Backlink strategizing question

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  • SEO
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I am trying to do some back link strategizing. I am not sure I really understand that much about it. So I hope that someone can help with a little feedback.

If I build a site and want to drive it to #1 in the SERPs, I assume that the key words that it will reflect in are the ones that I put in the META "keywords" section, or am I mistaken?

How many key words should I use? Is there a point where I can have too many key words?

I am assuming that if I want to have some articles to drive traffic, I would need a different account with each forum or blog or what ever that I would post links to for each article. Is this correct, or is there a better way of doing it?

If I am looking at this wrong, please let me know. I appreciate your feedback.
#backlink #question #strategizing
  • Profile picture of the author BeauPenaranda
    Originally Posted by timpears View Post

    I am trying to do some back link strategizing. I am not sure I really understand that much about it. So I hope that someone can help with a little feedback.

    If I build a site and want to drive it to #1 in the SERPs, I assume that the key words that it will reflect in are the ones that I put in the META "keywords" section, or am I mistaken?

    How many key words should I use? Is there a point where I can have too many key words?

    I am assuming that if I want to have some articles to drive traffic, I would need a different account with each forum or blog or what ever that I would post links to for each article. Is this correct, or is there a better way of doing it?

    If I am looking at this wrong, please let me know. I appreciate your feedback.
    Tim,

    Here's the way I do it.

    Your meta data is on-site optimization. I normally place only the 5 best keyword phrases in my meta keywords. Many people suggest that it can be construed as spam if there is too much. I always use 5 and it's done well for me.

    As far as backlinks to your site, I usually go to high ranking or well established sites like EzineArticles or article directories and write an article and then linking the keyword phrase back to your website. Linking the keyword phrase back to your website is called an anchor text.

    So if your site is about golfing, and one of the keyword phrases that you researched with low competition is "left hand golfing techniques" , you would link this phrase in your article resource box back to your website.

    I also use craigslist and usfreeads to do this, but I use the keyword phrase in the title on classified ads. In fact your title that you write for your articles also should have the keyword phrase which you are trying to focus on.
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  • Profile picture of the author timpears
    You, like almost everyone, talk about low competition. This always bugs me for the following reason. The competition is usually where the business is, that is why it is competitive. So why not work for the highly searched key words, but do enough work to get your site ranked? I know this may not be easy, but given enough back links, why can't I compete with just about anyone for any niche that I want to go after?

    Is this naive thinking?

    Doess placing multiple posts on a high ranking forum or blog, help more than just posting one time? I would think that if you post multiple times to a PR5 or higher, that must get you more juice than if you post just one time. Yes, no, maybe?
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    Tim Pears

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    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
      Originally Posted by timpears View Post

      You, like almost everyone, talk about low competition. This always bugs me for the following reason. The competition is usually where the business is, that is why it is competitive. So why not work for the highly searched key words, but do enough work to get your site ranked? I know this may not be easy, but given enough back links, why can't I compete with just about anyone for any niche that I want to go after?
      Tim, here's my take on it...

      Yes, a lot of the business is in the highly competitive keywords. That's the main reason they are competitive. Depending on who is doing the competing, you may indeed be able to overtake them eventually. It may take several months to see any appreciable results. Do you have that kind of patience?

      On the other hand, those competitive keywords are made up of the main search and the long tail, especially if you are looking at broad matches. Most of these have much less competition because they, individually, draw less traffic. Why not pick off some of this low-hanging fruit while you assault the main terms?

      Let's say you want to take on "vacation condos". You build a site with the home page focused on "vacation condo" and "vacation condos".

      You build second tier pages for terms like "Orlando vacation condos" and "Aspen vacation condos", and link them back to the home page. In the process, you start building internal link reputation for "vacation condos" for the home page.

      Now you start building third tier pages for phrases like "Orlando vacation condos for rent" and "Orlando vacation condos for sale" and link those to your tier 2 pages.

      Now you start building backlinks to your tier 3 pages from authority sites, article directories and such. Any link juice is passed to the tier 3 pages, which focus it back to the tier 2 pages, which in turn pass it up to the home page.

      Layer on building links to your tier 2 pages, which will pass the link juice up to the home page.

      Build some of the links directly to the home page and collect what juice is available.

      Now you can pass this concentrated link juice back down to your tier 2 pages, which will pass it down to the tier 3 pages, and around and around you go...

      You can also funnel some of that traffic to your money pages, whether they're on your "vacation condos" site or another site you control.

      Make sense?
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  • Profile picture of the author timpears
    Thanks Mike. That makes a lot of sense to me. I think I am starting to make a little progress in understanding this, thanks to you, and Beau and my conversations with Angela.
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    Tim Pears

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    • Profile picture of the author Zeus66
      I think the simplest way to grasp this from a high competition vs. low competition keyword perspective is to understand your own level of stick-to-it-iveness and patience. If you don't mind little or no return on your time investment (getting backlinks) for months, maybe even a year or more, go for the high competition phrases. Just be sure they're worth it. By that I mean 3 things:

      1). Does that phrase get a high number of searches at the search engines every month?
      2). Is the phrase actually a "money" keyword for you specific site? Or will it merely attract tire kickers and do you no good in the end?
      3). If you use AdSense or a similar pay-per-click network to monetize your site, do the clicks pay enough to justify all the hours you're going to put into backlinking?

      If you can honestly answer "yes" to all three, go for it. I, for one, am way too ADD to stick to this kind of strategy. Gimme the low-hanging fruit every time. To each his own.

      John
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    • Profile picture of the author Craig McPherson
      Tim,

      I do some basic SEO and it works a treat for me.
      1. I put the keyword phrase in the <title>KEYWORD-PHRASE</title> tags.
      2. I put the keyword phrase in the <keyword>KEYWORD-PHRASE</keyword> tags.
      3.. I put the keyword phrase in the <description>KEYWORD-PHRASE</description> tags along with a call to action. For example:

      <description>Orlando Condo | Click here to find out why an Orlando Condo is so cheap this time of year</description>

      Google oftentimes takes the description and displays it in the search results if relevant.

      Of course any on page SEO will mean squat if you do not have backlinks. This is vital.
      To back this up, do a google for the word "something" (without quotes), and click on the #1 result. His SEO is a joke but if you put the domain into yahoo explorer, the site has just under 55,000 backlinks.
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  • Profile picture of the author timpears
    It seems so funny, as after you guys explain it, it all seems so simple. I understand what you have all said in this thread, and now I see why my thinking was naive. I have never been known for my patients, otherwise I would have been a doctor.

    Just have to decide which product to start with, and I think I am ready to go. We will see what happens, but I am pretty sure that I have enough information now to be able to make this work. I am so glad I found this forum, or I would never have even got to this point. Thank you everyone. But don't think that I am not open to any more feedback, so if anyone has more to add, please post away.
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    Tim Pears

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  • Profile picture of the author eshannon
    Dude - you need to get the stompernet "Stomping The Search Engines 2.0" when it comes out again in a few weeks. You need a total seo education, forget the warrior forum for this. Bits and pieces from various people (some who know what they're talking about, others that don't) isn't what you want to be doing as a beginner.
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    Eric Shannon

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    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
      Originally Posted by eshannon View Post

      Dude - you need to get the stompernet "Stomping The Search Engines 2.0" when it comes out again in a few weeks. You need a total seo education, forget the warrior forum for this. Bits and pieces from various people (some who know what they're talking about, others that don't) isn't what you want to be doing as a beginner.
      I gave you a decent example, but I have to second Eric's suggestion. Get STSE2 when it comes available again. You won't regret it.
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