First and foremost, I am not an SEO "expert". I am a developer. However, I have ranked many websites #1 for very competitive keywords, e.g. "Web Design Forums" (yup).
There is really ONLY one way to rank your site... and below is the Full 4-step plan to ranking #1. Only 4 steps - why doesn't everyone do it? Well... because they're lazy monkeys posing as SEO experts and not willing to do the necessary work.
Without further ado, here's the plan:
- Optimize Your Site
- Create Content
- Get Backlinks
- Repeat
It's that simple! Go get started!
BUT WAIT!!! A little caveat before you get started... if you want to really get to #1 instead of staying #1,000,000, you may want to read some more details about what each of the above actually means!!
Step 1 - Optimize Your Site
There are many aspects to optimization. You cannot simply throw in some keywords and expect a page to rank. You must implement a strategy that outlines the keywords you will target and how you will attack them.
The basic SEO monkey-expert strategy is to go after dozens of long-tail keywords so as not to have to actually work. If you're not a monkey, and you want the competitive phrases, there's still some research you'll have to do. For example, let's say you're targeting "Doctors" for US searches in an appointment-booking platform. You'll want to break down your list of doctors by state, and have a drop-down list of "[State] Doctors" to hit up on those mid-level search phrases. Further, in the results per state, you'll want to have a further break down by city. This is called keyword bolstering (I actually just invented the term, but I like it... so go repeat it, monkeys!) If you heavily target a single competitive keyword, or many on one page, you're providing a weak context. By breaking down the targeted phrase into long-tail derivatives, you're doing really well to bolster the main keyword.
Next, you'll want to create a URL and Title strategy that will support your keyword strategy.
URLs are very important. I know chrishirst will disagree, but TLD should have a keyword in it. if you can't do that, then use a subdomain with your exact match keyphrase. This means our ideal domain would be
www.doctors.com for the above example. Other good names would be
www.mydoctors.com or doctors.mysite.com. Got it? Good.
Now let's talk about URL Rewrite structure and consistency. You obviously know you should do rewrites. BUT, your rewrites should follow a logical pattern. For example:
You could then put articles in the format
http://www.doctors.com/articles/cate...tten-title-id#, and similar for blogs, etc. The importance here is that you're isolating content into sections and subsections by logical order. Google likes this.
Then you should have corresponding titles ("Meta" Title and H1):
(Side-note - the term "Meta Title" is such a monkey term. The "Page Head Title" is not meta data, so the term "Meta Title" is a BS misnomer invented by monkeys who don't understand the technology... we should start using a human term instead... anyone agree?)
- California Doctors
- Beverly Hills, California Doctors
- Joe Schmo, MD, a Beverly Hills, CA Doctor
The above is a solid strategy for content architecture. Feel free to steal it.
Step 2 - Create Content
So now that you have your content outlined, you should go about writing content! If you have a directory site (as in our example), most of your content will be auto-generated. In these cases, you'll have to structure your application to properly optimize the content. This means adding ancillary keywords in some of the auto-generated portions of the page, links to sibling, child & parent pages to bolster them, etc. Really, this is very simple to do... you just need a strategy in place and then code your site appropriately.
For "article" content, you'll want to structure each page individually to maximize its SEO for a given term. Use your blog to go after miscellaneous long-tails. Your main site should focus on a very specific set of keyphrases that go together, e.g. Doctor-related stuff. Your blog could then go after other keyphrases your target market may be interested in (e.g. Medical Insurance Provider Ratings).
In creating your content, you can follow the keyword density model of any monkey-expert on the web, they all steal them from each other anyway... My philosophy is just don't get spammy in your content, and you'll be fine.
Be sure to link from your blog and pages back to your primary content (the doctors list in this case), to bolster the content further.
Step 3 - Get Links!
Links are so easy to get. I don't know why people pay monkeys $5 per link to spam their site across the net in a hurtful manner. Are you people REALLY THAT LAZY?? Or are you really just too stupid to "get it"?
How do you get links? Let's talk about our Doctor site. Easy sleazy. Make a FREE widget for doctors to put on their site, and include a backlink in it to doctors.com. Oh, wait, but this requires some actual work... you'll have to create a widget that is actually useful to people, and actually contact them to let them know how to get it and simply implement it without hours of work from them!!! Doh! I used the "W" word. Yes, work is involved.. maybe some creativity, too... not an easy task for the average monkey, but if you thaw your brain off for a minute or two, I'm confident that YOU have the ability to figure something out.
Don't have a site that's "widgetable"? Great, get link partnerships. Not as good as a one-way link, but a million times better than Free-For-All monkey spam. Find people in your industry who are not direct competitors, and provide them a value proposition that they can't refuse. Again, this will involve creativity and probably a lot of work. You may have to do a study on the medical field that actually has educational merit, and get it posted on an EDU site, or at least referenced. Develop relationships with people in the industry... get out and do some old-fashioned networking. Get people using your website / service, and give them a value-proposition in exchange for their backlink.
The above is not able to be accomplished by a monkey, because it requires talking with people, and as we know, monkeys can't speak! No good at networking? Here's your chance to learn! Didn't think old-school networking was necessary for the Internet industry? Sorry, bud, you thought wrong.
Other ways to get links:
Move to the Silicon Valley and strike up conversations with people randomly at bars... 90% will be involved in an Internet startup, and will be happy to swap links with you.
Look for competitors in a different area (e.g. AustraliaDoctors.com), and offer a mutually-beneficial link-exchange with them.
Look for non-competitors (Non-Profits and Charities) in your industry and GET INVOLVED with them. This may mean making a contribution or actually DOING WORK (or both!!) They'll be happy to drop you a link if you sponsor them.
I could go on and on with more creative ideas... but it's up to you to get creative relative to your industry and actually do the work!!!
Step 4 - Repeat!
You thought your work was done??? WTF? A website is an organic entity. It must continue to grow, breathe, eat, and dump its waste, or it will slowly DIE. Since most websites don't have the technology to be self-sustaining, that means YOU have to do the work. Write new blogs and content, get links to your new content, write Press Releases (and SUBMIT them), and constantly develop new partnerships.
Follow the above strategy with enough creativity and vehemence, and you can rank #1 for ANY keyword.
Cheers,
Steve Moseley
Monkey say "nice advice".
