What are your ranking methods these days?

by jodiesmitham

Posted: 10 years ago 24 replies

My keyword research/ranking techniques have changed in the last few years. I used to use Market Samurai and SEO Quake, but I don't find them helpful these days. I don't know about you guys, but there appears to be no set method, apart from obtaining high PR links, in getting new sites ranked for lucrative keywords.

Old sites of mine seem to be flourishing to the point where I can leave them alone. I want to work on a number of new sites, but I wondered what your methods are for ranking NEW sites. One of last posts was about a site of mine which *should* have beaten the current top 10 results for a specific keyword. For the last year, my site has been sitting around position 25 and hasn't really budged, no matter how much I have thrown at it.

So once you have a lucrative medium/high competition keyword, what are your methods for ranking?

This is what I have tried to do:

- excellent content (usually paid articles by professionals in the field)
- backlinks from authoritative sources (news and government websites) and only a few social bookmarking sites.
- Google sitemap submission in Google Webmaster
- Google + content (although this doesn't really make much difference these days)
- ensuring anchor text is a mix of URL, brand name and various combinations of keywords.

#days #keyword #methods #research

SEO-Dave 10 years ago

Originally Posted by jodiesmitham

- ensuring anchor text is a mix of URL, brand name and various combinations of keywords.

I see you understand the importance of varying the anchor text of your links, have you followed this through to your internal links as well?

I saw Google being able to determine natural linking patterns as a major off-site SEO issue for those who build backlinks several years ago and like you vary the anchor text of links built (though I don't use the URL). Problem with this is it means you can't add too many exact match anchor text links like what used to work 5+ years ago.

Since a major part of a pages backlink profile could be thousands of internal links and with most setups the webmaster will add their best keyword phrase as internal anchor text, the result is a big chunk of exact match anchor text backlinks!

I added features to the WordPress theme I develop to vary the internal anchor text of internal links, rather than all internal links using the post title (or "Continue Reading"!!!) as anchor text.

When I create an article I set 6 keyphrases (basically 6 versions of the post title) and the theme automatically uses the 6 phrases for internal links from different parts of the site.

Got an example post explaining how it all works at Make Money Fast, really cool SEO feature.

Since internal links using different anchor text, when scrapers scrape the site they automatically use the phrases, so also results in more varied incoming backlink anchor text as well.

The SEO concept is to make your backlink profile more varied, more natural looking.

David
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CRIMSON ASH

10 years ago

Even high PR links are not working on new sites. Those who are ranking now for whatever keyword are given precedence which sucks especially when you know you should be ranking ahead of many other websites.

I see a number of NEW websites ranking based on on-page factors alone... these sites have not built links which says the "sandbox" is completely link based. Building more than one of the exact anchor seems to be poison right now.

I think this only affects commercial keywords (not sure though).

Thanks
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jodiesmitham

10 years ago

Thanks very much for the feedback.

Stalliontheme, I hadn't considered internal links until recently, so thanks for the info.

CRIMSON ASH, you're right. I threw together a few test sites (Amazon affiliate) and didn't bother with any backlinks - I just submitted the sitemap in Google Webmaster and they're ranking really well for long tail keywords. I guess maybe no backlinking at all for new sites, apart from crucial links from authoritative sites?

Thanks
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CRIMSON ASH

10 years ago

Originally Posted by jodiesmitham

CRIMSON ASH, you're right. I threw together a few test sites (Amazon affiliate) and didn't bother with any backlinks - I just submitted the sitemap in Google Webmaster and they're ranking really well for long tail keywords. I guess maybe no backlinking at all for new sites, apart from crucial links from authoritative sites?

There is a site in the 7th position in one of my niches for a 5 figure keyword without a single backlink. But 7th position isn't going to help this site anyway and if he/she starts trying to increase rank via off-page SEO the site will probably drop.

I'm playing around with a few things right now but don't have anything concrete to share yet.

The game has changed significantly for new websites!

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SEO-Dave

10 years ago

Originally Posted by CRIMSON ASH

Even high PR links are not working on new sites.

That's not true, almost 10 years ago Google changed how quickly it passes the SEO benefit from new backlinks, today it seems to take about a year for new backlinks to pass full SEO benefit.

What that means is if you wanted to match the off-site SEO of a website that's several years old, has thousands of quality backlinks, you'd need to match the quality of their backlinks and wait one year for full SEO benefit to pass.

This is not easy to achieve which is why it takes so long and so much work to rank for competitive SERPs.

This is a good thing for those willing to put the hard work in, but it's a long term project to compete for any competitive SERPs: it's years of building quality links and waiting.

Fortunately SEO isn't all about the backlinks and most sites have poor on-page SEO, so if you can learn to better optimize your website, you can make it easier, but you still need a lot of backlinks + minimum 1 year for full SEO benefit to compete in competitive niches.

In the meantime long tail SERPs are low hanging SEO fruit while you build a site long term.

I miss the days when it took about 3 months to rank even for competitive SERPs if you could generate enough backlinks quickly, if only it were pre-2005 again :-)

David

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CRIMSON ASH

10 years ago

Originally Posted by Stalliontheme

That's not true, almost 10 years ago Google changed how quickly it passes the SEO benefit from new backlinks, today it seems to take about a year for new backlinks to pass full SEO benefit.

This change only came about in May of this year. Before then it was easy to rank quickly with high PR backlinks (for me anyway).

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patco

10 years ago

Originally Posted by CRIMSON ASH

But such backlinks are a good start when talking about SEO no matter if the link is new or old! Google loves such backlinks.. There is no better way to optimize a NEW website than building some HIGH quality and relatd backlinks!

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Datangle 10 years ago

I do agreed what you've explained here. Not these days, In every single day make backlinks at High PR sites and other related sites only make ranking from Google and Alexa.
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CRIMSON ASH 10 years ago

@jodiesmitham

You mentioned you are an Amazon affiliate... you may want to read this thread:

Thin Content penalty - should I ditch the domain? - Main Backlinks/SEO Discussion - Traffic Planet

....this isn't to say your sites are thin but it's FYI
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sginteractive 10 years ago

Plan Your Content:
Meta Keyword Tags Are Overrated:
Title Tags Are Vital:
Meta Description Tags:
Design a Site That Search Engines Like:
Create a Compelling Site:
Submit your URL to the Directories:
Balance Your Online Marketing Approach:
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Bestseoservice 10 years ago

Yes This all strategies covered with Search Engine Optimization On page Off Page methods .
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kishoreseo 10 years ago

Just don't think only about content, anchor links, back links etc. Now a days Google is thinking smarter than ever, it is looking for user friendly websites, some thing like mobile friendly, site navigation etc...So concentrate more on this too. Though if you done perfect SEO, it won't enough, you website should be user friendly as well.
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- StephenFord 10 years ago
  
  Create high PR backlinks for website. Care of quality contents while posting.
  
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CRIMSON ASH 10 years ago

Is anyone else having trouble ranking new sites?
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serpyre 10 years ago

Look, it is really simple how it all works. Google run at 2,000% efficiency, small business <200% - there are two types of seo business and technical. Most use business - corporates use tech - have come across a few that know the 200-500% range, a couple at 500-800% and one at 800%+.

At small business they don't understand that the more you 'change' from base the worse your efficiency becomes as they are fighting to get above 200%. So a startup is up the creek and an established business is running on 'good will' - but there is only so long you can fight 2,000% with 200% before you have to capitulate which will drive them down to niche which corporates are pretty useless at.

So there are ways depending on experience, the higher efficiency you work at the more you can stabilise an environment, Amazon are 1,100%, Asos 1,600% - but in a business commerce revenue stream SEO is only 2% of revenue and PPC 1.5%. If you're running at 100% effiency then it's going to take you 19wks from baseline rank and index your site - most are lucky to hit 100%. We came across someone with business seo on LinkedIn - they could rank in a couple of weeks - we use tech seo from third party consultants who can do the same.

There are no right answers - it's all grey, but the lower the efficiency, less established the business, more mistakes you make, more time you play with seo and ppc analysis, the less chance you have to rank. Otherwise you are presuming you are smarter and more efficient than Google - and they will punish you - sooner or later! Then to top it off you have the corporates at 1,000% efficiency squeezing in to the small business markets making it a double hit!
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jvoutreach

10 years ago

1. High quality, long form content (most of my articles are +1k words with a 2 - 4% KW density)
2. Low level distribution/link building (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Linkedin and Reddit sharing only)
3. Automated sitemap submitted every other day

I don't use anchor text or anything, I just make the title an H1 and the sub-title/small summary an H2 with sub-titles in the article H3.

Rank wise I couldnt care less but in terms of traffic generated it got me from 0 to +9k/month Google search traffic in 3 months. Some may consider that slow progress but I am happy with it because it means I never have to adjust my strategy and it's scalable to other people.

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jodiesmitham

10 years ago

Originally Posted by jvoutreach

2. Low level distribution/link building (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Linkedin and Reddit sharing only)

I didn't think Facebook or Twitter made any difference to ranking...at least that's what I've experienced anyway. I have decent Facebook pages which have helped brand awareness, but made no difference to ranking those keywords.

Serpyre, I really like your post and I wish I could understand more of what you're saying. You mention efficiency, but I'm not sure what that has to do with ranking? Do you mean PPC efficiency?

"At small business they don't understand that the more you 'change' from base the worse your efficiency becomes as they are fighting to get above 200%."

Can you explain what this means as I don't understand. Thanks.

Thanks
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serpyre

10 years ago

Originally Posted by jodiesmitham

Serpyre, I really like your post and I wish I could understand more of what you're saying. You mention efficiency, but I'm not sure what that has to do with ranking? Do you mean PPC efficiency?

"At small business they don't understand that the more you 'change' from base the worse your efficiency becomes as they are fighting to get above 200%."

Can you explain what this means as I don't understand. Thanks.

Sure, it is actually to do with automation efficiency - now for reference you cannot extrapolate upwards - it doesn't work - almost everyone tries and they lose the point completely along the way. This information is compressed down various levels - starting at consultants working on $millions projects to what we are providing to you - a funnel if you wish.

So Amazon have an 1,100% automation efficiency, it basically means 1 employee at Amazon can do the same as 11 employees in a small business with limited automation efficiency. Small business run at a maximum of 200% due to the limits of technology available, service providers experience, and so on.

The ranking part is very simple, if you have 500-1,000% automation efficiency (which is what we can rank at) - then Google will think you are a $10s million company as they run at 2,000%. How they code that in - no idea - but we have seen it on a couple of sites with the same hosting architecture and it just works that way. Recently Google have been starting to flex their efficiency levels – which is why small business are coming under serious pressure, you can only fight 2,000% with 200% for so long before you capitulate.

When you install a platform the first thing people want to do is change it - bad idea. A tested platform will have an automation efficiency level, WordPress ~50%, Magento CE 200%, Channel Advisor 300-500%, SAP used in Fortune companies 1,000%. For every change you make you will be reducing the automation efficiency trying to gain an edge or to implement a business process you need automated - in almost all cases at a small business level the loss of efficiency will outweigh the gain in functionality. At corporate levels as they are running at 700-1,000% it is the reverse.

In general small business make the most changes - big business the least - so most small business sites will hover around zero automation efficiency. When Amazon or Google come knocking with 1,100% and 2,000% automation efficiency - there is no-where to go except the one area they are not good at - one to one customer service aka niche markets - the problem here is that niche is not scalable. So the key is to install the software and do the absolute minimum possible in changes - this is directly in conflict with a service providers goals - chargeable time.

On that basis the simplest and most efficient approach is to use standard metrics, go-live and adjust from there as it is just quick – the opposite of service providers approach. So standard marketing budgets are 8% of revenue, Amazon are 4% (scale and 30% gross profit margins) – you can use the breakdown below for marketing channels regarding effort & costs. IT budget should run at 5% of revenue for a small business, consulting 30% of IT budget, platform 10-20% of IT budget, hosting 20% of IT budget - so ppc is 19% of 8% marketing making 1.52% of revenue for both provider and click costs - same approach for seo.

https://www.custora.com/pulse/channel
http://blog.custora.com/custora-cont...apshotQ213.pdf

Here is the crunch to the whole thing, if you take a baseline of 200% for small business, a service provider implements a site but it reduces efficiency to 100%, they will by default gain that 100% in chargeable time - so they charge for 300% efficiency and the retailer runs at 100% - putting them out of business. It is the same principle for PPC or SEO - they charge 5% of revenue so 340% increase over baseline but we can tell you that retailers will not see a 340% increase in sales.

This is why all the service providers are becoming incredibly aggressive - the overcharging is no longer working and the retailers are rapidly dropping away making it a double hit. When we used to do service provider work we always charged on win:win 1:1 basis – we have since moved in to the 500%+ efficiency area due to the technology we have access to. You can take a look at this for an example of a small business eco-system imploding - https://twitter.com/Serpyre/status/522391189740609536.

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yukon Banned 10 years ago

What are your ranking methods these days?

Silo + links from relevant domain/pages. That's the long term basics.
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neharani 10 years ago

use all activity like bookmarking,blog post and commenting,article posting.
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manojbhai424 10 years ago

i am generally do the social bookmarking , directory submission ,blog submission, classified submission , infographic submission , and many other activity .
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Masondavis 10 years ago

Please you will start on these strategies covered with Search Engine Optimization On page Off Page methods.
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serpyre 10 years ago

Try this, it's simpler to understand regarding Google at 2,000% and small business at <200% - https://twitter.com/Serpyre/status/523009227598856192.
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avowzone Banned 10 years ago

Quality content, authority backlink, proper on page SEO, and right keyword can ranked you first in Google.

8 Best Ways to Rank My Keywords in Google
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What are your ranking methods these days?

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