SEO Project #1 – Not All Content is King – Am I Giving My Visitors What They Are Searching For? Update #7
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I'm on day 7 of this SEO project. SEO work is tough for me. I'm the guy that wanted it done yesterday and doesn't mind working 20 hours a day to make it happen. I don't want results tomorrow. I want them now!
SEO doesn't work that way. A lot of the changes I have made to my project site have been small. There isn't much for me to do except monitor, watch, and wait. SEO work is really a test of my patience.
I'm determined to do something each and every day for the next 30 days to make my project site rank better. My domain is already 1 year old, so I shouldn't have any sandbox issues to worry about. I'm confident at the end of 30 days, my site will be showing on the radar for at least some of my targeted keywords.
When I started this project, I wanted to find a well known SEO expert to spend 6 - 8 hours pointing me in the right direction in exchange for $2,500 - $3,500. One of the experts I contacted was Dan Thies. Like every SEO expert I contacted, Dan wasn't interested in my few thousand dollars. I figure these guys either figure me for a tire kicker that doesn't really plan to pay for anything, or they make so much money from their mastery of SEO that a few thousand dollars is chump change to them. My guess is it is the latter.
Dan did take the time to look at my project sites and wrote this response.
Brent, these look like a bunch of 12-page web sites. Each individual piece of content might seem OK, but none of these sites is much of a resource in itself. Look at the search terms you're targeting, look at the first page of search results, and check out how many pages each site has indexed.
Dan
Dan's comment left me with a major question. Is it possible to rank a 12 page website if you are selective with the keywords you are targeting and have some good backlinks? I don't know the answer to this question. I suspect that in some cases it is, but Dan's comment leaves me believing that it could be a difficult task.
While Dan's comments were short, they have led me to two major changes I am going to be incorporating into my project site.
1. I don't want to have content written just for the purpose of targeting a keyword. My goal is to provide the searcher with the information they are looking for. For instance, if you were targeting the phrase "buy an ipod", would it make sense to send the searcher to a page that simply included a basic article, but didn't actually offer ipods for sale? Or would it make better sense to send the searcher to page where they could purchase an ipod and / or provided reviews and prices for other sites that sold them? The answer to this question is obvious.
I think I have been so caught up in picking out keywords that I considered easy to rank for that I missed the big picture. I've considered it acceptable to send searchers to a page that included an article with my list of on page optimization factors without taking the time to stop and ask the question, "Am I giving my visitors what they are searching for?"
2. Dan was right about the number of pages on my site. When I take a look at the number of pages indexed by sites that are ranking for my keywords, most have considerably more than 12 pages. The range is pretty broad, but a good average for my niche is 200 indexed pages. Adding USEFUL content is next on my list of things to do for my project site.
I spent some time this afternoon looking at other related sites and thinking about what information would be useful for a visitor searching for keywords related to this niche. I didn't give any consideration to the number of monthly searches or competitors. Matter of fact, I didn't even single out any keywords or phrases. I simply made my decision based solely on what information would someone interested in this niche find useful.
I've come up with ideas for 50 additional pages of content to add to my project site. I've already got one of my writers working on it and expect to have it on the site by next weekend. This is content that is being written for the searcher and not the search engines. I'm very anxious to see what type of results I get.
Tags: backlinks, content, Dan Thies, project site
Brent,
It had nothing to do with you. I am not available to consult for anyone right now. I just can’t manufacture more time. A lot of people out there are looking for more work, I’m looking for more people.
Can your little network of MFA sites get search engine traffic? Sure – you could probably throw up 150 pages of utter gibberish and get some traffic. But it’s hard to get real traction with a site that’s 1/20 the size of the competition’s.
In the long run, I believe that the “made for Adsense” business model is going to become increasingly difficult. Search engines want to give searchers with commercial intent commercial content, and searchers who have informational intent information.
BTW, you might want to get some legal advice on the wisdom of using words like “guaranteed cure for (medical condition).”
Hi Dan,
I didn’t mean my comments as a “jab” against you in any way. Aaron Wall told me exactly the same thing.
In my short time, I’ve found SEO experts can be divided in two groups. There are the posers and the real experts. The posers have plenty of time to take on new projects. The real experts, like yourself, are short on time and have all the work they can handle.
From what I have seen so far, if you contact an SEO guy and he is available to start immediately, he probably isn’t the guy you want.
Rather than dividing my focus between 10 sites, I’ve limited my focus to just one. My goal is to provide a real resource for visitors searching for keywords related to my niche. Rather than building a bunch of MFA sites with crappy articles, I want to build a useful resource that utilizes Adsense as a means of monetization. That’s different than a MFA site, right?
What would you recommend to someone in my position? I want to learn SEO and don’t mind working my butt off or spending the money to do so. The problem is all of the best seo guys are so good they don’t need the work.
I’ve read lots of book including the SEO Fast Start Book. But for me, there just isn’t a better alternative than working with an actual person that can boot me in the rear and say, “Your building crappy sites. Scrap and start over.”
Thanks for taking the time to respond.
Brent Crouch
Brent, I think one site is a better place to start.
The MFA model is usually based on some sort of “opportunistic” thinking – people are searching for this, I can make $x through advertising or affiliates, so I build a site to take advantage of those people.
An alternative is to think about an audience or “tribe” of people and develop content that they will value. This makes it easier to get links, and it’s relatively easy to monetize.
Take a look at AskDaveTaylor.com – the man makes a ludicrous income and probably spends a few days each month writing… but the content is extremely good, and he has built up an audience.
He also gets a ton of high quality, very responsive traffic from organic search. He’s not really targeting individual search terms, although I’m sure he’s aware of the traffic potential within many of the topics he covers.
Dan,
Thanks for taking the time to respond and pointing me in the direction of Dave Taylor. I really appreciate it.
Brent