Top 10 Keyword Sniping Mistakes
April 1st, 2008 by CourtKeyword Sniping is one of the most effective forms of internet marketing. What stops people from creating income using this method?
1. Giving up too quickly on sites. Some sites take like 6 months to start producing. Most people will delete a site that doesn’t produce after 2 or 3.
2. Creating only one site. While some sites take 6 months to produce, others will produce instantly. If you don’t have any quick producers, you don’t have enough sites.
3. Focusing the most effort on low producers. You should build links slowly to new, unproductive sites until they start producing - don’t spend too much time on them. Instead, focus most of your effort on your sites that are already producing.
4. Building links that all have the same anchor text. This is called Google Bombing and isn’t a good idea.
5. Thinking that blogroll links aren’t effective. Getting links from blogrolls of sites similar to yours can be an extremely effective way to build your search traffic.
6. Failure to watch statistics. You can’t get the most out of a site without watching its statistics. More on that here: How to Find Hidden Money in Your Traffic Stats.
7. Poor Adsense placement. Test 4 different Adsense placements to determine which one works the nest on your site: 1) 336×280 banner within the post. 2) 300×250 banner within the post. 3) 250×250 banner within the post. 4) 728×60 banner below the header. Forget about sidebar banners.
8. Poor keyword research. How many keywords did you consider before creating your first site? Think about how much better your keywords will be if you compare hundreds or even thousands of keywords.
9. Using duplicate content. I can’t stress this enough: Your site must have original content. Using free articles or private label articles that have been published somewhere else won’t help you at all.
10. Using garbage content. Taking an extra 10 minutes to make your posts useful will help to ensure that you can always make money with a site. You want to make sites that can make money for the next 20 years and that means you have to be able to pass a visual inspection by Google. Writing keyword-loaded nonsense might increase your click-through rate on Adsense but could get you smashed if a search engineer comes across your site.
Save to del.icio.us
Digg This!
Post to Facebook
StumbleItRelated Posts:
April 1st, 2008 at 12:16 pm
Content is definitely the thing to pay attention to. I won’t stay on a blog that is nothing but ads and crappy content. I will however subscribe to your feed if the quality is there.
April 1st, 2008 at 12:45 pm
Very helpful list, Court. Couple of questions.
When IS a good time to quit on a site? Realizing that some might take longer to come around than others, when do you say ‘Enough’s enough’ and cut your losses? It gets especially difficult to let go of months of work with no results, and it becomes harder to recoup the lost time when the domain the site is on isn’t valued highly.
Can duped content be reason enough for a domain to get sandboxed?
April 1st, 2008 at 12:49 pm
I wouldn’t quit on a site unless it had been a full year and I had build a good amount of links. I haven’t ever seen a site that didn’t produce after that though.
Duped content and sandboxing are two different things. They have a similar affect on rankings though.
April 1st, 2008 at 12:47 pm
Thank you for writing this. It really enforces the idea of keyword selection. I am beginning to understand that keyword selection is the biggest factor in making a site that will be a fast producer.
Looking forward to your next course.
Pierce
April 1st, 2008 at 2:35 pm
Court, another great and short list of issues.
With Adsense, I agree that sidebars are a lost cause, on most sites. However, do you feel that using 468 X 60 on the bottom of the content is good? or is just one main ad per page/site best?
How many Adsense units work best? I have seen sites that if I use three units of different sizes, I get good CTR, however another site with similar ads sucks…
Any more help with Adsense would be great!
April 1st, 2008 at 2:49 pm
I’ve mainly been going with 336×280’s at the top left side of the post and that’s worked well for me.
I have tried some ad blocks at the bottom near the related posts area but how well it works varies. If it’s on a blog where I have mostly short, 300-500 word, posts it performs well but if I have 1000+ word ramblers it isn’t effective.
April 1st, 2008 at 3:04 pm
That one actually works well too Frank, in fact I think I’ll edit the post and add it to the list.
April 1st, 2008 at 3:25 pm
So on smaller post content pages, would you recommend only one ad unit, 336 x 280 or similar size per single post page and not have any others per post page?
Huh, maybe I’ll experiment with that and see if it brings up the CTR and PPC.
April 1st, 2008 at 3:53 pm
I almost always only use one ad per page. I have tested multiple ad units and while it works occasionally, it usually doesn’t.
April 1st, 2008 at 2:44 pm
Good list Court
On #1, I only made this mistake once when I didn’t renew a PR3 site early last year because the client I had bought it for decided not to use it. D’oh!
April 1st, 2008 at 2:51 pm
We gotta have patience with our websites. Links building is not one day thing.
Great article, Court!
Thanks.
April 1st, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Patience is definitely key here. It seems like there are way too many naysayers running around the internet saying that making money online doesn’t work simply because they gave up a month or two before they might have actually made a little cash.
April 1st, 2008 at 4:46 pm
The problem is some say one thing, others say other thing, it’s difficult to understand what really works and what not. Even my “3 heroes”
(court, vic and grizzly), don’t say exactly the same thing. I’m trying to get my show on the road, but i really don’t know if i’m doing the right thing or not.
April 1st, 2008 at 5:23 pm
another excellent post that is just what I needed!
I will lose the sidebar banners ASAP!
I like #10 also. I don’t want to put up garbage. I still take pride in the fact that what I put out on the net actually has some value for the reader!
Good stuff Court!
AL
April 1st, 2008 at 6:53 pm
Hey! Thanks for this post… I just got done talking with Mark on the phone.
Thanks for continuing to talk about Keyword sniping, and mistakes people often make….
April 1st, 2008 at 6:53 pm
I’m a little confused about the difference between Google Bombing and Keyword Sniping. Isn’t there a very fine line? I wonder if Google has punished my site because there are too many internal links with the same keyword.
Is that possible
April 1st, 2008 at 7:05 pm
Patch Google bombing is when you get links from other sites with the same anchor text.
Right now Patch your site is barely two months old… give it some time.
April 2nd, 2008 at 5:00 am
Thanks! I just get nervous because my site is ranking on other keywords, but not the one I’m attempting to snipe. I did get first page on MSN, but Google seems to ignore “Post Natal Exercise”.
Thanks for an incredible site. I turn here more than anywhere else. Thanks!
April 1st, 2008 at 9:24 pm
Thanks Court for 10 Keyword Mistakes list.
I was steadily moving up with a new site when it suddenly went down to 72 on Google
Now I know not to give up and be patient.
April 2nd, 2008 at 12:15 am
Giving up on a site is a problem; however the problem is that web builders should build sites that they are passionate about. If a builder is designing a site they love they will keep adding content and it will produce a profit eventually.
April 2nd, 2008 at 7:47 am
I am still new at this and am already seeing success with a few of my sites.
Question, why does “Google Bombing” hurt you? I thought that if you are targeting a keyword, you want that to always be your anchor text?
April 2nd, 2008 at 8:21 am
Google made a change that stopped the effectiveness a while back. Make sure to read the article referenced in this post for more information.
April 4th, 2008 at 12:03 am
Court, this still bugs me. What is the logic for the bombing? It does not make any sense. Your article is fine but just accepts the change.
April 2nd, 2008 at 7:49 am
Also, has anyone worked on getting links pointing to their actual blog posts instead of just to their home page?
Would this work the same as deep linking with an actual website?
April 2nd, 2008 at 8:22 am
Yes it would work exactly the same Greg!
April 2nd, 2008 at 3:57 pm
Yes. Keyword snipping is the most effective form and plays an important role in the of internet marketing that helps to find the right keyword and allow your website to get top in the SERP. More over patience is required in order to get top for the right keyword.
April 2nd, 2008 at 8:18 pm
Hey Court,
I just wanted to say that this series on keyword sniping is awesome. It’s definitely a must-read every time I see one in my feed reader. And I’m currently exploring some ideas to put it into practice. Thanks.
April 3rd, 2008 at 1:02 pm
Super, duper post on keyword snipping - a technique way under-utilized and often done completely wrong.
Thanks for the info!
Maria
April 3rd, 2008 at 4:21 pm
This is so true. I was going to blog about something similar the other day but you beat me to it.
April 4th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
some of those mistakes…i am guilty too
April 10th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
I especially enjoy what you say about good content. That’s really one of those things that so many people overlook — they refuse to take the time and write a good article and they’ll be happy with duplicate content. The only problem with that is that it doesn’t benefit your viewers at all. If you don’t produce something unique or something helpful, then why would anyone visit your site? You need to remember to think about your end user, once you’ve got them squarely in your focus, then you’ll succeed much easier.
April 22nd, 2008 at 8:41 am
Hey Court,
Am I possibly hurting my keyword sniping site by having the post teaser plug in activated. I didn’t want this huge page for my home page (wanted it to look cleaner), but thought last night that it might hurt me since my target keyword is not showing on my home page as often. Any thoughts???
June 17th, 2008 at 11:51 pm
Information is very Good .
Check Your Email Online !
Bypass your company firewall & check your email remotely, via the web
Log in to your Gmail / Yahoo / Hotmail / MSN or Rediffmail Account here …!
http://www.bigflicx.com