How To Get To Number One on Google: A Case Study: Part One
Hey guys,
As the title suggests, today, I’m going to talk about how to get to number one on Google for your keywords.
But, unlike a lot of so-called ‘search engine gurus’ out there who just regurgitate crap they’ve scraped from the Internet and have never actually done it themselves, I’m going to provide you with evidence and expose all the nitty-gritty details from one of my own top-ranking websites.
I’ll take you on the journey -from start to finish – of how this particular website made it to number one in Google, how I optimised it for the search engine, how many visitors it gets and how much profit it makes.
The Beginning
All websites start as an idea and this one was no exception.
Step 1: The Idea
During my younger years, I suffered from recurring styes (those annoying little pimples you sometimes get on your eyelids) and I’d tried many different methods for getting rid of them. Eventually, I found a method that worked really well – the warm compress (it’s no secret method – just search the Internet and you’ll find it).
So, I decided to make a website about it to help others.
Step 2: Keyword Research
Keyword research involves finding out what queries or search terms folk type into Google, how often the query is typed into Google and how competitive the query is. The words that people type into Google to do a search are called keywords.
One of the ways to do this (and my preferred method) is by using the Google Keyword Tool.
Simply type in a query (in this case, I typed in ‘getting rid of styes’), set the locale to All Countries and click the search button. Google’s Keyword Tool then tells you how many times the keyword is searched for each month (approximately) and a list of other related keywords.
The next task is to choose which keywords to use for your website. The potential keywords you use can be narrowed down based on two criteria:
- Popularity
- Competition
You can judge popularity of a keyword by seeing how many searches are done for it each month. I try to pick keywords that have a search volume of between 3000 and 12000. With 3000 searches per month you have around 100 searches a day – anything lower than that probably won’t be too profitable. More than 12000 searches usually (but not always) means that the keyword is more difficult to rank for because, chances are, other Internet Marketers will already be targeting them.
Competition can be judged by doing a Google Search for the keyword. Although it can vary (sometimes radically) between niches, less than a million results usually indicates the keyword is probably worth competing for. Next, enclose the keyword in double-quotes and do another Google Search (getting rid of styes becomes “getting rid of styes”) to find websites with the exact term on their pages. Again, although it varies with different niches, less than 100,000 results usually means fairly low competition.
Next, go back to your original Google search (without the double quotes) and take a look at the top 10 websites ranking for that keyword to ascertain how authoritative they are.
This task is a bit fuzzy and is difficult to explain because there can be a lot of variation and it requires you to have some understanding about the different types websites on the Internet.
If the top 10 results consist of what I would call ‘low-quality’ websites such as Yahoo! Answers, article directories, blogs etc. there’s a good chance you’ll be able to get your website in there too. If the websites are big corporations, government websites, university websites etc. it will be harder to rank for.
When you’ve found a keyword with low competition and a high search volume, this will be your primary keyword. Type it into the Google Keyword Tool to get a list of what Google thinks are related keywords to your main keyword to get between 5 and 10 secondary keywords. You can be a little less strict with the rules for your secondary keywords, so pick a couple with a low search volume, a couple with a high search volume and a couple with high competition.
The keyword tool automatically orders the keywords by how relevant Google thinks they are, so try to pick secondary keywords that are towards the top of the list and at least in the top 100 suggestions.
You won’t be trying to rank for all these secondary keywords, but including them in your website’s content will improve your ranking for your main keyword.
Keyword research is probably the most important step of creating a successful, profitable website so take your time and try to find some killer keywords with lots of searches and low competition. Occasionally, you can find yourself a little goldmine 
Anyway, for my stye website, I decided on the main keyword of “how to get rid of styes”.
This keyword had a search volume of around 9000, around 375’000 search results and around 75’000 search results when putting the term in double quotes. The top ranking websites were dedicated ‘how to get rid of things’ websites, ehow and blogs, so I felt comfortable I could beat these – if the top results had been the NHS or BUPA or something similar,I probably wouldn’t have made the website as it can be difficult to compete with them.
For secondary keywords, I chose:
- Are styes contagious
- Curing a stye
- Treating a stye
- External stye
- Internal stye
- How to get rid of a chalazion
- How to get rid of styes fast
The Middle & The End
Nearly a thousand words so far and I’ve still got so much to discuss – but I’m running out of time, so I’m going to put the rest of this article in ebook form and (because I’m such an awesome guy), give it away for free to all subscribers to my newsletter.
Update: 04/08/2011: I’ve now published Part Two here
How To Get To Number One on Google: A Case Study: Part Two - Dutton & Co Internet Marketing Blog
August 4th, 2011 at 7:30 pm #
[...] If you’ve not seen it already, click here for Part One of my Case Study on How To Get To Number One on Google. [...]