Just wanted to share I've been doing webdesign/marketing etc for many years so I know a thing or two about seo, however will admit I'm no pro yet. Since joining this and many other forums I've utilized many tactics shared and since G's last update I've found myself in #1 for a few keys I've never been able to rank for in the top 20 pages even Ok So I launch a CB Product in the Professional Stock Audio market, as I've been producing music for years and figured since I'm passion about it, I'll push it to the extreme. Prior to CB The site was up selling individual beats and had many pages, each optimized well however never ranked well. Going through my logs with a spike in traffic - I'm looking at my link in #1 of 45 Million! http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=professional+stock+music&meta= http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=professional+stock+audio&meta= http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=professional+stock+samples&meta= Just wanted to first say thanks to everyone that has shared info, and in turn i feel the need to share my tips which may be old info for some, but useful to others. 1. I now think the most important thing in SEO is your title. Utilize 5-6 of your keywords in a few creative ways, making sure that your most important or niche search phrase is the first word(s) in your title. 2. look at my Meta Tags, http://www.shockshift.com - They are not that creative/special, however very dense with keywords and relative use of variations. Description/keys/etc. are important to have, and more important is to repeat your title keywords/phrases to match. 3. The first text ON the page should also be creative use of your keywords and title text, using H1 and H2 some seem to have some affect as well. 4. Alt-Tags are also important on your images, again repeating variations of your keywords/phrases. 5. USE KEYWORD tools, analyze your competitors, check to see search volume against competition, utilize typos/misspellings, try to find keyphrases to maximize your organic traffic results and use them heavily. 6. Remember that SE's love files in your root directory most, and naming your pages like royalty_free_bundle instead of index.html or audio.html will help. 7. You won't be able to be #1 for too many phrases unless you go HUGE with backlinks, have some history (domain wise), etc. I am coming up on pages 1-3 for other popular searches like "free professional beats" http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=free+professional+beats&meta= still page 1 This means if you have different landing pages or more than one page on your site, utilize your marketing potential from organic traffic to the most, it's not really all that hard, but it is time consuming so do NOT rush it, this is vitaly important! Customize each page with the above steps with their own target phrases/keywords. Long tail them if you have to. 8. Always Submit when you update your pages. If you have a tool that submits to all major engines and say the top 50 second tier directories, USE IT! Do not hire a company to do it for you and get you listed on 1000000000 sites for $9, you will be spammed for life, and potentially have negative affects on your positioning, do them manually if you have to. 9. Read number 1 again. Just kidding, getting a brand new domain listed is already tough enough, to expect to jump to #1 right away is impossible, don't let any seo firm or person guarantee you top 10, it's not possible to guarantee it (hey if you do though, hire me - kidding again). Use the knowledge on this board, I haven't really left anything out unless I did other things that I am not even aware of (hmmm will look at my page in great detail again now), however I will try to duplicate this with other pages trying to get other keyphrases, i suggest you look your pages over get them ready for the next updates, you might be surprized with what you see Thank again to everyone that has inspired me, hopefully this will inspire you in turn! NC.
Thanks for sharing your experiences. I'm new to this game too but have had great success in climbing up the SERPS due to my linkbuilding campaigns. One word though: Article submission!!! - Ok 2 words.
Great job! I have had some success too in the urban clothing area. My sites started ranking #4 and #5 on yahoo for some of the veryy competitve brand names. Unfortunately I had to close the site though , (a loooooong story)
ok dude .. that's a three word keyword. Give yourself a pat on the back. Now try a two-word keyword and see how that goes. btw I can't see your site either. Maybe it's because i'm in the UK
Well if he ranks in Google.com than he experienced the Google dance because I don't see his site in the top20 on google.com for those keyphrases either. As long as you managed to dance up to #1 ...now keep on repeating what you have done so far for more and more..and you will get into page 1 of the SERPs. The competition is high but with hard work you can manage to get there.
You were right, I danced. I was showing up on page 1 for google.com, .ca, .co.uk and now I don't see me either but it was a great little dance, and my newest tweaks had a great effect. I'm now showing up for other phrases and nowhere to be found for some originals, back to the board... Funny thing is, around the same time i took a break from ppc'ing this, i fell in results as well, who knows.
Try those search phrases again with quotes around them. That will give you a lot better idea of the competition. In this case basically zero. Surprised you lost those rankings so quickly. They should stick with a blank page and just the phrase in the title and url. They'll probably come back though.
Congrats & thanks for sharing with us, But I really want to learn about this Google Dance & how to maintain your rankings on the search engines.