Image by much ado about nothing via Flickr
Remember playing the game of ‘Blind man’s bluff’? One of you would be blindfolded and made to catch others. Meanwhile, others would try and mislead the blindfolded child. SEO is just like this game, but the rules are reversed. All of us are blindfolded and try to catch up with Google and their search engine algorithm. The main issue here is to figure out where Google stands and then catch up with it.
Can you win in this game?
Obviously you would never catch up with Google, because by the time you think that you have cracked the code, Google would have nimbly changes its algorithm. What you have to understand is that you are not required to win the game anyway. As long as you are ahead of other blindfolded guys, you have achieved your objective.
For you, finding a place on the first page of search results means you win. What I mean to say is that instead of competing with Google, you have to compete with your competitors. Here the key is to understand the strategy of your competitors and then outplaying them in their game. As long as you are ahead of the blindfolded guys, you need not bother about Google.
How to research competitor’s strategy?
I believe that you must never try to reinvent the wheel. There are people who have been there, seen it all and done it. Why not emulate them rather than starting from scratch? The first step in this game is to pick up the first five search results for your specific keywords. The second step is to understand the strategy of each of these. It is fairly easy to do this.
First, you must understand the way the Title tags and descriptions are designed. If you see the source code, all these will be revealed. Next, you must look at the content of the home page. Look at the way the keywords are highlighted in the form of headings. Where are the keywords located? If you are into medifast coupons and Nutrisystem discounts, look at the way these keywords are spread in your competitor’s website. Simply copy the format (not the content) and replicate on your home page.
Third, look at the internal links and structure of the competitor’s website. Look at the way links are structured. Once again, emulate the same.
Fourth, examine the external links. This you can do with the help of Alexa.com. here you can know exactly where the external links are coming from? This exercise can reveal a lot of information. You must follow the same link strategy.
What have you achieved?
By following the above methodology you have now created a clone of the best performing website on Google search. You have actually done much more than that – you have avoided playing the game of ‘Blind man’s bluff’.
Following Google is a difficult exercise. In the end you want to win against your competitors, not against Google. You must therefore understand your Competitors strategy rather than trying to crack the Google search code.
The article is written by S Srinivasan who is a maverick blogger. Presently he is into feverishly promoting Medifast discount code for April, and coupons codes and discounts for Nutrisystem.
Related articles
- Why Rank Checking is Still Useful (seobook.com)
- Google Is Factoring In User Input Into Their Algorithm (businessinsider.com)
- How To Increase Your Google Web Ranking (marketersdaily.com)
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
This is very useful information, especially for beginners, thank you very much.
It is very useful indeed. The article is quite thorough. It is a very good read for those who are still starting.
Being the top search engine existing on earth it is not at all possible to compete with Google. I think that way, it’ll be like small businesses making the blunder of competing with full fledged powerful companies. And its true, at the end of the day its my competitors at business who worries me more than cracking Google search code
Twitter: kmcdaniel71
Great info, thanks! As I am new to blogging I know I will be able to take what I have read here and apply it to what I do! Taking out the guess work will hell everyone!
Ken McDaniel recently posted..Picking A Home Based Business
Twitter: rfcamat
I just build links naturally and create good contents, Google will do the rest.
SEO is a very stressful job because it’s so competitive. It’s hard to find a market or product that is not already oversaturated.
Sophie recently posted..Settle IRS Tax Debt
If SEO campaign is carried out in a simple and slow fashion but steadily, it will always help your website achieve high rankings despite of any update search engine makes.
Great post – if Google is the object of your SEO efforts, it’s a battle you can’t really win. Target audience and competitors are what you need to worry about. BTW the apostrophes are outta whack in your post.
Tom recently posted..Google Secure Search and (not provided)