Know-How Exchange : SEO/SEM

Hi gareth.oneill,

Hope you're having a great day. There are many ways to build your web presence without paying but it's not the easiest road to travel and it's still going to cost you something.

THE HIDDEN COST OF FREE IS TIME...
It's much easier to implement the ideas I'm sharing individually than it is to do with an online business but it's still possible. Even as I'm sharing my answers with you now new ideas to accomplish the goal are coming to me. One way to do it for FREE is to spend time (pun intended). Anytime you want to avoid the overt cost of money use the covert element of time. It is the ---Hidden Cost--- of everything FREE. This one secret increased my page ranking when I spent more time working on my page ranking.

THE OTHER HIDDEN COST OF FREE IS STRATEGY...
Again it still is possible to achieve your goal but remember nothing is FREE. Even when you don't pay...the funny thing is...you still pay because your time is money. So spend your time being more strategical. Spend your time researching the value of things you can register for that don't ---Cost you anything--- but bring you back the return in value that adds to your page ranking. When I applied this second secret my page ranking began to soar and now I own my page ranking. Type in Deremiah or Deremiah, *CPE under Google and you'll see what I mean.

THE OTHER HIDDEN COST OF FREE IS RELATIONSHIP...
The roads to builidng page ranking without paying requires much more intervention and dedication of private time. I'm not sure you really want to travel that route but if holding your money is more important than spending your time (pun is intended) or strategically planning than building relationships must be your focus. I'll give you a few more of my secret ways to do it but I'm not spilling all the beans on how I did it because it cost me me a "lot of time" and "relationship building" (hey I didn't mean to say that because I'm telling you how I did it. Don't pay attention to that last sentence).

THE HIDDEN COST OF FREE IS MARKETINGPROFS...
Well the last and final way I did it and I refuse to share more of my hard earned ideas for FREE because it took me years to do what I can do now in a few days. That's the built in value of reading hundreds of books, rubbing shoulders with thousands of people in person and online day in and day out (And learning how to do it effectively is a whole other art form all together that I could spend 20 paragraphs on but then I just might as well right another book and make a whole lot of money to give to the 50 kids I mentor every year).

SO HERE IT IS!!!
That's right if you apply the above ideas, diligently put one foot in front of the other and work passionately with all your might and serve greatly everyone you meet from this day forward you could literally increase your page ranking for FREE in ---a few days---. I did it by joining forum networks like this one and spending thousands of hours answering peoples questions for FREE. Over time as Marketinprofs fame increased so did mine and that's the last secret I'm willing to share with you for FREE.

WARNING...NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE DAY OF SMALL BEGINNINGS...Often times people hear my suggestions but may avoid "L-I-S-T-E-Ning deeply" to the ideas because the answers seem so simple. But if you really do listen beyond the words you read you'll not only hear what's being communicated you will began to see what I'm saying from multiple vanish points because I speak metaphorically and symbolically. REMEMBER... our only real problem in life is our failure to be "MORE Creative" than we’ve ever been. If you “Invent” your opportunity YOU WILL most definitely create your future. I'm only an email away from you if you need my help. Is there anything else I can do for you?

Your Servant, Deremiah, *CPE (Customer Passion Evangelist)

*Caring Promotes Exuberance

There are as many strategies for this as there are pundits. Marketing Profs has some good info on this, so make sure you look in the Premium Content section. Another site with some really good insights into this is Eric Ward's site at:

https://www.wardreport.com/free_trial/

Our own site has very high Google rankings, and the main reason for our high rankings is the sheer volume of reciprocal links. You can see our Links page at:

https://www.annthegran.com/links.htm

The way we built this was by offering free content that everyone wanted, and anyone in our interest group who had a web site posted our link on their site, and once we built traffic we also posted reciprocal links. None of these links cost us a penny.

Your site has zero PageRank right now. Focusing on obtaining too many high PR backlinks at this time may actually prove to be detrimental to your campaign. Securing too many in a short time frame may appear to the SEs as suspiciously similar to a link campaign rather than links obtained naturally. And they would be right. No?

Additionally, since you currently have no PR then obtaining some is a huge incremental step. Yes? High PR sites may not want to link to you because you may not have anything to offer them. You will find it easier to get high PR backlinks as your PR grows.

As to how to get links: There are so many options available to you that I could fill a book. Blogging, reciprical, viral, directories, etc. The list goes on. As stated in a prior post, you can either immerse yourself in learning how or you can hire someone. Which is more valuable: Time or money?

A note however about reciprocal linking: Reciprocal linking has been frowned upon of late. There are those who say to avoid this strategy. We, however, continue to see value in reciprocal linking. You just need to ensure that you are linking to responsible parties. If not you can suffer from being associated with a link farm.

Purchasing links is frowned upon by google. I have however seen this strategy work extremely well. I have also seen it work poorly (and backfire in some cases) and is another option. Based upon your post however, I won't dwell on it because it appears you have investigated that option already.

If you are going to obtain links I would look for sites that have a PR that is better than your site. There is value to you in a link from a PR2 or 3 site. There is a sweet spot at PR4+. Do not obsess over the PR of the linking site however (provided it has some). Focus more on obtaining relevant links and ensuring that you do not reciprocate to link farms.

Also, I would not focus on PR. I have seen PR 0 sites beat high PR sites on certain keywords. Do, however focus on your rankings and your conversions. Conversions are king. Everything else is just talk.

I hope this helps.

Oh, forgot to mention...

Out of force of habit I always look at source code when visiting a site. I notice that the site is suffering from some code bloat. This can be remedied with better use of CSS, moving embedded css to external, and eliminating tables for layout.

Start a blog. My PR for The Viral Garden went from 0 to 6 in 11 months. Blogs are active, websites are static.

I agree with Mack. A blog can be a link machine if done properly.

Gareth

Just to support what Jon (Sans Prix) said - the network tabloid current affairs shows are not just hungry for content - they are starving!

A site like yours that saved people money when buying a car copped around 7 minutes of prime airtime a year or so back.

All you have to do is position yourself as "one small guy taking on the majors" and have a few mates who will say they've save five bucks on a CD or DVD and you're in with a real chance.

Not sure how that fits with your involvement with Big W though... I presume you are acting as a clearing house for them?

Don't underestimate the traffic such a segment on TV can generate even in Australia. I helped launch a garden product last year. The site was hosted out of India. (Against my advice, long story...) When the product and web address appeared on Better Homes and Gardens, the site melted down. So make sure your server is strong!

Other potential sources for references that will build traffic, if not page rank, are the newspaper technical sections, particularly SMH and The Age. Try to get on to someone like Jim Schembri at the Age to tell him your story. SMH syndicates Age material as they are all part of Fairfax.

You need to be sure you're always able to come up with the lowest price. ACA and TT will test you claim, as they did with the car site, which was cheaper in 3 out of four examples. So be aware that you story idea may seed a more complex story where your product is one leg and a contrasting viewpoint or competing product becomes the other leg.

As Deremiah would say, the price of FREE is loss of control...

Best of luck. Good to see a new Aussie engaging with the community on KHE.

Cheers

ChrisB

Hi Gareth,

The Google PageRank bar is not real-time. It updates every 3 months or so (called a "Push). Google has an in-house, realtime pagerank which they use for calculating search results, and an external, updated quarterly pagerank that sits on your toolbar.

I would concentrate on obtaining quality links - not just from directories, but from blogs of friends, other sites. Consider creating quality content on your site, as an incentive to get others to link to you. Beyond the store, you could publish a list of the 500 top albums of all time and try and get it listed at sites like digg.com.

Good luck!