I was giving someone new to SEO and link building a “crash course” on how all this works so I figured I’d rehash the conversation here.
- Niche + keyword research
- Domain registering strategies
- Link sources, types of links
- Other stuff…
Niche and Keyword research-
If you use something like Google keyword tool, EXACT LOCAL is the more accurate predictor of what kind of traffic you’ll get when ranked #1, minus 30-40%, since the #1 spot gets majority of traffic for a term, just not all.
Why exclude EXACT GLOBAL?
Because hardly anyone ranks for a term globally, I know I don’t
CPC is not always accurate indicator of niche earnings potential, but generally is for a site designed to get Adsense clicks. Sometimes there’s a low CPC for a term but tons of ebay auctions for those kinds of products so an autoblog site would get tons of traffic not for any one particular term but for hundreds of auction item product names and models searches .
Microsoft’s Online Commercial Intent Tool isn’t always accurate either, but can help add some justification towards getting into a niche.
Assessing SEO competition – (click here <<<) use some free tools to quickly assess the competition.
- # of competing pages doesn’t mean anything
- Your real competition for particular keyword is first 20 spots, that’s it.
Ranking factors -why those sites might be outranking yours (for now 
)
- Age of site/domain
- # of links inbound
- # of anchor text links
- kw in domains in first 20 spots?
Domain registering strategies and EMDs (Exact Match Domains)
Exact match domains can help you rank for a term faster than trying to get an inner url on a site ranked for a certain term.
NOTE: Buying an aged domain with PageRank 2 or higher and blasting it with links can also help you rank for a certain keyword, and it doesn’t matter if the aged domain with PR has the keywords in it or not (but helps of course).
Domain availability is a crucial part of the niche research process for me because if there’s not an EMD available then I probably won’t proceed further. However, if an EMD (exact match domain) is not available you can still try to register a “combo EMD” which could and should… be a mix of the top 2 search terms relevant to your niche.
Example: niche is widgets…top 2 searches for this term are widgets, and widgets making
If widgets.XXX EMD is unavailable then try to register widgetsmaking.XXX instead, then you can rank that domain for the top 2 Kws in that niche at same time.
NOTE: If you register a combo EMD try to have it make sense and try not to make it read like a nonsensical keyword-stuffed domain (like fastloseweighthowto.com)
Link sources- types of links
The person new to SEO knows that links are needed to get ranked higher but doesn’t know where to get these links, or what good ones are, what bad ones are etc…
Where to get backlinks:
- Directories- site url submissions
- Article directories – article submissions
- From relevant sites – guest blogging, article exchanges, reciprocal links. blog comments
- Forums – from posts, threads, or from member profiles
- Blog networks – much like article directories but in this case we’re referring to services that accept spun content and syndicate throughout their network for numerous backlinks building (albeit low quality links).
- Article networks – same as above, but these are article directories, not exclusively blogs
- Ebook sites – sites that accept ebook submissions and in return you get links back to your desired urls, not always Dofollow links
- Social bookmarking- low quality links, good more for indexing things and for adding the necessary variety of inbound links to your site (link profile)
- PAD submissions- software submissions that work much like ebook submissions, you can use a tool to make a PDF into an exe file which makes it “software” but isn’t really, but is a good way to get some links. Lots of DoFollow PAD sites out there.
- Web 2.0 sites – Hubs, Lenses etc… anyplace that allows you to create “sites” on their platform, and allows outbound links
- Guestbook Spam linking (super low quality)
- Hreferrer Spam (super low quality)
Types of good backlinks…
Good links add relevancy (have desired anchor text in them and are DoFollow)
Good links remain sticky (indexed for long time without boosting help)
Good links bring traffic (an example of which would be a good article ranking for a term getting smattering of organic traffic with article residing on a major article directory)
Good links could be true editorial links that either pass on PR/traffic/relevancy (an example of which could be a guest blog post on high Page Ranked relevant, related site already getting target traffic site with DoFollow link allowed in blog or article post.
Summary: Good links will either add traffic, relevancy, or Page Rank to desired url and won’t need any boosting to remain an effective link.
Bad links…
Links that are temporary, don’t add relevancy, NoFollow low PR or zero PR backlinks (operative term here being NoFollow)
Other stuff - domains extensions, EMDs, the power of anchor text links, getting a variety of links on-page SEO….
I have a .BIZ domain outranking a kw+ review.com site (combo-EMD), with less links. and it’s a fairly new site, but why?
Backlinks analysis shows that I have 45 links with anchor text pointing to my site, they have 800 links overall, but less anchor text links driving up relevancy.
This proves that what I wrote earlier is truth: that anchor text links that increase relevancy, no matter how few.. can beat /outrank an older site with more links. It also proves that the TLD extension .com. net, .org,. biz etc… doesn’t really matter but with all things being equal I would want the .com extension of course.
I also have a site that’s a fairly new EMD.org outranking an older EMD.com, but why?
Same reason as above, I got more anchor text backlinks to my site, therefore mine is deemed more relevant…
Variety of links- important to NOT focus on getting just one type of backlink from one service, tool or method.
Variety adds spice to life but also rounds out your inbound links profile for your sites, so if you deem a link not worth acquiring due to its inherently low value, just think of ways to automate the acquisition of these links since they do provide the somewhat intangible benefit of showing a balance of inbound links to sites.
On-page SEO - This can get complicated, or it can be easy, and the MAIN thing you need to realize about on-page SEO is that if the words appear on the page, post, or url, then it will have a better chance of ranking for desired terms.
URLs that have the keywords appearing at beginning of url have better chance of ranking well than when they’re at the end or middle…
You’re wasting your time wit hlink building in generla if your sites are poorly optimized
Simplify checklist-
Get as many DoFollow backlinks that stick as possible to increase relevancy.
Get a variety of links (may not seem necessary but can’t hurt)
Get high Page Rank links if you’re “stuck” at a certain rankings point no matter what you do.
Practice good on-page SEO
Keep at it
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{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey Daniel – Clear, informative and concise post. The summary of different link types and good links vs. bad links comparison are golden. You’re giving away too much
Hi Jerry, thanks for the feedback. I tried to keep it short and dumb-ed down so as not to have to repeat myself or give another crash course again. There’s more to this of course, but hopefully a simplified “lesson that gets people going.
Happy Thanksgiving!
First off, kudos for this post. With so much SEO fluff out there, this no bullshit summary tells both beginners and self proclaimed gurus how it really works.
Question.
I’ve always thought getting EMDs for anything other than .com, .net, and .org are not worth going after. Are .biz, .info, etc. EMDs even 80% as easy as getting ranking for a .net EMD (all else equal)? I rarely see them in the first page; then again, it could be cause most people don’t bother with them.
Hi Tony, I really don’t know about how hard one might be versus another since I only get what’s available (after the top 3 com net org)…
Of 5 sites in my budding mini net, the.org ranked quickest, had less comp and search volume, the .biz with highest search volume KW EMD performed next best, and 3 .us domains and slowly coming along. But no real data there.
Only way to really tell is to register 6 EMDs, all on different hosting, rewrite the content for each site, tag them the same, then send them “equal” links, all of which is hard to do but what’s needed to keep the “base” comparison (the sites, domain names and content) the same
Hi Daniel,
I am a little confused by Google’s new External keyword tool… It used to have exact match but now that is gone… Where can I find what you refer to in this post of “exact local”. I can only see: Local monthly searches… please advise.. thanks. David
After you search, there’s option on left for BROAD EXACT, etc…
DE Select Broad
Select Exact, and it will auto-update, then search by volume or CPC or whatever
I do volume first.
To find CPC, Select Columns, then select CPC from options list
Hi Daniel,
What is the minimum monthly search you are looking form in a keyword
If you are planing to build affiliate site about that keyword?
Thanks mate.
Ante, that actually doesn’t matter very much to me, because there’s not a lot of traffic in the make money online niche for example, compared ot other niches, and yet it’s one of the most profitable niches to be in if you’re marketing to it well. I have buddies making 5 figures/month from sites that only get a few hundred visitors/month.
It’s all about how you market to the audience, and sometime yes overall traffic volume does play a big role, but I only use search volume as predominant factor for niche selection when building ad Adsense site, because Adsense is basically simple math, impressions divided by clicks = $$$ earned, and you can pretty much guarantee yourself an income base doff those numbers, whereas with affiliate marketing you could get all the traffic in ther world and not make a dime due to poor marketing o rmak ebank with less traffic due to goo dmarketing
Good post Daniel!
Very useful clarification about the “exact local” and predicted traffic.
What about these blog networks you mentioned?
Are those free or paid services?
Hi Dan
Nice post and a good reminder of SEO basics especially in this age of automation.
On list there are 3 sources of links that some would call old school i.e their effectiveness today is questionable or it would depend on circumtances.
Directories, Article Directories and to a less extend Article Networks. Can you clarify that Directories are still usefull (also clarify that Article Directories). More importantly what is the key to making these 3 work.
Hi,
Wow amazing post but you forgot one thing – CONTENT.
Cannot believe how many SEOptimizers forget why people come online in the first place.
Content gets visitors in the first place and thats what SEs look for too.
There is a fine line between content creation and marketing. Many content oriented websites forget the marketing part and SEOers forget that to write content gets visitors. And no article spinner can trick visitors.
You have a good website and your content is good but many people reading your website who want to make quick buck buy all your recomended softwares but they will not have content even half good as yours and they will fail.
Also since you use dozens of programs, links from so many high PR blog networks, why is it your pagerank is still stuck at 2?
I think what you are missing are quality links.
Any way just my doubts. By the way your website is awesome and love your posts, but disagree on this post as far as content is concerned.
thanks
Hi there thanks for reading the site.
I didn’t forget about content, not one bit.
Quality of content doesn’t matter as far as ranking a site is concerned. Let me know if you need case studies proving this and I will dig them up, or make new ones. Quality of content only matters when trying to do on-site direct selling with some attention being paid to conversions, yes… but content quality doesn’t make one whit of a difference when it comes to ranking a site or particular url.
And the seo myth “more pages means more traffic” isn’t true either, not unless you’re ranking your content.
I’m “stuck” at PR of 2 for a reason, to prove, on an ongoing basis, that PR doesn’t mean anything, and that rankings are what matter.
Would you rather have a PR4 and be page 3 for your keywords or PR2 and page 1, ranked #2 for same term?