A real SEO example - Google Top 10 in Two Weeks

It was once said that "there are some that talk SEO and there are some that do SEO, but there are very few who talk and do SEO"

And it is all too true that you arrive at the websites of some Search Engine Optimization companies because you clicked on a paid link, not because they were in the first few results of a genuine search. So never forget, before you hire and part with money, ask where they rank and for what keywords.

We're going to show you here how we, as a SEO and Online Marketing Agency, ranked one of our pages on this site for a keyword phrase that people actually search.

Do not be easily fooled into accepting that because 'Big Bills Search Engine Service' ranks highly for 'Big Bills Search Engine Service' that Big Bill is any good at search engine optimization. You're looking for people who can rank for something other than their brand name, a genuine keyword that a normal user might search for.

The keyword phrase that we ranked for within two weeks is just that and we'll cover what happened and why it worked.

You should also be cautious when accepting ranking advice online from certain websites that may only want to sell you software or a book, unless they can prove what they have done in a real life SEO example to.

So sorting the talkers from the doers is an essential first step.

So what did we do? We chose the phrase "How to SEO your website" because according to the Google Keyword Tool this had medium competition from other websites.

Searching this phrase bought up about 45,000,000 results so the challenge was "How long would it take to create a page that would rank better than the 44,999,990 others already indexed and ranking Google?"

The answer? 12 (yes twelve) days for this example.

We didn't use any of the techniques that many will tell you are essential:

• We used a brand new domain name (howtoseo.link2light.com) rather than buying an expired domain which Google might trust more.
• We didn't build any links ourselves, we ranked first and the links followed naturally later.

But in reality our clients rarely have a perfect situation either so creating these two challenges presented a much more real life example.

Here is the diary of events (and below it we'll explain how we did it):

Diary of a SEO example

Before launching onto the Internet we developed a basic this website that you are looking at right now in a space where Google could not see it! The site comprised:

• Home page
• 'How to SEO' Website pages
• A page about search engine rankings
• A page on the time and costs of search engine optimization
• A handful of frequently asked questions with answers
• A page on how to choose a search engine optimization company
• A few pages with stories on common mistakes

Day 1 - 10th March

We made the website publicj and uploaded a sitemap.xml file to Google Search Console.

Day 8 - 18th March

We were top 20 on google.com and google.co.uk for the keyword phrase How to SEO your Website.

Day 11 - 21st March

According to Alexa (which isn't a brilliant measure but good for very rough monitoring) this site was number 27,511,203 in the world. In other words there were 27,511,201 websites more popular than this one.

Day 12 - 22nd March

Top 10 on google.co.uk and top 20 google.com for 'How to SEO your Website'.

So on Google's UK pages (and the UK is where our server is based so we should perform better there) it has taken 12 days to enter the top 10 and outperform 45 million other websites that Google felt were relevant to the search 'How to SEO your Website'.

Day 20 - 30th March

Alexa ranking of 8,466,596. In other words we had overtaken 19,044,607 other websites in terms of popularity in the space of twenty days!

Seeing different results in Google?

We take our ranking figures from Google Search Console which gives 'global averages'. Each person's search results are skewed to reflect their geographical location and past browsing history so you may see our pages positioned slightly higher or slightly lower than we claim here.

How did we do it?

We didn't build any links or use any Black Hat techniques. We didn't buy a recently expired domain in the hope of fooling Google that we are an old trusted site back in action. What we did do is this:

• We created very comprehensive content in the subject area (SEO) and we made sure it was well written. We didn't go heavy on infographics although that might have worked even better!
• We did what we do - each page was search engine optimized before it was launched (and if you want to know how to do that yourself you are on the right website!

Sounds easy? Not really. Although we ranked on the first page of Google within two weeks we had spent many months creating the content. Yes building backlinks helps content rank but better to build content which ranks on its own and attracts its own links.

We then used our extensive SEO knowledge and experience to make that content attractive and clear to search engines. In many cases this is all we do for our clients and it gets them ranked. We're able to do that because of the many years we've been working in this field. You can learn it too but it will take time.

Can we do the same for you?

If you would like to contact us about doing the same for your website please visit our SEO quote page

Moving On

Now if you have a website like this one that has already been launched (but still has no links) how long might it take to rank for a different medium competitive keyword? Less than a week. Lets have a look at a real SEO example without backlinks.