« Day 28 – Part II – Blogs and Forums and Web 2.0 | Home | Day 29 – Part II – Directory Submissions »
Day 29 – Part I – The Five Biggest Mistakes Challengers Make
By Mike Mindel | August 29, 2007
This content is summarized from Day 29 – The Five Biggest Mistakes Challengers Make, presented by Ed Dale.
I (Ed) have been sent a number of sites for review where people haven’t been ranked in Google. I’ve gone through eight of the ten submissions we have selected so far and there have been some glaring mistakes.
These are the mistakes:
Bad Numbers
Also known as the ‘I was asleep at the wheel when we talked about Wordtracker’ mistake.
These sites are trying to target a keyword with a small number of searches (e.g. 4 a day) or going after some crazy market with huge competition in Google (> 30,000 competition pages). The numbers are there for a reason. If you don’t filter keywords using the basic criteria then you’re going to have a problem.
Bad Strategy
These sites selected a keyword that passed the filters but there was no way to sell to these people. You have to ask yourself ‘what would this person want to buy?’ You have to use some common sense. You don’t want to build a site for people who are in a fleeting situation and spending money would be the last thing on their mind. In a couple of the niches I (Ed) reviewed, people would be in a situation for a matter of days. You also can’t think of what you could possibly sell them. There wasn’t even an affiliate product in one example.
That’s why we talk about affiliate products. You have to ask yourself ‘how am I going to make permanent money out of this?’ Is it is a hobby, a passion? The wedding market is a good example. People are only in the wedding phase for a certain period of time but engaged couples is a good market as you can easily spend 12 months planning a wedding.
Not Matching the Post Title and Headline With the Keyword
You have to match your phrase somewhere in the headline of the article. You also have to exactly match the name, url (address) of the blog. Some people may have created one article with the keyword in the headline but then created another article before Google had a chance to index it. Google will see the top article doesn’t match, seeing that it is sort of about what the person wants to match but not exactly. So the article only gets ranked accordingly and you get ranked way down. This is a big issue for people. Leave the first post alone until Google indexes it. Then and only then add more content.
Let’s say for example that Neal Schon Gibson Guitar is the keyword. When you go to Blogger you must register nealschongibsonguitar.blogspot.com.
Your first article needs to be ‘I’m looking for a Neal Schon gibson guitar. Please help’.
Make sure the opening paragraph also something like ‘boy I wish I had a Neal Schon gibson guitar. It’s really cool. It has these sustaining humbuggers, a gold top and I want one but it’s out of stock and nobody seems to have one. It’s a tragedy of life’.
Make sure your selected keyword is in at least the title, headline and first paragraph of your content platform.
Mike’s comment: Here’s an example from my second blog
The title of this Blogger blog is howtowriteastory.blogspot.com. The keyword ‘how to write a story’ is also in the headline (but not the sub-headline necessarily), the title of the first blog post and the first paragraph. Google is in no doubt what this post is about.
No Affiliate Links in First Paragraph Until Indexed
Don’t put any affiliate links in the first paragraph (yet). You haven’t had any chance to build a relationship with Google. It’s like walking up to someone on the street and propositioning them about procreation immediately. You’re likely to get a slap. Same with trying to get into Google and putting an affiliate link in the first paragraph before you’re indexed.
Check For Other Web 2.0 Content Platforms
If you’re going to do a Blogger blog or a Wordpress blog then make sure there aren’t any already listed for your keyword. Your blog is younger than that ranked blog. They may also have established links before you. So move on and find another platform.
-Ed
Technorati Tags: day 29, the five biggest mistake challengers make, five mistakes, ed dale, glaring mistakes, bad numbers, bad strategy, affiliate products, wedding niche, exactly match the title and headline with the keyword, neal schon, gibson guitar, humbuggers, no affiliate links in first paragraph, content platforms, web 2.0, blogger, wordpress
Powered by ScribeFire.
Topics: Daily Summaries | 5 Comments »
August 30th, 2007 at 12:24 am
Great info here. One question:
“If you’re going to do a Blogger blog or a Wordpress blog then make sure there aren’t any already listed for your keyword.”
What about the squatters who register the names and don’t use them? In your example, if someone had registered nealschongibsonguitar.blogspot.com but had not posted anything to it, would it work to register iwantanealschongibsonguitar.blogspot.com?
August 30th, 2007 at 3:05 am
I would say that as long as that person didn’t publish an article or post, you are not in competition with that person. Search engines do not index registered domain names, they index content.
I’m no search engine expert, but this is how I understand it.
August 31st, 2007 at 12:50 am
[...] Day 29 – Part I – The Five Biggest Mistakes Challengers Make [...]
August 31st, 2007 at 5:39 pm
[...] Day 29 – Part I – The Five Biggest Mistakes Challengers Make [...]
October 29th, 2007 at 12:13 am
Well done. Good suggestions!