21 Jun 18 10:25 am
I will tell you what's working for me for the past few years...
For years I tried looking for all of these shortcuts and secret methods in SEO, sure there are some advanced tips out there but more often than not they're people shooting shit that don't really know what they're talking about with no case study to back them up.
From my experience, after ranking for thousands of keywords, it's all about giving Google (since it's the main one) what it wants...
Sound simple right - only too many people over complicate things or jump from one shiny object to the other.
What you need to focus on is GOOD quality content. When you understand why search engines are needed in the first place, it becomes easier to figure out that these search engines - especially Google want to provide the best user experience possible for their searchers.
People use search engines to search - duh, but yeah, they're asking questions and typing in queries/keywords to find answers or get information about something they're interested in.
Google, understands if they give their searchers the best results and best user experience possible, they will continue to use and recommend their search engine.
SO, give Google what it wants...
What works for me:
1. Good keyword research. Find what people are searching for in your niche and help them..Don't just throw an article up for the sake of it, write content that wow's them. If someone is searching for "the best gaming chair under $100" you better give them the best gaming chairs under $100. If they're searching for 'how to cure a yeast infection' you better give them the answer or show them where to get the solution.
Long tail keywords that are very specific are very targeted but often don't have much search volume. Long tail keywords are 3 or more words - some will be questions like "how to lose weight after childbirth", "When should I use a 3 wood", "how to play guitar without a pick".
^ These question type keywords are very specific which are great because we can target these people with the content they're looking for.
Then you have broad keywords like "golf clubs", "weight loss", "guitar lessons"
These type of keywords can be tricky to write content for because when a visitor lands of your content they could be searching for all kinds of things.
Golf clubs for example - they might want to buy golf clubs, they might be wanting to learn about a certain golf club and what's its' used for, they could be looking for a golf sports club to play golf at or go for dinner - all kinds of things. Same for weight loss - they might be looking for ways to lose weight after child birth. Weight loss programs for over 50, why have I had so much weight loss, sudden weight loss after surgery. As you can see, these broad keywords aren't the most targeted.
Then you have buyer intent keywords. These are my favorite.
Things like - product name, product name review, product name testimonials, feedback, ratings, where to buy, discounts, coupons, specs ect...
If you can write good content for these types of keywords and rank them you can make very good money and this is what I do.
Keyword competition is something else to look at, I still write content for high competitive keywords but only if I know it will help my readers + sometimes you cans till rank for them. I've out ranked million dollar companies many times. But, I always advise to choose keywords that people are searching for, help your visitors, aren't too competitive and are worth writing.
Good user experience. - this is very important not just for search engines but for conversions as wellBut how?
Make sure your site is clean, good site structure, content is very easy to read and loads fast.
You don't want flashy objects, a bunch of in your face popups or fluro colors for your background or design. You want people to land on your site, stay on your site and get the answers they're searching for.
Fast loading sites are a must these days because we're all getting very impatient and if your site takes too long to load, they will hit that back button and give the next site a chance.
Make your content very easy to read for mobile devices. When I write content, I do one or two sentences, new paragraph. These sentences are often pretty short but the idea is to not write big blocks of text that are super hard to read on mobile.
Break it up with good headlines and images that paint the picture so they can visualize what you're trying to get across.
Keyword and Niche RelevancyNotice how big sites show their readers related content or make their important posts a full width page with no leaks to unrelated content? Well that's because they understand Google ranks pages that have high relevancy for the keywords.
You can achieve this by structuring your site in a silo structured way to show only related content for that page or category.
This can be achieved in Wordpress with custom sidebar widgets that show highly related posts in the sidebar - posts from the same category or posts within a silo.
Another way is to make the page full width without a sidebar and only link to related content on or off your site.
Relevancy can also be content related. When writing content, I rarely worry about the keywords or density - I write content for humans, not search engines.
However, when I edit my content, I sprinkle in the keywords where it makes sense too, add my keyword phrase in headlines like h3 tags and I also make sure I'm using synonyms and related words. I feel this is important because it builds relevancy.
What I mean by synonyms and related words - words that still mean the same or are very similar.
Here's a example of a review type keyword with related words/content..
Example: Affiliorama Review
"Hi there and thank you for reading my
Affilorama review, today I want to share my
thoughts and opinions about this affiliate marketing training. In my
review I give my
honest feedback and share what I like and what I don't like...
You may have read other
reviews or
testimonials and you've probably found all the
high ratings. Here's what I foudn..."
As you can see, all the bolded text are words than are highly related to the word
review.
You have to write for users and it has to make sense - don't write for SEO because it more often than not doesn't flow or make sense and there is no use ranking a page that doesn't convert because it's jammed with keywords.
Internlinking and linking out to other sitesIf I'm writing an important page that I want to rank I will do 3-5 supporting articles that link to this important page. These supporting articles will be highly related to the important page to build more relevancy. I will link from these supporting pages using keywords or related keywords and also generic keywords telling them to learn more or check out this page ect...
Don't be scared to link out to other sites that help your visitor. This also shows search engines that you're page is resourceful.
I've actually tested this with pages on my site that were lingering around page 2 in Google. I linked out to some really good resources and my rankings jumped up.
Don't do what everyone else does but - most people link to wikipedia or webmd or really well known sites. Link to HELPFUL resources.
Keeping people on your site.Keeping people on your site tells Google or other search engines that the searcher has somewhat found the answer or site they're looking for. Especially if they click through to other pages or the site you want them to visit.
How can you do this?Write engaging content that hooks the reader into continue reading your entire article or up to where you want them to take action. I find story telling tends work wonders for this.
Tell stories that relate to your readers pains, struggles or everyday experiences. Get them nodding and thinking hey, this person is just like me or this person has the exact same problem as I do...
Target their emotions, their desires and what keeps them up at night. A good way to find what emotions or what keeps them up at night is search forums for keyword strings in Google search like "Help I need to lose weight" + forum OR "help I caught my husband cheating" + forum.
Find people who are in desperate need to find their solution because they will often share their story. If you have a story or experienced the pain that the product you're promoting solves even better. Share YOUR story.
Get the reader hooked - tell them to keep reading...(Keep reading to find out my secret seo technique that shot me up to number one for hundreds of keywords within 2 months...)
Another way is to embed media on your site like video, audio or interactive media. This keeps people on your site, especially if the content is worth consuming.
Backlinks and Social MediaThis is where everyone seems to really mess up...
Why? Well, it's often not their fault because they're just being sheep. There is sooo much misinformation on the web it's sickening.
Build backlinks to your site the wrong way and you will get penalised.
Gone are the days were you could build a bunch of spammy links to your site to rank it high in the search engines. These days, you need quality links, quality content and this all has to be relevant to your page you're trying to rank.
Buy backlinks packages from cheap services from sites like fiverr and you can easily end up in that sandbox or make your domain toxic.
SEO takes a lot of work and a time. Persistence, patience, concistency and a lot of work is needed in this game - if you work smart it becomes easy.
Slow and steady for new sites. Older sites can handle a bit more but even still, you can't just spam your site and sleep at night without thinking worrying will raise flags in Google.
How can you build good quality backlinks?For a new site and for older sites you can do a lot of things.
Create web 2.0.s with quality content - I'm not talking one page, I make these mini sites with 3-10 articles on each. Then link to my money site on a couple of pages or just one page (a very well writen page that provides value to the web).
Join the conversation and comment on other blogs, contribute to forums, comment on videos, social media and social networking sites - be active and join the convo. Forums and sites like Quora and Yahoo Answers is great for this because you can help people in your niche and link back to your site.
BUT...You have to provide VALUE. Don't just spam and say - hi, nice blog. Thank you, great post, nice thread. Check out my site.
Be in the business of helping people and the money will come...(Something I tell my fb group all the time).
Joining the conversation and helping people shows you're an expert or somewhat an expert. Think of it like this - if you help someone solve a problem they have or show them where to get a solution they will be more likely to trust you and buy what you're recommending or opt into your list.
Leave a link to your site without being spammy.
Another good way is to PLAY DUMB...
Go to a forum and leave a reply or start a thread similar to this:
"Hi there everyone. I have a real problem and I hope someone can give some good advice. I'm trying to lose weight before I get married and I've been reading this article
https://YOURWEBSITE,com/article-page-you-trying-to-rank and the author of the article recommends a low calorie diet and apple cider vinigar morning and night. I've heard low calorie diets can be do more harm than good, what are your thoughts and what's the best way to lose weight fast??"
^ This doesn't look spammy, you're asking a question and you're also getting people to your site because they'll want to know what the article is so they can either roast it or give their feedback. You're playing dumb - not saying it's your site, it's a site you've stumpled upon.
Doing this will avoid being flagged as spam as well.
Other ways to get links is to contribute to other sites via guest posting and outreach.
Reach out to other sites in your niche and ask if they want a free article on their site in exchange for a backlink. You can also do things like expert roundups where you write about a bunch of experts in your niche, then contact each of them and tell them you've written about them. Some will share it on their site or social media accounts.
Build that following...
If you build a following on social media whether it be a group or a page or an email list you have access to traffic. Many have said social signals aren't a factor but I personally think they are.
The first links I build to my sites are links from social media.
Think of it like this - why would other websites link to your site if no one knows about it. This is why I build share as much as I can on social media before building backlinks. That way it looks like it's been shared and then people have found it through sharing and linked to the site naturally.
Which leads me to this - you want your link profiles to look as natural as possible. You want to replicate what looks natural so don't go building hundreds of backlinks to fast too soon - this will raise flags.
The only way it will look natural if a post goes viral and you'll want some social proof that it's gone viral which is why I always start with social media ;)
Create videos and link back to your site - submit these videos to all the video uploading channels available. Not just YOutube.
Create good images for your posts so they're good for image sharing sites like Pinterest.
Do infographics as well.
Ohh and repurpose your content as well - turn articles into videos, turn videos into articles, turn articles into inforgraphics, videos into audio/podcast and podcasts/audio into articles ect...
Make use of Google Search Console.If you haven't got your site set up with GSC, do it now. They give you very useful information and send messages of warnings and optimization tips.
Not only that, they practically tell you what you need to change to get higher rankings.
Click through rate (CTR) for example. If you go to your search queires and see what keywords Google is showing impressions in their search results for your site they also tell you the click through rate. If you have a poor CTR for a keyword you're trying to rank, chances are your meta title tag or description needs tweaking to increase click through rate.
Does your title include the keyword in your meta title tag? Maybe it's just boring and not very inticing?
Here's a couple of examples:
The keyword: Best Hosting For Small Business
Not so good meta title example:
Best hosting provider | MyGreatSite,com
Better meta title example:
Best Hosting For Small Business That's Safe & Secure!
The second example would surely attract more clicks in the search results. Google sees all this data and if your site gets a bad CTR score, they will move you down in their rankings and put a site with better CTR above yours.
Tip: Look for people using Adwords for your keyword. If you see a good ad that you think will attract a good click through rate - use it as your meta title or a slightly different version. Most people doing PPC will be testing and tweaking their ad copy for better CTR so use that to your advantage.
Google search console also tells you which sites are linking to you, where you're ranking (on the dates selected) and gives you keyword ideas to update your blog with.
I've found plenty of question type keywords that Ive added to my articles from GSC, added the question in my article and gave an answer to update my post which has also bumped up my rankings for that question/keyword.
There's plenty of other useful things GSC can be used for but I'm already getting sore fingers :)
I'll wrap it up here, but give Google what it wants. They want quality sites with quality content that gives their users/searchers what they want.
Quality NOT Quantity <<<<----
Be in the business of helping people ;)
Hope that helps!
The affiliate marketing ninja!
