Is SEO a Hoax?

my first question would be whats sort of competition analysis have you done. Whats the competition like for their keywords compared to the competition of yours ?

looking at the site, ya it is kind of crap with nothing going on, but if it's in a niche with a load of other crap sites with very little in terms of on page seo or backlinks, then it would not take them much to rank either.

What exactly is their main keyword ?

When you say your site has zero rank are you talking about their page rank because that really does not mean much in the short term of ranking a site. if your competing sites are PR 4 or 5 or more then ya, it can be difficult sometimes. However if they are like pr 3 or 2 then i never have any trouble ranking with a new website with PR0 or none.

I think.. and this is just my guess, but I think key to your little problem is the keyword you are targeting. The question about backlinks comes into it as well

The other site you mentioned that has #1 rankings... How competitive are their keywords?

I could rank for "A mysterious purple asteroid hits Venice Beach on Thursday" if I really wanted to, but I don't think anyone is searching for that.

A few other things.

On-page optimization means almost nothing. Title tags, URL, and H1 tags are about the only thing that are important.

PR also means almost nothing. I have sites with a PR of 0 that have top rankings ahead of PR 3's, 4's, and 5's. Don't focus on it. Focus only on your ranking. PR does not bring you traffic. A zero rank does not mean your site is invisible.

Where does your site actually rank in Google? Page 2? Page 7? Where is it?

Thanks for the reply,

as is said, I followed the exact formula that was suggested by the WSO and I havealso made sure that there's no sudden flood of suspicious looking back-links so this is definitely not the problem.

regards,
stephen strydom

Thanks for the reply!

I am 100% sure the WSO is not a hoax - I have full confidence in the creator of the WSO and the methods he teaches. What concerns me is that despite doing everything right (and after more than 5 weeks!) my rank is still 0/10 so I am not sure if its Google taking their time or if or what I should be doing about the situation.
Thanks again,
stephen strydom

Thanks for the reply!

I have checked & my back-links are definitely indexed by Google so I really give up

Thanks again,
stephen strydom

Hi mate


I'm a professional SEO monkey for a web design agency as a day job, (Not going to name names in case a Google desk jockey is reading, but if you search 'Web Designers' we're usually in the top 10 depending on where your searching from, so the guy who taught me SEO knows what he's doing) so I really hope SEO is not a hoax. I like my job. I'd like to keep it. And not be homeless.

Just on account of being a web agency, we get backlinks from every one of our clients, and we've been going for decades, so when we link out to our SEO clients, it means something. We've got a whole network of sites from bankrupted clients and the like which, although not as powerful, also have a lot of value.

What I'm getting at is, we have some quality resources you can't buy, and a lot of experience as to what works and what doesn't.

And, with all that, I still wouldn't expect to see results for even a mildly competitive keyword for the first 3 months at least. There's too many parts of the algorithm (such as clickstream data, for example) that it just doesn't have in those first few months to trust the content. If a site gets a large amount of backlinks from a range of sources, it may rank temporarily (Goog will think something newsworthy has occurred and give you a boost) but it'll pretty quickly vanish again.

Um, wha? Where the hell did that quarterly rankings idea come from? Actually, I've got an idea, but its wrong. Whoever your talking to isn't an 'expert' if they're saying this. I hate to say it mate but it sounds like you've been given some terrible advice.

I had a look at it.

a) Wordpress.com is a very strong domain. Domain quality is nearly, if not as important as individual pagerank. Wordpress is big enough that it probably has its own algorithmic exceptions, and depending on the content, being on wordpress might help more than hinder - especially information-type resources like an e-learning centre.

b) Yes it does. In fact, from a code point of view, I can't find any fault with the site, besides being hideous and hurting my eyes.

c) There aren't any tools that can give more than a 3-4 month old snapshot of backlinks. Webmaster Tools and backlink checker lies and, last I heard, Yahoo Site Explorer was being turned off following their merger with Bing for search. The SEOMoz toolbar is my usual tool for this. That said, I think your right-ish when saying there's no offsite link building. Except you forget, by being on Wordpress, they're in their directory. In all honesty, if they're beating you for a keyword based on that alone, there's probably no traffic in it. Have you done any traffic analysis? Are you sure there's something worth monitising if your plan works?

d) Yup. But what it does have has been there a while and is 'settled'. Google distrusts new content - it knows they can't spider sites more than a few times a month in most instances. There would be nothing to stop a black-hatter ranking for a keyword and then replacing all their content with Viagra sales copy in between spidering otherwise.

I'm working at the moment on a whole video course in SEO, on how we actual day-job professionals do it, that I'll point you guys towards once its up (I'm doing it out the goodness of my heart. Well. My affiliate accounts. But that will get converted into wine and chocolate, which is kinda good for my heart. Apparently). In the meantime, a few tips.

• You mentioned Black Hat link buying. Don't buy links until you've tried every white-hat trick. I don't do blackhat at work. For personal projects, often I don't need to (as others have said, Google PR is one itty bitty part of your rankings). Whitehat link building, link baiting, if you identify key directories and the like, often generates traffic off its own backs as well as link juice. Your 'trust' with Google will be improved if you've done a lot of whitehat, and you'll get away with a bit more spam should you need that extra kick over the competitors.
• Set up social networking strategies. I've got one client who, while I'd love to claim credit for their success (And the accounts department do claim credit, for the record) are actually punching way above their weight as far as rankings go. It's down to their social marketing. Google loves the twitter at the moment.
• Keep updating your content. New content will take a while to rank, true, but similarly Google dislikes abandoned domains and content.
• If you are going to black-hat it, link anchor text is Goog's weakness-of-the-month. Just don't expect any project built around black hat link building to be anything more than a slash-and-burn, rank-getpaid-drop type money spinner.
• Be patient. As a marketing method, SEO offers probably the best cost/buyer ratio out of anything online, but certainly ain't the quickest or most reliable. What's the profit/visitor? Is it high enough to support other marketing methods in the meantime?

Hope this helps
Hope this helps.

You have basically given no information so no one can help you.

5 weeks isn't a long time by any stretch of the mind in SEO.

The last personal site i did some SEO/Link building for was showing no results for 2 months and i randomly checked it the other day, now its in position 7.

Just be patient.

Also comparing different keywords are useless, clearly you are newbie and just want to see results, Google generally takes a bit of time.

Do you even know if your links are indexed?

What kind of links did you use? Blog commenting, profile links, articles?