• examined PREselling and its effect on Conversion Rates • identified a potential niche concept • brainstormed a list of profitable keywords • researched quality affiliate programs and other income streams • chosen a domain name that reflects your VPP
Now is where you start the C >> T >> P >> M snowball rolling by writing content designed to “get the click!” Let the construction begin!
Follow the Winning Formula
The utimate aim is to...
Deliver Valuable Content to your readers... ... And Testy Content to your spiders.
Your site must be a WIN-WIN-WIN-WIN proposition for four parties... 1) your visitor win 2) the Search Engines win 3) your merchants win, and... 4) YOU win
FIND-CLICK-CLICK-CLICK-KACHING
Follow the sign-posts along this winning road…
1) FIND -- Your potential visitor must find you in the Top 10 (no worse than top 20) of the search results for your keyword. If your potential customer does not find you on the first or second page of the Search Engine’s search for your keyword, well, you simply don’t exist for that word.
2) CLICK -- Your potential visitor must read the Title and Description that the engine uses in the search results, and must find them sufficiently compelling to click to your site. If your Title and Description are boring or tacky, your potential visitor will probably not click to your KFCP (Keyword-Focused Content Page).
3) CLICK -- Your visitor finds high-value content, learns to trust you as someone honest who delivers, and so follows your recommendations... CLICK again! If your page delivers poor, low-value info (or even worse, a sales pitch), you still get the click... on the Back Button to the Search Engine’s results page. “Who’s next?”
4) CLICK-kaCHING -- Finally, your visitor arrives at your merchant in a “feeling smart about myself” and open-to-buy mood, ready to click that buy button!
Did I just hear a cash register?... kaCHING! Ahhh... if you get the FIND-CLICK-CLICK right, that last CLICK-kaCHING is almost in the bag!
Think “Pyramid” For Your Site
Think of your site as a pyramid…
The home page crowns the pinnacle. It’s a Keyword-Focused Content Page (KFCP) that focuses on your Site Concept keyword. Your home page should never link out of your site -- it’s too early. (The only possible exception would be for Google ads.)
Its job instead is to link to 5-15 KFCPs that you expect to be most profitable. It must get the click to at least one of these pages. This is important for two reasons...
1) Your visitor hits a “money page” -- Your HIGHEST-PROFITABILITY Keyword- Focused Content Pages weave “in-context” text links to your merchantpartners while OVERdelivering great content. This is how you make your income, so you want to lead your visitors to your highest potential pages ASAP.
2) Your spider-buddy follows the links and indexes (i.e., brings back to the Search Engine’s database) your most important pages first, and most reliably… the deeper a spider has to go, the more likely it is that he misses and fails to bring your bacon back to his database home.
So we want to structure the site so that the HIGHEST PROFITABILITY pages have the best chance of being dragged back to all those spiders’ homes.
Each TIER 2 page should…
• focus on a keyword that has a high PROFITABLITY score • fit with your best monetization opportunities • be a good “hub” page, working well as both a good link from the home page, as well as naturally linking to several TIER 3 pages. (TIER 3 pages are related but are more specific in nature. They are often a subset of a TIER 2 page.) Time to use all that research…
Each TIER 3 page should relate to the TIER 2 page that links to it. For example, let’s say that “outlet malls” is one of the most profitable keywords that your research has found. What do you do?
Create a TIER 2 Page (“outlet-malls.html”) called... “Top Factory Outlet Malls Where You Can Shop Via The Net”
This page links to TIER 3 pages... • a page that ranks the top shoe outlets that allow you to shop via the Web • another that rates the top clothing outlets • another to the best fur discount malls, clothing outlets, Nike outlets, etc.
Guideline - make your TIER 1 home page links to 7 TIER 2 pages (not more, because your NavBar starts looking pretty congested). And your TIER 2 pages each link to 5-10 TIER 3 pages.
This clean, 3-TIER approach yields an easy, navigable site... for both your visitor and your spiders. Spiders always come in through the front door, as long as you submit the home page to them. (More on SE submission later). From there, you’ve left a nice trail to follow so they can easily index the rest of your pages.
Humans, however...
They may find any page, TIER 1, 2, or 3, via the engines. So each TIER 3 page should provide a link back to its related TIER 2 page. And the same goes for TIER 2 to TIER 1 pages. Otherwise, keep internal linking only to what’s really necessary and relevant.
Remember that your real goal is for your visitor to click to your merchants or your other income-generating source.
As the spiders gather up your TIER 1, 2, and 3 pages, the computer programs that analyze them are getting smarter and smarter... and theme-focused. What does that mean to you?...
1) They’ll analyze all your pages in their databases and decide upon the overall theme of your site. So none of your pages should be off-theme, or you’ll confuse the spiders. If you have a great idea for a HIGHLY PROFITABLE Keyword-Focused Content Page that is off-theme, save it for your next niche.
2) Have you already created a bunch of “gateway pages” by simply duplicating one of your pages and then replacing one keyword with a different one? Search Engines look across all your site pages and penalize duplication. Ditch the tricks. Seek to please.
So much for the structure of your site. Now let’s fill that structure with content that accomplishes our critical two goals…
Deliver valuable content to your readers... ... AND tasty content to your spiders.
Your home page introduces your theme and your Valuable PREselling Proposition. It answers the “what’s in it for me” question that a visitor is probably asking herself about your site. It can make or break that important “first impression” of your business.
Focus on your Concept Keyword. Always, always, always remember you have two audiences -- your visitor and your spider. There’s no point in creating a fantastic home page that no one will find.
80-20 SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
The next several pages will introduce the 80-20 best practices of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Effective SEO improves the likelihood your submitted page will obtain a Top 10 to 20 ranking position for your Specific Keyword on a Search Engine’s results page. The higher the ranking, the better are your chances that a surfer will see your listing and click over to visit your site!
SEO is comprised of two elements… • On-page ranking criteria -- This refers to ranking elements occurring directly on the Web page you are creating. For example, the Title of your article as it appears on the <TITLE> tag of your page is an on-page criterion. • Off-page ranking criteria -- This refers to ranking elements that do not occur on this page but yet affect its ability to rank well and obtain listings. Off-page ranking criteria are important indicators of human behavior. Visitor reaction reflects the quality of a page.
Both on-page and off-page criteria are necessary for success. Let’s begin by highlighting the most important standards for on-page ranking criteria. To rank well at the SEs, your page’s Specific Keyword must be integrated in all the right places. Where, exactly?... 1) TITLE tag 2) META keyword tag 3) META description tag 4) H1 and other header tags 5) Body copy 6) Link tags 7) File name/domain name 8) Image ALT tag and name of image
The TITLE tag is the key on-page elements. Make sure every single one of your pages (yes, even your TIER 3 pages) contains a relevant, keyword-rich TITLE tag.
As with the META keywords tag, most SEs do not place much ranking weight on the text inside META description tags. So focus on getting the click through, and don’t worry too much about just the “right” blend of keywords for this tag.
The headlines are more important than your regular body copy. That’s true for both human readers and for the engines. As far as ranking criteria goes, it is likely that the <H1> tag is second only to the <TITLE> tag in importance.
Here are the key “musts” for your H1 tag... • Contains your Specific Keyword at least once. Try to include an important General Keyword, too (different from the one you used in your Title). • Does not exceed 80 characters, 40 is better. Long headlines feel rather “hypey.” • Helps to “get the click” -- so make sure it’s attractive, without being misleading. • Does not contain your Title. Otherwise, if the engine uses your H1 tag, your listing and H1 tag will both say the same thing... needless repetition.
Every single content page must contain a <H1> or <H2> tag for maximum ranking relevancy. If you are not using these tags, you are missing out on free Search Engine traffic!
If too many incidences of your Specific Keyword are making your page sound a little odd, then replace these with appropriate synonyms. Surprisingly enough, top ranking SE pages have keyword densities a lot lower than you think -- varying from as little as 1-4%.
Make it a point to use your Specific Keyword more heavily in the opening two paragraphs (it must be in your opening sentence), and also in the closing paragraph. And then, like a good chef, sprinkle throughout!
Keep your content focused to a single theme per page. Do not ever get offtarget and introduce a second topic to a page -- you’ll dilute the effectiveness of your Specific Keyword. And that goes for your site as well. The more you laserbeam on a single theme, the better you’ll do with the Search Engines.
Links create the TIER 1-2-3 structure. They must flow naturally and smoothly within the content.
Include your Specific Keyword in the filename of your html page. This action might also add a relevancy point or two with the engines.
Name a graphic on a page according to its keyword focus. For example, on your outlet-malls.html page, name its photo “outet-malls.gif”.
Use the same approach for the TIER 2 and TIER 3 Keyword-Focused Content Pages. While the home page focuses upon the fundamental Concept Keyword, the other pages each focus upon one of the HIGH-PROFITABILITY keywords that your MASTER KEYWORD LIST has identified.
Ultimately, you create Keyword-Focused Content Pages that... • fit with your Site Concept and VPP AND... • have a good SUPPLY/DEMAND ratio AND that... • you enjoy writing about.
Each page wraps a high-value topic around each Specific Keyword, following the guidelines outlined above.
More importantly, though, don’t sweat the small stuff. If you’ve done your homework and built a list of profitable, niche-related keywords, achieving top rankings won’t be a difficult task.
Off-page criteria will take center stage in the next chapter.
