The Wealth Gang

Probably the most frequent question I receive has to do with getting a new site listed in Google and getting more traffic. One way, to do this is with long tail keywords. Google has a complex algorithm, and the more competitive the keyword, the harder it is to rank your site or blog post for that keyword.

For one, the age and depth of your website is one of those factors. If you have a new site, you won’t be able to effectively get your site listed on the first page of Google. If you do, it will only be temporary. Some people will try to do this by building a lot of backlinks to their site, but this is only a strategy that is bound to fail — especially in competitive niches. Once a Google sees that a new site is receiving abnormally high backlinks, they will ban you site and leave you with no search engine traffic.

That’s coming from experience, unfortunately.

That’s not to say to focus the foundation of your site on competitive keywords, but you have to think long-term. Do everything in moderation, and build those keyword rich blog posts and meta tags now so 9 months from now you can rank for those highly desirable keywords. Start the aging process now.

Long Tail Keywords — The Key to Instant Search Engine Traffic

Typically, what are known as long-tail keywords are less desirable because there is less traffic. For instance, the keyword phrase, “credit score” probably gets millions of searches a month. If you are competing for that keyword, good luck. You are competing with major companies that have teams of SEO professionals and developers working on making sure they keep their rankings.

What you can do is rank for something like, “how to check your credit score online free.” While something like this may only get a few hundred searches a month, you are more likely to get your site noticed. The long tail typically has less competition and, therefore, Google has no option but to list your site closer to the top of the first page.

There’s something very powerful about long tail keywords that makes it desirable to rank for. Quality Traffic.

The long tail keywords are highly targeted, making those visitors highly qualified. If you are promoting something on that particular web page, you will increase your chances of a conversion because of the quality in traffic. These are people who are actively seeking for a very specific solution or product, and you are giving them exactly what they want.

Just because the long tail does not produce a lot of traffic doesn’t make it worthless. Those are more coveted visitors and, secondly, hundreds of blog posts with long tail keywords can mean thousands of visitors daily. Highly target visitors that you ultimately want. Think long-term as you build your sites to reap the most benefits.

There’s nothing better than free traffic, and Google can send loads of it to your website. But without being in the top 3 positions for high volume keywords, you’re only getting trickles of traffic. Depending on the topic area of your website, it could be incredible easy to improve search engine ranking, and get even a brand new site listed on the top of Google in a matter of minutes.

Realize that savvy Internet marketers and search engine optimization experts control the most competitive niches, but there are always opportunities available that you can take advantage of.

So how do you get your website listed on Google really fast and improve search engine ranking?

The Google algorithm is always changing, and that formula is a well-kept secret. What we do know, however, is that Google rewards websites with:

1. Original Content
2. Authority

So first, make sure that the content on your website is not just a reproduction of other websites and content out there. Take the time to do it right.

The way Google currently values the authority of your website is by analyzing the incoming links to your website. If the Wall Street Journal links to your website, Google is going to say, “Hey, the WSJ is a very reputable website. If they’re linking to this guys website, then it too must be important.”

In other words, you don’t only need a lot of links pointing to your website… you need high quality links from a wide variety of sites.

For now, Google claims that it doesn’t consider the visitor behavior of your website, but I would be willing to bet that they will eventually. In other words, Google can see how many new visitors versus returning users come to your site (indicating that returning users find your site useful), how long they stay on your website, and if they are visiting other pages on your site or just leaving it all together.

Now, that all being said (and just a very brief overview), Google uses automated methods to review and list your website. If you want to get it listed, all you need to do is link back to your website from another website that already has presence and that Google visits regularly. For instance…

Social bookmarking sites.

When your new site is up and running, use StumbleUpon, Digg and some of the other popular social bookmarking sites to link back to your new website. It could take Google overnight to get to it, but I’ve had sites listed in under 10 minutes before by doing this.

By doing this, not only do you tell Google, “Hey, look at me… I exist on the Internet,” but depending on your niche, you can get your site listed right at the top of Google search results.

By the way, this goes for improving search engine ranking for new blog posts as well. But I don’t advise overdoing it.

Also, don’t expect to stay on the top for very long. This is just an initial bump that you’ll experience. But keep building backlinks to your website, and you’ll earn the right and authority to stay in that number one spot.

Should I Submit My Site to Improve Search Engine Ranking?

There are some arguments about submitting your site to search engine directories. Google, Yahoo, MSN, and other search engines give you the option to submit your site to their directory to let them know about your existance. There are also services that will do this for you.

My opinion, which is based on experience…

Don’t do it!

First, unless you are hiring a professional SEO consultant with a lot of experience and really knows what they are doing, never hire a service that promises to provide thousands of links and submissions to search engines. Google can figure out that something is fishy with a brand new website that suddenly has thousands of links and search engine submissions, and they will penalize you for that — which is no good at all, because I’ve been there too.

My highest ranking websites were never submitted to search engine directories. I just built valuable content that people naturally linked back to, and did a little link building on my own. These websites had no trouble getting lited and earning top rankings fast. Those that I submitted had a delay, and I suspect Google likes finding sites naturally rather than being told that it should list your site.

Quick Rant:

In my opinion, Google is smart and their number one goal is to list websites that provide real value. That means their number one mission is to filter out spammy sites. So while tools and blackhat strategies exist to create auto-blogs, that is not a long term strategy that you can count on making you money for the rest of your life.

Spend the time to do it right, and you’ll build a serious business that can produce cash for you day after day, as long as that website exists.