[stextbox id="info"]This is a guest post from Kai Lo. Kai Lo is a micro-niche blogger. He is currently working on two new sites Get Ex Back and Horde Leveling Guide[/stextbox]
Many people out there are trying to sell people the “secret” to getting your site on the first page of Google. Rather than spending $100+ on these “secrets”, I am going to tell you the information for FREE here with no gimmick. I strongly recommend that you follow along what to do as you read this guide.
First Page of Google
Before you begin making a website, you must first do some keyword research. I don’t care if it will take you 3 hours to do your keyword research because this is the key to make money online.
First, you need to go download a free SEO plug-in for Firefox browser. You can find it on Google by typing in “seo for firefox” and it should be the first site in the search by seobook.com. You will need it to instantly figure out the competition of a keyword that you want to rank high so you can save time. The plug-in is absolutely free so I suggest you get it NOW so you will understand this guide.
After you install the program, take a quick look at the guide. I believe it comes with video instructions. Once you have the plug-in to work, you can start to analyze your competition. For example, if you want to rank high in the search engine for “make money online” keyword, then type that into Google. You will see a blue toolbar under each link. The first one will say “PR ?”. Click the question mark to instantly figure out the pagerank of that site.
Here are the results as of today, 01/01/2010:
The first link is moneymakerinfo.blogspot.com with the title tag Make Money Online. The pagerank is 4, and the title is fully optimized 100% for the phrase Make Money Online. If you have a pagerank 4 site that is in the same niche, but your title is Make Money Online – Learn To Make Money Now, then moneymakerinfo.blogspot.com will most likely beat you because his title is 100% relevant to the exact keyword. I want you to read that again because that is VERY important!
The second link is entrepreneurs.about.com/od/homebasedbusiness/a/makemoneyonline.htm with a pagerank of 5. Why is moneymakerinfo.blogspot.com ranking #1 with pagerank of 4? If you remember what I said above, this second link’s title is not optimized for “make money online”. The title says Make Money Online (Without Spending A Dime).
The third link is 101waystomakemoney.com/ and the title is 101 Ways To Make Money | How To Make Money Online Fast & Easy. That title is nowhere near 100% relevant to Make Money Online, but it does have a pagerank of 4.
The fourth link is makemoneyforbeginners.blogspot.com/ and the blog owner calls himself Grizzly. He is very famous for dominating a niche. His current site has a PR 3, but his title is not fully optimized for “make money online”. His title is How To Make Money Online For Beginners. If only he would change the title to Make Money Online, he could easily get on #2 spot.
Besides keyword research, the second problem is building links. Typically, I see everyone in the MMO niche build anchor text links “Make Money Online”. Google knows that is not natural so even if you have million backlinks with that same anchor text link, you will not rank in the first page of Google.
What you need to do is use Google’s free keyword tool. You do not need to buy any keyword tools out there to do keyword research. People who recommend you keyword tools are usually trying to make a commission off you. The free keyword tool is here and I want you to go on it NOW:
[stextbox id="info"]adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal[/stextbox]
Now that you are on that page, type in “make money online” in the box. After the results finish loading, the FIRST thing that you need to do is set the Match Type to “Exact” instead of “Broad”. The “Exact” gives you the right estimate for how many times people search for that EXACT phrase per month. “Broad” gives you a false reading because it also covers for “Make Money Online Free”, “Make Money Online For Beginners”, etc. so that is why the search volume is so much higher when you leave it on as “Broad”.
You need to sort the Global column from highest amount of search to the least. As of today, the global monthly search for Make Money Online is 246,000. The second one is How To Make Money Online with 49,500. The third one is Making Money Online, but you will skip this phrase for now because Make and Making are two different words. The fourth one is Ways To Make Money Online, and the fifth one is Make Money Online Free.
What you want to do is vary your anchor text links with those four that I listed above. That will look much more natural to Google, but the MAJORITY of your anchor text links will still be the first one.
If this is your first website, I STRONGLY recommend you stay away from this niche because it will take you more than 2 years to even get a chance to be on bottom of first page of Google for that phrase. Why? Because the #1 site has 100% relevant title with a pagerank 4, and all the other sites on first page are fairly strong. You want to build up small niche sites with medium volume of search and low competition like I do.
How to figure out small niche sites? You can easily brainstorm ideas when you get on Amazon or eBay. There are many products that are listed. You can also simply type out one word in the Google keyword tool, and many ideas will come up at the bottom. For this article, I will use Tree for an example.
Type in Tree in the Google keyword tool. When the search is done, remember to put the Match Type as “Exact” – very important step! Usually, the 1-2 word phrases have very tough competition so without even doing my research in the Google search engine itself, I go to the 3+ word phrases. For this example, I will pick “Japanese Maple Tree” and it has 12,100 global monthly search. This is a very good amount to go for. Now, you want to make sure this keyword is worth competing against so you know you are not wasting your time. Go on Google search engine and type in Japanese Maple Tree. Your SEO for Firefox tool should show you the blue box to check the PR of each site.
Here are the results as of today:
The first link is landscaping.about.com/cs/fallfoliagetrees/a/fall_foliage6.htm with a title Red Japanese Maple Trees | Crimson Queen | Bloodgood Japanese Maples. The pagerank is 4 when you click the question mark next to PR.
The second link is gardenaction.co.uk/plantfinder/japanese_maple-1.asp with title “Japanese Maple Tree Care And Selection. 20+ Pictures” with a PR 2.
Without looking further down to do more research, I know this one is an easy one. You will not get top spot in less than half a year, but maybe 9+ months. Nothing is really easy if you don’t put the work into it and have a bit of patience!
So why did I say this one is easy to rank? The #1 site does not have a 100% relevant title. If you want to get that top spot easily, your title should be Japanese Maple Tree. Be careful with the plural form of tree. When it comes to ranking higher in the search engine, “tree” and “trees” do matter!
Also, I didn’t go over the domain name with you. The keywords in domain carry weight, but it is only one of the factor to rank high. When you have the right title, the right keywords in domain, and the right anchor text links pointing to your site, you will rank high easily.
Google does not care if your site is a .net .org .info .whatever. If japanesemapletree.info is available, then get it. I highly doubt japanesemapletree.com is available and I am not even going to search for it since I am just using it as an example. If you insist on getting the .com version, then you can add an extra word or two behind the word tree. For example, japanesemapletreeforsale.com.
Now, let’s get back to analyzing the first site. Pay attention to the link. For the keyword Japanese Maple Tree, the only word that is in the link is “tree” – landscaping.about.com/cs/fallfoliageTREEs/a/fall_foliage6.htm. That is not strong for SEO since only one word is showing in the link. Also, the person is using the word Trees instead of Tree in the title.
To figure out which anchor text links you should use, type into Google keyword tool “Japanese maple tree”.
Obviously, the first choice would be “Japanese maple tree” as your primary keyword.
The following would be some ideas for your secondary anchor text links:
Japanese maple trees
Japanese maple tree seeds
Japanese maple tree for sale
Japanese maple tree pruning
When I looked at the list, there are many more choices, but I would recommend that you focus more on the higher search volume keywords because you want to make the best use of your time.
You might be thinking, “But I don’t know anything about maple trees.” You do not NEED to know your niche to make money online or rank on first page of Google. There is plenty of free information on the internet for you to do your research. Get some information from ezinearticles.com, Wikipedia, etc. Simply paraphrase what others are saying in the same niche.
Note: I don’t recommend competing for keyword Japanese Maple Tree because I already gave the idea away in this article.
Review:
-You MUST do keyword research first! Don’t make a website, and then a year later figure out why you are not making money with the website. In my “make money online” example, the first 3 sites have PR 4,5,4 respectively. Those numbers are high, and the first site is fully optimized with the title “Make Money Online” which is very tough to compete with. The second example with the maple tree is a lot easier to compete against. Even though the first site has a PR 4, the title is not optimized, and lack of keywords in the link. The second site under it has a PR 2 and a non-optimized title. You can easily get to #2 spot within a few months, but might take you closer to a year to get #1.
-You must vary your anchor text links. Use the Google’s keyword tool to figure out variations of your main keyword.
-When searching for the keyword, always set the Match Type to “Exact”.
Many so-called “SEO” gurus will tell you the WRONG way to do your keyword research. They will tell you to go on Google search engine, and type in your keyword with quotes. That is absolutely wrong. That just shows you how many sites have the phrase “make money online” shown in the title, posts, domain, etc. There are phrases in quotes that come back with less than 20,000 search results. You might be thinking to yourself, “WOW, this must be extremely easy to rank!” You are wrong! If the first 20 sites are SEO masterminds who know how to do keyword research, link building, and know how to fully optimize their site, you will have a very tough competition.
Stop spending money on these bogus $100+ SEO guides. I am tired of people recommending SEO keyword tools when Google itself provides the best one out there for FREE. Most people recommend stuff to make commission. They tell you that it is a “MUST NEED” in order for you to make money. Everything that you need to dominate a niche is free.
The SEO for Firefox plug-in is free.
Google keyword tool is free.
You can make a free blog. The #1 site for “make money online” keyword is a .blogspot.com domain.
I am not here to write a call-to-action at the bottom to tell you that you must get a special SEO guide to make money with a link here to make a purchase. All the information that you need has been given to you above. There is plenty of information on how to build links to your site elsewhere.
If you insist on making a “make money online” site, then I suggest you also spend time making other sites as well that are less competitive. Put “make money online” site as your long-term project, while the easier sites to rank as your short-term projects. That way, you will start making money with advertisements and affiliate programs faster with the easier sites while you wait for your long-term projects to rank well.
Thanks for some really great advice you put forth in this article. Patience and hard work (long hours) are definitely the key to website rankings. Without doing the research you pointed out and incorporating the results into your domain name you’re first page ranking hopes are only a pipe dream. http://www.onlinemoneythruaffiliates.com/
My recent post Affiliate Marketing
The biggest problem is getting good links with do follow tags.Most websites which do give links put in no follow tag in order to protect their link juice which make the link useless.
It can be quite difficult but I think its manageable. I’ll give it try some time and I do hope it works for me.
I have developed a new website of my own. I want my website to appear in first page of Google search if we type any of the content of my website.
Dan,
I spoke with a few SEO friends over the weekend and they agreed with you about mixing up the anchor text. I had never heard that one before; thanks for that valuable tip… I have a bunch of links that are probably not helping me very much.
Good info- I am going to bookmark this site.
3rd and most importantly, provide quality content, this is an indirect way to get back links by genuinely driving people to link to your website.
I am really impressed with the information here… I have always used the keywords in the title tag but always incorporated additional keywords. I will trim it down and see if it makes a difference… Also very helpful mixing up the keyword anchor text… I will try that as well…
Thank you…
@SEOWebDesign,
thanks for the kind words
Then you are going to optimize your site content. Headers are going to contain variations of your keywords. Paragraphs are going to also contain combinations of your keywords.
I have followed instructions from the answers to my earlier question on abv.Yet, as soon as I try to open my ” Yahoo!” page.
I think – varying your anchor text links is most important of all. I am yet to meet someone who can outsmart Google in the long run and having 1000s of backlinks with the same MMO anchor text is even easy for a 7 yr kid to tell that it is NOT NATURAL.
Great post!
.-= TechChunks´s last blog ..TechChunks is Google Page Rank 2 Now and Wishes You A Happy New Year 2010 =-.
I like when you mention domain name relevance. I like using sites like yahoo site explorer to analyze my competition as well. A little slimy but worth in imho.
i just want to get the google picture and the the little search box to search anything i want. i hope u know what i mean.
Excellent post with quality and useful information that everyone can benefit from
.-= Organic Go Green Clothing Inks´s last blog ..SEO Link Building through Forum Signatures =-.
The more links that are on a page, the less reputation that gets passed to them from the parent page, under Google’s system.
I am just learning about all of this stuff and honestly it is overwhelming. There is so much to learn. Your blog is helping me, but I am still so new to it that I don’t completely understand certain terms. Are Anchor Text links like hyperlinks to other sites?
I have been researching getting on the first page of Google and everything is so complicated. I wish I had a start to finish guide. I really don’t know where to start.
I am an at home mom with twins and am looking to make some money from home. I using Google Adsense as a potential income. I need to get traffic to my sites. I would love any advice you could give me. I really appreciate the free advice you have provided on this blog. Anything free is hard to come by anymore. Anyway, would love to hear any advice you could lend.
Thanks for the info.!
.-= Amanda´s last blog ..Getting somewhere! =-.
I am becoming passionate about SEO. While I feel like I know a lot, there are some days it all just becomes fuzzy again. Then I stumble across a good article like this and all the haze goes away. Thanks!
.-= Rob´s last blog ..Earn Money Taking Surveys Online =-.
Excellent post. I agree with the posters who have discussed good and relevant content. Google is getting smarter by the day, and soon no amount of SEO optimization may be able to help you if your site’s content sucks.
.-= Jeff@FullLengthSEOArticles´s last blog ..JeSdDaDdY Videos =-.
Thanks you guys for sharing so much informative stuff. I will try this as soon as possible.
Most people abuse the anchor text. You are right that Google will think that it is not natural if you have a bunch of links pointing to your site, all saying “make money online”. Because that is not the natural way of linking to another site.
This is why it is important that we vary our anchor texts, but still get as many links as we can.
Thanks for this post. I’ve learned a bit more about ranking in Google.
.-= PinoyCopywriter´s last blog ..Top 3 Free Word Processors That I Use =-.
Great post. found a lot of tips that could help me in my research. I use a program that Google has. this add on seems to be way more convenient than have to go to the site every time. thanks for the post
.-= Apple Tablet´s last blog ..iPhone Converter, Now Easier To Convert Video Clips For iPhone. =-.
You have provided a clear information about the keyword research. Thanks for your sharing! I will try the way you have shown to me to climb up to the first page of Google.
.-= Kok Siong Chen´s last blog ..HepG2 – Human Liver Cancer Cell Line =-.
@Toan – I can give you a quick pointer. If you type in “make money online” in Google with no quotes, you will see the first site there has a title Make Money Online with PR 4 and his domain has Make and Money for keywords. His title is 100% relevant to “make money online” when someone types that to search.
Do “exact” search with Google keyword tool and you will find plenty of ideas. Trying to compete for “Make Money Online” would be a long-term goal if you wish to do that.
@Isaac – For a person who relies heavily on AdSense income, SEO means everything. It depends on your approach to make money online.
@Sire – Google is blind when it comes to quality of the site and ranking. It just goes by a checklist – optimized title, high quality anchor text backlinks, keywords in domain, etc. Also, AdSense relies heavily in organic search results. Putting Adsense in correct spots and right colors would increase chance of making more money.
@Affiliatehat – I would definitely check the Estimated Average Cost Per Click in Google’s keyword tool to have an idea. You are right if the advertisers are not willing to put money into that keyword (1-2 cent click keywords).
.-= Kai Lo´s last blog ..SEO =-.
I’ve been learning and blogging a lot about keyword research lately and it’s truly helping my sites. Fantastic post that pulls it all together. Nice job.
.-= Brian D. Hawkins´s last blog ..Fine Example Of Viral YouTube Marketing =-.
Well the problem in searching for super micro targeted keyword is that you may land the first page but if it doesn’t get you enough traffic because people aren’t that interested in it, its definitely useless
.-= AffiliateHat´s last blog ..What to Expect From AffiliateHat this 2010 =-.
While it’s important to rank highly in the search engines I don’t hold much value to the PR of a site. I’ve seen sites with a high PR that look over ranked and the opposite for some lowly ranked ones.
One thing to remember is even if you rank well in the search engines, just because they are sending people to your site you won’t make any money unless they land on something that they find worthwhile.
Good post, I tweeted it for you.
.-= Sire´s last blog ..A Blogger’s Opinion Is Highly Valued =-.
I say it’s back to you, not your keywords. It won’t make a difference if you’re on the less competition zone but you are not good enough there and can’t win the easy competition. What if you’re on the stiff competition zone but you are good enough to win the competition there?
I personally don’t really think of SEO keywords much because my approach is to build content for humans and develop myself so I can have better abilities in it (and win the competition). But that’s just me
.-= Isaac | GoBlogger´s last blog ..How to Increase Pagerank =-.
@Cho Toan – I am looking for suggestion from Kai as well, as it seems that the keyword I am going for does not make sense…
Very interesting post, Kai ^^ Can you give a suggest for http://www.chotoan.com for Make Money Online?
I would also add that you should get as many links to your inner pages as the home page. A 50/50 split is very natural and looks much better to the SE’s
.-= JR ´s last blog ..December 2009 Google PR Update and Happy New Year!!! =-.
Nice post. I already knew most of what you suggested, but it was a good refreasher for me.
Martin,
I am glad you found it useful. I am always here to help for free.
.-= Kai Lo´s last blog ..SEO Tutorial =-.
WOW! It took me about 15 minutes to read this post, download SEO for Firefox and follow the steps you have provided! I LOVE this post! It is CLEAR and to the point! I am about to go do some serious editing on my blogs and use the keyword search from now on, before I hit publish!
Many thanks to YOU!!!
This post should be bombarded with comments. I’ll go spread the word!
Have a happy New Year!
Arie Rich
kmpblog.com
@arierich
.-= Arie Rich´s last blog ..The Man List – Single Women’s New Year’s Resolution =-.
thanks for your useful information you have mentioned a good points for the ranking and your information seems to be very useful for the SEO peoples.
Google page rank is very important to everyone was searching for this information only thanks to you for posting this informative article.got key points here.
WOW, a long but very informative article. Guess i have to give it a try with one or two new blogs which i want to create this year.
Let’s see if i can get within 2010 to the Top with Kai Lo’s advice!
Really great post! Enjoyed reading and remembering each word from top to bottom. ~~thank~~ you both Kai and Dan for writing such great article. Today only I just knew about selecting ‘exact’ in adsense search tool. So, thanks to Kai once again…..
Hey thanks for reading my guest post!
@Keith – Whatever your product is, type that into Google’s keyword tool. Set the Match Type to “Exact”. If it has a decent search volume per month(5000-10000+), then think about using that key term.
Then, you paste that same keyword into Google search. Analyze the first 4-5 sites listed. If you have downloaded the free SEO for Firefox tool, you will be able to figure out your competitor’s strength in seconds.
I strongly suggest reading the article over again. Check to see if your competitors are optimizing their title tag and check if they have keywords in the domain link.
Regards,
Kai Lo
.-= Kai Lo´s last blog ..SEO =-.
Keith, thanks for the advice, I just took some time and broke up the text a bit so it is easier to read. I know it is a long post (2,000+ words) but it is very informative post and well worth the read!!
I just want to say I agree somewhat with your assessment of ranking #1 for certain terms, my problem with some of my product sites is what term to make my page 100% title oriented.
My need information site I don’t really care, because I just want to write what I like writing, and search engines aren’t as important (I didn’t say they aren’t important, just not as important to me on that site).
One piece of advice to help keep readers, break up the article with actual paragraphs and use H3 and H4 headings to break up topics. I almost couldn’t read the whole article…..
.-= Keith @Need Information´s last blog ..10 Goals for 2010 =-.