How do you know what keyword you are ranking for?

by inneraction

Posted: 14 years ago 9 replies

Hello,

So I have had an information/review site up for weight loss products for the last 5-6 weeks. Several times a week I submit new posts to the blogsite and new review content. I social bookmark and do article marketing for backlinks, as well as use feeder sites with spun articles all linking back to my main money site.

I have picked a specific keyword phrase which is in my domain name, title tags, and anchor text most of my back links also use this keyword phrase as anchor tetxt although I mix it up a bit with other related keywords.

So my questions are as follows:

1) In Google Webmaster, it shows the keywords related to my site, but they are all one word keywords. My main keyword phrase, along with others are not listed. Why? Or am I not looking in the right spot?

How does one figure out what keywords a site is ranking for?

2) Google webmaster only shows 4 incoming links while in Market Samurai Yahoo shows close to 40. I have submitted my RSS feeds for all my sites and articles where possible, bookmarked these as well and obviously have backlinks in all my articles, many of which are in the bigger article directories (ezine,goarticles,amazines,article alley etc) Why is google not picking up on these, especially the ezine articles which are indexed and up for 6 weeks already? They are all do follow according to the firefox addon I have.

I refuse to quit but will admit I find getting traffic frustrating esecially given that I am following the advice of many wise people here. I definately won't stop until I succeed but would love to see better results.

Thanks in advance,

Roy

#keyword #ranking

joeyjamz 14 years ago

Hey Roy,

I know that is frustrating. I have never done much PPC, so every website Ive ever built I just did SEO and had to wait months to get to the first page of Google.

There are a few ways you can find out what keywords a site is ranking for. The only problem is, since your site is pretty new, you might not get accurate results for a while.

I would use SEMrush. It's a really commonly used tool and you can open a free account. Also, if you want, there are tons of "add-on's" that you can get for your browser that'll tell you all types of information about any site. I use SEOquake Just take some time to figure out how to use it and you'll be able to find out lots of good info on sites.

As far as the back links, I experience that all the time. First of all, Google is the worst place to get an inquiry about backlinks. Most backlink checker tools go by what Yahoo says, because they are way more accurate. Google cant be the best at everything I suppose.

But the reason I think you are seeing such a low numbner of backlinks listed is the same reason as your last problem. Its a young site. I know, weeks go by and it seems like "how the hell are these not found yet", but a lot of times they are found, but they just aren't documented yet by these tools.

Dont worry much about it, just keep doing your thing. In my experience with niche sites, I will build links for like almost 2 months with barely any progress in rankings, and just as Im losing interest in the site, BOOM it shoots up like 10 spots. So just keep pluggin away. If you are offering quality, relevant information, your site will be rewarded
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~kev~ 14 years ago

How do you know what keyword you are ranking for?

Your google webmaster tools will show you what search results your site is showing up in.

It will also tell you the most popular words associated with with site.
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digitalproductreporter 14 years ago

type your keyword into google and hit search

check your stats, they tell you why people come to your site

google webmaster tells you your top keywords

don't get discouraged, getting traffic is one of the hardest things to do, keep going
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- inneraction 14 years ago
  
  Thanks very much for the replies everyone.
  
  I went back into Google Webmaster and noticed keywords and a seperate section called search query indicating what search terms my site comes up for. I am in position 170 for my main keyword phrase (take away the 70 and I am in position 1
  
  Wouldn't the keyword phrases under the search query section be the keywords google believes I am ranking for as the keywords in the keyword section of webmaster are only 1 word each while the search queries are showing the keyword phrases I am trying to compete for and seem way more accurate?
  
  Also, google webmaster shows only a couple links while yahoo shows 45. I just added the sitemap.xml properly today- will this make any difference in this regard?
  
  Frankly I am not going to worry about this as I am sure that google as they have said are not showing all links for whatever reason. As long as yahoo sees them I am sure that google does too. And one of my ezine articles is finally showing up as a backlink so I guess it just takes time.
  
  Any tips on how to move up past 170? I guess just keep doing what I'm doing- building content and backlinks.
  
  Thanks
  
  1 reply
  
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  Crew Chief 14 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by inneraction
  
  Any tips on how to move up past 170? I guess just keep doing what I'm doing- building content and backlinks.
  
  Roy,
  
  If you are just starting off in IM, some of the worse possible niches you can get into are:
  
  Weight loss
  
  Make money online
  
  Dating
  
  Reverse phone look up
  
  Get your ex back
  
  Abs
  
  Mortgage
  
  Get out of debt
  
  Credit
  
  Mesothelioma
  
  There are others but you have to understand this if you are just starting out. Some niches and markets are going to have impossible levels of competition for a noobie. In certain weight loss keyword phrases and products, unless you are utilizing BLB, BIE, BMD, AAS, UAW, LV, SEONuke, BruteForceSeo, Xrumer, Scrapebox, and/or Ubot, you could be doing what you're doing for the next seven months and get absolutely nowhere!
  
  If you started off in weight loss, if I were you, I'd rethink my thinking and find a niche(s) you can get into and actually make some headway and generate some income NOW!
  
  Get your skills honed.
  
  Learn the ins and outs of Keyword Research; On Page SEO and Off Page SEO and most importantly learn which tools you are going to need to compete with the big dawgs.
  
  Get those tools and master them and become one of the big dawgs!
  
  Giles, the Crew Chief
  
  Thanks
  
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adraineva 14 years ago

The list could go on and on but the first step is to do as thorough a job you can in the research department of keywords. From there, you control your classification.

1) Start looking for keywords. The more we can deepen the market, the more data you have, besides the lucky will determine what Google might rank your pages ....
2) Choose a primary keyword.
3) Wait a couple of weeks.
4) Take all the keywords you collected manually and determine whether any of the keywords are ranking or automate the process with the software.
5) Generate a list of things that each page is for classification, including your primary keyword.
6) Repeat for each page you create.
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AndyBlackSEO 14 years ago

Just add analytics to your site then check after a few days. Any terms that are not showing in your Traffic >> Keyword Phrases are not greatly important to you. The ones that are important are the ones shown, especially if you are not ranked in the top 3.

Andy
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webcreationuk 14 years ago

Why don't you use RankTracker or any other free tool for checking your rankings on all keywords?
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brettb 14 years ago

Use Google Analytics. If 60% of your search referals to a page are for one or a few very similar terms then you're ranking well for a specific phrase.

If all you see is long tail searches then your page has failed to rank for a specific phrase. You'll still get traffic, but not as much as if you targetted a specific phrase.
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