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Feb 28 2009
SEO, Keywords, Backlinks - It Works - The Proof
My first post on this blog was 2 weeks ago - February 13. The first post was entitled Make Money with Adsense . The goal of this blog is three fold; I want to rank this blog on page 1 in Google for the term (keyword) just mentioned, I want to use the authority gained with such a ranking to push my money site to the top of the serp’s by way of a link from this site and I want to prove to my readers that my system works.
So what have we accomplished in two weeks?
Two weeks ago my money site was ranked #6 on Google for the term “Make Money with Adsense”. Not bad but it didn’t produce a great deal of traffic in 6th spot.
Click images to enlarge.
So… how does one push a site up the serp’s to top spot?
One way is to create a new site targeting the keyword in question, round up some keyword anchored backlinks and get the new site ranking well for the same term. Once you accomplish that simply send the original money site a link using the targeted keyword in the anchor. How long this process takes will depend on you and your resources. In my case about two weeks. The point here is to show you that it works and you can speed things up a bit by using a free host such as Today.com. Yes - you could use a self-hosted site but then you wouldn’t have the advantage of the trust and authority already built up on the Today.com domain. As a subdomain you can leech off some of the authority which is faster than starting a new domain from scratch.
So what have we accomplished in two weeks?
Let’s start with this sites rankings - what keywords have I targeted and where do they now sit in the serp’s. (Btw - new readers can find descriptions for various SEO terms like “serp’s” on the SEO Terminology page)
Today.com provides a handy dandy recap of all the search terms that people have found my site for in the search engines. The keywords are shown below. (Click image and then use Magnifier to enlarge further)
Using this list I plunk the relevant terms into SEO Elite’s keyword rank checker and monitor the daily rankings in Google.
Like so…
I have highlighted the main terms I want to rank well for - these are the terms that I will concentrate my backlinking efforts on. As you can see - most of the main keywords are already on page 2 or better in Google’s search rankings. My primary term is in 5th spot although it is still subject to some daily bouncing back and forth in the serp’s. Overall - not bad for two weeks of work; a half dozen posts augmented with a couple of dozen backlinks. The key of course are the backlinks. Where did they come from and more importantly - what keywords are anchored in those backlinks?
Let’s look shall we…
As you can see it doesn’t take a lot of backlinks to rank #5 for a relatively competitive term if you have backlinks that use your primary keyword in the backlink.
In the first paragraph I said I had three objectives for this site.
I wanted it ranking on page 1 in the serp’s for “make money with Adsense”…
Done.
I wanted to show you that my system works… Done.
I wanted to get my money site ranking number 1 in Google for the same term…
Done.
And while we are at it - I mentioned that ranking for “How to” keywords is always a good idea as that is a term used by people searching for info - they are the people who click on Adsense ads.
In this case “How to Make Money with Adsense” and “How to Make Money Adsense“
Done.
and Done!
Any questions?
To this point I have shown you what SEO is and how effective it is for targeting traffic. To make money with Adsense you first have to understand SEO . It is the process you must use to drive targeted search engine traffic to your site - no other traffic will produce the same results with Adsense.
I will now concentrate on showing you my methods for optimizing your site in order to achieve the best results using Adsense. SEO will deliver the traffic. Adsense will convert that traffic into dollars.
Stay tuned…
Cheers,
Griz
Matt,
Nice use of “keywords” - you learn well Grasshopper!
Your answers will be coming up shortly…
Larry G,
You are experiencing the Google dance that occurs due to it’s prevalence for “new content”. New posts will rank well for a day or two and then get bumped down the serp’s as more new content takes its place. This is normal and the only way to override this is with enough anchored backlinks to give your site the authority it needs to stick in one place. Once you get it to stick you can then work it up the final rung on the serp ladder.
This multiple blog concept is really unique.But what about a beginner?
Will it work for me who is just starting out with a single blog?
Neil,
and why are you starting out with just a single blog?
What I am trying to teach you is a method for dominating a niche.
If I was to target any keyword (as a beginner) I would create the money site targeting my niche’s main keyword. Let’s say “Oil Filters” on a self hosted wordpress blog.
Then I would create a blogspot blog or several targeting each of the main long tails.
And a hubpage (or several) targeting the long tails
And a squidoo lense (or several) targeting - yup you know the routine..
And a Today.com blog - ditto,
and as many other platforms as I could find.
I would make some friends and help them out with links from all my platforms as well. They will most likely reciprocate in some fashion or another.
I would also post as many keyword anchored articles as I could write to the article directories.
I would build all the sites at the same time and using common sense I would selectively link them together using content links in the posts and a few sidebar links. I would take my time and only use original content. As the sites get ranked for long tails I would reinforce them with targeted long tail anchored links on the other sites and articles.
In addition I might spend $12 a month and join RT’s connectcontent.com program and gain even more targeted backlinks.
I would also use my Free Backlink Service to find more links from like minded individuals (and make some more friends in the process)
You can piss around half-assed with a single site or you can get serious and get the job done in record time. It takes work to be successful at this but the work is do-able if you take action and most importantly - work smart.
Am I missing something? Did you do this all with a Squidoo lens, a hubpage, a blogger blog, Connect Content, etc. or did you do this exclusively with the help of all your friends?
It’s great to have friends but there is only one Griz and everybody is willing (rightly so) to help you out. I would like to see this done with no help from your friends and only with the resources us mortals have.
Griz–this time YOU just wrote the e-book on SEO for adsense in your reply to Neil. I’m pasting that into my SEO study notebook (yes, I keep one. I’m that obsessed with learning this.)
Time to ask about the sandbox. I registered a domain on January 27, and bought a related PR2 used domain on the same day. I put a decent amount of content on both of them with the right amount of keywords and pointed a backlink from the PR2 to the fresh domain anchored on the phrase I wanted to rank for. Voila, within a week the new domain is indexed, PR0, and in 7th position on page 1. Two weeks later, it went down to page 6, which I expected, but now it’s off in lala land–it’s not deindexed, but it’s nowhere to be found in the first 50 SERP pages.
I expected the google dance but I didn’t expect to get bumped this far down. Did I do something wrong? What do you do to avoid sandboxing?
Griz, no disrespect intended, but it looks like your money site is ranked #1 due to the Google promote tool. I’ve got is ranked a few spaces back from this blog, either way very impressive.
Hey Grizz,
I know that your system works because I have used it with success, but I think your rankings for your money site are a little premature. According to my datacenter, your makemoneyonline site is ranked #11 for make money with adsense. I think your results might show #1 because the site was promoted at one time or another in your personal results using the new google format. I have a few pages of mine that do the same thing. No biggie, just thought you should point out to noobs that you have to be careful how you check rankings because sometimes personalized search affects them to be better than they really are.
Best,
Matt
Hey Griz,
So let me see if I understand you correctly. Example if I want to rank for keyword “how to lose weight”, I should start a blog with keywords in the URL. Like loseweightforbeginners.today.com
Then you should make related long tail blogs on different platforms. Like loseweightwhilerunning.blogspot.com and loseweightquickly.wordpress.com with long tail anchor text pointing to my site.
Also I should be making squidoo lenses, hubpages, articles ect….With long tail anchor pointing to my site.
Then I can use using something like connectcontent or linkvana to finish it off??
Is this a good strategy?
Good Morning Griz,
Another Master’s level class in SEO. Thanks for all the information you provide.
I had a question about the other blogs that I create for the ranking of the money site. I think the goal is to rank a blosgspot blog for a longtail with some posting and a few targeted backlinks. Then do I link back to the money site with the anchor text of this targeted long tail or do I link to the money site with the main keyword for the site as the anchor text.?
I think I almost understand but I am not clear on this.
Thank you for your patience with us as we learn.
Lorecee,
The more authority links you can get the more chance of avoiding the sandbox all together. If authority links aren’t available then you work your way out of the box with as many links as you can get and use lots of original content. And do not monetize the site until you have some established ranking for your terms.
If the niche is not that competitive you can free yourself from the box rather quickly - if it is a spam niche (insurance, law, cell phones, pharma etc) then you could be in the box quite a while without some authority links.
Carole,
Yup - same content just don’t duplicate it - re-write it. I have four MMO blogs all talking about the same stuff more or less…
Use the support sites to specialize on certain topics while using the flagship or money site to generalize on the same topics.
Dinheiro,
You will find that you rank differently across all the data centers and will see more or less traffic depending on the data center you rank well in. You rank differently because of the geo-targeting used by G and where the search is undertaken. G will provide local sites ahead of your site in the serp’s on the assumption someone in Canada or Australia or India etc would likely want results from a site based in or on their local jurisdiction.
I use SEO elite to get a more accurate read as it averages out the US data centers. You can usually tell by the traffic if you average a decent ranking across all data centers. Trying to rank high in both the US DC’s and the UK DC’s is the tough part.
Matt,
It will rank differently depending on your Data center. I’m in tenth spot on my data center.
Mattmorr,
Again the data centers will give different rankings - the average of all US DC’s is given by SEO Elite and my increase in traffic would support it. I use the rank checker rather than Google primarily because of the personalized search function skewering the results. The best way to really know your overall ranking is to use Google’s webmaster tools - unfortunately it isn’t giving me data yet as the site is to young. The increase in traffic for that term over the past two days indicates that it is well up in the serp’s overall - always the best indicator.
Shon,
That is the strategy in a nut shell.
Agrande,
You will eventually do both as well as use other long tails. This isn’t a one-off process - keep building all your resources and use them over time to supply many links to many sites - yours and others using various keywords.
I found this recently.
Make money with adsense= what is the competition for this keyphrase.
In other words, how do I measure my competition.
by putting keywords in ” ” or allintitle:keyword or intitle:keyword
Different ways gives different results.
another one: If I am creating all these blogs in different platforms, blogger, wordpress, today etc doesn’t google see this and punish the site for creating ?farm blogs OR this is ok?
final: when I create all these supporting sites, I should create different original content for each or just use same content but use different platforms.
Thanks for sharing your experience. Great site.
Derrick,
Thank You…
Stan,
You can use the “exact phrase” search to narrow down the possible competition but it is generally inflated as well. It just tells you how many posts used the exact phrase in the post - it doesn’t mean they are actively competing. Same goes with allintitle - they just used the phrase in a title.
To really know the competition just check the anchored keywords for all the sites on page 1 - if they all have anchored keywords for the term then check page 2 and so on. When you get to the first site that doesn’t have the keyword you are after in the anchors then you know how many real competitors you have - the real competition will be using the anchored keyword in their backlinks. You will be surprised at just how few real competitors each niche has.
As for the farm question - is this a farm blog? Would it pass a visual review? Does it have legitimate and useful info? Isn’t the content original?
If you slap up a bunch of duplicate content on multiple platforms linking back to one site then yes you will run the risk of running a blog farm. That isn’t what I’m telling you to do.
I’m telling you to create useful, original posts on various platforms and use them to support your money site. If you use common sense then you will also use them to support other peoples sites as well.
Take a look at all four of my MMO blogs - they stand alone, they have legit useful info and they don’t just exist to link to any one site. They also just happen to help each other as well.
Common sense folks…
SEO is certainly important in getting articles ranked. Google’s algorithm is complex and tips are always helpful.
Julie B Mack,
Actually I am trying to show everyone that the algorithm isn’t complex at all - and neither is SEO. All you need are more anchored keyword backlinks than the competition and you will rank number 1 in Google. End of story - forget all the other crap.
All the garbage you read is just fluff served up by people who don’t have a clue or from SEO “experts” trying to sell you their worthless service. I couldn’t charge you big dollars for my SEO services if I told you all you need are backlinks…
thanks Grizz for clarifying.
“If you use common sense then you will also use them to support other peoples sites as well.”
I think that is the key. I have seen people creating farm blogs and hike their PR and link to their money site ONLY.
But again, if I am using adsense on my money site and support sites, doesn’t Google see the plan?
I guess that is the maximum we can do to give it a legit look.
Stan,
My bad - I don’t use Adsense on all my sites - just the money site or sites. Like this Today.com blog, not every site you build is intended to make money directly. That’s why I call them supporting sites. I have several hundred sites but only a few dozen use Adsense.
PS… for those that don’t know - the ads on this site are not mine - they belong to Today.com
Sunshine,
Exactly. I’m trying to avoid all the things that get people bogged down on this site and stick to the basics. Things like the Data Centers for instance - I left that out of the post because it really doesn’t matter in the long run. If you do the basics then you will dominate all the DC’s in time. We could spend days (and I have on the MMOFB site) talking about things that while real don’t mean a whole lot in the greater scheme of things. My system works and has worked for years now regardless of how many times Google has changed its algorithm or how many new fads come and go (web 2.0).
Thanks for seeing the Forrest and not the trees!
Hi Griz,
Thanks fo another great post and the time you take to answer the questions in the comments.
I understand the fact we should make legit squidoo, blogspots etc, as you wrote i the comments, with good content on it, like you do with this todayblog
But what I am wondering about is, all your (supporting) sites with great decent content are still a network. Good content or not.
What I mean is, all your 3 make money online sites are still in a network, and you make obvious you are the owner of these sites by using your own name.
Couldn’t you be slapped by google because of this networking stuff? Or am I paranoid…lol
Dennis
Hi Griz,
Nice going here. I have a question that is bound to be on everybody’s lips but they’re probably too embarrassed to ask it.
This geo-targeting thing can get confusing in the extreme. Here’s an extreme (although not too far form the truth) example:
Google can be told that a site that I own is targeting US traffic through webmaster tools.
The domain is owned by me with whois info linking it to my address in Spain.
The website content is written in English (UK)
It is hosted in the US (on a US IP address)
The site sells ice cold Aussie beer to ockers in the ‘Territories (Ok, I just made that up, for the sake of the fact I like beer and it made me smile!!!)
Now how the flamin’ ‘eck does the big G unravel all that and find a place for my site?
PS: I don’t know how many searches ice cold Aussie beer gets, but if there is any justice in this world, it should be in the guzillions…
Terry
Great Job Griz! With your help I’m actually ranking in the number one spot and top ten on Google. I look forward to learning how to optimize my keywords with placement.
My intuition/gut tells me titles, widgets, categories, and pages but I could be wrong. I guess what I mean is the fact that I have:
Buy movies (keyword) on a widget
Movie release schedule 2009 (keyword) as a static page
movie stop (keyword) as a category
I had a dream last night, It was very inspiring.
I was sitting on a log in the forest wondering how am I going to approach making money online with adsense. This bear walks up and says “what are ya thinking about” I say “oh, just how to make money online with adsense, thats all” The bear smiles and says “I know how to make money online with adsense” I say “really? please tell me how to (dont’ over do it :)) with adsense” He scowles and with a thundering roar says:
“While they churn out quality content I churn out keyword relevant content and build links. They write for readers - I write for search engines. They don’t make money. I do.”
The bear smiles, farts and walks away.
Moral of the story: Don’t drink Tequila before bed.
I built 10 websites today in the same niche, I know enough to be dangerous, onward I go….. I deserve a few cold ones this eve.
Thanks for everything you do Griz
btw. that quote comes from your best post ever on Sept 18, 2008.
Bragger!!!!
I was just getting a chuckle over at Digital Point on a post all about you. People had not heard about the Griz. So people were sending them to your make money online for beginners blog and they were shocked at how awesome you are. It was from last year but they all became followers I believe. I found it through one of the long tails to my site: griz “make money” OR “internet marketing”.
I don’t hang out at DP but this post was above my site in the serps.
Boy there is a long tail I can use for my site!
Spending the bulk of my time building supporting sites lately so I can build that authority and hopefully make real money with Adsense soon.
The proof is in the pudding and you have the proof you definitely know how to rank in the search engines. SEO is definitely 10% on page and 90% off page.
I just heard a good friend of your call you a genius at SEO and Adsense. You have a gift! How long have you been doing internet marketing and making money online?
Griz,
Excellent post. A question regarding setting up the supporting blogs on Hubpages, Squiddo, Blogger, etc. Should we set up these sites targetting only one keyword or is it better to setup a more general site and then put up posts targetting long tail keywords. For example, would it better to put a home improvement theme site at Blogger, Hubpages, etc. to and then target long tails related to this niche with different posts? Or is it better to put up a site on these platforms with just target one long tail and make like 10-15 hubpages, bloggers, etc.? The other method of just doing a general niche would on these platforms would enable a wide variety of posts within that niche? What do you think?
Also it would be OK to link within the platforms and then send links directly from each of these platforms back to our money sites? Or do we need to link to other intermediate sites and then link from those sites to the money sites?
KF
Griz,
I think why people are confused about your money site ranking #1 or not isn’t because of the datacenters(you are absolutely right about that). Put your screen shot isn’t accurate because it appears you have “voted” it up from your Google account.
Hence the green up arrow in your screen shot. I made this same mistake when I was checking one of my sites. It is an easy mistake to make.
Derrick
Ok Grizz……….I have put up one more blog on my related niche and will be doing this frequently as you have advised.I have put the privacy policy and the adsense has been activated.
What I want to know is can I put Amazon.com and Clickbank banners along with adsense?
Griz,
Question - Say I find a group of keywords that that have a high estimated CPC… I check out the SERPs and the top sites are serious sites (i.e. have lots of high PR backlinks, are actual companies that provide useful services for those keywords), but after digging a little bit, I find that the links are not targeted to these keywords - although they are targeted to related keywords (don’t include the keywords I’ve researched but are obviously related when looking at them). Would it be possible to outrank these sites by getting a few (or lots) of backlinks targeted to these specific keywords?
From doing a little competition analysis, it seems these are highly regarded for the software/information that they provide, and despite having hundreds of backlinks they aren’t necessarily targeted to certain long tail keywords that generate decent traffic and high CPC (according to G’s keyword tool).
I’m just curious how/if a niche like this can be had despite the competitors being actual companies that provide real solutions to the keyword being searched for, even though they don’t necessarily target that keyword in their link campaign.
Ray
Well, that’s it - I’m finally going to buckle down and really try at this now. Thanks Griz…
My goal for this week - outrank you for the term “make money with adsense” with a brand new blogspot blog. Let’s see if I can practice what you preach… I’ll let you know how it turns out!
Hey Griz your power of persuasion is just amazing. You apparently even have Miss Middlebrook on board. Recently all of her posts have been about backlinks and in the comments of her current one she says she is not looking for traffic only back links.
It must be because you and Vic are such suave guys that you won her over.
Or maybe it is just reality.
Anyway I am sure she will give you the credit due for her education one of these days.
Can you really stock enough beer at this time of year to last 10 months? Or is that what the plane is for?
Hey Griz,
I noticed the following searches your today.com search term recap:
grizzly seo make cookies milk chocolate
make cookies beginners
You better be careful - you are gaining authority as an expert in making cookies!
Make Money With Cookies
Make Money With Cookies For Beginners
Make Money With Adsense Cookie Recipe Sites
Make Money With Adsense Milk Chocolate Cookie Recipe Sites
Dang! Now I’m hungry!
Griz, I am truly amazed and inspired (again). Thanks for such rich info–I’m still tripping over the fact that it’s free. It seems that lately I have “turned a corner” with Adsense–It’s weird, b/c the blogs that are making me the most money (all Blogspot, following in your footsteps) have not been updated in about 2 months. I literally haven’t posted on any of them in over two months (just building links to them), and yet they are getting clicks every day now, when it used to be every other day, or three times a week, etc. Have you noticed this on any of your sites? It seems like (as you have already pointed out) posting frequency doesn’t count for jack…my CPC has not dropped one iota. Maybe the lack of posting is working in my favor, because when visitors stop by, they immediately see an “old” blog that looks to be abandoned, on top of the fact that they’re all ugly (LOL), so people are almost forced to click now!
Thanks again for the excellent insight–received my first check from Google back in January ($117.04), and I’m over halfway to getting my second one now…slowly but surely I’m adding blogs to the “portfolio”, and things are clicking right along. Much respect to you!!
Grizz,………where are you?
I have loads of questions and you are not around to help me out.
I have been regularly posting comments with proper anchored links on dofollow high pr edu sites
which are also subsequently getting approved.
But when I check with SEO addon of Firefox I don’t find any edu back links for my site. Why?
Does it take time for G to consider them as proper edu back links?
Pocket Aces
I have a question for you.What is your average daily unique traffic and what is your average daily page views. And how many pages you have on this blog for which you have started the monetized process with adsense.
Anyone having a hard time signing up for today.com. It won’t let me for some reason. I’ve tried on two separate computers.
@Medic, I registered for my today.com blog on Saturday and got an approval notice within just a couple of hours. I’m not sure what the problem is for you, but I’d definitely keep trying if I were you. Maybe contact today.com admin?
I’m happily surprised to discover that my brand new today.com blog is already showing up on page 1 of G search results, and it’s in the 6th spot already, even though it’s only two days old. How awesome is that?!
Like Griz has said, get your today.com blog right now and start making money online! Even though users can’t make money with Adsense on a today.com blog (or Adsence if you can’t spell very good), the ability to make money blogging is very real. Yes, it is, thank you very much.
Hi Grizz,
Can you use SEO Elite’s keyword rank checker for an unlimited amount of keywords?
For example, if you have 5 sites with 200 keywords that you want to keep track of, can you use this feature to track 1,000 keywords daily or more?
Thanks,
Bridget
@bridget
i’m not sure about 1,000….but i use SEO elite to track all my sites. the list is at least 100 phrases long.
in my experience a list of 1000 words will take FOREVER to run. but you can save keyword/site lists and load and then run them to make it easier
–korr
Griz,
Thanks for all your continued efforts in spreading the free knowledge on totally dominating a niche. Once again you have given us all some great tips to push out our niches to the masses. I did however have one disagreement with the screen shots you posted. Your logged into Google with these screen captures and you have voted your make money with adsense for beginners up to the top spot (notice the green vote up arrow
) results are a little different when you are not logged into Google and there are no vote arrows on the screen. I am not questioning your methods as I am a big believer and reader of your blogs for quite a few months. I have seen some great measured results with your back link tips and bringing a little ugly into my sites. Just saying that you don’t need to put out captures like that, you already have us sold. Just sayin……..
Grandmastories - same here… Registered yesterday and got the confirmation within an hour or so. I’m in a more competitive niche but it’s great to see your immediate results, and I’m hoping to leverage this blog to help out my others! I would like to build my network in a few other niches, too, and today.com seems like a great platform to do so.
As for Griz [I’m Ray D. from above, logged into my new today.com account - you’ll probably be hearing from me a lot in the near future ;)], I have the same question as LarryG about BCW - I was curious as to how often this can/should be used for lower level linking sites. It seems this would greatly speed up the process of setting up a personal network and should be generally risk free so long as these sites are not meant for monetization, correct? In your opinion, is it best to keep these farm sites specific to a niche, or general so you can link to several different niche specific sites?
Also, is your niche support page on MMOG more geared towards your farm sites, secondary support sites, or money sites?
Thanks, you are one helpful dude.
Ray
@Mikael
The adsense on Today are Today’s own and not Griz’es, so it will be two different adsense codes.
Max.
Hi Max, thanks. They all look the same
I would still like to hear whether it is true or not that it is harder/impossible to have several site ranking highly when they are using the same adsense code.
Thanks,
Mikael
@ Korr
Thanks for responding.
Also, good question.
I was wondering how to keep the support blog from passing you main money blog in the SERPS myself.
Griz,
I have an off topic question. I just started reading both your blogs and Court and Mark’s blogs. You are a fan of free blogs while they like to have their own domains as they mention they would like to leave the option open to sell their sites down the line. Couldn’t you sell a free blog as well? What are the real pros and cons to these two different thought processes?
Thanks,
Brian
Hey Medic–I’ve been trying to sign up for Today for a week and finally got in. I used IE instead of Firefox this time. Also, they don’t like spaces in your user name, so pick a single word. Please let us know if this works–other users here had problems too.
Griz,
have you installed G Analytics on this blog? If so how did you do it? I’ve started a today.com blog and cannot figure out how to properly install Analytics. I’ve got a tracking code and gone to the Analytics tab and pasted it where I supposed to. Analytics says the tracking code hasn’t been installed.
It is good to see you back online.
And thanks for both the answers.
I have got one edu link.May be the others were ignored by G or will appear subsequently.This one took a long time to appear.
I have one more question.I find blogs on my niche with good pr.I move on to make a comment with my anchored link.But the problem is the page where I leave my comment has no page rank.So I end up with a few back links with no page rank.
How do I solve this problem?
Also will these back links pull me down page rank wise?
Are these links of any value?
Good grief…how many times must griz say that the adsense ads here belong to Today.
People should read the comments as well - there’s a ton of useful tips too.
mbm
@ Jason I like Market Samurai too! I ignore the inlinks to the domain - especially when the disparatly is as much as you quote - odds are that they arent going to be anchored properly - check out he 69 - how many of those are properly anchored - that’s your real target
Griz,
Just a quick question If I make about 100 blogs for my niche using different free blogging platforms with different IP addresses and make post on all of them with different variations of my keyword anchor text within the post pointing to my main site.
Will they anchor links hold any weight to move me up the serps even tho they will all have no PR at all?
Would making all these website be a smart thing to do in a small niche?
Hi Griz,
In KF’s question about linking from support sites to money site, etc., you said “This also applies to link networks - always use a secondary site.”
Would this be the case with something like BLS then? Are you saying to NOT use links from BLS (a link network) posts directly to a money site, but rather to only link out to secondary supporting sites like article posts (e.g. goarticles, etc), squidoo lenses, hub pages, individual blogger blog posts (if the blogger blog is NOT the money site)?
If this is what you’re recommending, why is this?
Can’t do both, i.e. link from BLS posts to money site AND to supporting sites?
I know you want your linking profile to look as natural as possible, but suppose the money site has hundreds of links from various sources - should there still be no links to it directly from a network like BLS?
Thanks Griz.
Gary
Geeez…
Just found this place… Where have you been all my life, Grizz??
Couple of Q’s…
1.What do you do to promote your support sites? Backlinks, bookmarking? Or do you just let them perculate on their own?
2. What importance do you place on SEO elite? Seeing your screen shots I had such an “AHA!” moment… With the script you can really track your performance, right?
Money is a bit tight at the moment, but if it would really help in the long run to optimize my sites and make more money, than I’ll just have to eat bread for a week or so. Don’t want to put you on the spot….lol… but how important is SEO elite to YOUR success, in your opinion?
Thanks, and am SO glad I found this place!
Suzan
Ok Griz,Thanks for the reply .You told Jason this.
” The only thing you need to know is how many links your competitors have that use the keyword in the anchor of their backlinks. And what kind of PR those anchored links have. That is your competition. To outrank them you will need more anchored backlinks than them.”
How do I know that?
Is there any free software for this?
Okay great info mate. You do a tremendous service to the community. One question thou, what is the difference if any between your overall method verse an automated program driven method in getting indexed? What is your opinion on program such as fire..w. Is there a risk using these programs?
Thanks Griz for your answer,
never thought about the cnn example. I hope same rules apply to you too
cya
Dennis
Ok, i finally finished reviewing all the posts and comments on this blog. it only took me 4 days.
This is my first post. I have been a reader/lurker until now. I only ran across this site and information last week and I am so “juiced” up to move on it.
I already created my accounts. I got my adsense account 3 days ago and the approval only took about 12 hours. they already auto-emailed me a how to get my ads started immediately… so that must be good. I did use my own self-hosted personal website to sign up… that might have something to do with it.
I also created a today account and some other ones I can’t even remember right now.
I wanted to thank not only Griz, but all the other members with the great comments and questions. everything is answered in the comments. read em.
I am off to read the main MMO site now… but i do have only one question, which might be answered in my future research.
” How do you identify properly optimized sites ?” meaning, what do i look for and what should i do to mine?
does anyone have a good example of a well optimized site along with a “why” it is well optimized.
thanks again.
Ryna
Hi Grizz,
Okay I just got smart priced, I think, but I am totally confused, the site I recently added seems to be the only variable that is changing the click revenue on another site that was making an average of $1.75 per click before and is now, 2cents. The new site is getting about 10,000 uniques per month and here is the traffic source breakdown:
28.86%
Direct Traffic - (Blog Readers)
28.90% - Referring Sites - links on other sites (most of those NOT social sites, many are blog comments and links from other bloggers)
42.24% - Google Organic (few are Yahoo)
Now, is that NOT enough SE traffic? Is there a percentage of SE traffic that needs to be the goal here?
HELP!! Should I remove the ads on the new site that is killing my clicks on the other site? The funny thing is that I have been getting very few clicks on this new site and yet the other site has suffered.
Griz-
After digesting all of the info on your three blogs, I just wanted to finally say thanks! In the wild, wild world of the internet, it sure is nice to find such a huge oasis of real information. I enjoy reading all of your insight so much that it’s hard to start taking action, but I think I’m finally ready.
Thanks so much!
neil…
I’ve found many free tools that are quite useful. I’ll vouch for Griz on SEObook.com - their tool called ‘Rank Checker’ is very nice - doesn’t seem to give you quite the amount of info compared to SEO elite (based on screenshots, I don’t own that software!), but it’s the easiest way I’ve found to identify my SERP rankings.
‘Link Diagnosis’ is also a sweet tool for backlinks. The great thing is both of these tools (along with G’s keyword tool) have export to .csv capabilities, so you can organize everything within a spreadsheet to keep things nice and tidy.
Ray
… to my understanding though, it is usually not possible to find EVERY backlink to a site, regardless of the tool… Griz, your thoughts on that? I know I’ve read this in previous comments, just can’t remember where!
Griz
Thank you so much for your help, not only do you write excellent post but also take the time to answer everybody questions, I find this amazing.
Now, my honest opinion is that people should dig and read a little more before asking so many questions, most of them have already been answer by Griz before.
I fear that one day Griz will stop helping us because we are taking too much time from him and his business. Just my opinion no mean to insult anybody.
thank you!
Griz,
Quick question regarding indexing - it follows your response to Paul Brickhill’s question from above…
I think this is what you were implying, but is it safe to link from an authority/AdSense site solely for this purpose even if the lower level site is questionable - i.e. link from the money site until you are indexed and then pull that link immediately after? Does Google keep a note of this link or is that history wiped once it is crawled again without the link?
Also, how often are the archives of a blog crawled once your site is indexed - does this depend solely on the internal linking structure or do the crawlers go through your entire site each time they pay a visit?
Ray D,Thanks for your answer and helping me out.I am newbie here and that’s why I ask so many questions.
And some of them may look very simple to other experienced bloggers.
I have SEObook.com rank checker and it is quite useful.
I will try Link Diagnosis.Had not heard of it till now.Thanks Ray D.
Griz,
How many backlinks a day should you do for a keyword that you are targeting? Is there a risk involved in doing to many?
Griz,
What is the maximum amount of backlinks from authority sites you should create on a daily basis focusing on a keyword? IS there a risk in creating too many too quickly? WHats a good number to do each day for each of the keywords you’re targeting?
No problem Neil…
I’m new around here myself, although I’ve been reading this stuff religiously for the past couple months - yet another lurker that comes out of the dark! The best advice to start is to go through his archives on his other site. The more you read, the more you will want to read and implement his ideas and techniques - he lays them out very clearly, even with lengthy posts. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been sidetracked from other work I should be doing til about 3AM when I randomly peruse his blogs (I’m in grad school, although my ultimate goal is to work for myself).
I was planning on taking off a few months after I finish my degree regardless, but now I’m more motivated than ever to use that time to setup my online presence. If I could turn this into a full-time gig at some point in the future, I’d be forever indebted to Griz and his buddies. I hear persistence and good will pay off in the end!
Ray
P.S. Griz - Once I set up a few more sites, I’ll comment to get added to the niche support page…
Griz, Thanks for the answer.
What actually decides the SERP in G?
It really baffles me.Is it the keyword in the anchored back links and how many such back links you have and the pr of these back links as you had pointed out in a comment- answer?
I write a good post with all the proper SEO and still the first 3 position eludes me.There is another PR 0 site in number one.
So what do I do to get to that much coveted slot for my keyword?
Griz, I was having trouble getting my blogs indexed and since I went and listed them in a previous topic of yours (sounds like I wasn’t supposed to do that according to others, my bad) I noticed when I searched on them they do show up in the search results now…under your blog posted where I listed them. lol
Anyway, I have some questions I’d like to ask you via email, is this possible or is your inbox out of commission?
Thanks so much Grizz, I will test it and let you know.
One more question, if you have Adsense on the home page and then on inner pages of the site as well, and the traffic comes to the home page from SE and then browses your site, and clicks on an add on the inner page then I assume they are still considered to be SE visitors? I notice that the CPC is significantly higher on the home page than on inner pages of my best performing site, is there a reason for that?
Hi Grizz,
Yet another great post!
Can you please validate my understanding of setting up an example link network?
Let’s assume my money site is about “cheap window blinds”.
I can then setup various general blogs (Tier-3) about home improvement and have single posts about “cheap window blinds” pointed to intermediate blogs (Tier-2). The Tier-2 blogs have legit content about “cheap window blinds” or related and have links pointed to them via articles, farm blogs, connectcontent, link exchanges, etc.
Once the intermediate blogs (Tier-2) have enough authority, then point “cheap window blinds” anchors to my money site.
So farm blogs = General Topics and intermediate blogs = specific niches?
Outside of social bookmarking and do-follow commenting, is there anything else we should do to promote the Tier-3 sites?
Thanks,
Sal
Griz,
How can I know the difference between thin content and legit content?
Is there a way to check how many sites link to a specific keyword string? For instance, could I find out how many sites had anchored keyword links of “make chocolate chip cookies” ?
Griz, sounds good I’ll try to keep my questions in the comments since that sounds like it works best. Sometimes I like for you to look at my sites real quick and some say it’s not a good idea to list the url here. I just created a new one on today.com realated to some of the things you speak of in your blog and wanted you to take a peek but again not sure I want to put the url here….maybe I could send you a smoke signal?
At this point I’m still creating and testing the waters. Getting indexed and making a few bucks as proof that I’m getting some things right. Good approach? I guess I don’t want to create a ton of blogs that were set up wrong or the url’s are wrong…Some of the blogs I have going now I have counters on them but not sure if that’s the best way to get metrics from each site…sorry rambling…
By the way, I like the way you’ve set up this new Adsense blog!
Griz,
Is this the optimum strategy to push your money site to the top?
In other words, if you had just built links to your money site rather than this domain, would it have ranked, but just taken longer?
ernesto
Can a beginner make money with adsense? Recently, I started from scratch on a new keyword and am following your advice Griz, and am updating my progress as I go along following the instructions that you gave Neil above to see if a beginner really can do it or not. My most recent video is here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbN2BwvVRLA
Good news I am indexed and google has sent me my first search visitor. Yeah!