Don't Be Content Ranking #1 in Google

Some top ranking sites do not deserve to. When one is lucky enough to be in such a situation it allows us to get away with being lazy, because a site does not have to be too efficient to make money if it is well represented for targeted search queries that send free traffic. But every website has upside potential, even if it already ranks #1.

Improve Internal Navigation & Usability

One client of mine only ranks below his official manufacturer for their name. His site had inadequate internal navigation. I took a day to improve the navigation, and the result was a 150% increase in sales. The last 8 days of last month sold nearly as much as the rest of the month combined. His business model looked like it was about to die, but that one day of work made it functional for at least a couple more years.

High Profit Parallel Markets

I had a site which made a couple hundred dollars a day that was well established in its market, but did not dominate it. Taking the path of lowest resistance, I branched the site into two parallel markets of greater commercial interest where the competition was weaker. On an investment which is less than what the site earns in a month now I was able to increase its income 5x, without even doing much link building.

An Undeserved Ranking

One of my friends is in a high profit market where the competition is absolutely clueless. Basic SEO brought that site to a #1 ranking in Google. The site is highly conversion oriented and makes great income, but now that it already ranks it probably makes sense to reinvest some of the profit into improving content quality and reinforcing that market position. Businesses that do not reinvest eventually fall, especially if they are winning only because the competition is clueless. After spending a couple thousand dollars a day on AdWords eventually the competitors will start to look into SEO.

The Value of Branding

If a site ranks #1, and is monetized via PPC ads, it still might only make a portion of what it should because AdSense is not as efficient as some people would lead you to believe. If a site is strong enough to attract brand advertisers they will pay a premium just for getting their brand seen. Scraper sites and thin content sites don't attract brand advertisers, even if they convert. I have seen a site that was making $80 a month on AdSense make over $10,000 a month selling brand advertisements.

Published: June 9, 2007 by Aaron Wall in seo tips

Comments

Kenson Goo
June 12, 2007 - 11:06pm

Aaron,
I have a question about

"High Profit Parallel Markets"

Did you mean you create a new site and link to it from the old site?

June 13, 2007 - 1:55am

I mean I added sections of the site that focus on related ideas.

Rob Docherty
June 17, 2007 - 5:45am

Adeel - In regards to your navigation example request...

My advice: Focus on creating correct anchor text in the navigational head and foot of your pages as well as internally through context in your content [everyone says this yet fail to practice what they preach]

I have and have ranked a site #30 for Poker within two weeks of launching it [from scratch] and it's all whitehat great content I wrote myself, and I don't play Poker at all!

Anyway - To everyone, and Aaron - Thanks for contributing to the industry - you fuel my revenue. :)

Mack
June 9, 2007 - 8:39pm

I am currently competing with a site that has bought their way to the top of google with text links. I started at a position of 114th in google for my niche term. After only beginning to read your book Aaron. I am not even through the first 100 pages!

I am now 15th in google for my targeted term. I have only started to add related content and plan a link building strategy.

Soon I hope to be truly competing with some of the bigger unrelated competitors for a fraction of what they pay to be in the top 10.

P.S my targeted term was rated to be as a 40% difficulty level.

David Mackey
June 10, 2007 - 5:22am

Awww...No more spammy links? Thats a shame. Anyways, I liked the tips, especially the branding one. I've been looking for ways to monetize one of my site's (www.freewargamer.com). Its the largest site in its area, but monetization has been tough.

David Airey :: ...
June 10, 2007 - 8:05pm

Great advice.

I find the SEO tools here to really help push my site up the rankings. It takes time, but I'm getting there, and am hoping that I'll be within the top three for my relevant keywords after the next PR update. I'm currently in the top five for one specific term, which is helping.

Adeel Shahid
June 11, 2007 - 7:25am

From a simple idea of navigation to link building, and basic seo to branding. I have'nt got a deeper understandability of any of these but it would be nice if Aaron can point to a navigation example. As to how we can seo a site navigation.

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