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WARRIOR CASE STUDY: #116 to Top 10 in 37 Days Step-by-Step

by Scott Rankin
23 replies
  • SEO
    • |
I was approached by a fellow Warrior exactly 37 days ago (who also turned me to this forum recently) and they wanted some SEO done for their website. They wanted to rank for: baby gift ideas

Now for the sake of privacy I won't name their website because that's completely confidential but they have allowed me to document their rankings on this keyword.

When I was approached, they were dancing around #116 and just today they broke into the top 10, here's how I did it...

1) Adjusted the title tag, description tag, and content to include the keyword early and often. Nothing scientific about keyword density, just natural all the way.

2) Created a Link Juicer campaign which sends 10 links per day and so far has done nearly 350 links from web 2.0 sites.

3) Wrote 5 articles and submitted them to only EzineArticles. They got picked up by nearly a dozen decent sites with a link back.

4) Build a classic link wheel of 12 properties with unique content all interlinked smoothly.

5) Contacted the top bloggers in the niche and secured 6 really high quality backlinks from a few authority sites.

6) Outsourced 250 profile links from high PR sites. Then bookmarked, pinged, and blog commented towards all 250 pages.

7) Outsourced 50 do-follow blog comments on theme related blogs.

8) Submitted a press release on PRWeb ($140) which also got picked up a handful of times and scored some real quality links.

All of this work was done over a period of 30 days and about a week after the website broke into the top 10 of Google. It still doesn't rank in Yahoo or Bing, but we were going after Google so that's good.

Some more details:

Keyword: baby gift ideas

Broad Competition: 42.7MM

Exact Competition: 111k

The website already had some good link building done, was aged, and had been managed very well. They just couldn't crack the top 10 for this keyword, but were doing fairly well for some long tail keywords.

It goes to show SEO comes down to 90% link building and 10% on-page basics. Just spreading the keyword early and often followed up with both quality and quantity links does magic.

I'm open to answer any questions
##116 #case #days #stepbystep #study #top #warrior
  • Profile picture of the author Mike Anthony
    Originally Posted by Scott Rankin View Post

    I

    5) Contacted the top bloggers in the niche and secured 6 really high quality backlinks from a few authority sites.
    Very nice old school SEO effort Scott. We don't discuss some of those mainline techniques as much as we should. Its not an automatic click and get link strategy but extremely effective. Kudos.
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    • Profile picture of the author Scott Rankin
      Originally Posted by Mike Anthony View Post

      Very nice old school SEO effort Scott. We don't discuss some of those mainline techniques as much as we should. Its not an automatic click and get link strategy but extremely effective. Kudos.
      This kind of strategy isn't really discussed much in SEO forums Mike. Some of the pros such as Dan Thies to name one really specialize in doing just this and owning the SERPs.

      It's very effective but also time consuming therefor not as attractive as those one click solutions. You need a variety of links and stuff like these really does magic for you in terms of boosting rankings.
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      • Profile picture of the author Mike Anthony
        Originally Posted by Scott Rankin View Post

        This kind of strategy isn't really discussed much in SEO forums Mike.
        Agreed although it is discussed a bit on Seochat if you want to check that out. I do notice a different flavor in the IM make money online SEO niche than mainline SEO. Its good you put in that effort. Again nice job.
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        • Profile picture of the author Scott Rankin
          Originally Posted by Mike Anthony View Post

          Agreed although it is discussed a bit on Seochat if you want to check that out. I do notice a different flavor in the IM make money online SEO niche than mainline SEO. Its good you put in that effort. Again nice job.
          Thanks Mike, I'll check that site out asap.
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  • Profile picture of the author rogerbauer
    Scott,
    Great job ... this demonstrates how important it is to be persistent and consistent. The fact that they were "dancing around #116" for a long time and have just now cracked the top 10 thanks to your efforts shows how much work is really involved to improve rankings.

    Quality long-term SEO is not super easy like a lot of people would like to lead us to believe.
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    • Profile picture of the author Scott Rankin
      Originally Posted by rogerbauer View Post

      Scott,
      Great job ... this demonstrates how important it is to be persistent and consistent. The fact that they were "dancing around #116" for a long time and have just now cracked the top 10 thanks to your efforts shows how much work is really involved to improve rankings.

      Quality long-term SEO is not super easy like a lot of people would like to lead us to believe.
      I agree with you completely.

      Most people stop building links after seeing no results and within months they throw in the towel.

      You have to keep pushing links for so many reasons and be consistent in your efforts to achieve any real quality traffic via SEO.
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      • Profile picture of the author DJorge
        Hey There,

        May I suggest something else.
        It's a one time work, lasts forever and is as important as all above.
        I mean reciprocal internal linking. This boost the home page PR instantly.

        What do you think about ?
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        • Profile picture of the author Scott Rankin
          Originally Posted by DJorge View Post

          Hey There,

          May I suggest something else.
          It's a one time work, lasts forever and is as important as all above.
          I mean reciprocal internal linking. This boost the home page PR instantly.

          What do you think about ?
          Internal linking is very powerful if done right. If done wrong you can sink away PR flow to the wrong pages and shoot yourself in the foot.

          Every website is different and you have to look at the site structure and keyword focus before doing internal linking strategy.

          This particular site had a great structure in place and didn't need any adjustments from me, all it needed was slight keyword adjustments on page and more links.
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          • Profile picture of the author jenniferlcarter
            Originally Posted by Scott Rankin View Post

            Internal linking is very powerful if done right. If done wrong you can sink away PR flow to the wrong pages and shoot yourself in the foot.

            Every website is different and you have to look at the site structure and keyword focus before doing internal linking strategy.

            This particular site had a great structure in place and didn't need any adjustments from me, all it needed was slight keyword adjustments on page and more links.

            Scott,
            wondering if you are available to help out other warriors with their websites? Jen
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            • Profile picture of the author Scott Rankin
              Originally Posted by jenniferlcarter View Post

              Scott,
              wondering if you are available to help out other warriors with their websites? Jen
              Hey Jennifer,

              Shoot me a private message with some details and I'd be happy to take a look. I'm a bit busy with my private clients so it depends on what you are looking for, but I can take a look if you send over your website and keyword details.

              Thanks,
              Scott Rankin
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  • Profile picture of the author simmonsmike7
    interesting case study so if i use this system you outlined my keywords will also jump like to page one?
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    • Profile picture of the author Scott Rankin
      Originally Posted by simmonsmike7 View Post

      interesting case study so if i use this system you outlined my keywords will also jump like to page one?
      It depends on the keyword, the website, and the SEO work been done so far. The steps outlined above while help your rankings but I can't guarantee you'll be on page one by any means.

      Let me give you a quick example. Try the method above for a keyword like 'buy pool supplies online' and you'll see massive jumps. Now, try it for the keyword 'poker' and there's no chance you'll be on page one by only using these methods.

      So to answer your question, it really depends on a lot of factors but doing this kind of quality link building will always help and improve rankings.
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      • Profile picture of the author Dan B Rusu
        Scott, Very impressive results, nice work. Few questions I'm curious about, How much time would you estimate you spent all together on this seo. What were the costs all together. Are you doing anything long term to build steady links and keep their strong ranking?
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        • Profile picture of the author Scott Rankin
          Originally Posted by Daniel7rusu View Post

          Scott, Very impressive results, nice work. Few questions I'm curious about, How much time would you estimate you spent all together on this seo. What were the costs all together. Are you doing anything long term to build steady links and keep their strong ranking?
          Originally Posted by Daniel7rusu View Post

          Also, what is your opinion on link juicer. I've been wanting to try it for some time now
          I was hired for 30 days for this particular project and I felt it was enough time to make first page rankings happen. The cost were under $500 because a lot of work was outsourced by some of my contacts. I could have done it all myself for much cheaper, but I have other clients that need my attention.

          We have a link juicer account in place for steady links and also 50 monthly authority style links plus 20 blog postings per month. It should be enough, in my opinion. Link Juicer is great but they have a limited amount of websites you'll get links from. They need more IP diversity but it's still worth the $47 for all the automation.
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  • Profile picture of the author UnDenIeD
    Very nice results. You pretty much did everything right so yeah, rankings do happen when you put in the work.

    I would be interested in knowing how much would you estimate the costs of this. Did you do it yourself or used an outsource company? Also tell us the magic number. How many backlinks did the site gather from your work?
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    • Profile picture of the author Scott Rankin
      Originally Posted by UnDenIeD View Post

      Very nice results. You pretty much did everything right so yeah, rankings do happen when you put in the work.

      I would be interested in knowing how much would you estimate the costs of this. Did you do it yourself or used an outsource company? Also tell us the magic number. How many backlinks did the site gather from your work?
      The cost for all the work was under $500 but I don't have an exact number to give you as I outsourced to various contacts I've made. Yes, I used a few outsourcing companies but they aren't very public, they are personal contacts of mine in the SEO world that do labor intensive work. I scored just a handful of real powerful quality links and then a few hundred pretty decent links.
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      • Profile picture of the author DPM70
        Nice work Scott - talk about taking action . If you don't mind me asking, how old was the domain name - and would you get the same results for, say, a 3-4 month old site?
        Also, how much further work would be required to maintain that position? If left alone now for a while would you expect the site to drop in the rankings again? Would you need continuous work of this kind to maintain a top 10 position?
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        I don't build in order to have clients. I have clients in order to build. - Ayn Rand
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        • Profile picture of the author Scott Rankin
          Originally Posted by DPM70 View Post

          Nice work Scott - talk about taking action . If you don't mind me asking, how old was the domain name - and would you get the same results for, say, a 3-4 month old site?
          Also, how much further work would be required to maintain that position? If left alone now for a while would you expect the site to drop in the rankings again? Would you need continuous work of this kind to maintain a top 10 position?
          The domain name was aged but I can't reveal how much because it would hint at which website I was working for. I'm convinced that domain age is a factor and you can achieve results for a 3-4 month old site but you'll need to push harder because Google trust older sites all things being equal.

          You can find a leverage point in the competitors weakness and use that to your advantage. Domain age, backlinks, on-page factors, etc - you just have to look hard at where they lack and beat them at that. There's always a way unless you're trying to rank for single keywords that get millions of searches.

          We have it setup so the site will automatically get 300 links per month (Link Juicer), 50 authority style links (Profile Packets), and 20 blog posts (Free Blogs) so the rankings should sustain for months to come if they keep doing everything I suggested.
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      • Profile picture of the author Liam Hamer
        Fantastic work, well done In my experience, this is what it's all about - quality content, varied links and lots of them
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        • Profile picture of the author Scott Rankin
          Originally Posted by Liam Hamer View Post

          Fantastic work, well done In my experience, this is what it's all about - quality content, varied links and lots of them
          Exactly on point, you've summarized what SEO really comes down to. Everything else is noise but if you get good content with varied quality links to it you should be on track to first page rankings.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dan B Rusu
    Also, what is your opinion on link juicer. I've been wanting to try it for some time now
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  • Profile picture of the author Matt Lee
    Nice work man!

    That's a bunch of competition. Way to work it out!
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    "One of the Most Successful Offline WSO's Ever!
    Get More High $$$ Clients with this Small Business Marketing PLR Magazine
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  • Profile picture of the author Tom Goodwin
    Absolutely great job on the link diversity Scott.

    Tom

    Originally Posted by Scott Rankin View Post

    I was approached by a fellow Warrior exactly 37 days ago (who also turned me to this forum recently) and they wanted some SEO done for their website. They wanted to rank for: baby gift ideas

    Now for the sake of privacy I won't name their website because that's completely confidential but they have allowed me to document their rankings on this keyword.

    When I was approached, they were dancing around #116 and just today they broke into the top 10, here's how I did it...

    1) Adjusted the title tag, description tag, and content to include the keyword early and often. Nothing scientific about keyword density, just natural all the way.

    2) Created a Link Juicer campaign which sends 10 links per day and so far has done nearly 350 links from web 2.0 sites.

    3) Wrote 5 articles and submitted them to only EzineArticles. They got picked up by nearly a dozen decent sites with a link back.

    4) Build a classic link wheel of 12 properties with unique content all interlinked smoothly.

    5) Contacted the top bloggers in the niche and secured 6 really high quality backlinks from a few authority sites.

    6) Outsourced 250 profile links from high PR sites. Then bookmarked, pinged, and blog commented towards all 250 pages.

    7) Outsourced 50 do-follow blog comments on theme related blogs.

    8) Submitted a press release on PRWeb ($140) which also got picked up a handful of times and scored some real quality links.

    All of this work was done over a period of 30 days and about a week after the website broke into the top 10 of Google. It still doesn't rank in Yahoo or Bing, but we were going after Google so that's good.

    Some more details:

    Keyword: baby gift ideas

    Broad Competition: 42.7MM

    Exact Competition: 111k

    The website already had some good link building done, was aged, and had been managed very well. They just couldn't crack the top 10 for this keyword, but were doing fairly well for some long tail keywords.

    It goes to show SEO comes down to 90% link building and 10% on-page basics. Just spreading the keyword early and often followed up with both quality and quantity links does magic.

    I'm open to answer any questions
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    Masters Powerlifting
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