Hit a high on a search term

Hi,

Well I wasn't planning to launch my site until the end of the month but I had been spending some time trying to get content into my site and thought well I might as well put a link to it from an older site I had - my very first site which is PR3 and went untouched for 2yrs.

To my surprise today one of my search terms ranked my site 3rd in msn results - my new site is PR0 and the highest PR sites in the area I am in are at PR5 - that includes the actual game site which receives over 1.4mil queries per month on its name. (knowing my luck I will do something and it may plummet down the listings instead of going up the listings for other search terms)

Unfortunetly I am only on page 7 so far for the main one word search. Although I checked all sites above me and at least 20 of them were just spam sites and landing pages full of useless garbage.

Well, I decided to get signing up for adsense as might as well try and get recognised by google lol as I listed then vanished then listed then vanished from them.

I was planning to use the next 2 weeks refining content and adding some more onpage SEO. Hopefully that will boost the serps up a few more pages for the main 5 key search phrases and bring some results in yahoo and google.

Hi Ganceann,

If you're not already, I'd suggest focusing on off-page SEO, as well - namely, obtaining backlinks to your site from other quality, relevant sites, and using varied anchor texts which include your keywords. In my experience, off-page factors are weighted much more heavily than on-page factors in the SERPs.

Sam

Yes, it was off-page factors I was planning to concentrate on after the end of the month.

I was basically looking at trying to do all the on-page SEO first and then gradually bringing in some off-page SEO to appear more natural a process.

Google does seem to rely more on off-page SEO (40% onpage, 60% offpage), yahoo is a 50/50 split and msn is 60% on-page and 40% off page. ( Obviously just approx my interpretation).

So my idea was focus on my onpage optimisation, get it reasonable and then move onto looking at increasing off-page SEO.

Hi Ganceann,

I think you have a good plan, and I'm sure you'll see results after you implement it. You're definitely smart to pursue a "natural" approach to off-page SEO, and this is something I have to remind myself of now and again.

Sam

Thanks for replying

Well, I am aiming to get into SEO although with no track record / portfolio the only way to get one is to be able to successfully get my own site ranked highly for common keyword searches. The site I am doing hs some very strong competition - and a tonne of MFAs etc so ranking high in all keywords will be extremely hard.

The reason I am approaching it the way I am, is I have full control over the on-page aspects so being able to rank high with just on-page factors regarding msn is relatively simple IF there is low competition for those actual phrases. The aim is to try and cross-over with the popular search terms and bring them up the ranks as well. Basically trial & error.

Since my website is relatively new I am in the much maligned 'sandbox' trap with google at the minute - so people are unlikely to find my site in google. I checked it a few times - sometimes its listed, sometimes its not - kinda frustrating.

The off-page SEO is beyond my control as how I would ideally want to do it. The main sites will not link to other sites they view as being competitive - while some do not link to any sites at all apart from the main game site.

The off-site SEO is therefore restrictive in what I can do as far as relevant sites linking to mine. I just need to concentrate on getting some of the lower PR sites linking - who will require reciprocal links. I do not want to just list everyone and anyone so am being selective to try and approach the sites that are 'rated' by google for the key terms I am wishing to rank well for.

My site is not yet listed in Dmoz - which is also a negative affect in googles eyes - although the category I wanted to get listed in there was no editor - so the next closest category had 135 listings - with that editor havin about 5 areas with a combined 1000+ listings... and of the 135 listings in the area closest to where I would want to be listed at least, there were 35 defunct sites with no content or simply landing pages and MFAs

Having a lot of landing pages and MFA sites as competition is actually a good thing, as it will be a pretty simple task to outrank them. This isn't always true in the short term, but it always plays out this way in the long term. It sounds like you're taking a long-term approach to your site, which I'm sure will ultimately prove successful.

In addition to targeting relevant sites for backlinks, you may want to consider submitting your site to some quality directories (other than DMOZ), and/or writing on-topic articles and submitting them to article directories. I realize that these are much less targeted than other on-topic sites, but they can still help you in the SERPs - especially when you're first starting out.

Best of luck.

Sam

Yes, the articles idea is what I am looking at now.

I also have some more content to refine to complete the basics and then write the articles

I have looked at many directories but they all promise a lot, and for the best part I am unfamiliar with most of them.

Hopefully still on track for a kinda official launch at the end of the month

I know what you're saying about the directories, and I don't think it's wise to submit to all of them. This is one area where I think PR is actually valuable - focus on directories with a PR5 or higher, and it will be easier to separate the wheat from the chaff.

Sam