This post is about a link building (off-page SEO) campaign I recently did for one of my clients. It allows you to better understand what approach I use when it comes to SEO and link building in particular. You’ll be able to get a better feel of both the method I used and the results I achieved.
Video Testimonial from the Client
Before you you read any further, here’s the client’s feedback about the work I did for him. His reference is available on demand.
Background
I worked with the client who needed to rank for bridge rectifier in top 10 on Google. The first thing that I did was assisting the client with selecting an optimal keyword for an upcoming link building campaign For optimal SEO results, I made sure that the keyword is:
a) trafficked
b) relevant
c) realistic (possible to outrank the competition). Here’s what I’ve been doing so far.
d) meets the search intent
“Bridge rectifier” perfectly meets all the requirements.
Search Intent
Since the client’s site is an online store, the most obvious thing that you might want to do is rank a product or a category page for the keyword, but I did some extra digging and actually discovered that most search results in the top 10 on Google are informational. That translates to a slim to none chance to rank for the keyword with a product or category page.
With that in mind, I suggested creating an informational piece of content (blog post) and the client did his part with flying colors. He had an awesome high-quality page created and published on their site. Once everything has been set up from specifically a content quality standpoint. I got the ball rolling and started applying my search engine optimisation “magic” 🙂
Content Quality and Versatility
The client wisely invested a lot of efforts into creating a top-notch article around the keyword I needed to rank the site for. The textual content was unique, exhaustive and useful for the reader. The accompanying images were also unique (custom made as opposed to stock photos) and to the point. Making sure that the content is of top-notch quality set the perfect foundation for upcoming SEO activities.
The same holds true for the professionally made video entitled How a Bridge Rectifier Works that was made to accompany the post and help with ranking for “bridge rectifier”. By the way, here’s the video I’m talking about.
The advantage was that most of the pages that rank for the keyword in the top 10 on Google don’t have a video. Let alone an extremely well-done explainer video with professional animation and voice-over. That really helped with assuring Google that the page is worth ranking high in Google’s search results. That’s because the better the quality of the page you do SEO for, the easier it is to rank it.
As a rule of thumb, you want to use all sorts of content formats (text, images, videos, etc) to send Google multiple signals about what your page is all about. In this particular case, the client did a great job with leveraging all the content types that make sense for the topic. The versatility of the content also contributed to how fast the page started ranking for the target keyword.
On-Page SEO First
Once we’ve selected the most optimal keyword to target, I also assisted with on-page SEO for the page that should rank for the keyword. It’s really crucial to make sure that it’s obvious both to search engines and human site visitors what the page is all about. Sure thing, you don’t want to “overdo” it (no keyword stuffing), but “just do it” is totally ok (wink-wink)
Competitor Backlinks Profile Analysis
Once the on-page SEO had been put in place, I did a competitor backlinks profile analysis to get to know what domains I need to build links from in order to get to the top 10 on Google. The idea behind the approach is super simple: if those backlinks allow the competitors to rank in the top 10, you want to get links from the same domains and rank in the top 10 as well.
How to Get Links from Those Domains?
Then I suggested ways of acquiring backlinks from the same domains that the competitors have backlinks from. Long story short, I reverse-engineered the methods that the competitors used. Once you can see what methods they used, you can make educated link building suggestions backed by data (data-driven approach). You just can’t go wrong with it.
Business Ethics are Crucial
Then I ran my link building suggestions by the client and got down to business after they had been approved. I made sure that the client is in the know of what’s going on in every step of the way. That allows making sure that everybody is on the same page.
The First Results are in
The page that I needed to rank for the keyword was published on September 22, 2020. Over time (by Oct 27, 2020), Google started picking up the page and ranking for the target keyword (#55).
Added Bonus
By the way, that’s a really pleasant bonus that while trying to rank for a specific keyword you inevitably start ranking for topically relevant and adjacent keywords (in this case “how rectifier works”, “full bridge rectifier schematic”, “what is a bridge rectifier used for”, “bridge rectifier with capacitor filter”, “rectifier”, etc)
Moving On
I patiently and strategically kept on building links based on the results of my competitor backlinks profile analysis. By November 11, 2020, the target keyword considerably climbed up in the search results and it was ranking #18 (top 20) on Google (as opposed to the previous top 60 result).
Slowly But Surely 🙂
As of Tuesday, November 17, 2020, the client’s site started ranking #14 for the target keyword “bridge rectifier”.
A bit higher
As of Sunday, November 29, 2020, the page ranked #13 for “bridge rectifier”.
One More Step Up
Update as of Friday, December 04, 2020: the keyword has moved to position 12.
I Ranked the “bridge rectifier” Keyword in the Top 10 on Google
Low and behold 🙂 The “bridge rectifier” keyword got to the top 10 on Google. It took me 4 months and it was done mostly by commenting relevant forums (based on what forums the competitors have backlinks from).
Update as of Wednesday, December 24, 2020
Collateral Benefits
Other than that, I increased the overall amount of referring domains (sites linking to the client’s site)
Plus the client’s site started ranking for almost 100 new keywords
Is It Any Good?
According to Ahrefs.com ,“almost 95% of newly published pages don’t get to the Top10 within a year. And most of the “lucky” ones, which do manage to get there, do it in about 2–6 months.”
The Bottom Line
Since the client’s page ranks on page 1 (in the top 10), I guess it goes to show that I got what it takes to do that and you can expect a similar result if you hire me 🙂
Here’s the client’s feedback (I can provide you with his reference on demand)
