February 18, 2008

How to Achieve a First Page Listing on Google

The first thing I need to point out here is that I am no expert when it comes to Search Engine Optimization.

All I do is listen to the experts, implement some of the strategies they suggest and then see what works. There’s no science behind my methods, just good old fashion trial and error. And that’s what I suggest you do.

But what I can tell you is that I can now obtain a first page listing in Google for virtually any webpage I choose and I’ll explain how I do it.

If You Build It They Will Come

… Not! It really doesn’t matter how professional or visually striking your website looks. If no one knows about it, you aren’t going to make any money from it or build a list.

It is very disheartening to spend weeks or months on a website only for no one to come and visit it once it’s finished. Unfortunately the real work has only just begun. Now’s the time to start driving traffic to your site.

For the purpose of this article I am just going to concentrate on the no.1 way to reach the maximum number of people – through natural search i.e. having your web page ranked on the first page of Google.

The Set Up Of A Typical Niche Website

Here’s an example of the type of website you may have built or intend to build in the future:

You build a niche website entitled ‘Fly Fishing’.

You are either very knowledgeable on the subject or you’ve done your homework and have enough information to produce a good quality niche website.

Your aim is to build a list of readers interested in fly fishing so you can email them various, related offers that you are an affiliate for e.g. fly fishing ebooks, fly fishing gear, fly fishing holidays, etc.

You may have adsense ads on your site and also an ebook that you either wrote yourself or have Master Resale Rights to, so you can sell it directly form your homepage. Obviously you also have an optin form on every page to capture names and email addresses. You might offer a free report on fly fishing or a 5 part mini-ecourse as an incentive to joining your list.

So now your site is ready to make money and build the all important list. But how do you get people to visit?

Google Ranks Pages Not Websites

It is essential you understand that the search engines rank individual web pages, not websites. And it doesn’t matter whether it is a traditional webpage or a blog page/post. Your homepage is no different from any other page on your site. Naturally your homepage will obtain better page rank than the rest of your site but this doesn’t mean you will get any more traffic because of it.

So now we know Google ranks pages not websites, it is important to concentrate on getting individual pages ranked on the first page of Google.

The Two Most Effective Methods For Getting Google Traffic

I am going to concentrate on the two most effective methods that drive traffic to my webpages. There are certainly other things you need to be aware of like keyword density, duplicate content, using H1 tags etc. but they are not nearly as important as these 2 methods.

Again, I need to point out that I am no expert, but I have tried many different methods and these 2 are without doubt the most effective and easiest to do:

Ranking Individual Pages For Long-Tail Keywords.
Ranking Your Home Page For Your Main Keyword.

In this article I am just going to concentrate on method no.1. Tomorrow I will show you how you can rank your homepage for a competitive keyword.

Ranking Individual Pages For Long-Tail Keywords

Ranking individual pages for longtail keywords is possibly the best method to get traffic to your site and the easiest way to get a first page listing on Google. All it takes is a little research and writing articles.

Let’s use our example niche website – ‘Fly Fishing’. We’ve already drilled down from ‘Fishing’ to ‘Fly Fishing’, so we know we are targeting a more specific audience.

But even the phrase (keyword) ‘Fly Fishing’ is very competitive. So instead of trying to rank for ‘Fly Fishing’, we use a keyword tool to find out what else people are searching for related to fly fishing.

Here’s the top 50 results for the keyword ‘Fly Fishing’:

No	Keywords	Searches
1	fly fishing	879
2	alaska fly in fishing	192
3	alaska fly fishing trip	169
4	alaska fly fishing	166
5	fly fishing Alaska	160
6	fly fishing equipment	139
7	alaska fly fishing trips	126
8	alaska fly fishing guide	122
9	fly fishing float alaska	119
10	fly fishing rods	114
11	fly fishing alagnak river	93
12	tfo fly fishing	93
13	alagnak river fly fishing	92
14	fly fishing knots	90
15	fly fishing Colorado	87
16	fly fishing gear	76
17	fly fishing reels	65
18	fly fishing rocky mountain	63
19	fly fishing tackle	61
20	fly fishing vest	60
21	saltwater fly fishing	60
22	fly fishing boulder	58
23	discount fly fishing rods	57
24	vermont fly fishing	53
25	fly fishing magazine	47
26	fly fishing show	47
27	canadian fly in fishing	46
28	books of fly fishing	44
29	fly fishing Montana	44
30	fly fishing supplies	44
31	antique fishing lures fly fishing	42
32	fly fishing basics	41
33	fly fishing rods gear	41
34	san juan river fly fishing	39
35	scott fly fishing	39
36	fly fishing accessory	38
37	south east fly fishing forum	38
38	alaska fishing fly lodge	36
39	montana fly fishing	36
40	sage fly fishing	36
41	discount fly fishing reels	34
42	fly fishing forums	33
43	fly fishing taupo nz	33
44	ontario fly in fishing	33
45	antique fly fishing vest	31
46	canada fly in fishing	31
47	fly fishing for smallmouth bass	31
48	fly fishing wallpaper	31
49	travel fly fishing rods	31
50	wholesale fly fishing	31

As you can see the keyword ‘Fly Fishing’ has 879 searches a day! Imagine the sort of traffic you can get if you had a webpage on the first page of Google for the keyword ‘Fly Fishing’.

That’s 879 searches a day – 26370 a month! And you can guarantee a good chunk of that traffic if you have a first page listing.

This is what 90% of internet marketers try and do and why they never get much traffic with natural search.

Instead it is much easier to rank for the lesser searched keywords. You will get more traffic because your pages will be ranked high on Google for several other related phrases.

Here’s what you do:

Go down the list and write 2 articles based on the less competitive keywords e.g.– ‘Alaska Fly Fishing’ which still has an impressive 166 searches a day.

Upload one of the articles (your best one) to your website and have it on its own page devoted to that keyword.

Submit the other article to article directories and use the author’s bio and/or a text link ‘fly fishing’ from within the actual article to point a link back to your similar article on your website.

This has 2 effects. First of all, it will ensure your article is picked up by some big article directories like ezine articles. These article directories have massive page ranking power and that article will rank on the first page of google within days.

You will also build up the authority of your fly fishing website by having well ranked individual pages as well as your homepage.

Secondly you articles listed with the article directories will also be picked up by other website owners to use as content for their websites, which in turn will send you more traffic and boost your page rankings because of the inbound links.

All you do then is choose the next keyword on the list and write 2 articles for that. – Rinse and repeat!

Over time this tactic will cause your actual webpages to rank well on Google instead of the articles you submitted to the article directories. You won’t be able to stop the flow of traffic even if you wanted to!

That’s it. That’s a proven method you can use to easily rank on the first page of Google for hundreds of relevant longtail keywords that will drive a ton of traffic to your site.

Tomorrow I’m going to show you exactly how you can rank on the first page for the more competitive keywords and drive even more traffic to your site. No articles to write either!

I will also be showing you the best type of article to write, how many words the article should be, what you need to put in your author’s bio and what article directories to submit to.

If you like this article (or if you don’t) or have any questions, please comment below..

~ Peter Tremayne

Filed under Blog, Internet Marketing by Peter Tremayne

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Comments on How to Achieve a First Page Listing on Google »

February 18, 2008

Adrienne @ 2:58 pm

Peter,

Good article! I focus on the long tail keywords for the other pages of my sites also. One interesting thing that I have noticed (just my own limited experience) is that when I start getting 1st page rankings for a lot of my other pages, I will also start getting first page ranking for a main, highly competitve keyword.

Also, do you have any suggestions for outsourcing articles? As in where, who, how much?

Thanks!

Adrienne

Wendy @ 3:59 pm

Peter,

Thank you so much for this post. I really like your blog because it is so informative. I have been reading e-books and taking courses and none have been as clear about how to use articles to build traffic as you have been in this short blog post. I really appreciate how specific you get and how you put things into steps instead of just saying, "write articles and submit them to build traffic". For me, as a newbie, it's the nuts and bolts I need, not the theory and you always deliver. I've been a little overwhelmed at the thought of writing tons of articles and with these instructions, knowing I only have to start with 2 articles takes the pressure off. Thank you again!

Wendy

February 19, 2008

Peter Tremayne @ 4:06 pm

Adrienne:

Yes you'll find that building links to your inner pages will add to the overall ranking of your home page. This is because the highly competitive keyword for your home page is also receiving some 'link love' from your inner pages which probably use 1 or 2 of the words.

I do outsource some articles and have found a great resource. I intend to write a review for it for the blog because I think it's a great service: http://www.need-an-article.net

Wendy: Thank you for your kind words. You are on the right track if you understand how powerful articles can be. I intend to talk more indepth about article writing very soon.