Last month, I started SEO work for a client. The client has a website in a pretty popular niche. As I worked on the site, it surprised me how powerful SEO is especially the activity of link building. Since the client is in a popular niche, I thought it would be hard to get them a front page ranking. See one of the maxims in SEO is popular niches are very competitive. And the more competitive a niche is, the harder it is to attain a top 10 ranking.
The client was only a couple spots from the front page but I still thought it would take at least 2-3 months to get a front page ranking. However, after just one month and a couple of links, they now have not one but two front page rankings for popular two word search terms. This surprised me because it didn’t take much effort.
I did some quick investigation of the other sites in the top 10 and found out the reason why it was so easy. Most of the other sites were not actively building links.
That’s when I remembered what Aaron Wall from SEO Book said, “SEO works because most sites aren’t doing it.”
That’s right. Sites just aren’t focusing on SEO – even in popular niches.
For you as a blogger, you have a big opportunity. You don’t need to know the latest SEO tactics. The fundamentals like building links, title tags, and keyword research is more than enough. If you’re wondering how many links is enough to boost your rankings significantly, it’s probably a lot lower than you think. Try building one link every two weeks or every month and you’ll be way ahead of your competitors. After six months of this simple strategy, I’m sure you’ll have a lot more traffic from the search engines.
Author: Dee Barizo
Dee Barizo is the resident SEO geek. He used to work full-time for Sea Waves as a search marketer. He currently does freelance SEO work.
Analytix says
May 11, 2009 at 4:34 pmone thing that needs to be added here is the quality of the links, whcih is very important.. only if the link building is undertaken with a relevant websites can it be useful. if not, it will simply be spammed by major search engines.
abbas73 says
May 12, 2009 at 6:54 amthanks for the tips but do you really think that a couple of links even from high ranked websites is enough to make frontpage ranking ?
Dee Barizo says
May 17, 2009 at 11:59 pm@Analytix
Good point. Quality and relevance are important things to consider in link building.
@abbas73
I depends on the competition of the keywords you’re targeting but for many search terms that are 3 words or more, a couple links is all you’ll need to rank.
Accounting Services says
August 10, 2009 at 5:48 pmhey…. nice post..
but i think it is variable from industry to industry,,
it also depend on how competitive your keyword is…..
so there not a perfect number for it….