Part I: Page one search engine ranking and the rest.
Quick Summary of Contents
Have you ever wondered about search engine ranking positions?
Is there a difference in page one search engine ranking positions and the traffic generated to highly ranked websites?
I mean, you hear and read all the time about people proclaiming the number one, two, and three search ranking positions driving exponential website traffic, conversions and revenue.
This is not to say that most or all of the individuals claiming page one search engine rankings are lying.
I think everyone has their story and results, but I would like to add the twist of search ranking niches.
In today’s post, through my own experience, I’ll openly share with you about a few websites I own and operate.
We’ll cover in great detail keywords, domain names, content, social media, search engine optimization (SEO) and analytics.
I’ll take you throughout a quick timeline from domain registration to page one rankings.
I’ll shed light on theories, mistakes, corrections and overall successes and failures.
Finding keywords for optimal search engine ranking positions
One of the most challenging areas for newcomers and seasoned website owners is finding optimal keywords that are not competitive.
It’s very likely and easy to find and target competitive keywords for one’s website.
Keywords, mostly head keywords, tend to to be highly competitive to a point that it is nearly impossible to organically rank.
Head keywords tend to completely empty your bank account and max out credit cards, using either search engine optimization or pay-per-click advertising, or both internet marketing options.
As any good niche marketer knows, you don’t necessarily share the specifics of your successful niches. Again, they are called niches and hidden treasures for a reason.
Most of my successful niches are untapped geo-related keywords, both head and long tail keywords.
One of the first things I’ve learned with websites I own that are ranking in the number one position in a variety of search engines, including Google, is the need to focus on untapped niches and keywords.
I’ve found great search and financial success focusing on geo-related niches and keywords as opposed to following mainstream keywords and niches.
This is not to say it is impossible to gain the number one spot in search engines for highly competitive niches and keywords. But I digress.
I find geo-related or seasonal niches and keywords to be quite easy to build and develop websites as well as spot tremendous financial and business opportunities.
I’ve built a small number of 1-5 page websites, also known as minisites, that are moderately successful in terms of traffic and generating consistent revenues on a daily. Yes, I said *daily*.
How did I find keywords to generate daily revenues? That’s a tough question to answer.
On occasion, I would use keyword suggestion tools to determine a niche or keywords popularity and cost per click.
However, long story short, most of my success came as a bit of divine intervention and an educated guessing in terms of running searches and viewing the number of competing pages.
Based on a preset of keywords for a given niche, I would sum up the competition’s websites and their SEO efforts.
If there is a glimmer of hope to beating out the websites in the top search engine results for each keyword, I make note of the keywords and their niches.
Once I have a list of 25 or 30 keywords, I check the availability of each keyword as a domain name, also known as exact match keywords.
Top search engine rankings depend on domain names
I can’t express the importance of keywords enough.
However, compared to domain names, your domain name, as well as web host, are very critical to your website ranking in the top spot across search engines.
I’ve seen many website owners do everything correct to rank on page one of search engines only to host their website with an unreliable or spammy web host.
Then to make matters worse, they use a non-search-friendly domain name.
It is critical to have at least 25-30 keywords researched and listed before ever buying a domain. I know people who do it the other way around.
They research and buy domains first without ever considering the niche and their odds of achieving the top search engine ranking positions across search engines.
This can be a big time and money waster if you invest in purchasing domain names without niche and keyword research.
Once you have researched your niches and created a list of keywords, you are now ready to visit a domain name registrar like GoDaddy, Register.com, Web.com or Network Solutions.
Enter in your keywords to check whether or not each is available. Perform this step for each of your keywords before purchasing domain names.
Be sure to stay away from adding hyphens to domain names and other negatively impacting domain name actions.
Some of the best domains will not only rank well using keywords in search engines, but they’ll also provide you a traffic boost via type-in traffic.
As for keyword or exact match domain names, try to keep your keywords or keyword phrases to a minimum of no more than four. I use a three word maximum for registering domain names and developing websites.
More than three or four keywords, search engines tend to not favor your website and sometimes will penalize it based on the domain name.
Should you not be able to register some of your keywords, you may want to try to check out domain name auction websites like SnapNames, NameJet, Flippa, and GoDaddy to name just a few.
Sometimes domain names are not available to be hand registered, but are available for purchase as expired domains.
In addition, domain names can also be purchased aftermarket from individuals or even companies such as Sedo, Huge Domains, and Domain Name Sales to name a few.
To purchase aftermarket domain names, you’ll have to pay a considerable amount, meaning in the neighborhood of high hundreds or thousands of dollars.
There are pros and cons to buying expired domain names.
One con that comes to mind is that if you find a one, two or three word combination that is available via expired domain names or hand registration that is too good to be true, do your homework and research how the domain was used with either DomainTools or Archive.org. We’ll discuss why in the content section of this post.
Another con is having to pay at minimum 10 times the cost of hand registration, but the pro is that once you own it, your annual renewal is a fraction of the cost to acquire the domain name.
Personally, I’ve never purchased aftermarket domain names, but have snagged a few steals participating in expiring domain auctions.
I’ve also had the pleasure of leasing out premium domain names that are hard to come by and too expensive for individuals to purchase out right.
When my domain names align with my niches and keywords, I know I’m onto something special and possibly financially rewarding.
Unique and value-add content provides greater opportunity to increase search engine rankings
The next thing on my list after keywords and domain names is creating unique and value-add content. This is where most website owners don’t spend enough time creating their content to be consumed and shared.
Most website owners are pumping and dumping duplicate content much like breathing. They scour the ends of the internet scraping and stealing content left and right, or spinning content and articles to their hearts content. And when they are unable to generate traffic and revenue, they churn and burn to the next set of websites.
The sad thing is they could generate quite a bit of revenue just focusing on their target market and their needs.
For my niche websites, I create content that is enticing visitors to share. Within my content, I mix in pay-per-click ads provided by Google Adsense.
Now don’t think all you have to do is pump and dump content and sprinkle heavy doses of Adsense in the fray. It won’t work. It’ll leave your website penalized if not de-indexed altogether, and it could very well get your website banned.
I know many website owners who were nothing more than pump and dump adsense websites. They churn and burn thousands of websites without a care in the world. They make their quick dollar and onto the next set of niches, keywords and domains.
So be very aware of finding a gem of a domain name. Do your research and due diligence so that you are not trying to build a website on a blacklisted or penalized domain name.
Well, that is enough to get you thinking about your niche and keywords research and process. This nugget I’ve shared today is only a small but imperative part of gaining and sustaining page one search engine ranking.
Yes, there is more to speak of, but you’ll have to come back for the next installment of Page one search engine ranking and the rest.
[…] our initial post of this series, we discussed the importance of taking your time to select your niche, keywords, register or […]