Forum Moderators: open
The question is, is there more I can do, or do I try all the standard methods and then accept my defeat if it doesn't work? I remember seeing some reports a few months ago that analyzed a dozen elements on hundreds of pages to try to see which factors were most important, but I can't find them now.
I have the feeling that there may not be an easy answer to this, but I'm looking to take my skills to the next level, if there is one, and even if I have to pay a little for research or tutoring.
Thankie-doodle, -MBJ-
This may be the thread you were looking for:
[webmasterworld.com...]
If that doesn't help, try thinking outside the box. Maybe you can find some slightly-less-competitive, but still-popular terms to focus on. Remember, it's not the hits, but the conversions that count.
HTH,
Jim
From where? The big ones - dmoz, Yahoo.
The authorities in that keyword sector - do they know about the site? Are they linking to it or other sites in your field?
If they *do* link to other sites in your field, but not yours, why not? What are you missing that the sites with the links have?
Once you 'spot the difference' is there any way to do it better? In a new or different way?
Advanced SEO = being able to do it as good as it gets.
Do your 'related links' provide more traffic than most search engines barring perhaps Google, Yahoo, and MSN?
If so - then you have a very solid foundation. If not, you need some more high quality, related, relevant sites linking to you.
It may be the case you've gotten all the industry related & relevant links - if you do have all those, what content could be added? Anything other 'authority sites' in your area have that you are missing? Could you add to the content that way?
And above all, be patient. Today, you could have done *all* the above. However, it will take between 3 and 6 months at least to get the rankings & traffic from the search engines for all the hard work you've done.
I know it's the conversions that count, but unfortunately I'm doing this for clients (not just for my own sites), and some of these clients have a single-minded focus on their ranking, even though I try to explain that all the traffic in the world is useless if the site looks like it was designed by the neighbor's kid. :)
The links to more information on this board are good stuff too, thanks.
I think my conclusion, though, is that at some point I've really don't just about everything that there is to do (short of setting up a bunch of new domains strictly to generate inbound links). So I think that once I've done everything, if I still don't have the rankings I wanted, then I just accept that I can't win 'em all.
From now on when clients want super-competitive keywords I'll give it my best shot but I'll also steer them towards lesser-used keywords for which I can get them much higher rankings and explain why those keywords are often a better value.
Thanks again for the help! -MBJ-
