site 3 update 4-11-13

5
1.4K followers

So it's about that time again for me to give an update on my test site. I want to cover lessons learned and plans for the future with this site and other sites.

I am also interested in hearing your thoughts and ideas. After all that is how we get better, and listening to the ideas of others is how i got to where I am today.

First off, the site address is http://howtobuytaxliensnow.com I was trying to rank for the keywords "how to buy tax liens". Unfortunately no matter what I did I am still not ranking for those keywords. I am however ranking for a lot of secondary keywords and my posts have been ranking pretty well.

I only have 10 posts at the moment as I was also experimenting to see if I could have a ranking website with minimum posts and pages. I had heard that 10 was a good number.

What I learned so far
Keyword in the URL - not so effective?


If you look at my past posts on this site you will see that I waited for several weeks at a time before doing anything.

I learned that having the keyword in my domain name does not seem to be helping my site rank. In fact I'm wondering if it is hurting my ranking for that keyword.

I have heard something about branding (here at WA) for websites and I have noticed that A LOT of the websites in the top ten searches for keywords DO NOT have the keywords in the URL. I find this VERY interesting.

Having backlinks are still important!
One of the most revealing things I learned is that back links are still very powerful. You just need to figure out a natural way of back linking. I think I may have some good ideas on this moving forward.

I had tried many things with my website with absolutely NO change in my rankings. i was not even on the radar. As soon as I started building some backlinks (I was using a paid service) my rankings shot up to top ten for a lot of secondary keywords.

This was encouraging because a couple of my sites (one in particular) got slapped HARD by google with the panda/penguin updates.

I do know that this is because I was probably keyword stuffing as opposed to "naturally" linking back to my site with links like click here as opposed to how to buy tax liens for almost every back link. Google specifically penalized people that were doing this.

One of my sites was really doing well as it was ranked #3 for a high traffic keyword. I am now wondering if I add natural looking backlinks if this will "dilute" my keyword density and allow me to regain some of my rankings. What do you think?

I know good SEO works..and there is a method out there....i just need to pull my sleeves up and find it.

Secondary keywords are the next big thing
I had planned on ranking for my primary keyword but as a result of some fairly well written articles and whatever else I accidentally did.....I am ranking for a few secondary keywords.

This is impressive considering I only have 10 posts. I think what is going to happen is that authority sites are the next big thing and ranking for secondary keywords will be lucrative.

My new main site is my options trading site and is ranks for a lot of secondary keywords.

On a side note: one of my posts (I really don't know what I did) is ranking extremely well for a lot of keywords. I really need to figure out what I did because this site has held up against all google slaps and updates, more so than my main page.

This is my side mission right now.


Plans for the future
For now I have just put some adsense ads on the site. I am experimenting with the ad types and locations to see how it works..

I am going to do some more research on SEO methods in hopes of figuring out what I may be missing and why I can't rank for my main keyword.

I am working on another website and I plan to reapply what I learn in the future as well as what I already know. I have not built any backlinks to this site yet as I still have to write a few more articles.

I am going to turn all my sites into authority sites meaning minimum of 50 posts or so per site.


I'm curious to here your thoughts, fire away. Also any feedback on the site itself is appreciated.

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Recent Comments

14

Wow loved reading your blogs and I will be watching,,,

Need all the info I can get, somedays I suck it up others, I am on info overload need to stop and let it sink in like when flood watering a plant.

My site is up I am now watching for the best way to monetize it.

thanks for the good feedback. There are a lot of ways to monetize your site. My advice, try one method for a couple months, if it does not work then you can always switch it up.

some methods are easier than others. but just pick one and dive in until you find one that is better for your style

I agree thank you. BTW I am just south of you in San Diego.. nice to meet you neighbor ;O)

It's a small world!

Hi Kamali!! It sounds like you have been working very hard. Good job! I like your site. It looks great! I certainly don't know all the keyword answers, but it was nice to look at the comments here and learn from them. I recently learned that the URL name didn't convert, but it turned out to be a good thing. My URL is brandable which is important and content therein is of the utmost importance. Thanks for sharing this post!

You're very welcome!

Up until about a year ago, having your main keywords in your Url did help you rank better. But, Google has pretty much put an end to that in all of their Panda/Penguin updates...now, it doesn't hurt you to have those keywords in your Url, but it doesn't help either.

Thanks for that insight jhoecannon. I have definitely been seeing that. I heard (here) that it still helps but it factors in less. From my perspective it looks like this is actually being penalized :(

HI, Kamali, thanks for your blog. I just looked at your site. It looks pretty good to me, but I have two suggestions that might help you rank for that precious central keyword that you're aiming for.

Have you thought of using video? I heard a statistic recently that a good video, properly produced and optimized, can be as much as 53 times as powerful as an article to bring rankings. There are lots of easy ways to make good videos.

Second, once you get your video up, post it, and as many other things as you can, on a Pinterest account. Those are my thoughts.

Prolife, thanks for the input. So (just to be clear) you are saying I should create a video and post it (not on my site) but on a pinterest site?

Are you saying that a backlink from pinterest is powerful enough to do that? That is a very interesting suggestion and I will definitely consider this.

I have seen where a lot of the more successful IMers have been using podcasts and youtube videos to increase the reach of their sites.

Sadly, I am not at that point yet but it is def food for thought and worth looking into.

Thanks for the response and also, thanks for checkiing out my site!

Forgive me for not making myself clear. I am recommending that you make a good, well refined video, post it on Youtube, imbed it on your site, set up an account on Pinterest, and put up a promotion of your video on your site at Pinterest. There is a lot of training on WA and elsewhere to show how to do this. I also recommend you investigate training by http://www.amyporterfield.com.

aaaaah, thanks for clarifying, makes a lot more sense now. I need a little hand holding at times. : )

I will definitely check this out

You have been working hard on your site. You have good plans for the future. I have only just found out that google likes more than 50 posts or items on a site to rank it high but of course it has to have the relevant content and keywords. Great post and it shows how far we come with working on our sites doesn't it?

50 items? really/ that is interesting and one of the reasons why I only have 10 posts on my site right now.

Where did you get that information?

I have two sites around 46 or so pages and posts. It would be interesting to shoot for that and see what happens. Thanks for reading and sharing your opinion!

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