My experiment in SEO started when I got an email with a title something like, Little Known Secrets of SEO Ranking Revealed. I was skeptical but the cost of the "secret" was quite low and it came from a source that I have found to be credible, so I bit. The "secret" is basically outlined in Step 1, of the following 5 steps. I added the other steps and my experiment worked. My site had a third place ranking when searched in Google, after only three weeks.



Step 1 - Register a Domain Name that Matches a Search String

To make it easier to find a domain name, I bought some software that searches for names that correspond to search strings. Of course, most words in most languages are already registered as domain names. But the software did turn up a few strings that had a reasonable number of searches and had not been registered as domain names. So I picked a couple. I am a golfer and enjoy reading articles about golf on free article sites. So I picked a domain name related to golf, christmasgolfgift.com and registered it.

Step 2 - Build Site and Add Content that Matches the Site Name

I used a site builder that I quite like and am quite familiar with, so I had a site on line in a couple of days. I don't sell golf gifts, so I had to find some content for the site. The site builder I use makes it easy to cut and paste articles from sites that offer these, so I set to work. In a couple of hours, I had a site filled with quality articles related to golf. I then joined some golf related affiliate programs and added these to the site.

Step 3 - Write Some Articles and Get Some Back Links

The next step was to get some back links. Since I enjoy golf and enjoy writing, it was not hard for me to start cranking out some golf related articles. I wrote some articles about places I had golfed recently, golf related things that truly interest me and experiences I was having on the course, and submitted these to article sites. Some articles I submitted directly and some I submitted using some submission software I bought. I also saved some time by using an article writing tool that came with the submission software. In total in the next week or so, I had about a dozen articles accepted by about a hundred sites, which at last count, yielded 11 back links recognized by the search engines.

Step 4 - Submit Google Site Maps

The site builder I use has built in Google site map and a built in site map submission tool, so this step was easy and took about twenty minutes. I also submitted the site to Yahoo and MSN, and found a free submission site that submitted to several smaller search engines.

Step 5 - Fine Tuning

I found an article written by Howard Kaplan, "10 Things No One Ever Told Me About Getting My Web Site Listed" helpful for some fine tuning of the site. Tips like making sure the page names and title tags match, making sure that keywords match meta tags and so on, probably helped. I have to admit I have been a little sloppy in the past and this time, I made sure the site did not contain any errors.

I kept checking with Google, MSN and Yahoo, and after a couple of days, the web site had a decent ranking on some related search strings with MSN. In three weeks, the web site had a third place ranking when the search string, christmas golf gift was used. Of course, I may have to wait a bit, since it is the middle of summer, to see if I get any significant traffic for the site. In the meantime, my little experiment seems to have worked, and I am getting a lot more traffic, in less time, than I ever have with a new web site in the past. Over this last weekend, I built another site to see if I can duplicate the experiment. I will let you know what happens.