I few days ago I wrote about one of my sites getting struck down by Google. The site was doing pretty well and I’d recently started filling it out with more informational pages as well as general interest pieces related to the niche rather than it just being a site full or products (albeit with unique product descriptions of 300 words each). It was ranking pretty well for a number of search terms then overnight on the 12 of May 2011 it was deranked for a load of those keywords falling out of the top 200. It still ranks for its exact match domain keyword but is now hovering around the bottom or page one rather than being nailed to the top of the SERPs like it was for the past year or so.

I’ve been reading about Kirsty’s experience which sounds similar to mine although on a much bigger scale. For me this is just one site of many but as its fate could befall my other sites I thought I’d have a go at getting it back in the SERPs so if it does happen to any more of my site at least I will have some info or what to do or not to do.

So far what I’ve been doing is the following:

• Create a twitter account I’ve created a twitter account and am in the process of following as many people I can who are related to the niche. Hopefully a few of them will follow me back and maybe one day might retweet my site.
• Create a Facebook page I’ve had the Facebook like buttons on my site for ages but its not been linked to a page so I’ve not been able to track how many people have clicked them. Hopefully I can get some fans and then perhaps get some traffic from Facebook to show social proof to Google and also diversify my traffic sources a bit as 99.99% of my visitors come from Google.
• Keep adding new content I’ve read about people leaving their sites when they take a hit from Google and waiting for them to come back of their own accord but I think I will keep adding content as normal and try and get a new page or post added every few days.
• Keep building links I’m going to keep on slowly building links for this site. For months I never built any links and it got to number one for its main keyword but when I started adding more pages and targeting related keywords I started building links for them. This might have been what triggered the Google slap but it wasn’t anything major like an Xrummer blast. I went from no backlinks for a year to more than none all of a sudden. I will keep adding the odd Web 2.0 property and article or blog post.
• Try and reduce bounce rate On nearly all my site I like to make it as easy as possible for my visitors to get to the merchant sites. I don’t see the point in making them jump through hoops so they can buy a product. I promote a product with a review and an image and often a price comparison and then if they decide they want to buy the merchant is just one click away. I hear Google doesn’t like sites where the visitor only visits one page so I will need to try and create a bit of a labrynth on my site to keep the user there for a few pages before giving them what they want and what they came for.

That should keep my busy for now. Any other ideas of things I should be doing?

Getting out of the Google Bunker is a post from: How I Got Rich

As you may have read I recently got a copy of Advanced Web Ranking which is a software application that checks where your sites are in the search engines for keywords of your choice. Since installing it I’ve been hooked on checking my sites for various keywords and after running it for one of my sites I’ve just noticed it is in places one and two in Google for its main keyword.

It is for different URLs – one is the home page and the other is for a tag page but they both lead to my site which is great.

I’m not sure why or how it happened but it should lead to an increase in traffic if I am the top two sites in Google.

I hope I’m not not doing anything naughty though?

Spots #1 and #2 in Google! is a post from: How I Got Rich

A while ago I tried to do some ‘tests’ to see how accurate the Google Keyword tool is and also how much traffic you get for being number one or two in Google.
Read about it here: http://howigotrich.net/tag/google-keyword-tool/

I tried it again recently with a site I have that has been number three in Google for its main keyword for many months but only gets about 3-6 unique hits a day.

After running a Google AdWords PPC campaign for that keyword I found out that the keyword got 273 impressions in one day (I’ve only run the campaign for one day so will see how it goes).

That means that for being number three in Google my site gets around 2% of the searches for that keyword clicking through to my site. This is not a lot!

According to the Google KeyWord Tool this keyword gets 1,900 exact match searches per month which works out at 64 per day. This is over four times less than what the AdWords research tells us.

So what have we learnt? The Google Keyword Tool is still inaccurate but we already knew that but this reinforces the idea and I would urge anyone doing keyword research to use AdWords rather than the Google Keyword Tool before choosing a niche.

Also it tells me that this niche is worth targeting and putting some more effort into as it is getting around 8000 exact searches a month instead of the 1900 reported by the GKWT. But there is also the problem of the 2% click through rate the site is getting being at number three in Google. Will this improve if I get the site to number two or number one? Only time (and some dodgy forum profile backlinks) will tell…

More Google Keyword Tool Data is a post from: How I Got Rich

My keyword domain site on a .org.uk domain had worked its way up to the top half of page one and had been there for a while.  It was getting a few hits a day and making a few sales a month.  Today I checked my stats as I do most days and noticed it was no longer on page but the .co.uk version of the domain was sitting at number two!

I’m pretty certain when I bought the domain that although the .co.uk was registered there was no site on it – otherwise I wouldn’t have tried to compete with it as its a bit cheeky to use the same domain as an existing site in a small niche.

From doing a site: in Google I can see it has about 150 pages against my 10 or so so I guess the better site has won.   For now…

To my untrained eye it does look like they are using some kind of feed to generate all the pages for the site.  This is something I would like to try myself but have no idea where to start.  Any ideas?

My .org.uk Knocked Off Page 1 by .co.uk is a post from: How I Got Rich

Just a quick update about this topic. According to AdWords, yesterday my campaign got 197 impressions. Bear in mind this wasn’t campaign wasn’t running a whole day but during that period my site got five hits.

So five as a percentage of 197 is 2.5%. Now I know my site is only at number two but that is a pretty poor showing. Needless to say no one has clicked on my ad.

I will wait and see what the stats are like for the next few days and report back.

Google AdWords vs Google Keyword Tool part II is a post from: How I Got Rich

This might sound like an obvious goal but for now I am going to focus on getting my existing sites to number one in Google.  Most of them are at number one in Google for their main keyword but not all of them.

Normally I start a new site, put up some content and wait for it to get to number one.  If after a while it is not on page one or close then I leave it and move on.  But as I have vowed to not make any new sites for a while I am thinking I might as well get the sites I have to number one so I can see if any of them will get any traffic.

I have sites for keywords that get, according to the Google keyword tool, anything from 3,000 to 50,000 exact searches a month.  As I’ve now realised the Google keyword tool is not to be believed and does not even give a rough idea of searches.  This has made me think that I might be sitting on a site that gets 100′s of 1000′s of exact searches each month and I won’t know until I get the site to number one.

So with that in mind I am going back to my older sites that don’t rank well and seeing what I can do to get them to number one.

I’ve never really done any work on back links so I might have to finally get around to giving it a serious go.  I will also be adding content which I will probably end up outsourcing as I don’t have much spare time any more.  It is quite expensive at £10 for 500 words but probably cost effective in the long run?

Anyone got any tips for getting a site to number one in Google?

Getting all my sites to number 1 in Google is a post from: How I Got Rich

Nearly all my niches look good on paper with well priced products (£20-£100) and 20,000~ exact searches a month.  However once I get the sites to number one in Google I quickly realise that either the Google Keyword Tool was misleading with its estimate for exact match searches or no one wants to click on my sites or that the click through rate for being number one in Google is less than 5%.

Take one of my earlier sites for instance.  Last month it is reported by the Google Keyword Tool to have gotten 18,100 exact match searches but during that month it only got 529 unique visitors which is less than 3%.

I know the Google Keyword Tool is not renowned for its accuracy but surely this is way too out for it to be of any use?

I have checked my other sites and nearly all of them get around 5% of the figure quoted by the GKWT making them a waste of time as the traffic is so low!

How do you check that a niche is actually searched for?

Google Keyword Tool Strikes Again is a post from: How I Got Rich

I’ve recently ‘launched’ a few new sites built using WordPress and none of them have fully indexed.  The home page is indexed but none of the other posts or meta data is indexed in Google.

Thanks to gary_ap on the A4U forum I have found out that there is a new setting in WordPress that by default is set to ‘I would like to block search engines, but allow normal visitors’ to view the site.

I have since changed this setting to ‘I would like my blog to be visible to everyone, including search engines (like Google, Sphere, Technorati) and archivers’ and my robots.txt file has been updated and hopefully my sites will be indexed fully soon.

This setting can be found under:

• Settings
• Privacy

WordPress Sites Not Indexing Correctly is a post from: How I Got Rich

I’ve had a look at a couple of my sites which are ranked number one in Google.  I wanted to find out what percentage of the total number of searches a site gets when it is number one in Google.

One of my sites that is number of a search term that got 22,200 local exact matches in May got 140 hits from Google users searching on that term in the last seven days. This works out as 3% (140 as a % of 5012 = 3% (rounded up)).

Another keyword got 5,400 exact local matches for May which is 1,219 in 7 days. This site got 56 visits from Google users searching on that keyword string which is 5% (rounded up).

Has anyone got any comparable data?

update: another one of my sites is now number two in the Google serps with no ads above the number one site.  The site is optimised for a keyword that got 14,800 local exact searches last month.  It is not a seasonal item so should be similiar this month.  In the past three days it has had an average of of 5 clicks a day from Google.  This works out to a 1% click through rate for a site in number two position.

How Many Hits Do You Get When You’re Number 1 in Google? is a post from: How I Got Rich