How I got PR6 (and pretty nice SERPS) without understanding anything about SEO

warning: selling nothing here

When I first hit PR6 I didn't even know what SEO (or SERP) meant... man, I'm not sure if I even knew what PR meant! Part of this article contains totally newbie stuff. But it was something I didn't have a clue years ago, so I thought to share. Perhaps somebody will benefit from this:

Anyway - here's what SEO/SERPs stuff I did

I didn't purchase a single SEO book (although considered buying Aaron Well's SEO book simply because I heard many people recommending it) and was merely lucky to have configured my wordpress blog properly (for example, instead of "myblog.com/?id=5" I had posts that had urls such as "myblog.com/how-to-write-posts/").

I found out that TITLE tag is very important, so I immediately paid attention to it. For perhaps 99.3% SEO people this is "obvious truth" but it certainly wasn't for me - I just was lucky So basically, TITLE tag is important to have because search engines show that in the search results. (at least part of it if it's very long)

I also realized that META tag "description" is also very important - it's shown right below the title when you do google search for example. I made sure to write something sensible there.

Last but not least I started putting better keywords in blog post titles and link anchors (link achors is basically the "text that people click" in the link) - those are also helpful for getting higher in relevant searches.

Wordpress platform worked well for me, and by merely doing these 4 really simple things I greatly improved my site in the search engines. Title tags for example was a big deal when people search different articles.

Okay, enough basics - now the 'juicy' PR6 part
So how did I got the PR6? (without paying a single dollar on ads). Well... the first obvious answer is: natural links. I simply was writing content daily that was picked by people - and miracles started to happen. People linked to my articles and search engines like that. No magic, no SEO tricks... just simply writing stuff people like to read and link to. That's it. I suppose "valuable unique content" goes a long way.

Tip: One good example article is something like "What are your TOP 10 moviews (or drinks/games/colors/whatnot)?" - then writing an article where you list your own TOP10 movies. Then simply ask people to write their TOP 10 moviews in their blogs (and perhaps "link to your site"). People like that and will link back to you.

Then I interviewed professionals (from major gaming companies) and they got featured in my blog (thus adding to my site credibility). As I had interviewed "famous" people is was then easier to exchange links with relevant high profile sites that had high PR (although I didn't even know about their high PR at that time). I did this for some time (don't do that anymore) and it helped for PR purposes.

Last but not least my site got featured on high profile websites when I sent press releases or announced something witty (like interviews or contest). These websites linked to my site thus helping me to get precious backlinks - helping me to gain better pagerank.

That's about it. I still don't understand pretty much anything about this SEO stuff , but by simple checking out some basic tips I was fortunate enough to get my site recognized in the search engines pretty well.

 

Thanks for the tips mate, rep added! This could become useful for some users.

Thanks,
Meti

 

Thanks "neighbour" - hopefully it is.

 

Yep, those are good tips. Obviously not suited for every kind of site, but for a blog/article type this will work nicely in the long run.

 

nice tips i will try it currently im trying everything for my blog

 

interesting tips -cheers!

 

which type of articles you type that everyone wants to link to you, can you please give some advice about how to make these unique contents.

 

You sound like you know more about SEO then you think.

 

Just goes to show... concentrate on creating a useful and valued website / content and serps and pr will follow.

~roland

 

I don't think that it's was merely your luck. I think you did it in purpose, so, you're smart..er than me

 

Thanks for the tips. Some of the tips - Title, Keywords, Description are general useful tips and can be used widely, but not everyone can interview with famous people.

 

Well, I've written a lengthy post that explains how I got 35K+ uniques per month - it should give some ideas (interviews for example are good ones).

I simply enjoy writing, and that's why coming up with "unique content" comes quite naturally. There are plenty of great sites such as www.problogger.com and www.copyblogger.com for example that give tips on writing content.

I suppose if you go and check out www.digg.com and see what kind of articles hit the front page you should get and idea what kind of content people like.

Uh... my brain explodes as I think that sentence. My SEO knowledge is pretty much summed in the first message

Why not? You'd be surprised if you just ask... It might take 99 "no"s to get one "yes" - but in the end it's possible - and anyone can do that.

Whenever I find myself thinking "but I can't do that"... I immediately stop that and take switch a new gear by asking: "how can I do that".

lol - well, I couldn't get PR in purpose - mainly because I didn't even know what PR was And I'm as dumb as a bucket

vwebworld summed it up pretty well:

Thanks everyone

 

awesome, I have a pr6 site too, my understanding it about the same as you.

 

Nice stuff..It is nice when you find out important things by accident. Rep given.

 

So it's ascertained ... CONTENT is king

Very nice tip you got there. It's so simple and yet much missed by many internet marketers.

Writing good quality content isn't something that's easy ... for me. Do you outsource copy- or article writing?

 

Good for us

Heh, it happens... the more people keep trying something the more stuff can accidentally happen.

Thanks, and yeh - content matters.

I write 99% of it by myself. Less than 1% comes from the interviews I make (so it's not outsourced - but simply getting other people to answer my questions).

I am opening public forums in the nearby future - that ought to help getting "outsourced" content from other people.

 

Nice

SERPS secret -doing basics effectively

 

I agree with that. But you, I could compare myself to you. I seemed to have shared a lot of the same experience as yourself, and once in a while I will think to myself that I still know so little about Marketing, SEO etc. But then, I'll have a conversation with some friends, or family about my websites. They are totally clueless.

I was talking to dad last week, and he really couldn't understand why I payed somebody $240 to submit 6 of my sites to 1000+ directories. I tried to explain to him about link development, and then about directories.. and then SEO, and pagerank.. And you know what, after the 2 hour conversation, I realised that I had been talking so long, yet I only shared with him just a small peice of my knowledge. Try teaching somebody who has never published a website in their life how to rank at the top of Google. You will be amazed how much you know

 

thanks for the nice tip...

 

I think you overpaid that person. $240 is way too much to submit your site to 1000+ directories.
Did you check the rates on the DP marketplace?