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It's not my intention to boast - far from it! But, it came as a pleasant surprise to me recently when I managed to achieve what most people say is impossible: get on page one of Yahoo/Google and Altavista *and* get top position for my keywords, both on my first attempt.
I didn't use any tricks, I have no hidden links - in fact I have almost no links to speak of - I didn't stuff my metatags or ALT parameters with junk, and I didn't generate hundreds of gateway pages.
The most important thing I did was to develop a unique product for a particular niche.
And, I did that only after researching the net and making sure that nobody else had the same thing. There *are* some similar products, but none with the exact same features. Hence, my particular product *is* unique. It took a long time to develop (three years), but it was a laborious task (the product will *never* be finished really, and it is now my task to maintain it).
With the product ready, I then designed and coded the web pages, building an entire domain around this one complete idea. I didn't want any extraneous issues or offers to detract from the domain's raison d'etre; I would use *other* domains to promote my affiliate programs and other products.
The design is simple to the point of Spartan; the coding is so basic, a beginner could do it easily. Just as well, as my knowledge of CGI scripting, Javascript and the like is abysmal. However, I wanted *nothing* to get in the way of my message and what I wanted to market.
Before developing the code, I wrote out my sales letter in Word, doing the layout as I wrote, working out the headlines, and getting the look and feel of my page the way I wanted, before I converted it to HTML.
When the sales letter and basic coding was done, I then turned to the TITLE, DESCRIPTION and KEYWORDS within the HTML code.
There has been a lot written about those three and no doubt there will continue to be much said. I don't profess to be expert at all, but I do know this:
(1) The TITLE must be relevant and must make linguistic and logical sense when read by a human. If it contains two or three powerful keywords, so much the better. TITLE length, I think, should adhere to that required by Yahoo.
(2) The DESCRIPTION must be relevant also and should contain your most powerful keywords, but should not merely repeat your title. Similarly, its length should not exceed that required by Yahoo. The very first headline of the sales letter should be *exactly* the same as the DESCRIPTION.
(3) The KEYWORDS used must appear in the sales letter, but only in a certain ratio to the total words on a page. Depending upon who you read, that ratio can vary from 3% to 10% (my home page for this product has about a 4% ratio). Also, from material I've read, opinion is roughly split 50/50 about whether keywords should be in upper or lower case. I've opted to use all upper case, separated by commas with no spaces.
I spent a lot of time getting the title, description and first headline right and went through many variations before I stopped. (But, I don't have to stop - they can be modified any time at all I choose.) Only when I had finished *that* process though, did I then develop my final keyword list.
Each page for the website was treated in the same way. But, although each page - and there are only eleven - is thematically similar, the TITLE, DESCRIPTION, KEYWORDS and first headline are all different (content for each page is different also, of course!). By doing so, I ensure that I can submit all pages individually, should I choose, without being accused of spamming the search engines (although, with only 11 pages, that was not likely anyway).
When all was done, I submitted the site (http://rogersreference.com) to all of the majors manually i.e. the top ten, which includes Yahoo, Google and Altavista, on Oct 17th, and made a note to search the SEs in a few weeks. (I used an automated service to submit to hundreds of other SEs). When I checked the above three on November 20th, there I was - page 1, number 1. You could've knocked me down with a feather! And, I haven't paid a cent yet to be included in any directory or search engine.
The site is not yet indexed in Yahoo, but I'm hoping that will happen in a little while. Anyway, I'm not complaining!
SUMMARY:
Perhaps the most important lesson I've learnt is that a unique product or idea for a niche category or market is crucial, being the sine qua non for high ranking. This, I think, cannot be stressed too strongly.
Secondly, the whole domain was developed with the KISS principle as paramount. The people who read through the domain will be interested in *only* what I have to *say* and will judge it accordingly. And, that's how it should be. (Other products however would benefit from more page embellishment e.g. fancy video games, animation software, photography, art and such like.)
And, finally, I've given the search engines and directories what they want: content rich web pages in a specific niche, directed to targeted, interested people. And, isn't that how it should be also?
If you're interested in finding my ebook product, go to one of the above and punch in 'homonym+dictionary' or 'homonym+homophone' in the search box.
Now, here's the BIG bonus: search results for the above also include a link to another of my domains, sometimes on the same page. Now that's icing worth waiting for!
Article Tags: Sales Letter, Title Description, First Headline
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