Play Poker Online - Is this term realistically Top 10 achievable?

Or do you guys think efforts would just be in vain?

For a highly competitive term such as this what are opinions for the "most effective" methods of achieving in a relatively short period of time (6-12 months)

 

Top 10 rankings are achievable, but it would take quite some time. Top 5 rankings on the other hand would be very difficult. That is where you would get some decent traffic.

The problem with this search phrase is that you are mostly promoting fulltilt, yet they rank very well for that phrase themselves. So if someone wanted to try fulltilt, they would've already found them through fulltilt's own website.

Ideally you could find poker related terms that fulltilt is not already ranking well for. They likely already rank well for most good poker keywords though. Your best strategy may be to target many low volume poker keywords.

You will need a massive amount of links to rank well for poker related keywords. So you will need a balanced link building strategy including things like: articles, press releases, directory listings, social bookmarking, forum links, blog comments, etc. To achieve rankings quickly you may also have to do some paid text links and possibly some link baiting.

 

That's the issue I'm up against. I'm wondering if my SEO efforts will be wasted in trying to achieve Top5-Top10 results or are they better off in advertising/promotion. I am currently doing paid advertising which is yielding incredible results, however we all understand that a Top 10 organic ranking is invaluable.

FTP is toting 256,122 backlinks while the #10 site only has 2507. I'm thinking I would have to fall somewhere in that range with relevant links.

My background is web dev/seo/marketing (10 yrs experience). So if I am on the right track my opinion would be to hire a group to do a full blown article writing/spinning and link baiting campaign.

Does the forum agree or disagree that this is the best method in my specific situation?

 

That's going to be a tough row to hoe... I bet online poker playing would be much easier. If you are going to give it a run though, I think you are on the right path.

 

Well I'm trying to target high volume keywords because honestly it takes more work to go after 10 phrases searched 5x daily than 1 phrase searched 50x daily. See my point?

In the past I have always been able to achieve top 10 rankings for all my sites but this one presents a dilemma. Has anyone on the forum had to tackle a really tough keyword/phrase and how did you overcome it?

 

Not acheivable IMHO. You are competing with the likes of Full Tilt which earn millions of dollars annually and are SEO minded.

 

The will be an absolute bitch to try and rank for. I'm sure it's possible in the long run but it's going to take a very long time and I think you are going to have to put a considerable amount of money behind it.

If your site is already making money through PPC and such I would focus on improving that. You can still gradually build links and optimise for this phrase but I really wouldnt focus on it.

Personally I dont think article writing and spinning is going to be enough. You are going to need a lot of high trust links from other Poker sites and usually the only way to do this for a site like yours is to but them. Dont usually recommend that method myself but I think most basic SEO technqiues aren't going to work here.

If I were you I would continue building us the online advertising methods if they are working and maybe look at expanding this - advertising on other poker sites and developing groups in social media sites. At the same time I would optimise for some longer tail phrases that the big sites aren't going for. Ok they wont bring as much traffic as play poker online but they'll still be ok. Then after a year or two once your site has some trust you can start to optimise for the more competitive phrases if you still want to

 

Yes I know it would be very difficult, but I didn't get to my position today by acknowledging that anything was "too difficult" to accomplish. However I still want to throw a splash of logic to the mix and recognize when it makes sense to pursue another avenue. The net is getting really crowded and we're all fighting for elbow room. Picking up scraps for low traffic keywords seems like a losers option to me. Or am I being too proud?

 

Logic should tell you you are way above your head. The big fish have an unlimited budget and are on top of the SEO game. That's a lethal combination. Not to mention they are already very established sites. So you are playing an endless catch up game. In general, stay away from PPP (pills/porn/poker) it's just too competitive.

 

The term "Play Poker Online" won't be too difficult, you're looking at 3ish months if you know what you are doing and likely a bit less if you have the keywords in your domain.

The term in quotes for an exact match has 795,000 results, the worst site on the front page (for off site SEO) has only 10k backlinks and the bulk of them are from a couple of low quality sitewides and Squidoo pages.

I've certainly ranked a lot harder terms in less time, it's doable so don't give up.

 

Thanks for the laugh buddy.

 

sky is the limit

 

And the funny thing is what?

Oh yeah my bad, nobody can rank on the front page it's impossible.. That's why it's blank and there are no websites there.

Look, if you can't outrank thin affiliate sites with a lousy 10k junk backlinks it's not my problem.

 

Get off your high horse. You are talking out of your ass, seriously stfu if you have no clue what you are talking about. Within 3 months are you going to compete with the likes of partypoker.com fulltiltpoker.com pokerroom.com and pokerstars.com ? Who cares about #10 on the first page, I am talking getting serious traffic for this keyword. Are you some SEO superhero? I wish I had your mad SEO skillz.

LOL at you using some technical word like "thin affiliate sites" to give the impression you know what you're talking about. You do realize you are competing with the online poker rooms and not affiliate sites for this keyword?

 

Ouch you seem a bit hurt, Google must of penalized your sites and fondled your naughty spot.

Considering i have no clue, would you like to put your cash where you mouth is? Lets drop $1k each in Escrow, i register a new domain right now and if i don't rank front page for "Play Poker Online" in sub 3 months you keep the lot and if i rank it i get the lot.

I will of course post the domain here so DP can watch, what have you got to lose right? I have no clue remember, so it's an easy $1k you don't have to lift a finger for.

PM me and we will get the Escrow arranged, otherwise slink back in to the peanut gallery where you belong.

 

I am referring to top 3 for this keyword, and NOT the honeymoon period where you may rank really well for the first month or so, and then get sandboxed. I am talking about serious traffic for the long term, not getting a domain to the first page for a few weeks to inflate your ego but doesn't do much else.

I am pretty naughty in bed may be G did find my naughty spot

 

Well I like the encouragement coming from bank and Tyler Durden, thanks guys, and I appreciate the input from EVERYONE. We are all here to succeed and bounce ideas off one another.

In fact, the debate and banter has given me a GREAT idea. I'm going to implement it immediately and if it works I'll be sure to report the results to everyone who has contributed to this thread. We should do this more often because the greatest ideas are born through adversity.

Who knows, if it works, maybe I can package it in an e-book.

 

Oh you are? That's funny nobody else was, read the thread title "Play Poker Online - Is this term realistically Top 10 achievable".

I said yes, a top 10 is achievable.. So now you want to move the goal posts since i put you on the spot, and you have a hunch i will rank it and make you look silly.

openmindz, i agree go for it. Even if you don't rank for it, your efforts won't be in vein because as a byproduct of optimizing for that term your will start ranking for a whole bunch of related longer tails.

 

I guess I always aim for optimum traffic. You can go and build 10k links to rank #10 It will be SO worthwhile you shouldn't have any second thoughts about it.

 

You have a chance, everything is do-able, but if you ask me, forget articles and directory submissions, the only way to rank for anything poker is to get links from big authority sites, otherwise you are just wasting your time.