(REVEALED!) The SECRET to Google Number One Ranking (A Refresher)

byParthaB

4.2K followers

2 years ago

I felt it was time to have a new look at my keyword research techniques.

Much in the same way that your website articles could do with freshening up after a year or two, I’ve done the same for you here.

PLUS

There will be a few more things added, which may not have been in my original posts.

So, let’s get into it.

Keyword Research With Google

Okay, those who know me will know that I’m not a huge fan of keyword tools.

But, in reality, ALL the software that you use to help create your website are simply there to give you TIPS and ADVICE.

In other words, software such as keyword tools, SEO plugins, etc. don’t actually do a great deal.

Case in point, ALL my websites DO NOT USE keyword tools SEO plugins.

Guess what?

All HUGELY successful websites, I rest my case!!

This is NOT to say that you shouldn’t use Jaaxy or another keyword tool for keyword research

BUT

Once you’ve found a “decent keyword” go and LOOK WITH YOUR OWN EYES at page one of Google for that keyword to see if it’s a viable option (I’m going to teach you how to do this).

Anyway, my preferred method for keyword research is to use the Google search bar.

Basically, Google has evolved so much over the years, they now actually TELL YOU what people are searching for.

You’ll notice that when you go to the Google Search Bar and just type in ONE LETTER, you’ll automatically be greeted with “suggestions” relating to that ONE LETTER you typed in.

This is known as Google Autocomplete or Google Autosuggest.

Well, actually about 99.99% of people call it autocomplete, but THIS IS ME people, I have to be different, LOL!! So I call it Google Autosuggest.

But, in my mind, Google is AUTOMATICALLY SUGGESTING queries based on what I’ve typed into the search bar.

The beauty of the phrases that Google SUGGESTS is that these are REAL queries that have been typed into the Google Search Bar by REAL PEOPLE.

See what I mean?

GOOGLE IS TELLING YOU THE MOST POPULAR QUERIES

So, use this to your advantage.

Let’s Do Some Keyword Research

Okay, today I want to concentrate more on using “question phrases” and “seed keywords” to find great articles to write WHICH WILL RANK ON THE FIRST PAGE GOOGLE.

All this means is that I type a “question phrase” into Google, I then add some spaces, a letter, two letters, or even an asterisk, and then a keyword that is based on my niche (don’t worry, I’m going to show you how to do this, it will all become VERY CLEAR very soon!!)

So, some of the “question phrases” that I look to conduct keyword research with include:

• Why Can’t
  
• Why Can’t I
• Why Can’t You
• Why Should
• Why Should I
• Why Should You
• Why Does
• Why Do I
• Why Do You
• Is it Okay
• Is it OK
• When Sould
• When Can
• When Does
• When Can’t
• Should You Ever
• Should I Do
• Can I
• Can You
• What Does

You get the idea.

All you’re really doing here is coming up with the BEGINNING PHRASE of your article title.

And as a HUGE part of niche blogging is about HELPING PEOPLE, it makes sense to concentrate on answering their questions.

There are obviously many, many, many, many MORE “QUESTION PHRASES” to use

BUT

I’m NOT going to you them ALL.

Yes, I love you, but I’m NOT YOUR DAD!!!

Hahahahahahaha!!!

Stop being lazy and go and work them out for yourself.

If you can’t think of any more question phrases that YOU & OTHERS use in everyday life, then perhaps BLOGGING isn’t for you.

Then again, being a human being probably isn’t for you either, if you can’t come up with at least ONE MORE question phrase.

Okay, so we have our question phrases, now to our seed niche keyword.

The THREE biggest CATEGORIES online are

HEALTH
WEALTH
RELATIONSHIPS

If you think about it, these are the things that most of us worry about in our lives.

• We worry about our health and the health of those we love.
• We worry about money, how much we’re spending, how much we’re making, etc.
• And, of course, we worry about those who are in (or we would like to be in) our lives.

So, for today’s keyword research blog post I’m going to concentrate on RELATIONSHIPS.

More specifically, let’s do something along the lines of a successful site I created a few years ago.

Remember, when defining your niche it’s best to focus on one specific individual.

This specific individual is the person who you are writing all your articles to.

You do this, and your article writing becomes far more natural.

So, my specific individual in my niche is a 30-year old man, we’ll call him Rob, and he has a girlfriend, but he is questioning many things about his girlfriend and their relationship.

Therefore, every single time I find a keyword, I am writing the article for ROB.

No-one else, just ROB.

As I say, you do this, and your writing will be far more natural, which in turn helps your audience connect with you better.

AND this is what you want - YOUR AUDIENCE TO CONNECT WITH YOU!!

Don’t believe me, here’s a narcissistic view of it:

How Many of You Simply Read My Blog Posts Because it’s ME?

You don’t care what I’m writing about, you just want to read it because it’s ME!!

YOU are my audience members I have connected with.

That said:

How Many of You Can’t Stand the Sight of Me, Have a Grave Disliking For Me, BUT JUST CAN’T HELP YOURSELF, you JUST HAVE TO Read What I’ve Written? (I know you’re there, I see YOU!!!)

Once again, I HAVE connected with my HATERS, possibly not in the way I hoped for, but a connection has been made.

However, quite clearly, you want the FIRST ONE.

SO, always have in your mind's-eye the ONE individual you’re writing for.

Mine is Rob.

Right’s let’s find some queries and questions that Rob would like answered.

Let’s Use Google AUTOSUGGEST

Right, first things first, you’re going to need to download a browser extension to help with website metrics.

I mainly use this to check the Domain Authority (DA) of websites.

Basically, I want to find out the authority of the websites ranking on page one.

All browsers, e.g. Chrome, Firefox, Safari, MicrosoftEdge, etc.will have browser extensions.

My favourites include:

MozBar

WhatsMySerp

And the one I’m currently using

Keywords Everywhere

You can simply type into the Google Search Bar

Keywords Everywhere Extension

And then download it.

DO NOT PAY FOR ANYTHING - it is NOT required.

Keywords Everywhere will not only give you the Domain Authority of websites, but also things like their Spam Score, List of Backlinks, etc.

Plus, you’ll notice they also provide a list of “related keywords” for every search result you type into the Google Search Bar.

VERY HANDY!!

You can sprinkle some of these “related keywords” throughout your articles (don’t overdo it, 1-2 is fine), and this will help Google (and the other search engines) UNDERSTAND your content better.

Anyway, go download one of these extensions, as I say, I currently use Keywords Everywhere.

My preferred method of doing keyword research is in a Google Incognito tab, so a private browser.

The reason for this should be obvious with GOOGLE AUTOSUGGEST - Google “REMEMBERS” EVERYTHING (bit like my wife, I can’t get away with ANYTHING!!!!)

In other words, Google will REMEMBER your searches, and if it feels that you FAVOUR a particular search result or website, it will stick it at the top of the page.

Hence, the reason why so many people get excited, “I’M RANKING NUMBER ONE, I’M RANKING NUMBER ONE” and then they can’t work out why they’re NOT getting any traffic (or at least a few thousand visitors every month).

SORRY!! You’re NOT ranking Number One, Google just feels that your website is a FAVOURITE of yours (of course Google does, you log into your website everyday, you look at it everyday, you add content regularly), and this is why it shows at the top of the search results.

Don’t Be Fooled - Check your rankings in a Google Incognito tab.

That said, the Keyword Everywhere chrome extension (and all other software extensions) DON’T show up in private browsing.

So, unfortunately, in order to use these extensions, you will need to do your keyword research in “Normal Google”.

Now, we go to the Google Search Bar and I’m going to type in

Why Does My Girlfriend

And then Google AUTOMATICALLY SUGGESTS THE MOST POPULAR SEARCHES.

Can you see how powerful that is?

Google is literally listing KEYWORDS in order of popularity.

The higher up the list of results a keyword, the more potential traffic it has.

Now, immediately I like:

Why Does My Girlfriend Like to Bite Me

I mean who wouldn’t like that!!! Hahahahahaha!!!

Alright, Sorry YOU PRUDE!!!!

Maybe, it’s just me then!!! LOL

Anyway, let’s CHECK OUT GOOGLE PAGE ONE RESULTS.

At number one in the ranking is a website with a Domain Authority of 62 (DA62).

This is pretty BIG.

DA goes from 1-100.

To give you an idea, Wealthy Affiliate has a DA57, and think about how many “articles” WA has (Every Single Blog Post, Question, Training, Video, Profile Page, Live Chat, is in effect a separate article).

That said, Domain Authority is typically based on the NUMBER OF BACKLINKS and a few other factors.

So, it’s perfectly feasible for a website to have 5 articles on it and be a DA70 website, purely based on backlinks pointing to it.

Anyway, a DA62 website is going to be hard to beat.

But still, let’s look at the rest of the results.

Nice, Quora in position 2.

One of my things about Keyword Research is to look for User Generated Content (UGC) on page one.

User Generated Content is usually a community (just like Wealthy Affiliate) where people hold discussions, ask questions, answer questions, socialise with each other, etc.

The main reason that it is easier to outrank UGC is simply because you can’t authenticate EXPERTISE, plus, usually the answer to a question is just a few sentences.

So, as an example, the TOP Quora result for

Why Does My Girlfriend Like to Bit Me

Has ONE ANSWER OF ONE WORD

Horny!!!

Yeah, cheers for that Gaurav, clearly a man of many words, but still, you’ve kinda nailed it!!!

So, in effect, if you write an article with more words (2 words!!!! Hahahahahaha!!!), with better explanations, more media (images, infographics, tables, charts, videos, etc.) then there is a HUGE chance that you will rank above this.

HOWEVER

This is also why you NEED TO CHECK THE INDIVIDUAL RESULTS WITH YOUR OWN EYES ranking on page one.

Quite often, you’ll find that a Quora result has an in-depth article written by an expert.

As an example, in one of my niches, a guy called Oliver William writes 5,000-word articles to answer questions on QUORA.

PLUS, Oliver is a well-known bodybuilder.

THIS is when you may struggle to BEAT USER GENERATED CONTENT on page one.

So, always read the articles that you are COMPETING AGAINST.

This also provides a clue as to WHAT GOOGLE PREFERS & IS WILLING TO RANK ON PAGE ONE.

So, the top result for this query, the DA62 website, READ IT.

• How is the article structured?
• How many words have they used?
• What type of media have they used?
• How many images?
• How many videos?
• Is there a table/infographic/pie chart?
• How many subheadings?
• Do they discuss another topic apart from biting?

Basically, Google thinks that this article is “perfect” to rank number one for this query.

So, you can “legally steal” their IDEAS, but NOT THEIR CONTENT.

I would suggest that for ALL keywords you find, read and check the top 3 results (because that’s where YOU want to be), and see how they have structured their article, what topics they discuss, subheading, images, videos, etc. if you can mirror that WITH YOUR OWN ORIGINAL CONTENT, you’re onto a winner.

Anyway, scrolling down the page I can see

DA6 Website

PERFECT!!!

Anything below DA21 you should be able to outrank or rank alongside.

PLUS

The fact that a DA6 website is ranking for this term tells me TWO THINGS.

1. This person is GOOD at keyword research.
2. They are targeting lots of LOW HANGING FRUIT.

Guess What?

Save that website to your favourites and STUDY IT!!!

AND “steal” their keywords.

They know how to rank a BABY website, they know how to do keyword research, so why wouldn’t you piggyback off their success?

DON’T STEAL THEIR CONTENT, write your own, but I see no harm in “stealing” their keywords!!

Scroll down some more, low-and-behold, a Reddit result.

For me, you want to find AT LEAST TWO User Generated Content or BELOW DA21 on page one for it to be a viable keyword.

PLUS

There is a medium(dot)com article at the bottom.

Now, while Medium is a DA95, it is once more, mainly user generated content.

However, it is what is classed as Web 2.0, which is typically quite easy to outrank.

Other examples would be social media platforms, articles directories, PDF directories.

And it just so happens there are also TikTok results on page one, PERFECT.

In fact, I know the TikToks are likely to be funny around

Why Does My Girlfriend Like to Bite Me

So, I will no doubt be adding a couple of these humorous videos to my blog post.

Is the Keyword Worth Going After?

Now, there are certain things on page one of Google that MAY make a difference, as to whether you should target that keyword or not.

So, you could actually have lots of User Generated Content and Low Domain Authority websites on page one, but it still isn’t a great keyword.

Realistically, if you want to rank on Google page one, you’ll want one of the top 3 positions.

Yes, ranking on page ONE of Google is great, but the difference in potential traffic could be HUGE.

You could be ranking at position 10 and only receiving 10 visitors per month for that ONE keyword.

However, ranking at number ONE could see this increase to 1,000 visitors.

A HUGE difference, I’m sure you’ll agree.

What you’ll want to check is what is “above the fold”.

This simply means WHAT YOU CAN SEE WITH YOUR OWN EYES WITHOUT HAVING TO SCROLL.

Let’s face facts, as a race, humans are LAZY.

Yep, we are that lazy that even SCROLLING down a page seems like too much effort.

This also shows why there is so much of a difference in traffic levels between ranking at NUMBER ONE and NUMBER TEN on Google.

We just can’t be bothered!!!

Remember, you have to bring HUMAN THINKING into everything that you do.

This is NOT a case of

Build it and they will come

NOPE!!! SORRY!!!

So, you always want to see what is “ABOVE THE FOLD” (What you can see WITHOUT scrolling).

Often you’ll find that Google places a

• Video Carousel
• Image Pack
• Local Pack (Google Maos with LOCAL AREA Results)
• MASSIVE Featured Snippet (that takes up the entire top of the page)
• People Also Ask (that takes up the entire top of the page)

Realistically, if you can only see ONE THING at the top of the page, it’s going to be harder for you to get eyes on your article.

As an example, many queries will have a Video Carousel at the top of the page.

This is ALL that Visitors can see WITHOUT having to scroll.

The likelihood is that the vast majority of people will click on one of those videos to ANSWER THEIR QUERY.

In other words, if you want to rank for that keyword you would be BETTER OFF CREATING A VIDEO.

This way you can slot in nicely to the Video Carousel at the top of the page.

Even if you write an article and rank at NUMBER ONE you will find that your Number One ranking is BELOW the video carousel.

So, in this instance, even ranking number one may produce no traffic (people are LAZY, people are FICKLE, they MAY NOT scroll).

The same can be said if you see a MASSIVE Featured Snippet at the top of the page followed by the People Also Ask Section.

Once more, this is ALL that people will INITIALLY see WITHOUT having to scroll.

This is a little easier to rank for, as the Featured Snippet is usually WRITTEN Content.

However, what this means is that the best way to get traffic for that particular keyword is to dislodge this website from the Featured Snippet.

That said, remember what I said earlier?

Read that article, see how it’s structured, what subheadings are they using, what types of images, any videos, any infographics, etc.

Your aim is to write a better, more detailed article than them.

BUT

They have given you a major clue as to WHAT GOOGLE LIKES in order to rank at the top of the page.

Other Ways to Use Google Autosuggest

You can actually place different “things” between words in Google Autosuggest in order to give you even more queries.

So, the one that you’re used to is the alphabet soup technique, which involves placing ONE letter of the alphabet in the Google Search Bar.

BUT

You can do this anywhere between words and you’ll generally get different queries.

Here is a couple of examples with

Why Does Girlfriend

Being typed into the search bar and then placing the letter “a” in different places.

You can see it produces different queries.

PLUS

You don't have to restrict alphabet soup to JUST one letter, get creative people:

Another great option is to use an asterisk - * - once again in-between different words.

And here’s one you’ve never thought of

NUMBERS

Oh yeah baby!!

We all LOVE a list post, here’s some AUTOSUGGEST queries using different numbers.

All I’ve put in the search bar is

My Girlfriend

Now, let’s try some different numbers (and remember Google Autosuggest are REAL queries typed in by REAL people, so if you’re seeing results, then you KNOW people are SEARCHING for those EXACT QUERIES.

Final Thoughts

I will go into further detail next time, but I didn’t want to give you too much here, even if it is a “refresher” of sorts.

However, I hope there’s a few learning points for EVERYONE, and perhaps even things which I hadn’t discussed before.

Additionally, I will say that keyword research is a learned skill.

In fact, you’ll eventually get to the stage where you even know what type of keyword queries you should be targeting.

I guess this comes with experience.

BUT

Don't be discouraged if it takes FOREVER to initially find keywords, it takes TIME to LEARN A NEW SKILL:

You weren't able to juggle 5 balls the first time you tried

You weren't able to Bench Press 225lbs the first time you tried

You didn't cook the perfect meal the first time you tried.

The Same Goes For KEYWORD RESEARCH.

However, one thing I will say is that keyword research is the MOST IMPORTANT skill you need to learn.

Forget worrying so much about how to write your articles, how many words, whether your website looks pretty, where to source images from (I will teach you soon how to make you own images for FREE), etc.

If you haven’t got your keyword research right, unfortunately, you’re pretty much wasting your time.

Here’s an analogy about poor keyword research and your website in general.

You own a hot dog cart.

There is a football game every Saturday between 3pm-5pm in your local football stadium.

You take your hot dog cart to the football stadium every Monday between 10am-12pm.

How successful is your hot dog business going to be?

Do you get me?

It’s ALL about keyword research and writing about WHAT YOUR AUDIENCE IS INTERESTED IN.

Remember, NO-ONE CARES ABOUT YOU.

Find keywords that your audience ARE ALREADY SEARCHING FOR.

Check page one of Google for User Generated Content and Low Domain Authority Websites.

Read the top 3 articles, take notes, plus take a note of their article structure and media used.

Keep an eye out for what is ABOVE THE FOLD.

Use Numbers, Asterisks, and MORE than ONE letter when researching in the Google Search Bar.

And you’re not going to become an expert immediately, keyword research is a LEARNED SKILL.

So, start learning it!!

Thank You For Reading

Partha