Why am I struggling to rank well for an easy ass keyword?

L

letsmakemoney

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Feb 11, 2009
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I'm having a hard time ranking on the first page in Google, or even in the top 3 spots, for a keyword that's supposed to be pretty easy. I am on the 3rd page right now, and I've been fluctuating between the 3rd and 4th page for a few weeks.

Here are the stats for the keyword:

  • it's 3 words

  • 3,060 results for the keyword in quotes

  • 7,450 results for alintitle

  • 7,550 results for allinurl

  • 2,000 results for allinanchor

  • the #1 ranking page has 3 backlinks to the page, and 1,014 backlinks to the entire site
  • the #2 ranking page has 4 backlinks to the page, and 697 links to the entire site
  • the #3 ranking page has 2 backlinks to the page, and 1,039 links to the entire site
  • I have 24 backlinks to my homepage, which is also the page that I'm trying to rank for, and 31 to my entire site.
  • I have the keyword in my title, as part of my domain name (with another word in front of it), and my H1 tag. It's a wordpress site.

Do I just need to wait? I started the site in early December (about 5 weeks ago).

Did I misjudge the competition? Is this actually a harder keyword to rank for?

I've bought some link building services from the buy/sell part of this forum already... do I need to do some more? Should I do some directory submits just to get a shit load of links?

If anyone wants to know the exact keyword to help out in more detail, you can PM me.

Thanks in advance.
 


i've heard a lot bigger "injustices" than a site not ranking at the top because it is 5 weeks old and has 31 links...

you probably need some time for the site to age...but you should definitely keep adding links. buy stevejobs directory submissions - 50/day for a month for $19...or do some blog commenting. shiz.
 
Is your domain new? How diverse are backlink sources and anchor text? Are these links dofollow?

The number of domain backlinks surely looks low. You also might be penalized for adding links too quickly, but I am not certain about that.
 
You probably done this aready but put the keyword in the title, metas, and in the content. Put an h tag keyword at the top of the page also. The basic seo 101 stuff.
 
yeah, I've done the on-page SEO stuff..

the domain is new (it's the same age as the site - 5 weeks)

the links are mostly dofollow, some are profile links, some are directory links, some are blog comments

Most of the links are the same phrase though (the keyword).

One other question... I have found some directories (PR2-4) in the same niche as my site, but they are paid directories. For this keyword/site, do I even need to worry about getting links in related directories? Or will a lot of links in general directories be enough in this case?
 
letsmakemoney said:
yeah, I've done the on-page SEO stuff..

the domain is new (it's the same age as the site - 5 weeks)

the links are mostly dofollow, some are profile links, some are directory links, some are blog comments

Most of the links are the same phrase though (the keyword).

One other question... I have found some directories (PR2-4) in the same niche as my site, but they are paid directories. For this keyword/site, do I even need to worry about getting links in related directories? Or will a lot of links in general directories be enough in this case?
Click to expand...

This has to be domain age... I think you should just give it time, if you start creating too many links it could trip up spam penalties.

Identical anchor text with no variations is likely to be devalued or trigger a penalty as well.

Relevance (or lack thereof) of linking sites also plays a huge role.
 
When does domain age generally stop working against you and start working for you? Is it 2 months, 6 months, 2 years, or more? I'm sure it varies case by case, but how long does it generally take?
 
What link building package did you purchase for this and where are they getting the links? The links just might be worthless.
 
If your competitors have incoming links from a pr6 pr5 or other high page rank sites your 20 odd links are worthless.
 
My most recent domain that finally "broke through" and started ranking well took 8 months. At 8 month mark the rankings improved by 600%.

Take that for what it's worth
 
I've had similar results as omgyams, except that it was almost 9 months from the day that I opened the sites to the spiders. Rankings improved again 3 months later.
 
I have several domains that are just aging.. I never start serious LINK work before the first renewal is due and that is when I renew for 3 years and start adding links.. For 1 year I just invest in content building..
 
letsmakemoney said:
the links are mostly dofollow, some are profile links, some are directory links, some are blog comments

Most of the links are the same phrase though (the keyword).
Click to expand...

Looks like a decent spread, but make sure its natural. Going after all dofollow links could look spammy... although I'm not sure G really cares about that on such a small keyword.

Try a press release and social bookmarking service too. That will help diversify... after that, probably start saving your money unless this is a hugely profitable niche. How much are you gonna spend on such low traffic?

One last thing - Monitor your phrase in google alerts. if it gets mentioned in forums or blogs, pop in there with a link (try not to sound spammy of course)... every day, nice and slow manual & targeted linkbuilding :2gunsfiring_v1:
 
letsmakemoney:

u can try some high PR, do follow, ip diverse, viewable without registration, forum profile page links. It will require a little research and sorting.

Here is a google search string to help you find cms forum platform that will display some forum site candidates for profile links.

I checked a few of those forum links and found profile pages where u can add at least 1 live site link :)

Invision offers two options, hosted and licensed. you can spot the hosted forums as a subdirectory of invision. while the licensed versions are hosted on the client's host.

the client hosted forums offer ip diversity :)

"licensed to" "powered by ip board"

cheers
rediim
 
Also going with "domain too young." Also, when counting the incoming links to the competitors, did you use Yahoo to check them or Google?

+1 for calling it an "easy ass keyword".
 
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