How do the top sites do it?

Here is a question, look at the top sites for any keyword on goole...

Now I very much doubt they spend time link building, posting on blogs, adding to directories etc....

So how exactly do all these top sites get to the top?

Do they pay big money to SEO companies?

 

There'll be a number of other factors including internal link structure, size of site, how many organic links come from people who rate the content, the quality of the content itself in order to actually earn the links, age of the content etc.

 

Also, if you pick one of these top sites and do a fairly through link analysis of the high ranking page. You should get the answer to this.

 

I have a site that is #1 for its main keyword. From what I can determine the success is from these factors.

1. The entire site is focused around one specific theme. It has a lot of pages with content on sub topics of the theme and has that theme mentioned in a majority of the pages.
2. I did the basic on page SEO stuff like keywords in page titles, page descriptions, h1 tags, and text.
3. Lots of links from other websites that have the target keyword somewhere in the theme. I started by submitting to web directories and also do some reciprocal linking (but only to very related sites).
4. After I got some long tail hits then I got some "unrequested" links from people who liked the content.

Long story even longer I think it was from focusing on a tight theme with decent content and then getting links back to my site. Content and links, content and links, content and links...

 

In our area of competition I have seen that the "big dogs" or the sites that are world famous do not rank well on Google while they do on Yahoo? I have taken a look at the number of links they have and they are astronomical primarily due to being "household" names they get a lot of natural linking from a lot of places just because of who they are. While it does make sense I don't know how much they spend getting links, finding them....... I thing once you develop a certain energy or notoriety many links are just going to come to your site. Getting there is the key.

 

The upper echelon work almost entirely on content creation and viral marketing, that way they don't need to worry about on site SEO or directory postings etc. as it becomes part of the culture. Content = Links, it is really the simple. if you create something worth talking about, you will make money.

 

i think freelistfool and lever have got it right on. Sites with regular fresh content, many pages, good incoming links do well. Its a case of ensuring the SEO fundamentals of the site are sound the rankings take care of themselves.

 

Most highest competition SERP-s at Google are dominated by good sites of authority companies. They have their natural power - they are popular because of their products and services for many years, they have large customer base that gives them also extremely strong link background. Nowadays many of them use also professional white hat SEO. Combination of natural strength + good SEO is very difficult to beat.

 

Content, quality and SEO, make worthy your website to be on top.

 

That's really the $6 million dollar question. Not alone are Google very tight-lipped about their algo but I believe they also engage in active misdirection.

What I can say is that from my experience links are the most important factor. We're all trying to reverse engineer a monster with varying degrees of success but that monster does appear to like to feed on links.

 

Check out the keyword 'invest' and see who ranks in the top ten. Now out of those whom do you think really deserves to be at the top position with such a keyword? Some of these sites are not quality - they just have tons of links. How did they get them? Well go through some niches and take a look.

 

I am number 1 for a main search term
The site that is number 2 was number 1 for a long time. Using spyglass I found that this site has few backlinks
My site has 5000 backlinks
I think its a combination of both content SEO and heaps of good backlinks

 

Most top sites in my niche don't even have one! keyword rich link. My guess is because they have been around since the mid to late 90's they have some age factor.

 

Luck, and buying lots of links.

 

They have workers to do the job

 

Listen to what I say

The biggies know hell a lot more than we beginners do. I believe that. And none of the biggies is going to share his secrets with us. They will continue to tell you useless tips like build links, and you will be on the top over a year's time. You are not going to actually. They actually make it sound so simple that every housewife would start a blog and build twenty backlinks and hope they will be millionaires next year.

It's not going to work that way, I assure you.

Recently I remember watching a video from a pro. It said, the first thing to do is to start a blog and create a special link page. Then link out to ten or twenty top blogs in your niche and contact them for link exchange. Silly tip, I say. You can do that and nothing will happen. Nothing whatsoever.

In order to rank higher, first, stop reading the pro bloggers. Start your work. I have no secrets. I built my site to something with link solicitation only. I have worked till my face was blue and blood brown on that. With such hard work, I don't rank high in search terms I am targeting. It's impossible for first few months, I assure you.

When you become popular, you can hold contests like what Problogger holds now to get free promotion. Also, look at how John Chow increased his subscriber count. But play your cards safely.

You are going to work too hard on your site for sure. all teh best.

 

The number of backlinks and quality of backlinks are 2 different things. You could have 20,000 backlinks from unrelevant w/sites and somebody with one good backlink from a PR8 might outrank you in search position.

 

If you research BEFORE you purchase a domain name and start web design you can figure out which ideas are a waste of time and which have a chance.

If you try to get high rankings in a field that has lots of quality competition, forget it. You will probably never get on Googles first page.

The whole time you are busting your butt those big outfits have 20 plus SEO experts/designers plugging away every day writing press releases and adding quality original content, scoring killer backlinks etc.

You can't take down these kinds of outfits on your own. You don't have the manpower.

Instead try to find something a little nichy. Something that people are searching for but are finding little info about. Those areas are where you have a chance to take down some first place search positions.

Oh to the guy who was so worried about moving into position 1. Sometimes position 2 or 3 is even better because a lot of people who use google don't look at the first place site. They know it's often a BS site or even think it's a paid ad.

2nd place is often just as good or better than 1st when it comes to search rankings. Just thought I'd add 2 more cents.

Peace,

Herman