The old myth has been circulating around the internet for over 8 years, and I even believed it, thinking if a client had a brand new domain, with very little link popularity or even zero that there was no way to expect any kind of organic Google traffic early in the game…

PPC being your only option to getting some testing & search traffic up and going until we did a pile of link building and general press before you got traffic…

Last week, Google proved me wrong. Thanks Google!

Domain Created on: 18-Nov-09
Links built on the 20th (about 8 ~ 10 directories submitted)

Yes, within 10 business days, the site received about 20 hits via very specific searches. No, no waterfall or firehose of traffic by anyone’s stretch of the imagination, but still! Within 6 days, it started ranking in organic searches for search terms… Many clients have wanted the domain to show up for it’s own NAME within 2 weeks and that doesn’t happen, this one not only does that but also gets searches for it’s content!

Proof there are still niche markets to be had out there. Keep hunting, because treasure troves are still out there. No, 10 searchers is nothing to get excited about, but I will say that this market I’m referring to is huge, so when it DOES start ranking for the terms we’re aiming for we’re in for a BIG bonus.

Just wanted to clear that myth up because truth is the more content we post and the more links we build the more that will really come into play in the next few days.

I won’t post the topic or niche though because this client deserves a fresh chance at the market before anyone else jumps in…

But still, you should know it’s possible!

Until next time
Daniel J Deyette

Does anyone search for local businesses via yellow pages anymore?

Sure, elderly and non technical folks do, but what percentage of users who have some form of internet are still turning to the paper pages for their search?

Even if you “hunt and peck” type your way thru a search you’ll still find yourself getting what you need online quicker than thumbing thru the phone book by hand…

Plus, the directory business is getting greedier than ever before…

Ads in their books cost more every year and offer less space to display your hours of operation, your services and other consumer info… With a dwindling readership and increasing cost… Is it still cost effective?

Comment below, are you still paying big yellow?

People are typing in longer searches than ever before, according to Hitwise,
a noted competition intelligence provider.

This means quite a few things though, really. It means that Google’s edge on understanding what people
want could be less effective than it was in the past. It could also mean that people are getting better at knowing exactly what they want.

Regardless, it sure points to tightening up landing pages and adding more content to the ole’ website!

Until next time

Daniel J Deyette

I have an inside advantage to Google that most people I know simply don’t.

No, it’s not a girlfriend that works there.
No, I haven’t got Matt Cutt’s cell phone number.
No, I haven’t hacked into their systems either…

No, what I’m talking about is experience. For the last 7 years, I’ve watched
the search giant value pages in different ways. For those who still don’t understand
search engines, you’re doing yourself a major dis-service. Mind you, there
isn’t anyone out there explaining it very simply either. It’s all pretty technical.

SEO History for Non-Technical Folks…

(1995) In the begining, there was words. Websites had words, people searched
for words… But search engines didn’t exist. Directories like Yahoo did.
You searched for Plumbing, and guess what? AAAA1 Plumbing was #1.

(1996) Then Came Search engines, The more times you mentioned the words
(Keyword Density) The more "on topic" your site was.

That seemed to work quite well until folks started making websites that said
the word "cheese" 5,000 times at the bottom of each page. Yay, we’re #1
for cheese in Yahoo! How Cheesy is that?

(1998) Google Arrives…

Directories (Are ya in the internet phone book at least?)
Links pointing to the site (Do other people like your site enough to talk about it?)
* Age – Ah yes, and some experience would be good!

Google’s original theory was that if all these documents were on a "main server"
in an office, how would you locate the document the searcher was looking for?
We’d assume it would be the most popular one everyone else was talking about
and using (links). We’d also assume i’d be probably one that had been used for a while
(Age).

(2005) On January 18th, Google created the "no follow" tag and began tracing links
that shouldn’t count as a "popularity" vote. They shouldn’t give value to your rankings
and standings in the engines.

In December of 2005 the entire game changed with the "Big Daddy" update. Many
of those changes are still in effect today.

Now, a link is not just a link… (Well, except maybe on Yahoo…) But MSN & Google
have decided to include the idea of "trust".

Trusted links are those that come from OLDER more credible sites. Sites that are
linked to other major outlets like Associated Press, Reuters & CNN and similar.
The NUMBER of links alone is truly just an imaginative number that means nothing.
3 Links from CNN, BBC & other press could easily out rank a site with 3,000 links
from unknown sites.

(2005-2007) Birth of Web 2.0 & Social Media In Search

Sites like digg.com and social bookmarking as well as social networking like ryze,
linkedin, facebook and literally thousands of other ones popped up as well. They’re
now starting to shift the results on Google results like a tsunami under the ocean
simply thru popularity.

What Matters Today? Modern Information Retrieval Via Google.

Things have changed ALOT since 2006. Some major things have been implemented
that are evolving to this moment.

I’m starting a website called GoogleMythKiller.com (feel free to signup but it’s not
even close to ready yet…)

I’m going to dispell things like.. .

Can A New Website Rank In Google?

YES! It can, want to know how? Sign up.. I’ll show you how with Few links and no
promotion, you could show up as a major player.

Does Pagerank Matter?

No, and I’ll tell you why it shouldn’t be a part of your planning.

Can you get banned for duplicate content?

Nope. Will duplicate content rank, yup! I’ll explain more about that too.

Lastly, another big one. Can you get links too quickly? Yes!

There are some types of links where you can get over 100,000 overnight (yes, that’s a real
number) and Google will value every one of them. And there are other scenarios, where
you can get 50 in one day and get bumped out of the index… Scared yet? If you don’t know
what i’m talking about, you owe it to yourself to find out more.

This Week’s take away…

Google isn’t built by web marketers, it’s built by Engineers. Engineers think logically and
very scientifically. Look at your website navigation.

Navigation should be very simple and look much like a science lab textbook or university
website..

Home page (Menu)
- News
- Press
- Updates etc.

- Health
- Heart
- Lungs
- Breathing
- Resperatory

See how every topic is nested inside another topic? Consider your blog categories on this
same level. Do you keep on topic & Use lots of related words within each category?

When sites like this get spidered they gain instant crediblity & trust within google. It’s just one
part of over 200 signals google uses to control the results showing up when you search.

I will begin from credible sources to cite MOST of those 200 signals and the guestimate
on weighting based on 13 years observing the SEO Industry.

Sincerely,
Daniel J Deyette