14. You want links that are: Thematically related. From a site that has higher page rank than yours (though that’s no reason to refuse a link from one that is lower). Based in a prominent position. Comprised of anchor text that match your keywords. From competitors.
15. Getting Links Using Content Generation 1) Create an informative and/or entertaining (possibly inflammatory) article. 2) Disseminate the article via your blog. social media, and other online dissemination platforms.
19. Why generate content? It brings lots of traffic. The traffic increases your page rank….making Google trust you… Once Google trusts you, it will begin putting your site in front of users that want your product/service. The attention-grabbing articles are not for your main customer base, they are to create the traffic base and Google trust necessary to rank for your main customer base in the future.
20. How Do You Start? Research Your Demographic. These are not the people you ALREADY sell to. These are the people you WILL SELL to.
24. Begin Writing Create an Avatar based on your quantcast and insights for search report. THEN…..think of the most AWESOME, catchy headline EVER. HERENEXTYEAR.COM/ HEADLINE GENERATOR
25. Writing a Headline 1) Is vitally important. 2) Use mindmeister.com or another mind-mapping tool. 3) Play to guilt. 4) Play to fear. 5) Play to the bandwagon. 6) Play to the joy of curiosity.
27. 1) It doesn’t have to be true. Use your content as a debating ground for an untrue proposition….then weigh in with the “expert” verdict. 2) The only requirement is that it’s entertaining and keyword rich (turn visitors into unwilling promoters). 3) Tie in current events (ride the wave). 4) Read headlines. 5) Set up Google alerts on your industry. 6) Search Google blogs. 7)Yourversion.com. 8) Make sure you enable comments on your blog (better to not moderate them).
30. Ideas 1) Top 99 List. 2) Who’s who of the industry (love your competition). (Code badges). 3) Interview Library. 4) Just rewrite something from a different sector. 5) Original research. 6) Original perspective. 7) Blog search. 8) Look at your keyword list. 9) Look at your competitors.
34. Who has the time?: Here are some shortcuts. Use your phone as a memo pad to find angles. Frankenstein articles. Buy a few entertaining books. Buy some magazines. Outsource to copy writers. Practice makes perfect. Does not have to be something new every month. Can be a review/critique of someone else. Make a video/podcast and include transcript.
35. There are no short cuts: Beware of SEO products.
38. Truths about choosing keywords Opinions about which keywords will work well for your site don’t matter. Specifically, YOUR opinions about which keywords will work don’t matter.
46. Criteria at this stage of the selection process Each keyword represents an entire market and an entire campaign. Learn vs. Do. Search volume should be at least 500 people per month (due to click through rate and conversion rates). Global vs. domestic: You want both. Don’t shoot too high.
47. Check Out the Competition 1) Google the keyword you are interested in with the appropriate brackets. 2) Survey the competition.
51. Good indications you can dominate that keyword Results include geo-specific info outside of your region. Results include a lot of videos and directory submissions. Results are difficult to use and do not address the query. Results are not visually pleasing. Results include a lot of cross-contaminated data. Results have low page rank. Results have high Alexa ranking.
53. The gold nugget keyword 1) Has at least 500/month unique individuals searching for it. 2) Has less than one million results on a regular Google search. 3) Has less than 10,000 results on an all-in-title Google search.
54. Has a good forecast www.google.com/insights/search
58. Trouble Shooting 1) Make sure all on-page SEO elements are keyword rich (firefox, SEO doctor) 2) Make sure you have submitted an xml site map. 3) Make sure you have a 301 redirect.
60. Geo-targeting 1) Claim your local Google listing. 2) Create a Google and Windows places. 3) Use geographically identifiable information on your site. 4) Submit to local directories.
62. Pay-per-click Pros/Cons Instantly on the top page of Google for a few hundred dollars. Very high customer volume very quickly. Have to pay to stay up there. Does not help your Google rankings. Have to constantly manage the ads.
63. Other search engines? 1) It is still worth submitting a site map to Yahoo and MSN. 2) If you rank on Google, you will almost certainly be indexed by Yahoo, MSN, and AltaVista unless you forgot to submit a site map.
64. Conclusion Writing good content + picking the right keywords = the number one page on Google.