A lot of people ask me how I plan a to rank websites on google, yahoo, and bing for certain search terms. So I will explain the process here for everyone that asks.
Before You start
Before you ever start any SEO link building campaign you must have a few things done;
1. Website completed: Your website must be completed and the on-site SEO work is done. Using sitemaps, seo friendly navigations, fresh & unique content, text links within your content, seo friendly meta descriptions, etc etc will help a ton with your off-site link building methods.
2. Domain: Google now relys heavily on the domain trust factor these days. I assume that because of all of the sblogs and websites set up purely for spam which lead Google to now look at the domains past record, domains whois info, other domains that the owner has, nameservers, IP address, etc etc. Before you start your link building you should double check to see if your whois info is correct and double check anything else related to the domain.
Once your website is done and your domains info is all sorted out then you can start planning.
Set Your Goals
The first part is pretty important, before you spend any of your time, effort, or money on the link building then you should have a plan on what exactly you will be doing to achieve your rankings. Your link building plan does not need to be written out, in fact I never write out any of my plans (even business plans), all that info is stored in my head were I can continually tweak the plan. If you would like the write out your plan then go right ahead, just make sure that you have a plan before you start working.
How do I plan? Like I said before I plan everything out in my head, I use Google’s free keyword search tool and find the top 5 keywords that would be decently easy to rank for but has enough volume to make a profit. Finding converting keywords like this is kind of a pain in the ass, I have been doing this for a while and I have started many many different projects on the web that I can usually tell what kind of keywords convert and how to find them, but keyword research is a whole different blog post. If you are new to SEO then I would suggest first making your website and then using Adwords to find converting keywords, that is a really great way to easily find converting keywords, the only downfall is that it costs money to use.
After you find your keywords you are going to need to plan your link building efforts. Most of the time I usually let a domain name sit for 1-3 months before I start a project, the older a domain is the more Google trusts it, so the longer you let a domain sit with some relevant content then the easier it will be to rank it when you start your website. Of course that is a whole different blog post as well (I don’t use Google search when doing research about SEO that specifically targets Google), Google puts a lot of weight on the domain name, but I will go over that later.
When I plan my link building I usually start out targeting 1 or 2 of the 5 search terms that I initially found. I always start out slow with my link building, the more natural it looks the better the results will be. I use a lot of different methods but the ones shown below are the most popular ways to start link building. I always start slow and work my way up with the amount of links I add to the website each month. During the first 1-3 months I dont do much link building at all, at the end of the 3 months I usually only have 100-200 backlinks according to yahoo.
After about 3 months or so your website should be pretty established in Google and your current rankings should not fluctuate** that much. But that is about to change. On the 3rd month of your link building effort you should start to increase your link building efforts pretty heavily. instead of just 50-100 links a month you will now need to start building up 200 or so links a month, and also start targeting the long tailed URL. Below is an example of a long tailed URL:
Buy white ice cream
domain.com/buy-white-ice-cream.html
** Fluctuating On Google SERP’s
I can tell how far a long a website is in the ranking process by how much the website fluctuates on Google. If the website fluctuates a lot then that means that Google does not think that the website is the best match for the search term (in other words… you need more links and/or better on-site seo). After a while the fluctuating will slow down, that is when you can really get the link building going because Google now feels like the website is a decent match for the search term (this doesn’t mean you are on page 1, you can be in this phase even on page 4 etc). Then after some time your website will almost never fluctuate, this is when you must take a look at your on-site seo work to see what you need to do to improve it and also work on getting good long lasting one-way links to your website (you can be on this phase on page 2-3, if you are then look at your on-site seo).
How long does it typically take me to rank?
The amount of time it takes me to rank a website depends a lot on the search term and the website. I normally start out with a website that has been sitting idle for 3 or so month, it would probably take me 1 year and 6 months before I get on page 1 for the good keywords I usually go for (IE: keywords that make me more then 3-4k a month from). One such example is a keyword that my buddy that is in the same niche is making 10-15k a month from being ranked #6, I just barley got onto page 2 for the keyword after about 1 year and 1 month, I bet it will take me another 5 or so month before I am on page 1 and my website isn’t fluctuating a lot between page 1 and 2.
I just barley ranked on page 1 for a very high traffic keyword that is making good money, that took me 1 year and 2 months to get on page 1. SEO is not a quick way to make money, but I use adwords/email marketing/forums etc to help. An example of a keyword like this would be “buy baby chicks” (just a random keyword).. it would probably take me 1 year and 5-8 months to get on page 1, and I would spend a lot of money to get there, but I bet you that the people on page one are making 10k plus a month from that term.
However, small terms like “bantams baby chicks” or “buy bantams baby chicks” would only take 4-6 months or so to rank a new site for the term, but that term wont make to much money, maybe a few hundred dollars a month, but if you add those terms up then you can make some good money 
After I Have Started
After I start my link building campaign I am always checking my stats to see what needs improvement and what else I need to do to rank. I use Authority Labs to track my keywords stats, its a great program that has a free trial version if you are interested. I check that Authority Labs stats everyday to see how my search terms are doing and what tweaks I need to make for the day. Since SEO is a slow way to do your marketing you kinda have to target a whole lot of terms to make any good money, so keeping track of all your terms is a must.
After I first start my link building I break my efforts down to 3 different phases;
Phase One:
This phase should only be started after your website is done and the on-site SEO work is done. You should do some simple link building such as a small amount of blog comments, directory submissions, and some social bookmarkings. If you are interested in a recurring plan then this is the one I always use (Use that plan for 3-4 months then upgrade).
During the same time you will want to start hitting up other webmasters in your niche about link exchanges, try to get a few link exchanges on very related websites, dont go over board with this, and also do your research and make sure you are not linking bad neighborhood websites or else that will hurt your efforts.
During this time I ussally just do a small amount of link building and then wait for a little while, then after about 3-4 months I move onto the second phase.
Phase Two:
After about 3-4 months of only building up a few links I then put my link building in overdrive and get my site up to page 2-3 in Google before I start my next phase (I can tell which phase I am on by the fluctuating). Below are some different ways to build links during the second phase:
Article Sumissions
Directory Submissions
Blog Commenting
Social Bookmarking
Squidoo Lens/Wordpress Blogs
Review websites
Paid Text Links (only on relevant websites, and not site wide)
Wordpress blog sponsoring
Press Releases
Blog Post Sponsoring
This is the plan I usually use on a recurring basis for 4-5 months.
There are lots of different ways to build links, but the above are some of the popular ones. You will probably need to do the second phase for a little while, I usually spend at least 5+ months on this phase for my bigger keywords. During that time you will want to build as much relevant links as you can while continuously tweaking your on-site seo work to get the best effect. I also watch my visitors closely to see what exactly they do on the website when they come from the keywords I am targeting, I use the average pageviews per visitor to set goals that I work on (like set a goal of 3 pageviews per visitor).
Phase Three
After sometime you will be able to tell that your website isn’t fluctuating as much as it used to, and hopefully by this time you are on page 2 or even 1. Phase 3 is the last phase and this time I usually try to keep my ranking (not make it fluctuate so much) by doing some special link building.
I first downgrade my developerhut campaign to this one. I then also start trying to find different special ways to get links on very related web pages. I simply search google and find web pages that are very related to mine that I am trying to rank, I would then find a way to get my link on those pages somehow.. either by buying them, trading for something (like writing a guest post), email them asking for a free link, or anything else I can do to get more high quality one way links.
The last phase is all about the quality links, and not the quantity of the links. Since your website is on page 2 you just need to focus on the relevant one-way links and your on-site SEO.
Well I am done writing for today, I hope you enjoy this post. If you have any questions then leave a comment, and if you have any suggestions then leave a comment, I am interested in what you have to say.
Follow me on my journey of success and failures, it should be a fun ride.... Again, here is the link for the RSS feed.
Random Posts
Comments are Dofollow! My thanks to you for contributing to the discussion
9 Comments
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
I agree with almost everything you say here but would like to stress that it is important to read and follow Google’s webmaster policies. I say this because it seems to me that Google is increasingly enforcing its policies.
Awesome post Jon. I just started a few sites an I’m going to try to stick with your phases and see how it goes.
Very cool advice Jon. I’m defiantly going to be trying this out on a couple of my brand new sites! lets hope it works out well!
Thanks
These are pretty cool tips. It is so exhaustive that I thought I was reading an ebook. Thanks! It will surely help me build my online business.
These tips are so important. But, folks have to have something to offer once ranking is accomplished.
I didn’t think it was possible to make money online, and I was always fascinated when someone was trying to sell SEO expertise because I just hadn’t seen anyone make any money.
However, that changed this year, not for me, but for my sis. She got a position as an online affiliate for Linda Christas College, an online college/academy. It’s an especially good opportunity because for each enrolled student, the affiliate (They don’t call them affiliates. My sis is a recruiter) receives approximately a $500 stipend. For each student who returns the following year for a full curriculum, the recruiter receives $1,000. It’s a great program, and is replacing a lot of the advertising and recruiting budgets of traditional colleges. And, as online degrees become more accepted than traditional beer and football degrees (that’s happening already with employers, since online degree holders are maturer and proven self starters), online colleges can only increase in terms of enrollments, and therefore the college recruiting end of things will improve also. It’s one of those things whereby today online recruiters are hard to find. In five years, people will be begging for the positions, and those who have already proven themselves to be reliable (like my sister), will have secured the jobs.
My sister made just over $61,000 this year working totally online as a recruiter for Linda Christas, so if I were anyone needing or wanting an online job, I would check into that. As it is, I am married to a computer genius, so I spend my day doing other things. The trick is to find a guy like this that you can actually love. Good luck with that. I found a rare fellow who knows computers, but also knows how to share a bottle of wine at dusk in a mountain cabin.
All she did to get the job with Linda Christas was contact them. They provided the training free of charge.
Beth
ToysPeriod is a leading online shop specializing in lego sets and model railroad equipment.
These are very interesting information. I’m sure that a lot of online business owners will benefit from your article.
Hi Jon thats a very useful post on SEO Tips, I know a few but i guess it depends how competitive your niche is. Using SEO experts is far too expensive many of them charge an arm an a leg. I will take some advice from your post above and will add you to my bookmarks and see how I get on.
Great Idea on Authority Labs
very useful post jon, i started optimising for my first website about 3 years ago, it took a while for me to rank on page 1 of google due to the lack of knowledge i had about seo, now this post has mentioned serps which i dont really know about, im actually going to seen what it mean, in the mean time i would appreciate it if you can share some more tips, thanks!