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| Crash Course
in Getting A #1 Google Ranking |
| Articles
Index |
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| First,
here's the rundown
of some of the terminology
I'm going to use in
this article |
|
Inbound
Links – Links coming
into your site
Outbound Links – Links
leaving your site
Cross Links – Links
that you have "traded"
with another site
(i.e., they've got
a link from their
site to your and you've
got a link from your
site to theirs)
PR (Page Ranking)
– Google's measure
of how "important"
your site is |
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| SEO
Is Not Dead |
| Ok,
nöw lets talk about
what you really want
to hear – how to get
those coveted 1-10
ranks for your keywords.
Remember this - SEO
is not dead. In fact,
it is very much alive
and important. The
first thing to do
in order to raise
your site rank is
target specific keywords.
I say specific, because
you need to target
"keyphrases,"
meaning more than
one word keywords.
Some people use the
words interchangeably
(me included) so just
ignore one-word keywords
altogether. You will
waste your monëy if
you shoot for these,
because chances are,
there are other, much
largër companies who
already have you beat,
and will continue
to have you beat unless
you've got a bottomless
wallet. |
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| Chëck
Out Your Competition
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| Take
this example, for
instance, if you sell
computers, you should
not try to optimize
your site for the
keyword "computer"
or "computers."
First, think about
all of the businesses
that do anything
with computers. Yeah,
that's a lot. They'll
all show up if you
search for "computer."
Nöw try to think of
who would show up
at the top of that
list. I'll make it
easy, it's Apple,
Dell, Computer World,
Computer Associates,
IEEE, Computer History
Museum, Webopedia,
ASUSTeK, WhatIs.com,
and HP. I'm going
to go out on a limb
hëre and say that
I 99.9% guarantëe
you that you'll nevër
get into that top
10 list. The HP link
has almost 5,000 backlinks
(discussed later)
and a PR of 7/10.
Good luck. Then
What Should I Do? |
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| So
what should you try
to target? Lets re-visit
your computer store.
What types do you
sell? PCs, ok, what
types of PCs? Custom.
Ok, that's a little
better, "Custom
Computers" is
still a vague keyword,
though. (How many
people build custom
computers?) What kind
of components do you
use? Intel? AMD? SoundBlaster?
GeForce? There you
go, that's a little
better – "Custom
GeForce Computers."
That returned 476k
results instead of
our previous 633 million
with "Computer."
Just a little bit
less competition. |
|
| I
Want More |
| Want
to go further? Forget
what types you sell,
go for what do your
customers want. What
do they use your computers
for? Gaming? Try "Custom
Gaming Computers"
- There are 672,000
results hëre, but
the # 1 spot has a
PR of 5/10 and only
41 backlinks. That
shouldn't be too hard
to beat, we've just
got to know who is
linking to them, and
beat them at the backlink
game. |
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| Oh
yeah, before we move
on to beating the
pulp out of your competition,
don't forget to SEO
optimize your site
for your chosen keywords
before spending any
time on backlinks.
Otherwise, this next
section won't mean
much. |
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| But
I Digress... |
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| Ok,
nöw that your site
is thoroughly optimized,
how do we find out
who their backlinks
are? Well, you can
do it by hand, or
you can purchase a
very helpful tool
called SEO Elite that
will analyze all of
the backlinks to a
site (and more). But,
since you don't have
SEO Elite yet, we'll
do it the long way.
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| First,
go to toolbar.google.com
and download the Google
toolbar, this will
save you some time.
Ok, nöw type in your
keywords – "Custom
Gaming Computers."
The first link should
be overdrivepc.com
(if it's not, then
someone may have already
read this column and
risen above them!)
clïck to go there.
When the page loads,
go to your Google
Toolbar, clïck on
Options >"More"
Tab > Make sure
the "Page Info"
box is checked. Then,
clïck on the blue
circle with the i
in it. (This is the
aptly named: "Page
Info") It should
drop down and allow
you to select "Backward
Links," choose
it. Nöw you should
be looking at a Google
search page again,
but this one is different,
it only shows pages
that link to overdrivepc.com.
(Wow, that's handy!)
At the time of this
article, there are
41 pages that link
to the site, and you
can view them all.
Some are other pages
in the site, others
are third parties. |
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| Get
Your Site Some Friends!
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| Follow
each third party link
and check out the
page. Does it have
to do with your business?
Would their visitors
benefit from coming
to your site? (The
answer is probably
yes) If so, email
the webmaster - there
should be an email
address somewhere
on the site. Ask him
or her if they would
link to your site.
Be willing to trade
links with them, or
to pay for a good
link with a high PR.
That reminds me –
look just to the left
of the Page Info icon
on your Google toolbar,
and you should see
a green bar. That
is the Page Rank of
the page you're currently
on. You want to target
pages with higher
page ranks than your
own, because for each
of those sites that
link to yours, they
effectively "give"
you a little bit of
their PR. Kinda like
in high school when
the head of the cheerleading
squad flirted with
the nerd in the hallway,
she "gave"
him more popularity. |
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| By
the way, if you can
manage to get a link
from the # 1 site
itself, do it! |
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| Do
this for all of these
links you can, then
move on to the #2
listing for your keywords.
Then #3, and so on.
Don't get discouraged
if some webmasters
don't reply to you,
it may take an email
or two. If they say
no, thank them for
their time and move
on. I try my best
not to burn any bridges
– you nevër know when
you'll need to contact
that webmaster again,
and if he remembers
you were polite, that
will make you look
good. |
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| Whew,
Finally Done. |
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| This
is a very easy way
to move up the Google
SERPS, no "expertise"
required, just good
old-fashioned hard
work. It will take
some time for Google
to re-index those
pages and realize
that they have a link
to you nöw. And it
will take even longer
for your PR to go
up (from what I hear,
it's been around 3-4
months since the last
PR change [Today is
7/14/2005]) But be
patient, get links
upon links, and keep
adding great content
to your site, and
you will jump up in
the SERPS by leaps
and bounds. |
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| To
Your Success, and
Your # 1 Website! |
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