I were you I would analyze the backlinks of the top 10 (if not 20) websites that rank for this term, average it out, and use that as your benchmark. This first one could just be an anomaly or perhaps you're not looking at it right (you need to look at backlinks to the overall domain, not just that specific page - you might be but just thought I would mention this). Also you need to be sure you're using the right metric to measure your 10k visitors per day... this might not actually be the case.

Best...

Duncan

I checked the subpage, as well as the mainsite

@Metrics, yeah, its google external keyword tool giving me over 300k searches a month on a consistently basis. I know the searches are stable at least since 2004.

well, I checked the first 5 sites so far.

3 sites are selling services/products and they have 200-500 links.
2 other sites have more than 100k links, but these are all links from their subpages.

Well, I´ll give it a try guys. I´ll go to bed, hope to see some more answers tomorrow

THanks for your help
Martin

[Mike Bogowski]

It isn't always about links

Take a look at the quality of the site that is ranking number 1. Is it highly informative?
Check the age of the site that is ranking number 1. Has it been around for years?

Id say these 2 are the biggest determining factors. Remember Google wants to rank the 'best' sites first and this won't always mean the site with the most backlinks.

Hope this helps

[MoaddinFM]

Okay, that´s the most carziest part.

The page on #1 is not informative at all. It is the worst site seen ever! It is a top 50 bannerlist site *lol*

Any thoughts?

[lavidaloca]

Give it about a week. They might have done a google bomb.
So they will rank for about a week then drop from the listings.
If they DON'T drop then simply duplicate what they have.

Duplicate the following:

1. Site structure
2. Keyword density
3. Page size
4. Inbound links
5. Outbound links

Your design can look different obviously.

If you duplicate what they have then you'll rank where they rank now. You just need to be a bit better then you'll outrank them.

Have you checked the keyword term in QUOTES?
It will indicate how much competition has the full term on their pages.

Regards,
lavidaloca

[MoaddinFM]

I know, that the top 3 spots get ~ 50% of the traffic searching for the keyword. So yes, I don´t get 10k visits a day. Even if I only get 1k visitors a day, it would be worth the trouble, right?

And it´s no google bomb, for sure. They rank #1 for at least 6 months. That´s the time I was tracking them. If any SEO expert wants to take a look, just pm me, I will provide you with my Skype details and I can show you, what I mean.

[lavidaloca]

You can PM me the site details. I'll have a look. If it's no Google bomb then it's just good seo practice.

[lavidaloca]

Thanks for the PM. I sent you the answer.

[MoaddinFM]

thank you.

Well, I will try my best to take this place over. I think this could be a very nice case study

Thanks to all,
Martin

[MoaddinFM]

it´s both quite the same, because its a 2 word keyword I think I will attack it and track it and make a case study on how to take over or fail taking over the IM niche for a foreign country.

Martin

[dcmarketer]

Hi Martin,

Again, be careful here.

Contrary to a post above it's 95% about the backlinks. A website doesn't have to have quality information to rank highly... it can be plain old crap. It also only has to be reasonably optimized onsite. Trust me on this one.

Your best metric to go by if you're looking for actual visitors is to plug the keyword phrase (as an exact match) into the Google Adwords traffic estimator (not the public one - log into your account). Put your bid to $50 per click and budget to $10,000 per day (or no budget). Be sure to select the audience (i.e. United States) - don't select all countries and all territories. This will then give you the number of clicks estimate you would expect to receive if your ad was in #1-3 position.

Now I know you're talking about organic rankings, but the truth be told these adwords estimates are only slightly lower than what eventuates when your in the top 3 organic in most cases, and it will give you a much more realistic expectation as to whether or not the term is woth investing X amount of time and X amount of dollars into.

The average monthly search volume in Google is actually pretty inaccurate.

You're welcome to PM me with the term you're looking at so I can take a look at this number 1 site and give you my opinion. Not trying to toot my own horn but if you search "internet marketing" in G you will see I'm not providing advice here based on assumptions.

Best...

Duncan

[Sirric]

These forums are a life saver thanks, i was seeking the exact same thing!

[gjnr7522]

I'm curious as to how this worked out.