I Changed My Tagline and Blog’s Title
At the end of September 2008, I was trying to test my search engine optimization knowledge by competing for a keyword. It is not about a total SEO strategy, but more of an attempt to be on top of SE ranking the wise way, which involved keyword analysis. After several analyses, I choose “make money on internet” as the phrase to compete with. The reason behind this selection is because I am trying to be another John Chow IV 
Keyword Analysis
It is quite high in terms of search volume (per month) and from my observation, it is not highly competitive. Here’s what Google said about the phrase:
Sorry for the visual defect, I am forced to reduce the size of the image to fit it with thesis. You have to click it for a larger view. According to the father of modern and probably century-a-round search engine(I hope this incantation works), The phrase “make money on internet” received approximately 60,000+ search volume in October.
Now let’s math do the job,
60,000 search volume + not highly competitive keyword = easy job x good keyphrase.
Well, yea it’s a bit confusing, excuse my bad math. The point here is “make money on internet” is a suitable keyword to compete with since it is not inclusiveness of high competitive keyword. How can I be so sure about that? I observed three things:
- How many websites are competing (I didn’t assume all listed websites are competing for the keyword, some may not even competing).
- The links structure of top ranked sites (how well linked they are).
- How many PPC advertisers.
Some of you or some of SEO company might have different metrics in determining the competitiveness of keywords, but these were the things that I observe when I do search engine optimization. Some even develop a mathematical formula to determine the keyword competitiveness.
There is no proper and exact way of doing it. “It Works!” can only be said when you get the result. Here’s my result, and this image is taken earlier this week, the ranking might have change a bit (hopefully a bit) by now.
Again, thesis force me to compressed the image. Click the image and you’ll see it in a larger version. That smile is genuine.
No Hidden Secrets
No one knows exactly how Google’s algorithm works (some say Sergey and Larry produced them with their math lecturers I don’t know about that). If you ask me about SEO, I would say: “SEO is a very simple concept with the need of huge efforts”. Concentrate on both On page and Off page, these two factors must be in parallel with each other. Google has just release their complete guide of SEO to the world.
They called it “Google’s SEO Starter Guide“, and Google has done a very good job in explaining them. As far as I’m aware, most of the guides presented is concern about On page optimization. But don’t worry much, you have to understand that off page optimization is only about getting links pointing to your blog (preferably your targeted keyword as the anchor text). Produce more of this slightly better than the first-position website and you will be better than them.
These are the things that I did in my analyses, I would love to hear your ‘things’!
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thx u for this. I think it might help me a lot..
Wow, great.
How long did it get you to get these results and are they being maintained?
@Callister: no problem, I’m happy if it helps you. Btw, I read your gay letter. You are a hot stuff!
@Tertius: it takes nearly 2 months to get the result. No, I didn’t maintain it
This is very informative actually. I have been reading this kind of article a lot (just out of curiosity) and I came to conclusion that “make money on internet” is a good phrase. Unfortunately I have came upon lots of sites that has not even related to the “make money on internet” stuff. I am sure hope you will succeed in pursuing your blog purposes
Have a nice day,
Bluecrystaldude
bluecrystaldudes last blog post..Brandy – Have You Ever
haha..yeah thx u 4 reading it..
n thx u 4 da compliment~~
bluecrystaldude: yea, I have to agree on that one, the fact that those competing websites are doing it only for traffics is something that we have to admit.
Callister: No problem
Hi Norhafidz,
Congratulations on your fantastic result. I just checked and you’re still on page 1 so well done. Do you see lots of traffic now.
Peter Lee
This will be a very nice attempt. Anyway good luck to your new tagline.
@Peter: Thanks pal, I can say that it is increasing a bit. I am sure you are experiencing much more traffic than I did
@Affiliate Crunch: Yea it was. Thanks for your wish, hope to see you here often
Informative article, but a couple of things confused me:
- You say that it wasn’t a highly competitive phrase, yet the advertiser competition bar was ‘full’, so I dont really understand that part
- I have just searched google for that phrase, and dont see you on google.com or google.co.uk with the top spot…maybe it has changed in the past two days
Look forward to your answers
Cheers
Dans last blog post..Christmas Is Here…What Will You do?
Very nice! Glad to see you achieved your goal.
I’ve recently been trying to get insight into lower quantity terms that might be more indicative of a potential person seeking extremely specialized advice – there are no query demographics yet!
David – Marketing Management Strategys last blog post..ifbyphone Raises $4.6 Million in New Round of Venture Capital Funding
@Dan: Hello pal! Thanks for visiting. Here are the answers:
Q1: I am using the advertisers details as a support to the fact that the keyword is worth competing againts. It is from the advertisers point of view, that the keyword is somehow worth competing against. It is a popular belief that the more advertisers a certain keyword has, the possibility of sites competing for it is substantial. But that is not usually true.
A search term that costs $5 per click on Overture might still have less SEO competition than you would think, if the term is not very popular with searchers.
At the end of the day, the main point that I used to determine the competitiveness of a keyword is by doing analyses on how well-linked those first-page-websites are.
Q2: There is an issue brought up by the members of DP about how Google is changing their SERP quite fast now. Probably because of that you didn’t see my blog for that term. But I checked the phrase by the time I write this comment and I can see my blog on top of that phrase on google.com, here’s the screenshot of it: http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii154/budin05/google.png
@David: Thanks David! Glad to see you here, hope to see you more often.
err…. can you explained in a layman term… hehehe…
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woww.. amazingg.. how you do that? congrats for the result!!
@cencurut: sure, just tell me which part that you did not understand.
@Hajib: I did what my competitors did, the only difference is I did it slightly better. Thanks!
Currently I am trying to get a few post on a few keywords . once my new blog have enough post about making money i might think about the same
Well you do it right. Now you just have to wait for the result
That’s nice!By the way i’m friend of rajesh,which you could observe by seeing my url itself.At your free time try to visit my site.I’ll also return my favor.I’ll add you in my blogroll as soon as you visit my site.Hope you visit soon.
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@azwan: Great azwan, can’t wait to see that
@BaliInc SEO Test: Waiting is persecution, but it all heal when we get the result.
@satya: Hello Satya! Nice seeing you here. You have a wonderful blog. Keep it up.
thanks for visiting my site,I’ve added you in my blogroll.Try to visit often.By the way you’ve found out that game as cricket rightly.
satyas last blog post..India wins 5th match also seals series 5-0
Cool… Nice SEO you have. And good keyword too.
Jayces last blog post..Logitech G5 Laser Mouse with 2 Thumb Buttons Preview
Wow– I think that’s a big accomplishment; so many people are blogging about making money on internet. Congrats. It’s taken me longer to get to the top for a lot less competitive/valuable keywords.
Hey where’s the e-book?!? I’d be interested in learning exactly how you did this. Be as detailed as you can, that’s the thing that experts always forget to do, to accommodate the noobs. Best of luck.
Tom @ Chinese Zodiac Marriage Combinationss last blog post..Zodiac Matches for Men Born Under the Pig Sign
@satya: No problem pal, thanks to you too for visiting! Yea I know India is one of the great forces in cricket world.
@Jayce: Yea, it is all impend on the analyses. Thanks for visiting Jayce.
@Tom: Here’s the Google’s guide, http://www.google.com/webmasters/docs/search-engine-optimization-starter-guide.pdf
Sadly, I have not create any eBook in English yet. Probably I’ll expatiate one later, I’ll let you know once it is done Tom
Well, thats a good thing that you have pointed out, when a keyword of higher search density and lower competition is used, it is bound to produce great results faster…
Glad to visit blog with good resources.
Jayces last blog post..Does donkey visit your blog lately?
@Car Trader: True indeed. Less competitive + High search volume + Properly optimized = swamp SE traffic.
@Jayce: I am more than happy if it helps you Jayce.
Thanks for nice information, that will be very helpful to everyone. So congratulations! on your great result.
I hope this works out for you. This could be really profitable if it does.
Kenney @ How To Make Money Blogs last blog post..New Make Money Online Blog Grabs Top Coveted Google Rankings
@trucks and trailers: No problem pal, Thanks for visiting!
@Kenney: It sure does, I noticed some increment on my daily traffic resulting from this seo experiment.
I’m forever changing my blog title trying to find the most low competition highly searched keywords that can bring good traffic to my blog – so far I have only seen a small improvement, but I’m working on it
Simons last blog post..Some Enjoyable Posts In The Blogosphere 3-12-2008
@Simon: It is a wise decision Simon, always looking for low competition and highly search keyword. Keep working on it tirelessly and you’ll get the result later on.
another good info. I guess, not many people understand about seo stuff and keyword term..
akazumas last blog post..Are you Scammer?
Great post. I say “WOW” and congratulation! I agree with you that SEO is simple but require lots of effort.
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Hey Norhafidz, great post!
I love experiments and its great to see others demostrate how you can get to the top!
I would have thought the keyword “make money on internet” would be far more competitive. After all, so many people are trying to do it! Seems like there are about 116,000 results in Google (keyword in quotes) which is too bad. I was surprised. For my niche there are nearly 10 million!!
I think the holy grail is, as you say is:
low competition, high search keyword
@akazuma: Thanks for visiting. I believe there are much more info about SEO these days compared to when I just start. Use Google and you’ll find everything, almost
@Freeware software: Thanks pal! your blog is wonderful.
@Best Home Security System: Thanks pal, yea I’d say it is competitive but not as competitive as “make money online” keyword. But, still it can be done through proper optimization. I wish you best of luck in your niche
Good thing. I know this comment is alittle late but I hope you found good success after the change.
Wow. I thought that search term is way more competitive than you proved it to be… I did notice you’re no longer showing for that term. did the other guys beat you?
@Ben: It’s ok pal. Thanks for the wish!
@Acai Berry Colon Cleanse: It was, but I find it not too competitive after I did the analyses. Yea this blog slips to page 2 now as far as I’m concern in the SERP, because I didn’t do anything to maintain the position.
Hi Norhafidz, Your approach to SEO is genius. I am sure you will become John Chow IV shortly.
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Good post. I’m begginer so I’m not very good in taking good keywords and analizing but this is very important.
stellas last blog post..Best Shampoo for Dry Hair
as long as you like that, just change.
but still I guess SEO things is the hardest part to do. but you help me a lot. thank you.
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@saleel: The above is a joke saleel
, I’m not planning to be the next John Chow, I just want to be myself.
@stella: Good for you pal, I’m glad you like the post.
@titan: yea, I like the word quixotic
@Hajib: No problem pal, I’m happy if it helps.
wow you are getting some pritty impressive traffic results, I wish my blog got those sorts of hits, I’m a long tail.
I’ve subscribed to your feed now, makes for interesting reading.
I’m new at this community and Ive desired to say howdy to everybody
I have been following this website for quite some time and it looked like a dendy place to be a part of.
great tips….
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