Here’s a great method showing you how to rank in Google:

• Open 2 browser windows
• Go to Google and perform a normal search for your keyword (no quotes)
• In the 2nd browser, type: inanchor:”KEYWORD” and hit return
• Compare the 2 windows and see whether any websites appear in BOTH searches

Now, if you find a lot of sites appearing in both browsers then you will have a tougher time trying to rank for that keyword.

Why?

Well, the sites in the inanchor window are obviously building backlinks for that keyword and if they also appear on page 1 of Google, they’re pretty successful at it too!

Tough competition!

Ignore all search numbers – they mean nothing. Concentrate on the sites on the first page ONLY. This is especially true if they have the main keyword in bold (exact words).

Also, before you start this process, check with the Adwords tool to make sure that there are actually enough people looking for that keyword to make it worth your while.

With practise, you can almost predict which spots on page 1 you can overturn and rank for.

However, you still need unique content, backlinks, and this is going to be a lot of work. However, at least you’re not shooting in the dark and trying to make sense of search numbers, etc, etc.

Try it!

Alan

I’m still continuing to add content to my gardening site as part of Brian Johnson’s ’300 Internet Marketers’ training, but now the focus is shifting onto backlinking.

In a nutshell, I’m finding related, high ranking blogs in my niche and leaving useful comments. I’ve chosen about 8 blogs that seem to be doing well in Google and I’ll be making comments on them for the next few weeks.

I’ve also added these sites to my blogroll and clicked through so that it registers on their traffic stats.

Then… I’ll be asking for a blogroll link back to my site. Hopefully, they’ll agree as the webmaster will have noticed my presence (I say, HOPEFULLY!).

Now, it’s not going to work in all cases, but I’m expecting to get a handful of high quality links back to kickstart my site rankings.

Later in the month, I’ll be looking at getting a few lower quality links (but lots of them).

I’ll keep you all updated on how I get on.

Alan

Well, I’ve spent all May adding content to my new gardening niche website.

It’s starting to look really good, no monetization at all and traffic is starting to arrive.

As part of the 300 Internet Marketers Training, Brian Johnson is taking us through his recipe for getting backlinks – quality backlinks.

This sits well with me because I’m tired of being bombarded with the latest and greatest ways to get thousands of links – most of them spammy and low-quality.

I’m pleased that the site is starting to look like a quality, authority site and I really feel that it adds substance to the gardening niche in general.

Only time will tell if this site will make tons of money, but I couldn’t have made it any better AND I’m enjoying creating it!

Alan

Yesterday, my new authority site (in the gardening niche) went live – I removed the provacy settings on my blog and released it to the world of search engines!

Basically, I’ve got 7 pages (over 1,000 words on each) with “how to…” type articles on them, pictures and sometimes a YouTube video embedded to make the pages more ‘sticky’.

I’ve got about 20 posts added and they too have pictures and video to make them more entertaining. Some of the posts chart my progress in the garden and others are based on videos I found at YouTube.

The rest of May will be spent adding lots of posts (over 3/day) and building up the site.

No monetization options for a few months so that the site gets off to a good start.

Let’s wait and see what happens!

Alan

I’ve written a great page for my new website (even if I say so myself!) and I’m proud of the unique content and images that I’ve added.

I’ve also been battling with the intricacies of WordPress, Flexsqueeze and Genesis Themes and the Excerpt function.

If you didn’t know, you can add some unique content to the Excerpt box when writing a post in WordPress and you can have this content show up on the homepage and the category page.  In this way, you reduce the amount of duplicate content that Search Engines see.

Basically, if you make a post, it gets it’s own post page, appears on the homepage and can appear in various category archives, etc.

This is not a good thing!

I’ve managed to get Excerpts onto my homepage (and category page) but now I can’t get a “Read More…” link to show after the excerpt.

It’s never been a problem before and this function seems to change from theme to theme.

Oh well, here’s hoping that the Studiopress Support guys come good.  It’s been a long day!

Alan

The training for Brian Johnson’s 300 Internet Marketers (or 300 Spartans!) moves up a gear this Month!

Basically, the month of May consists of adding loads of content:

• 3-8 SEO Keyword optimized pages (1,000 words approx)
• 3 posts per day (200 words) including a video

Now, I could normally manage this, but I’m also following Johnny G’s Healthy Wealthy Affiliate course as well.  In a nutshell, Johnny provides a 5 page site with unique content and now I have to blast out loads of quality articles for the site and for article directories.

What I like about Johnny G (aka John Gill) is that he guarantees a sale within 3 months or your money back ($29/month).  Worth having a go, I think, and the monthyl fee includes domain name, hosting and a great backlink service.

I’ll report back on Healthy Wealthy Affiliate as soon as I get into the promotion of the site.

That’s if I can still tap on a keyboard!

Alan

I’ve not posted for a while, but my new authority site is coming along nicely.

I’ve now added an SEO optimized page of 1,000 words, keyword in title, description, etc.  A YouTube video has been added to make the page more ‘sticky’ and keep visitors on the site for longer.

My first, introductory post has also been added as have a few LSI categories and links out from the site.

As my website is in the gardening niche, I’m busy snapping photos to use on the site – the weather’s been great here in the UK for weeks, so this helps to get some good piccies!

Just to make life even more difficult, I’ve started a second training course which involves creating another authority site in the health niche.

In a nutshell, I’m going to be writing many articles each day for the websites and article directories and web 2.0 platforms.

In fact, this is a turning point for me – I’m going to forget internet marketing for a while and concentrate on being a better publisher.  This suits me as I love reseraching and writing, although it does get tiring day after day.  I guess when the money from these sites rolls in, I’ll spend some of it on outsourcing and building the sites out even more.

Listened to a great webinar from Brian Johnson last night and it’s got me all pumped up!

Alan

Well, if you read my last post you’ll know that I was debating whether to carry on using Flexsqueeze Lite or go down the Studiopress/Genesis framework route.

I’ve gone with Genesis as it seems to offer some great customization options and I also like the ‘child themes’ that can be easily bolted on.

The only trouble is that I now need to get up to speed on using this new theme and learn how to customize it as per Brian Johnson’s teachings!

My Halloween websites that I set up last year are still bringing in a few sales, although my main costume authority site has taken a bit of a hit with Google’s recent algorithm changes and I’m hoping that it will bounce back.  This is frustrating because I have unique and quality content on the site (I hired an ex-literary agent to contribute!) and all I see are huge commercial sites, like Amazon, above me in the search engines.

What do you think?  Has Google stopped indexing the web and is now merely promoting its highest paying commercial sites?

Hmm…

Alan

I’m debating whether to use Flexsqueeze for my new 300 WordPress site or the Genesis Framework from StudioPress.

The former has some great squeeze and sales page options but I like the SEO benefits of the Genesis Framework (without the need for plugins) and its ability to stay up-to-date (great for security and preventing hackers).

What do you think?

As part of the 300 Internet Marketers course, Brian is teaching us all how to use Flexsqueeze Lite.  It seems very capable and has some great looking skins but so does Genesis!

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated

Alan

Just picked up an interesting tip from the forum I’m a member of re: domain names and SEO.   This is important as the domain name that I’ve chosen for my 300 Internet Marketers niche is based on a pun (most of my other sites have always had the main keyword in them).

One of the guys on the forum explained that he had a ten year old domain that got  zero searches on its domain name because it was not a proper word.   Yet the site had been #1 in Google for the keyword he decided to optimise for (his SEO target) for over 8 years – above Wikipedia, CNN, BBC and The Guardian.

In fact, if you look at those domain names such as Wikipedia, it must have more #1 rankings than any other domain and yet its domain name is ‘Wikipedia’!

Google doesn’t rank domains, it ranks pages.  When you build a micro niche site the DOMAIN NAME is important for a number of reasons, but when you build an authority site (such as I am!) the domain name doesn’t matter, but the PAGES do!

So, forget about keyword domain names. If you’re building a large, authority site, make it memorable and brandable.  Heck… look at Amazon – what has that to do with shopping?

Alan