Keyword Sniping Case Study - Patience People!
January 16th, 2008 by CourtGuys you are cracking me up! I keep getting frantic emails from people telling me that Colorado Lasik Surgery Guide has dropped to page 16 in Google for its keywords. I’m not making fun of anyone here so please don’t get offended but guys what do you expect?
I can see that we need to go over a few issues here because apparently people think that you can get ranked first for a keyword without ever having any setbacks. Do you really think that you can achieve anything great without having setbacks?
Anyone that has ever done great things has had setbacks guys. This industry isn’t any different than any other! When you’re trying to get a ranking, you should expect it to be very unstable for a while. You might jump up to page 1, and then drop to page 35. You might jump back up to page 2, and then drop to page 16.
Don’t get me wrong guys, I’m not saying that anyone is foolish for not seeing this stuff happen before. I understand that many of you haven’t done this before so I know that your instincts are telling you that something is wrong. Guys this is just the natural process - it happens every time you’re going for a ranking. Just keep working on your site and your rankings will come back before you know it.
After about one month of targeting ‘internet marketing‘ with Court’s Internet Marketing School, I popped up on page 4 for the keyword. Victory! One week later I was sitting on page 75. The sad fact is that a setback like that is enough to make the majority of people in this world quit.
Winners never quit, and quitters never win - Vince Lombardi (and others)
If you’re ready to bail after a minor setback, I don’t know that this is the business for you. There are always going to be setbacks, and those setbacks will be followed by victories for the 1% of people that actually keep working.
Are you a quitter or a winner?
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January 16th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
i’ve found that it’s really unstable. especially with blogging. i think that’s why it’s important to get individual posts indexed with your keywords. deep linking is the way to go. i’ve seen my blog jump around from the first page to the 6th page for “make money blog” if i have more deep linked posts with those keywords. i’ll probably still hold the page 1 spot
January 16th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
What people want to keep in mind is that rankings are only unstable until you get a lot of authority for your keyword!
Once you have that authority you will be able to stick in the same position for months and months at a time.
January 16th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
Court, that’s exactly how rankings have gone for me for the last year or so. For my day job we target a fairly competitive term and we bounced around in the top 30 for a while, then the bouncing was up and down the top 10, and now we’re firmly planted at #2 and gunning for #1. The stability will come but it’s not something you can get overnight as a lot of people hope.
January 16th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
I think so many people are used to getting sales pitches for products claiming how they got to the first page in under an hour etc.
Reality doesn’t seem to sell that well. People don’t want to hear it.
April
January 16th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
I’ve been doing the internet thing for a while (not keyword sniping until much more recently)… you make a great point Court people can’t get too discouraged (or excited for that matter) until your site had been around for at least six months IMO. Anyway I don’t know what people use for checking their keyword rankings for their site but this is the tool I use if anyone is interested: http://www.mikes-marketing-tools.com/ranking-reports/
January 16th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
Hey Court,
I couldn’t agree more. I’ve had my company’s site go up and down the rankings many times. It’s much much more stable now (it is a very highly competitive and expensive keyword), but sometimes it still goes up and down a little (now at least it’s always on the first page).
And you’re absolutely right that this business is not for everyone. There will be setbacks, no doubt about it. That’s the reality. This is also why there are employees and business owners. You just have to decide what you’re comfortable with…
January 16th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
I have a feeling Google is adjusting more than PageRank right now. I have a number of sites that are fluctuating wildly the past few days. We’re in one of those periods when you just have to take some deep breaths and wait for the dust to settle.
Having said that…. Adding your sniping strategy (step by step)to a social neteworking strategy I’m using, landed my site at #11 on Google and #10 on Yahoo, inside of 60 days.
It’s not a magic bullet,and it didn’t quite happen over night but the fundemantals of getting it there are solid. Premium content, strong SEO, solid backlinks from credible authority sites and targeted keywords.
Even thogh you get to the front of the pack a little quicker, it’s not easy. It takes focus, dedication, patience and WORK. It’s working smart and knowing your business. To become a professional in any line of work, you must study, learn and KNOW your business.
There are some moments of frustation and set backs…And there will probably be more but in the end its all worthwhile. Your building something that is sustainable and will be there long after the The (Google) Dance.
January 16th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
Great points Court, and I think that extends to the overall “make money online” niche. I’ve read a lot of blogs of people who just aren’t making money after a month or 2, so they quit because they think it’s impossible. Keep up the great work here.
January 16th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
Court, fantastic tips. I too think Google is going through a strange faze at the moment and my sites keep going up then up and back down and they’re not stabalising. Think you, Vic and Grizz are giving a fantastic amount of info recently and I’ve been producing an enormous amount of thoughts and setting up blogs. It’s gonna be hard work, but let the wagon roll!
January 16th, 2008 at 3:36 pm
I must be lucky because my keyword sniping site has been number 1 since I put it up (took 2 days to get there). I placed it up the day you came out with the template.
Ha Ha! I have a great niche…I hope! LOL
thanks Court!
(no, it’s not the site linked in my signature here)
January 16th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
Haha that’s awesome Allyn! Never, ever tell anyone about it.
January 16th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
Love the blog - and keep up the great work. I wouldn’t worry too much about an exact spot in google. I never really have…. You can’t make something happen and eventually if you do the right things you get where you should be.
January 16th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
Court, exactly right! One of my niche sites was a new domain name. I got really excited when it was on page 1 of google just after 1 day!
It was on there for several of the long tails that I was targeting, but then it disappeared after about one week.
Sandboxed!
That’s alright, because I know when it comes out, it will be stronger than it is now, and I have more content, and more links in the works.
Don’t ever give up, just keep working it, and you will wake up one day with it back and paying off!
January 16th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
That is why I think it is better to focus on networking rather then search engines. Do what you can for search engines but networking will get you more in the end. Suffers will not buy the ad spot you have forsale on your site or link to you…..will they?
January 16th, 2008 at 4:34 pm
Collin this strategy is for getting Adsense clicks. Networking is actually worthless for getting clicks from Adsense. You have to keep in mind that there is more than one strategy that works for making money.
January 16th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
As you said Court your keywords don’t hold position until you build authority. New posts almost always rank higher at first because of Google’s fresh content bias but then drop back in the serp’s within a few days. This is normal until a site builds up it’s trust for the term. I’m glad you brought this up as I get so many panicked emails wondering what people did wrong to cause the sudden serp drops. You said it all - patience.
January 16th, 2008 at 4:32 pm
It’s always a pleasure to have you stop by Grizz. How’s it been going answering emails? Lol there’s no way three of me could answer them all and I’m sure you’re in the same situation.
January 16th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
Anyone else notice their posts will get indexed quickly but then a few days later they are not in the index?
All my posts for my keyword sniping blog got indexed quickly but when I searched Google today for the exact post URL nothing comes up. If I search the domain name the index comes up along with a bunch of category and tags but no actual posts are found.
I think its weird a post can be indexed for a few days and then be gone from the index.
January 16th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
Stan this is one of the things that you just have to have patience with. Right now your site has absolutely no authority and you will need to continue to build it up.
Posts from weak, new sites will often fall out of the index - this is to be expected.
January 16th, 2008 at 9:43 pm
Court thanks for clearing that up. I was unaware sites can fall out of the index. Makes me feel better that I didn’t mess something up.
January 16th, 2008 at 6:33 pm
Great tip Court - I can’t count how many people I’ve seen give up after they try something for a few weeks or 1-2 months and don’t become instantly rich.
For me the problem is not persistence, but focus - I’m trying so many different online ventures that it’s hard to give each site enough attention.
January 16th, 2008 at 11:48 pm
I like to think of this as a marathon and not a sprint. Just like anything else worth doing, this takes time and patience. Those that endure will reap the benefits, those that quit…well, they won’t
Thanks for your hard work and support.
January 17th, 2008 at 5:43 am
And it’s not just about new sites shifting up and down in the SERPs. Even established sites will sometimes lose position for a keyword for some time, and then come back up. Google (search engines in general) are like that, because so many things affect the ranking of a site.
January 17th, 2008 at 8:20 am
Thanks
January 17th, 2008 at 8:55 am
In racing terminology, there are sprinters and long distance runners. When this race started, we expected it to be a sprint. It is now turning out to be a long distance, endurance test!
January 17th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
Courtney,
okay.. i am getting pssd…
you get 3 inbound links from google to lasik and when you look at all 3 links Lasik cannot be found anywhere on the pages that google offers as the inbound link pages.
On one of the pages I entered a comment from my cell phone cases website and to this date don’t have an inbound link to my site even though you can see the comment and the link.. but oh no… Courtney goes out there (to these 3 sites) and put’s an invisible link to his lasik site and gets credit on google for 3 inbound links!!!!
Invisible link #1:
http://www.mybloglog.com/buzz/members/JasonE/
Invisible Link #2:
http://www.jonespc.com/index.php?s=ericulous
Invisible Link #3:
emoneymarketing.com/internet-marketing/updates/
Will there be an ebook for $97.00 coming out anytime soon on obtaining invisible inbound links?
Okay, seriously, what the heck is going on? Is google confused and putting up a link to one page when perhaps you are really linked from a different page on one of those sites?
January 17th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
I agree completely court. Got to be patient. Time is your friend when it comes to ranking.
I designed a lot for edu domains few years back. I always linked back to one of my sites in the footer. I was disappointed because of the poor performance of my site in search engines, especially consider they were .edu links. I patiently waited, then after a few months, it really picked up. My PR jumped to 4, and I made it to page 3 on google. Was great.
January 17th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
[…] learn from people who are legitimately making a living online but get one or two mentors and then DO the work (ha, I’m speaking to myself […]
January 17th, 2008 at 11:01 pm
I’ve been absorbing all of the info that you, Vic and Griz are giving us and I want to thank you.
I put up my first niche site up 7 days ago and I have PR5 for both of my key words. (Yipee)
Court, if I were to set up another niche site with the same material from my first niche site, but the state (keyword) would be different in the site and blog, is that duplicate content and be a mistake? My niche market is specific to a particular state and other states are a good opportunity for a niche site. Thanks!
January 18th, 2008 at 4:44 am
[…] been intrigued recently by a case study that Courtney Tuttle did about what he calls keyword sniping. It’s a terrific concept, and I’ve been hard at work finding new niches to work in. But […]
January 19th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
Guys keyword sniping works
I followed Courts advice two weeks ago and created a blog using the keyword sniping theme.
My keyword has 101,000 results in google without quotes, and I am now ranking #6.
Now, I have been getting links for my site. I have about 250 in yahoo site explorer. I having also paid some money ($5.50 to be exact) to have my site submitted to 200 PR 3+ directories. The submissions haven’t been done yet but once they are I know my ranking will shoot up.
January 22nd, 2008 at 1:59 am
Court:
In your kw sniping series you mentioned buying an older domain to avoid sandbox. If you buy an older domain that is expired, will google treat that like a new domain when it’s reregistered? Most of the cheap godaddy domains are expired, I’m wondereing if it’s worth buying one to avoid sandbox.
January 22nd, 2008 at 8:47 am
Did a little research into your case study site and am quite impressed with your huge backlink list. I noticed you’ve published several articles in article directories. My question is why didn’t you include links back to your site within the article? I did noticed you include links back in the signature, but would have thought dropping a link in the article itself would have been much more useful. Any insight?
January 25th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
Yes, putting links in the article itself is good but its makes it harder to get approved since a lot of directories don’t like advertisement outside of the signature box.
By the way, my site got sandboxed a couple days ago…
Go figure. Guess I got too many links too quickly.
March 22nd, 2008 at 8:08 pm
[…] learn from people who are legitimately making a living online but get one or two mentors and then DO the work (ha, I’m speaking to myself […]