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View Full Version : Some random SEO thoughts from someone who ranks well



Dan Furman
08-23-2013, 02:14 PM
Here are some thoughts I have regarding SEO.

Disclaimer - I rank extremely well for several excellent (and expensive) keywords in a very competitive industry. I'm talking #1 to top 3.

My basic SEO thoughts are fairly "quaint". I feel Google (et al) logically wants to give searchers the best sites for their query. So I try and be that site. I don't care about whatever silly little tricks of the moment are out there - I just have a solid website that I feel is the best, most informative site for my industry, and I keep it that way. I truly feel that approach is the winning approach over time.


I do all of the backend stuff, like page titles, descriptions, I make sure Google has my sitemap, etc. Wordpress has made this easy. I do admit to slipping on this a bit for pages I don't care about.


For competitive industries, "time online" does matter. This is an opinion, but it's a strong one. I've been at this for more than a decade.


I have good, clear content, and a lot of it. People actually read my website (at least the ones I want to read it do). I feel this matters too.


My site is extremely easy to understand. No guesswork at all as to what I do.


I do not spam keywords trying to get one page to rank for nine things (why do you people do this?) I basically make one page for each thing I'd like to rank for, and that's that.


I update and blog on a fairly regular basis. Nothing crazy, but you'll never see my last blog post two months ago, either.


I am patient. It took a long time to climb the rankings. If you need immediate traffic, try adwords. If you can't afford adwords, I question your business commitment. Sorry to all of you people starting a website with a $30 monthly ad budget.


Now, with all of that said, here's another thing I have found out:

Adwords outperforms even a #1 ranking

I have tested this extensively. There is no other conclusion I can reach - with competitive industries that have the full boat of ads (meaning three up top and a full list on the right) adwords beats organic rankings.

I *do* think that having a page one organic ranking *and* an adwords ad is a very strong combination. It lends a ton of credibility.

billbenson
08-23-2013, 03:56 PM
IMO, I would add two things to your list:

- Adwords complements SERPS complements Adwords. Who cares which one they click on if they go to a good closure page.

- Except for the index page, Each page should be optimized for only one keyphrase. Obviously there will be exceptions, but write a page about one subject.

Harold Mansfield
08-23-2013, 05:12 PM
Extremely good advice and observations Dan.


Each page should be optimized for only one keyphrase. Obviously there will be exceptions, but write a page about one subject.

Probably the best thing you can ever do for your website. It made all the difference in the world for mine.

cbscreative
08-24-2013, 12:30 PM
Dan, what you're suggesting requires real work and effort. Not everyone is willing to do that. :)

Kudos on your observations though... spot on. Offer readers useful content. It amazing how this simple concept gets missed.

KristineS
08-26-2013, 12:53 PM
Very good advice and definitely agree with everything said. SEO doesn't have to be difficult, but it will take time. Trying to take shortcuts will only end up hurting your rankings in the long run.

patrickprecisione
08-26-2013, 01:18 PM
Good stuff, Dan. I'm a huge fan of Adwords as well. But as far as SEO, if you're expecting to be in the top three search results immediately, it just isn't going to happen. It takes alot of work.

Wozcreative
08-29-2013, 09:16 AM
Good advice!

Business Attorney
08-29-2013, 12:37 PM
I *do* think that having a page one organic ranking *and* an adwords ad is a very strong combination. It lends a ton of credibility.

I don't remember where I saw it, but I recently read some analysis that supports that a website that has both Adwords and an organic page one ranking get more combined clicks than you would get from both separately.

Entreb
09-13-2013, 12:45 AM
Interesting advice. I believe that we should first look on to our on-page optimization process before going off-page or link building. In other words, we have to concentrate first on content marketing by creating useful, unique and interesting content.

patrickprecisione
09-16-2013, 02:55 PM
Interesting advice. I believe that we should first look on to our on-page optimization process before going off-page or link building. In other words, we have to concentrate first on content marketing by creating useful, unique and interesting content.

Yeah, don't put the horse before the cart, do your on site work before doing any link building.

Karry
09-18-2013, 02:21 AM
Never focus on a single anchor text to build backlink. Its better to change them randomly.

quamz0
09-21-2013, 10:24 AM
I don't remember where I saw it, but I recently read some analysis that supports that a website that has both Adwords and an organic page one ranking get more combined clicks than you would get from both separately.


I have to agree with this from a completely personal opinion. I can remember looking at ads and then seeing the same url listed top 5 or so and it just lends a feeling of credibility to the company.

VeritasCustom
02-03-2014, 10:51 AM
Thanks for the advice! I underestimate the power of having your website dialed in. This is a great reminder to go through mine.

mlwindows
02-14-2014, 07:01 PM
Thanks for this post

FastPrintingCo
02-15-2014, 12:57 PM
Interesting thoughts. I will definitely try them. It is so time consuming to climb the ranks organically without a budget for advertising.

singhabhishek251
11-27-2014, 02:20 AM
I feel the same that even if you are ranking on top of the page having an adword will increase the possibility by 200% as it will double the chances of getting the customer to your website and then you have lot of other possibility about holding him back.

JonV6
12-01-2014, 12:36 PM
Here's something to ponder. Does using AdWords also give your page an SEO advantage? Whether directly or indirectly?

JesBursh
12-04-2014, 07:46 PM
Excellent advice! I frequently try to explain this to people, but so many businesses just want to the top by taking short cuts. The way I figure it is: why do you want to be at the top? To attract customers. Even if your shortcuts get you a high ranking, if you are not producing quality content, all those customers you are attracting are just going to leave because you are not helping them in any way.

Blessed
12-04-2014, 09:09 PM
My basic SEO thoughts are fairly "quaint". I feel Google (et al) logically wants to give searchers the best sites for their query. So I try and be that site.

Great advice here. I think often this initial thought gets overlooked. If you take away paid advertising, Google (et al) aren't out to promote anyone above anyone else - they are simply geared towards giving their clients the best solution to their problem. If you are that solution, you will see results.

FirstPortMarketing
12-07-2014, 09:10 PM
Excellent advice! I frequently try to explain this to people, but so many businesses just want to the top by taking short cuts. The way I figure it is: why do you want to be at the top? To attract customers. Even if your shortcuts get you a high ranking, if you are not producing quality content, all those customers you are attracting are just going to leave because you are not helping them in any way.

Couldn't agree more. Google is trying to weed out the people who use shortcuts without justifying it with the content, reviews, real traffic, etc. but sometimes the shady ones do make it through the cracks.

Insightful post, Dan. Most interesting to me personally is the effect that time on the web has on SEO value. To me, that says it's important to get something up and running as soon as you can if you're looking to start a business of any kind. Take the time to create something you're proud of once you're hosted, but don't get Analysis Paralysis like many people I see out there who are too reluctant to claim a domain until they have everything perfect (and it's never perfect to them!)

As for using AdWords to get that coveted #1 spot without a reputation... if you are in certain industries, be prepared to burn through cash rapidly. The CPC for certain keywords is astounding.

techdis7
01-05-2015, 03:56 AM
Keyword selection is he major and main part for SEO. Once you have finalized your keywords, try to implement them in inner pages properly. On page optimization is the first important task to do. If you have done your ON page properly, then you require less efforts for search engine ranking.

WebEminence
01-06-2015, 12:35 PM
solid and foundational advice.

Your Adwords comment seems like a blanket statement though. Adwords always outperforms #1 ranking? I've seen data that PPC does very well for transactional searches where a purchase is being made, but with informational searches, the CTR is very low for PPC and organic results do better.

All your tips involved on-page strategy. Do you do much off-page or rely on your on-page factors and natural linking that results from good content?

turkeysub
02-07-2015, 07:29 PM
I agree with a lot of points, especially patience. SEO is slow and grueling, especially expanding your wealth of backlinks and interlinks, but it will eventually pay off.

Also picking smart keywords to focus on is vital. Basically I make sure to focus on stuff that will actually drive site traffic from people who are interested in our website.

quamz0
02-16-2015, 02:19 AM
Here are some thoughts I have regarding SEO.

Disclaimer - I rank extremely well for several excellent (and expensive) keywords in a very competitive industry. I'm talking #1 to top 3.

My basic SEO thoughts are fairly "quaint". I feel Google (et al) logically wants to give searchers the best sites for their query. So I try and be that site. I don't care about whatever silly little tricks of the moment are out there - I just have a solid website that I feel is the best, most informative site for my industry, and I keep it that way. I truly feel that approach is the winning approach over time.


I do all of the backend stuff, like page titles, descriptions, I make sure Google has my sitemap, etc. Wordpress has made this easy. I do admit to slipping on this a bit for pages I don't care about.


For competitive industries, "time online" does matter. This is an opinion, but it's a strong one. I've been at this for more than a decade.


I have good, clear content, and a lot of it. People actually read my website (at least the ones I want to read it do). I feel this matters too.


My site is extremely easy to understand. No guesswork at all as to what I do.


I do not spam keywords trying to get one page to rank for nine things (why do you people do this?) I basically make one page for each thing I'd like to rank for, and that's that.


I update and blog on a fairly regular basis. Nothing crazy, but you'll never see my last blog post two months ago, either.


I am patient. It took a long time to climb the rankings. If you need immediate traffic, try adwords. If you can't afford adwords, I question your business commitment. Sorry to all of you people starting a website with a $30 monthly ad budget.


Now, with all of that said, here's another thing I have found out:

Adwords outperforms even a #1 ranking

I have tested this extensively. There is no other conclusion I can reach - with competitive industries that have the full boat of ads (meaning three up top and a full list on the right) adwords beats organic rankings.

I *do* think that having a page one organic ranking *and* an adwords ad is a very strong combination. It lends a ton of credibility.

I would have to argue this one:

For competitive industries, "time online" does matter. This is an opinion, but it's a strong one. I've been at this for more than a decade.

To the death... Time online is huge for competitive industries. Is it the end all be all... No but you need atleast 13months of web presence and atleast a few years of domain age for the very competitive.

MKarp
02-17-2015, 03:32 PM
Very down-to-earth. Great advice.

How do you handle the external stuff? I've found that a lot of the promotion done to build a readership double counts to improving your rankings.

For example, when you reach out to people with large followings to share your content, those social shares bring in readers and help your rankings at the same time.

I'm all for the long-term approach to SEO, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be proactive in trying to speed up that process.

I'm by no means an SEO wiz, but from what I've done and researched, this makes sense to me.

Your thoughts?

0maha
02-18-2015, 12:58 PM
Here's something to ponder. Does using AdWords also give your page an SEO advantage? Whether directly or indirectly?

Yes and no-ish.

When using AdWords, it is vitally important to make sure the landing page for an ad is relevant to the ad text. Google ranks it from 1 to 10 (10 is best). If you rank below 4 or 5, your cost per click will be dramatically higher than if you rank 8 or 9.

And the same things that create ad relevance also create good organic search, so in that sense, they are related.

billbenson
02-18-2015, 02:08 PM
Yes and no-ish.

When using AdWords, it is vitally important to make sure the landing page for an ad is relevant to the ad text. Google ranks it from 1 to 10 (10 is best). If you rank below 4 or 5, your cost per click will be dramatically higher than if you rank 8 or 9.

And the same things that create ad relevance also create good organic search, so in that sense, they are related.

You can look at it a couple of ways. Adwords keywords -> ad -> landing page should be consistent and the landing page should be a call to action page as well. No more than 20 keywords per ad. Write a lot of ads and landing pages.

As you said, this helps in organic searches as well.

If you place well in the organic searches, I think you should still use AdWords because the prospect will see your name in the search results twice.