This is Part #2 of a series. A list of all the other updates can be found at the bottom of this post.
When I first introduced this authority site, I made a big fuss about how it was going to be an experiment in white hat SEO. Well, as I pointed out in my October 2011 income report, that experiment has ended.
I am now approaching this site with my usual aim of producing highly-optimized content complimented by top-notch onsite SEO, combined with a tried and tested link building strategy (i.e. the one that got me to #1 in Google for my first niche site).
Keyword Research & Content Creation
As I would always recommend with authority sites, I am targeting a few highly trafficked keywords. I have no ambitions to rank for them in the near future, but I do bear them in mind when I am producing content. What is far more important in the short term is the long tail keywords I can hopefully rank for without too much effort.
When I first picked this niche, I quickly found that there were an enormous list of related keywords that could be used for individual articles. A lot of them only produced a handful of searches per day, but they would soon add up. And for many of the keywords, the competition amongst the top 10 is very low indeed.
So I got to writing an article for each long tail keyword – I have published 20 posts so far. I will continue to write articles until the available keywords have dried up, but this will take me some time!
My approach here is markedly different from that of my first niche site. For that site, I simply wrote articles about the niche, without giving a second’s thought to long tail keywords. I ended up inadvertently ranking for many long tail keywords, but I have no doubt that I would have fared much better had I been more deliberate with my content creation. I am not making the same mistake again.
Additionally, this niche seems to offer up far more opportunities for article writing. In terms of multiple long tail trafficked search queries, the child model niche doesn’t offer a great deal. That is not the case with anxiety and panic attacks – there are a lot of different topics you can write about whilst also targeting specific long tail keywords.
Backlinking
My backlinking strategy, for the time being at least, is going to be very simple.
I am going to use BuildMyRank (not an affiliate link – why?) to drip-feed backlinks to my site, at a rate of 1-3 links per day. Each article I write for BuildMyRank will be on a site with a homepage PageRank of between 2-5 (typically) that is hosted on its own unique IP address. But that’s not all – BuildMyRank submits each article to various RSS feed aggregators and social bookmarking sites, so I should end up with indexed pages that feed quite a bit of link juice through to my site.
Given that my first niche site was slapped out of the rankings by Google because of my overenthusiastic backlinking campaign, I am being very careful with my anchor text this time around. I have a list of 15 different anchor texts (that target a mixture of various articles as well as the homepage) that I draw from, and I also throw in “click here” and other such random anchor texts. This should look far less obvious to Google than me hammering away with the same 2-3 keywords on a daily basis, as I was before.
The site is only indexed in Google for just over half of the keywords I am currently targeting. I expect this to change quite quickly as I build backlinks with relevant anchor text.
That is all I will do for now! Because I am targeting keywords that are not particularly competitive, I am hoping that I can get positive results just by using BuildMyRank.
Monetization
This is an easy one – the site is not currently monetized. Why not? Because monetizing the site at this point would be of no benefit to me. There is barely any traffic flowing to the site, so it will do me no harm at all to wait until I have traffic before implementing AdSense or any other monetization method. I would rather spend more time on content creation and backlinking at this time.
Some people fool themselves into thinking that implementing AdSense on their site will mean that the money starts flowing, but that is not the case. Worry about building up a decent level of traffic first, then concern yourself with monetization.
Progress So Far
I am currently ranked above 100 in Google for 5 different keywords:
I am pleasantly surprised by the fact that one of these (currently ranking #25) is one of the medium-trafficked keywords I am targeting (producing 5,400 exact match searches per month). I didn’t expect to be on the map for that one yet.
A web 2.0 site that I created a few weeks back is actually ranking for one of these keywords at the moment – I hope that my main site will overtake it in time.
The four other keywords produce approximately 5,500 searches per month combined, so if I can get good rankings for these, I will have a good base with which to build upon.
Looking Ahead
Given that I have been through this process before, I have certain expectations for this site. I hope to see encouraging results pretty soon. Ideally, I would like to be on the first page of Google for at least one of the low-competition keywords within the next few weeks.
I am also building backlinks to the higher-trafficked keywords (it’s never too early to start!), but I don’t expect to see anything too impressive from them this early on. Having said that, SEOmoz have discovered that links with related anchor texts can be very beneficial in ranking for more competitive keywords. So my long tail backlinking strategy may also benefit my long term plans to rank for more highly-trafficked keywords too. We shall see!
Read The Whole Series
- My First Authority Site: Deal With Anxiety
- Update #1 – The Value of Experience
- Update #2 – An Evolution
Creative Commons photo courtesy of britl
Ardorm says
Tom, I really respect you for posting this article!
So far, you’re the only blogger that I’ve met who doesn’t write only general information about Promoting Website. Most of the famous bloggers charge money for sharing their own experience and strategies; while you do that completely for free.
I wish you good luck and hope you’ll get ranked first on every keyword, ’cause man, you deserve this!
Tom Ewer says
Really appreciate your kind words! Thanks! 🙂
Chris says
Nice update Tom,
This was a niche I very nearly went for myself, so I’m keen to see how you get on. I’ll scratch it off my list of potentials for the future!
Just wondering – Are you actively building up links to your anchor sites, as well as your main site (assuming you’re using the back linking technique described by Pat at smart passive income…)? Also, are you creating any links manually or using any other tools, or are you just relying on BuildMyRank for the lot?
Tom Ewer says
Hi Chris,
At the moment, I am building no links to my “anchor sites”. I have a few web 2.0s set up that I have built no links to – I may or may not develop them further in the future.
For the time being, my strategy will solely be building BMR links. I’ll see how I fare over the next few weeks then take stock.
Cheers,
Tom
Dev says
Tom,
Thanks for sharing all these information. I really respect you for sharing it with us. You’re doing fantastic work.
Tom Ewer says
My pleasure Dev 🙂
Gregory Ciotti says
I’m with you on monetization, right now it’s better to get a feel for how to create the kind of content that people will like and that will rank well.
“In the business world, everyone is paid in two coins: cash and experience. Take the experience first; the cash will come later.”
Get em’ Tom.
Tom Ewer says
Hey Greg!
Wise words…who said that then? 🙂
Tom
Ruth - The Freelance Writing Blog says
You are clearly expert in a whole host of areas that I am not! I have a funny feeling that we can help each other 🙂
Tom Ewer says
You are clearly expert in a whole host of areas that I am not!
…getting deja vu? 😉
I think we can too 🙂