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What are the basic steps to getting higher placement on "car buying" searches? As of now, even placing #1 on "car buying tips" my site doesn't show up in the top 50 for "car buying".
I have been steadily building my links with sites that have good PRs. But I feel my problem is with the key phrase. However, "car buying tips" is everywhere on my site so I can't understand why I wouldn't do better.
Sorry if I rambled a bit. It's hard describing the situation generically.
My only explanation is that the 2 word phrase is so much more competative that you have to work a heck of a lot harder to crack the top 20 or 30.
More content rich pages specific to the 2 word phrase is how i'm trying to raise my rankings for the more popular 2 word phrase.
Sorry i can't offer more help but it's good to know that there are plenty of us with the same dilema....as this gives us more chance as a group to solve the problem.
Buckley is right a 2 word keyphrase is more competitive than a 3 word keyphrase. To have an rough idea about how much more competive it is, a rule of thumb is to count how many results are given for each query. The more results, the more competition you have.
You can get more focused numbers searching for you query between quotes " ". This will tell you how many sites are using the exact query. To know how many serious competitors you have you have to use allintitle: your query. This will give you the number of sites potentially targeting this keyphrase (at least those who cared to give a proper title to the page.
Look at these results for a bit. Then make sure you have proper content balance in targeted page. Here is good start :
Brett's quick rank (good) [webmasterworld.com]
Then the rough idea is to chase inbound links like a dog in heat to increase your Page Rank. Getting your query in anchor text from these links is important.
This one is good too.
Successful Site in 12 Months with Google Alone [webmasterworld.com]
Enjoy!
You can spend months trying to get a top position for a two word key phrase when in that time you could have developed loads more content which will pick up more targeted (better) users.
With this extra content and a home page optimised using the basic rules available on webmasterworld, then over time your site will build in relevance and do better on the competitive terms.
Smiley
I still don't get it though. For "car buying tips", I'm rated #1, but for "car buying" I'm #134. "Car buying tips" includes the key word "car buying." I don't understand why it doesn't work that way. [sigh]
Back to the drawing board...
Is "car buying tips" an oft entered search phrase? If it's rarely used, being number 1 isn't helpful. Maybe a different phrase should be the focus.
Do a search and look in the top right corner of the screen.
"car buying tips" - 624,000 Google results
"Car buying" 2,700,000 results
Therefore it is harder to rank well for "car buying". Not only that, you have more competition on the two word phrase because it would be more lucrative to be well ranked for it.
That's just a coincidence. I'm using "car buying" as an example. Thought that everyone could follow that one.
Sly, Kevin,
You are right. A lot fewer search on "car buying tips" than "car buying". The main attraction of my site, however, are free tips. So is my strategy flawed? Should I start changing things like the title using "car buying" instead of "car buying tips"? Perhaps I am too focused on "car buying tips".
I don't think changing "car buying tips" to "car buying" is going to help for searches on "car buying." The other 133 sites above yours probably have other words after "car buying" that are not adversely affecting them. Unless all of the other sites have the words "car buying" isolated somewhere.
I think you should do a search for "car buying", and then visit the sites that outrank yours to see if there's anything obivous you can note that they are doing and you are not.
PageRank is probably the main factor. There's more information than you can read about it on this website, so just have a look through the history on this forum and youŽll find plenty of hints.
I sent you a sticky regarding a link exchange which may help you out.
If I'm hunting for info to purchase a "car" online, I don't know that 'tips' would enter my mind as a search term. So, I'm not overly surprised that 'tips' is not a oft used term.
I would probably not even be using "car buying". rather I'd be trying to hone in on what I wanted, e.g., make model of the specific ride for which I'm hoping to find the perfect deal. Are your 100+ competitors more keyed in on that concept than your site?
Staying with cars, I'd be searching with terms like
Dodge "ram tough" 1500 if I was looking for a truck or
"Dodge Viper" +"for Sale" [or] Buy [or] Auction if that was the car I wanted.
I wouldn't be starting with a "where can I find solid tips on buying a car" type search. Maybe that's just me.
For another example, take an area where a specific brand is not the focus so much as a spcific feature, i.e., cameras.
I'd never fire up as my front end search "Camera buying tips" or "buy camera online". Even without a brand in mind, I'd already know if I wanted film based or digital, format size if film based, and at least some idea on whether I wanted a camera that used a docking station.
Just some other thoughts. Hopefully they are helpful. if not, well, I never claimed to be an expert. I'm just in Joe Customer mode at the moment.
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How does one ammend such a penalty (for not keeping a close eye on domain name expiration dates)?
Mac,
That's interesting. WHen I was placing high, I was changing major pages and uploading them daily. I haven't done those in awhile so maybe that why I'm dropping. That's a lot of labor to keep a high Google rating.
It boggled me until this point, but now I realize it is almost certainly an issue of PR. Build those backlinks:)
You do have a stable spot. You are #134.
Whenever you shoot up it is the result of freshbot. You should rejoice in the fact that you get that change, rather than complaining about it.
You are the equivalent of a waiter in a resort town that normally comes home with minimum wage. But occasionally a high roller comes through and leaves a couple of hundred dollar tip.
He says he wants it to be stable. But what he really means is that he wants it to be stable at #13. He is stable at #134. That is where he is in the update and it is the number he needs to work on improving.
When he gets the everflux bonus to move him up to #13, he should be happy about that and be grateful that it happens, otherwise he would be #134 all month long. And I really don't think that is what he meant when he said that he wanted stability.
Normally when we've been pushed to the top by freshbot after adding new content we would either stay there, or within a few spots of the freshbot position after the following update. I'm sure Google is striving to make those fresh positions as close to "the truth" as possible.
Let us know where you land after the update Spike.
