Want To Be On Page 1? How Ranking REALLY Works...

by bfas
57 replies
  • SEO
  • |
I've spent the last hour or so browsing threads, particularly those talking about rankings, and see a lot of mis-understanding, mis-information, and bad advice.

Want to rank on Page 1? Of course, we all do. Understanding how ranking works will help you get - and stay - there. Otherwise, your options are brute force or blind luck.

What is "ranking" anyway?


Key Concept #1: Websites don't rank, only pages or URL's do.

When we talk about terms like “ranking”, “Page 1”, “SERPs” (Search Engine Results page), we have to understand one very important concept. Websites don't rank, only pages, or individual URL's do.

In many cases, it is the homepage that shows up for a search, but then it is the home page itself that is ranking, not the overall site.

Key Concept #2: "Ranking" is ONLY in relation to the search being done.

First, realize that a given page will rank in different positions for different searches. If I have a site with a page about "bee sting cures", I may have achieved a good Page 1 rank for a search on "bee sting cures", while that same page may not even be in the top 100 for a search on "bumble bees". Same page, different ranking. Where I rank depends on the search being done.

Second, understand that there are no set rankings. When you do a search, Google takes all the pages it deems appropriate for that search, orders them by relevance and 'strength', then presents the results at that time. That same search may yield different results the next day. Ranking is determined when a search is done.

It is a mis-statement to say, “My site finally reached the first page in Google.” First, it must be in relation to a search, so “My site finally reached the first page in Google for the phrase “Paralegal Training” would be more accurate.

Again, it isn't the site that has a ranking position, but a specific page. And so, my site on Paralegal Certification might have a page devoted to “Paralegal Training”, and that page might rank on Page 1 for that phrase, but it is that specific page, not the site itself.

All of this means that if we are trying to rank for a particular keyword or phrase, we have to be 'relevant' and 'strong' for that phrase. We do this by optimizing our page for the keywords we want to rank for (on-page factors), and boost our 'strength' by increasing our "Total Backlink Value" for those keywords (when we rank for keywords without specifically targeting them, it's through a combination of 'brute force' and weak/low competition, meaning the overall 'strength' of our page happens to be high enough to outrank other pages).

Key Concept #3: PageRank

First, it is misleading to think of "a PageRank 5 website". Websites don't have PageRank, pages/URL's do. While it is usually the homepage that has the highest PR, it isn't always the case. When you hear "a PageRank 5 website" this usually means a website with a PR5 homepage. The 'inner' pages of that site will almost always have lower, and even no PageRank.

Second, "PageRank" is an indicator, it doesn't "do" anything. Based mostly on IBL's (In-Bound Links), it's a relative measure of the overall 'strength' of that page. Unfortunately, for our purposes - the purpose of ranking - it is a poor measure. The main reason is that it is a 'cumulative' measure, and as such, doesn't tell us much a page's strength in relation to individual keywords or phrases. In some ways, it's like a 'rating' - we get our 'rating' by virtue of our IBL's, the 'rating' itself doesn't give us anything.

This is why we sometimes see pages with lower PR ranking above pages with higher PR - the higher-ranking page is stronger for that particular search. This is also why it's important to think of 'competition' as only those pages on Page 1 where we're trying to get.

When I look at who is occupying Page 1 for a keyword I'm trying to rank for, their PR is only a small factor in determining how hard it will be. This is because a page may have an overall high PR, but not be either well-optimized, or 'strong' for the keyword I'm targeting.

Key Concept #4: "Total Backlink Value"

There are two things that determine our ranking: the site or pages themselves (content, optimization, age, etc.), and our "Total Backlink Value". This is my own term for the number of backlinks, times the strength of each backlink.

All backlinks are not equal. The 'value' of a backlink is determined by where it is (the 'strength' of the page it appears on, the position it appears i.e. in content vs. elsewhere, etc.), age or 'freshness' of the links, the rate at which they increase ("link velocity"), and other factors. One very strong backlink can be worth more than dozens, even hundreds of 'weak' backlinks.

Anchor text - the 'clickable' text of a link - serves to 'focus' it's value. It doesn't necessarily increase the value of the backlink, but serves to focus it's strength to that specific keyword, rather than dilute it's value across the page it points to. As such, we still get value from 'bare' backlinks, but if we're trying to rank for a particular keyword, using that keyword as our anchor text boosts our 'strength' for those particular keywords. In essence, it says to Google, "this is what that page is about".

If we were able to total up the value of all our IBL's, and all other things were equal - two identical sites - the one with the highest "Total Backlink Value" will rank first, second highest will rank second, etc. Similarly, for a particular search, the one with more relevant anchor text links will rank first since it's overall strength is 'tipped' in favor of that search term.

So, how do we get onto Page 1?

First, we have to decide what we want to rank for. The 'narrower' our target, the more straightforward our strategy can be. If we're trying to rank for a lot of keywords, we're going to have to focus more effort overall.

For my own business, I'm generally looking to monetize specific search phrases, rather than a more general approach. For this type of strategy, I create one specific page for each keyword I want to rank for. This lets me focus all my ranking efforts onto a single URL, rather than diluting it across an entire site.

To do this, I optimize one page for it's target keyword phrase. I do this by optimizing the content on the page as follows:

Keyword in title
Keyword in first sentence of first paragraph
Keyword in first sentence of last paragraph
Keyword 2-3 times throughout the body

I then create 'internal' anchor text links on my homepage pointing to the target page. This helps focus incoming "backlink value" to that page, for that specific keyword.

From there, I begin a backlinking campaign, with at least half of my backlinks using that keyword as anchor text, and pointing to that page.

In order to get a Page 1 ranking, I have to displace or 'beat' someone who is already there. This is why it's so important to think of competition as those on Page 1. One of the key factors I look at are their backlinks - both how many, and how strong they are (fwiw, Yahoo usually lists backlinks with the stronger ones towards the top).

How long it takes me to reach a Page 1 position depends on the 'competition' for that keyword, but I've insured that all my efforts are 'optimized' towards pushing that targeted page up, for that specific search.

Since backlink value can degrade over time, and competitors don't stand still, once I reach my desired position, I move to a 'maintainance mode', putting a little time into continuous link building. This helps insure I keep the positions I've reached.


This is by no means meant to be an 'authoritative treatise' on ranking, but hopefully can help some of you better conceptualize the 'big picture' and wrap your arms around the whole ranking thing - and have a clearer sense of what you can do to get better rankings.

Michael
#page #ranking #works
  • Profile picture of the author Tony Dean
    Thanks for the best post on the topic of ranking. Quite right it is pages that rank.
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  • Profile picture of the author ChrisRWS
    Great post Michael, hopefully a few people will take notes
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  • Profile picture of the author dreadpiraterobby
    so when you create this specific page targeting a specific keyword is that the page you are hoping to rank or is it your homepage? I don't understand the purpose of the anchor links on your homepage
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    • Profile picture of the author Jonathan Beaton
      Originally Posted by dreadpiraterobby View Post

      so when you create this specific page targeting a specific keyword is that the page you are hoping to rank or is it your homepage? I don't understand the purpose of the anchor links on your homepage
      Internally linking is often overlooked.
      Using a link on your homepage to point to an internal page (using the proper anchor text) can be useful.

      However, just keep in mind that adding a link devalues the amount of juice flowing through the other links on the home page.

      I'll use an example:
      Let's say Google gives your homepage the page authority of 5. (it is more sophisticated than this but useful for this example) The amount of link juice each link on your page passes is (5)/(total number of links).
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    • Profile picture of the author bfas
      Originally Posted by dreadpiraterobby View Post

      so when you create this specific page targeting a specific keyword is that the page you are hoping to rank or is it your homepage? I don't understand the purpose of the anchor links on your homepage
      For the sites I build, I'm generally targeting a "keyword phrase group" - multiple keywords that are thematically or semantically related. I'll generally use the homepage as the 'target page' for my main 'seed' keyword, which I'll also use in the domain name.

      Since I want to target each page with a single keyword phrase, I want to 'sculpt' the flow of 'ranking juice' within the site. My homepage will get much of the ranking simply because it's the 'target' page for my most significant keyword, and the 'lowest common denominator' for all my backlinking. By having anchor text on the homepage, I can 'route' the incoming 'juice', while telling Google which pages are most relevant for each targeted search / keyword phrase.

      Michael
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  • Profile picture of the author aptohosting
    This post > almost everything else I have read on the topic on this forum..thank you for taking the time to post it.
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  • Profile picture of the author sylarrr
    A good post for newbies to study and non-newbies to revise. Everything said well and clear.
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  • Profile picture of the author sim22
    That's great advice there! I Knew some of that but not all,thanks!
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  • Profile picture of the author dadamson
    Good basic advise for newbies. I think a lot of people get confused with all the high-brow SEO "advice" in here. It's good to see some simple stuff for the people who want to learn SEO from the start..

    Another thing I always tell people who are scared to dive in to doing their own SEO is that you are never competing against Googles algorithms, you are only ever competing against 10 webpages (the ones on page one for your keyword).

    There are many things that help to rank a site. High quality anchor-text backlinks are what helps you rank, and these need to include variations of your keyword, Like:

    soccer tips (main KW)
    best soccer tips
    great soccer tips
    tips to playing soccer
    best way to kick a soccer ball

    You would want most of your anchor text links to say "soccer tips", but throw in some similar ones so that it looks like the links are naturally created by many people.

    By the way, anchor text backlinks are links back to your webpage from other sites. The catch is that your clickable text link should say your keywords.. make sense?

    Backlinks are measured by quality. Some measures that Google tracks are:

    -Page Rank of the page that your backlink is on (higher the PR, better the backlink)
    -Age of the page that your backlink is on
    -Age of the actual backlink that you have created
    -Format of your anchor text (bold, italic, underline, etc)
    -Relation of your anchor text (ie; make sure your "soccer tips" backlink is actually on a soccer webpage)
    -Positioning of your backlink

    A couple of quality assumptions (which I believe are true) are:

    -Traffic through your backlink
    -Ranking of the page for your keyword that your backlink appears on
    -Variations of capital letters in your anchor text

    Now that you have wrapped your head around that one, you also should know that backlinking your backlinks is another successful strategy. This is a "Teired" backlinking approach.

    So if you create backlinks to the pages that are backlinking to your webpages, you will give the initial backlink some more juice. Thus propelling you up the rankings.
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    • Profile picture of the author 55sadhikar
      Originally Posted by dadamson View Post

      Good basic advise for newbies. I think a lot of people get confused with all the high-brow SEO "advice" in here. It's good to see some simple stuff for the people who want to learn SEO from the start..

      Another thing I always tell people who are scared to dive in to doing their own SEO is that you are never competing against Googles algorithms, you are only ever competing against 10 webpages (the ones on page one for your keyword).

      There are many things that help to rank a site. High quality anchor-text backlinks are what helps you rank, and these need to include variations of your keyword, Like:

      soccer tips (main KW)
      best soccer tips
      great soccer tips
      tips to playing soccer
      best way to kick a soccer ball

      You would want most of your anchor text links to say "soccer tips", but throw in some similar ones so that it looks like the links are naturally created by many people.

      By the way, anchor text backlinks are links back to your webpage from other sites. The catch is that your clickable text link should say your keywords.. make sense?

      Backlinks are measured by quality. Some measures that Google tracks are:

      -Page Rank of the page that your backlink is on (higher the PR, better the backlink)
      -Age of the page that your backlink is on
      -Age of the actual backlink that you have created
      -Format of your anchor text (bold, italic, underline, etc)
      -Relation of your anchor text (ie; make sure your "soccer tips" backlink is actually on a soccer webpage)
      -Positioning of your backlink

      A couple of quality assumptions (which I believe are true) are:

      -Traffic through your backlink
      -Ranking of the page for your keyword that your backlink appears on
      -Variations of capital letters in your anchor text

      Now that you have wrapped your head around that one, you also should know that backlinking your backlinks is another successful strategy. This is a "Teired" backlinking approach.

      So if you create backlinks to the pages that are backlinking to your webpages, you will give the initial backlink some more juice. Thus propelling you up the rankings.
      What if my backlink is on a "high PR website", that has no relation to the anchor text i put as my backlink? In other words it's not related to the content in my homepage. Will i still get the link juice? Or will it devlaue my website link?
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  • Profile picture of the author dadamson
    I should also mention HOW you can create backlinks. I won't go into too much detail but some quick Google searching will give you the exact methods to do these:

    Article Marketing - Creating articles and submitting them to article directories. These article directories allow you to write a resource box for each article, this is where you can write "thanks for reading my article, you may also be interested in ANCHOR-TEXT-BACKLINK"

    Blog Commenting - Finding blogs related to your niche and writing useful comments on them with a quick hyperlink back to your page. Once the administrator approves your comments, your backlink is active.

    Profile Linking - Creating profiles on busy forums while including your backlink on the profile

    Forum Thread Backlinks - Putting your link in the signature section of each post you make around a variety of forums (ie; see my sig)

    Web 2.0 Backlinking - Similar to article marketing, you can create articles and spark them up with pictures, videos, news feeds, etc and submit them to web 2.0 sites like Squidoo, Hubpages, etc.

    Social Bookmarking - Share your site around various social bookmarking sites like Digg, Delicious, Multiply, etc.

    There are plenty of other backlinking methods but if you add all of these to your repetior and spend plenty of time creating backlinks, you will outrank a LOT of websites.

    Cheers,
    Dave
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  • Profile picture of the author Aki Fagno
    Wow, that's really cool. I have learned a lot. Thanks for sharing dude.
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  • Profile picture of the author WealthWithin
    "Key Concept #1: Websites don't rank, only pages or URL's do."

    Not 100% true. If you have a really strong site, you don't need many backlinks to rank pages. And if you've done SEO for a while, you'll see Google will sometimes rank the homepage instead of the internal page where you're pushing all the links.
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    • Profile picture of the author bfas
      Originally Posted by WealthWithin View Post

      "Key Concept #1: Websites don't rank, only pages or URL's do."

      Not 100% true. If you have a really strong site, you don't need many backlinks to rank pages. And if you've done SEO for a while, you'll see Google will sometimes rank the homepage instead of the internal page where you're pushing all the links.
      Sorry for the confusion - what I was trying to say was, it's individual pages that are evaluated for search results, not that pages can't or won't rank.

      What I was trying to address was the common perception that it's the website that has a ranking position, rather than each individual page.

      Michael
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  • Profile picture of the author millions
    This is a great post! Very informative and helpful!!
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  • Profile picture of the author Salisfelix
    Poster, thanks for doing such a great job.
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  • Profile picture of the author ocd
    bfas,

    Okay, I've been doing something completely wrong. My articles are using keywords for the website itself thereby over-using my main keywords. I was internal linking everything but doing that wrong too. Your post was crucial to my learning process!!!

    I've been using both the brute force method and dumb luck method.

    So my keyword usage has been wrong and I'll have assume my resource box is wrong so now I'll learn how to do that correctly. When I get this down it's gonna be fun but the learning curve...argh!

    Thank you for the direction.
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    • Profile picture of the author bfas
      Originally Posted by ocd View Post

      bfas,

      Okay, I've been doing something completely wrong. My articles are using keywords for the website itself thereby over-using my main keywords. I was internal linking everything but doing that wrong too. Your post was crucial to my learning process!!!

      I've been using both the brute force method and dumb luck method.

      So my keyword usage has been wrong and I'll have assume my resource box is wrong so now I'll learn how to do that correctly. When I get this down it's gonna be fun but the learning curve...argh!

      Thank you for the direction.
      A great many internet marketers don't want to take the necessary actions to make their business successful - this is one reason so many worthless 'Magic Bullet: 6 Clicks To Success!' products fly off the shelves.

      For a great many others however, success is often just a 'hairs breadth' away - small 'corrections' in how & what we do.

      I think of it like trying to push a car: pushing from the side, we're going to have to expend a LOT of energy to make that car move even a little. But if we move a little bit and get behind the car rather than on the side, it's MUCH easier, and with the same or less effort we get much better results.

      The difference between disappointment and success often comes down to just some small changes and corrections in what we're doing.

      Michael
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  • Profile picture of the author Marko Vel
    Very good and very informative, I am sure that many people will find it very useful
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  • Profile picture of the author blogmarketer
    It took me a long time to wrap my head around this. I now know this is why I wasn't able to get good rankings with any consistency. It's funny but once I 'got it', it seems almost easy, but I guess that's like a lot of things. When you have just a vague or incomplete understanding of something, it seems a lot more difficult.

    I have one question though - when you are looking at 'competition' and you see a sub-page, do you look only at the page that is listed, or also at it's domain?

    Kim
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  • Profile picture of the author arnold55
    so many things to learn in such little time. pages, categories and post, keywords and meta tags, links and pinging, cometition...screw it i would rather just pay some body.

    like most im, i dont know what i dont know!
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    • Profile picture of the author bfas
      Originally Posted by arnold55 View Post

      so many things to learn in such little time. pages, categories and post, keywords and meta tags, links and pinging, cometition...screw it i would rather just pay some body.

      like most im, i dont know what i dont know!
      There's a lot to be said for hiring or outsourcing - provided your revenues can justify it. That said, understanding basics first should be a prerequisite.

      Like many things, learning IM is like peeling an onion - with knowledge and experience, you continually uncover new, deeper layers. And, like peeling an onion, if you aren't properly prepared, IM can definitely make you cry...

      Michael
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      • Profile picture of the author Terrence Taitt
        Thanks Michael, but here's another question: Once high first page rankings have been achieved, how do I maintain those rankings? Also, please explain how an old domain could help in achieving high Search Engine rankings.
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        • Profile picture of the author bfas
          Originally Posted by Terrence Taitt View Post

          Thanks Michael, but here's another question: Once high first page rankings have been achieved, how do I maintain those rankings? Also, please explain how an old domain could help in achieving high Search Engine rankings.
          I think of my own efforts essentially in two modes. The first is my 'ranking' mode where I'm trying to move up and capture a Page 1 position. There, I'll be doing my most aggressive link-building. In addition to the numbers and strength of new links, I want to build & maintain a positive 'link velocity', meaning I want to build links at a steadily increasing rate initially, and avoid big spikes - lots of links one week, then few or no links the next week, etc.

          Once I have my desired ranking, I move into 'maintenance' mode. Since links can degrade in value over time, and competitors aren't standing still, I want to maintain a schedule of continual link-building. Fortunately, my experience has shown me that I can hold Page 1 rankings with a relatively low-impact backlinking schedule. Depending on how 'competitive' the keywords are, I can usually get away with just a handful of new links weekly. This can be further 'strengthened' by regularly updating the site with new content.

          As for 'old domains', I'm not sure whether you mean 'old domains that I have sitting around' or buying old and/or expired domains that have backlinks & PR.

          It just so happens I'm midway through an experiment for something I consider the 'best' solution for ranking, especially in light of the new Google updates: private networks.

          A few months ago I began buying old and/or expired 'hi-PR' domains in order to build my own 'ranking network'. The idea is that if I owned or had control of enough 'strong' sites, I could essentially rank pages 'on demand'.

          If we assume that the lion's share of our ranking comes from our "Total Backlink Value" - and it does - than having control of enough 'backlink value' lets me apply it to my own keywords / pages at will.

          Using very specific criteria (PR, backlinks, age, availability of historical content via Archive.org, and some other factors), I bought a number of PR3, PR4, and PR5 domains, beginning around Sept. of last year, placing them onto diverse IP servers. Among the things I've learned is that in most cases, I can maintain the domain's strength and PR. Since the PR update, 80% of these domains kept their PR, and 20% dropped, but only a little.

          I now own and control these domains, and can create focused, high-value backlinks at will. So far, I've been successful pushing a number of sites up to top Page 1 rankings this way.

          Building this kind of private network essentially gives me a 'Page 1 ranking machine'. I believe it's the surest way to get and maintain top rankings, if you can afford it and do it right.

          Michael
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  • Profile picture of the author jonnyhardbaked
    cool tips! I have learned new things, thanks for your post.
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    • Profile picture of the author bfas
      Originally Posted by jonnyhardbaked View Post

      cool tips! I have learned new things, thanks for your post.
      If you're just starting to learn this stuff, you have a definite advantage. For many of the people I talk to, the biggest battle is 're-learning' or overcoming bad habits and incorrect assumptions.

      Michael
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  • Profile picture of the author ranbirsmartguy
    nice post thanx for sharing
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  • Profile picture of the author Steven Liew
    Thanks a lot for this post, especially on the bit that ranking in google is indeed for URLs/pages and not websites.

    Michael, what is your view on backlinking for secondary keywords? Do you also write/spin/distribute articles for them as well, or would you focus on article distribution for primary keywords only? The same question goes for the anchor text.

    Thanks.
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  • Profile picture of the author bfas
    Originally Posted by Steven Liew View Post

    Thanks a lot for this post, especially on the bit that ranking in google is indeed for URLs/pages and not websites.

    Michael, what is your view on backlinking for secondary keywords? Do you also write/spin/distribute articles for them as well, or would you focus on article distribution for primary keywords only? The same question goes for the anchor text.

    Thanks.
    Hi Steven,

    Most of my sites follow a similar structure. I begin with a 'seed' keyword phrase, and then develop a 'keyword phrase group' of semantically or thematically related keyword phrases that 'fit' under my 'seed' keyword phrase.

    This lets me build a site with the homepage focusing on my 'seed' or 'umbrella' phrase, use that as the basis for my domain name; then use my secondary keyword phrases as additional pages on the site. This gives me the benefits of having the homepage be the 'strongest' focus for my backlinking efforts, while having relevant pages for my secondary phrases, and 'sculpting' my internal and external linking efforts such that I can focus all my efforts down to the individual page/keyword I'm trying to rank.

    To answer your question, though I begin with my homepage, I apply roughly equal effort towards each page/keyword I'm trying to rank.

    One benefit of beginning with the homepage is that if I've chosen my keyword phrase group well, all my efforts leverage all the others, and it becomes easier to rank for each subsequent keyword.

    Michael
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    • Profile picture of the author Steven Liew
      Originally Posted by bfas View Post

      Hi Steven,

      Most of my sites follow a similar structure. I begin with a 'seed' keyword phrase, and then develop a 'keyword phrase group' of semantically or thematically related keyword phrases that 'fit' under my 'seed' keyword phrase.

      This lets me build a site with the homepage focusing on my 'seed' or 'umbrella' phrase, use that as the basis for my domain name; then use my secondary keyword phrases as additional pages on the site. This gives me the benefits of having the homepage be the 'strongest' focus for my backlinking efforts, while having relevant pages for my secondary phrases, and 'sculpting' my internal and external linking efforts such that I can focus all my efforts down to the individual page/keyword I'm trying to rank.

      To answer your question, though I begin with my homepage, I apply roughly equal effort towards each page/keyword I'm trying to rank.

      One benefit of beginning with the homepage is that if I've chosen my keyword phrase group well, all my efforts leverage all the others, and it becomes easier to rank for each subsequent keyword.

      Michael
      Thanks Michael. That was very helpful, and it pointed some directions for me
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  • Profile picture of the author outwest
    Hi Thanks I am really trying hard to learn the art and science of backlinking there is a heck of a lot to learn actually, its not that simple at all. I am studying it all the time and your posts helped me clear up a lot of questions I had and also taught me many new ideas. I think becoming a backlinking expert is one of the most important, if not the most important skill a webmaster can learn , giving the amount of importance Google places on backlinks. Thanks again friend
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    • Profile picture of the author bfas
      Originally Posted by outwest View Post

      Hi Thanks I am really trying hard to learn the art and science of backlinking there is a heck of a lot to learn actually, its not that simple at all. I am studying it all the time and your posts helped me clear up a lot of questions I had and also taught me many new ideas. I think becoming a backlinking expert is one of the most important, if not the most important skill a webmaster can learn , giving the amount of importance Google places on backlinks. Thanks again friend
      You characterize it perfectly: "art and science". Without 'inside knowledge' of the algorithms, there will always be some 'art' - and even were someone to know the exact math, it's a 'non-linear equation' that is nearly impossible to actually solve, with many interdependent variables.

      Becoming a 'backlinking expert' - to the extent one can - is hugely important, but expanding it beyond 'backlinking' to 'ranking', which would include keywords, search engine workings, searcher characteristics, etc., would be the ultimate goal.

      Michael
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  • Profile picture of the author luckymom78
    I found this very useful thanks for sharing
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  • Profile picture of the author outwest
    Hi I would like to make one additional question if that is ok with you friend

    The question is this one.

    I noticed that people talk about link wheeling, and then also I think you mentioned backlinking your backlinks in order to insure that the backlink urls you are coming to your site from, have a higher PR and thus give more linkjuice to the url on your site you are targeting..

    Can you expand a bit on this concept? backlinking your backlinks?
    I saw it explained one time on another site with a graphic and that helped a lot but I think it seems to be a very important part of backlinking and it is not that often talked about since it seems to get lost in the shuffle with talk of anchor text, where to get backlinks, etc etc there is so much to cover.

    Do you think this concept is overlooked given its importance? please expand on it if you would be so kind, since you seem to have more indepth knowledge of backlinking than 99 percent of the webmasters I have seen online
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    • Profile picture of the author bfas
      Originally Posted by outwest View Post

      Hi I would like to make one additional question if that is ok with you friend

      The question is this one.

      I noticed that people talk about link wheeling, and then also I think you mentioned backlinking your backlinks in order to insure that the backlink urls you are coming to your site from, have a higher PR and thus give more linkjuice to the url on your site you are targeting..

      Can you expand a bit on this concept? backlinking your backlinks?
      I saw it explained one time on another site with a graphic and that helped a lot but I think it seems to be a very important part of backlinking and it is not that often talked about since it seems to get lost in the shuffle with talk of anchor text, where to get backlinks, etc etc there is so much to cover.

      Do you think this concept is overlooked given its importance? please expand on it if you would be so kind, since you seem to have more indepth knowledge of backlinking than 99 percent of the webmasters I have seen online
      Hi outwest,

      The idea of creating backlinks to your backlinks is two-fold. First, it can help you get your initial backlinks indexed. Remember that a backlink has no value unless Google discovers it.

      Second, by creating backlinks to wherever your initial backlinks are, you are boosting the 'Total Backlink Value' of those links. The level with which your initial backlinks bolster your rankings is based on the overall 'strength' of those backlinks. That 'strength' is determined by a number of factors, but the most significant is the 'strength' of the page they appear on. By backlinking to those pages, you are boosting their strength, thereby boosting the 'Total Backlink Value' of all the links on that page.

      Why wouldn't you just point those 'secondary' backlinks directly to the page you're trying to rank? While they would provide more value since their value would go directly to that 'ranking' page, we may not want to build that many 'direct' links that quickly. By 'backlinking our backlinks', we can help boost our target without alerting Google to our activities.

      Fwiw, as far as 'link wheels' go, they don't have any magic power; they're simply a pattern of linking that's gained a lot of popularity. The fact that they are in a 'link wheel' configuration doesn't change the basic math of the 'Total Backlink Value' going to our target site.

      Michael
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  • Profile picture of the author dav1dr0well
    Thanks for the fantastic article! I'm new to SEO but an experienced web monkey... perhaps I should have started a new thread but there seems to be a lot of discussion about domain names + keyword...

    I understand the importance of having the keyword inside the domain name but would love your opinion:

    Base keyword (for example) is "cure disease". After searching for available domains I find:

    curedisease.net, cure-disease.com and mycuredisease.com

    Somewhere I read the preferred order of domain names is:
    curedisease.com
    curedisease.org
    curedisease.net
    cure-disease.com
    cure-disease.org
    cure-disease.net

    Any opinions on this?

    Thanks in advance,

    David
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    • Profile picture of the author HaydenR
      Originally Posted by dav1dr0well View Post

      Thanks for the fantastic article! I'm new to SEO but an experienced web monkey... perhaps I should have started a new thread but there seems to be a lot of discussion about domain names + keyword...

      I understand the importance of having the keyword inside the domain name but would love your opinion:

      Base keyword (for example) is "cure disease". After searching for available domains I find:

      curedisease.net, cure-disease.com and mycuredisease.com

      Somewhere I read the preferred order of domain names is:
      curedisease.com
      curedisease.org
      curedisease.net
      cure-disease.com
      cure-disease.org
      cure-disease.net

      Any opinions on this?

      Thanks in advance,

      David
      Thanks for this.. was wondering what was the best order for EMDs..
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  • Profile picture of the author bfas
    Hi David,

    I completely agree with the 'order' you've listed. Most important is to have the actual keywords, in order, at the beginning of the domain name. Contiguous is better than using hyphens, as you've listed, and in my experience those 3 TLD's seem to do better than others. I've also found it to be preferable to use up to two hyphens rather than additional words.

    Michael
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    • Profile picture of the author Dumkist
      Hi Michael,


      Hey I wanted to ask you if you think that profile links are dead now...since the new Google update ?..I have been seing this pop up on the forum In a lot of threads..just wanted to get your take on this .
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  • Profile picture of the author bfas
    Originally Posted by Dumkist View Post

    Hi Michael,


    Hey I wanted to ask you if you think that profile links are dead now...since the new Google update ?..I have been seing this pop up on the forum In a lot of threads..just wanted to get your take on this .
    I don't think profile links are 'dead', but they've never been particularly high value. The problem comes with relying on 'brute force' - zillions of low-value links.

    Link diversity is very important; I wouldn't use profile links as more than 5% of my backlinking 'profile'.

    Michael
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  • Profile picture of the author outwest
    bfas thanks for all the advice

    Let me ask you if it would be possible for you to give an example of backlinking your backlinks

    Lets say I have a forex site, I have a review site on software that I put up

    If that were you how would you go about backlinking it. What types of sources would you try to get backlinks from (ie forums, blogs you own, etc etc)
    How many backlinks would you try to get over what period of time, (in other words say you want to put 100 backlinks up, how would you space those out)

    also how many of the backlink urls you have coming in, would you in addition backlink those backlinks

    Let us say 7 major backlink sources that you will try to have coming in? That are also backlinked (by you).
    How many backlinks would each of those 7 sites get? In order to raise their PR?

    Sorry for all the questions , it is just difficult to get a handle on exactly how to structure it and I believe that would be critical. The structure.....where the backlinks come from, what type of source, and how many. and how many of the backlink urls are backlinked themselves.

    Thank you for your time friend
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  • Profile picture of the author outwest
    Off niche backlinks give some backlink value or juice however not near as much as those coming from similar niches
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    • Profile picture of the author bfas
      Originally Posted by outwest View Post

      Off niche backlinks give some backlink value or juice however not near as much as those coming from similar niches
      No one can say how much - if any - additional value there is for 'relevance'. What we can say with certainty is that 'in content' or 'editorial' links have significantly higher value that other links.

      Google can make an 'assumption' of relevance when a link appears within content, otherwise there is no way to tell what the relevance is other than anchor text keywords that match the text.

      Generally speaking, the order of 'strength' for a link would be:

      1. In-content / editorial
      2. On page (appearing on the page but not within the main body of the content)
      3. Site-wide (blogroll, link list, header/footer, etc).
      Michael
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  • Profile picture of the author WrightComputing
    Hi some great advise in here, everyone reading this myself included thinks we know a bit about SEO but its nice to see the basics laid out because if you don't follow the rules your wasting your time.
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  • Profile picture of the author outwest
    bfas what do you think of using your own domains (.coms in my case) to backlink your own sites
    I have 30 domains in a travel niche I want to backlink my main travel site with?

    bad idea? or good idea?
    they are certainly in the same niche
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    • Profile picture of the author bfas
      Originally Posted by outwest View Post

      bfas what do you think of using your own domains (.coms in my case) to backlink your own sites
      I have 30 domains in a travel niche I want to backlink my main travel site with?

      bad idea? or good idea?
      they are certainly in the same niche
      Google has become pretty very good at detecting and devaluing 'reciprocal networks'; as such, I'm very careful about which sites I inter-link. It can be tempting to use our own sites, particularly if we have a lot of sites, to create backlinks, but you risk both the sites you're linking to, and from.

      Michael
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  • Profile picture of the author Gary Ning Lo
    thanks a lot for your contribution
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  • Profile picture of the author AndeeJi
    thanks a lot for the info!
    will be useful
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  • Profile picture of the author jsnfou
    Thanks, mate.
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  • Profile picture of the author mel guard
    very well writen if I had this kind of information when I started this would of made life easier Thank you
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  • Profile picture of the author Blade Runner 77
    Ditto, many thanks for this, I've been looking for this for weeks and weeks, and if you don't mind I'm almost bound to have some dumby newbie questions sooner or later.
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    • Profile picture of the author bfas
      Originally Posted by Blade Runner 88 View Post

      Ditto, many thanks for this, I've been looking for this for weeks and weeks, and if you don't mind I'm almost bound to have some dumby newbie questions sooner or later.
      Don't mind at all - no such thing as dumb questions. Well, ok, there are plenty of dumb questions. But I'm happy to try and answer any sincere questions

      Michael
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