SEO Whoop Ass

I’ve really been thinking about this lately – how to kick some ass, I mean. Maybe that’s blunt, and maybe having done some competitive analysis lately I just feel a bit bold…or frustrated, perhaps. It really was seeing my competition bear them claws, it got me thinkin’.

For ease of use, this post is broken down into two parts: the first section contains my observations of the dismal landscape of what amounts to “competition.” It could be entitled, “How NOT To Kick Ass” and yes: it’s getting a little potty mouthed in here -

Because sometimes a little ass-whoopin’ is what it takes.

In the English lexicon, there are myriad words to use to describe this post – “SEO Whoop Ass” seemed the succinct choice.

The second part is a practical guide, I think, to whooping your competition’s ass. Because I think sometimes a little courage and know how is really all it takes. Doing so keeps you from looking like this turkey, which is what all my competition looks like when I’m done:

Competition Has Egg On Their Face

For the critique side – I was wondering…

When did being a lemming define being successful?

I get it: there’s a formula, a format, a technique – it works, it pays, it gets a click or whatever – but – it’s surprising how many people are doing the same exact thing.

Same template. (Guilty!)

Same approach. (Guilty!)

Same tools. (Guilty!)

Same results…hopefully, the same results promised in the ebook – and I have no complaints against the XFactor ebook or the Amazonian Profit Plan, they work like champs.

What I’m getting at is: Just look around at your keywords, and find the EMD’s (Exact Match Domains), and look at the cookie cutter format.

Where’s the ingenuity? Originality? Creativity?

I’ve just been doing a bit of analysis for my own passive income, Christmas sites (please don’t ask about the headache of my DNS service – whassup-widdat?) and actually there’s not a lot of ingenuity out there.

I suppose it’s more of, “this isn’t broke, why fix it?”

Maybe that’s true. Let me say up front that most of this year I’ve not really bothered to try out other themes with my passive income sites. To tell the truth I’ve found the Clickbump themes rather successful to use, just a little CSS tweak and they’re great at selling Amazon, etc…

Let me get back on point since I feel like I’m wandering:

When You Think The Field Is Too Competitive, Look Again!

Do you honestly think you can’t out-do THAT? It’s a joke, and a lot of drivel and sloppy sites out there – I dunno, maybe they “work” and maybe the volume is such that…

Quality was sacrificed on the altar of Quantity

I have to admit – I don’t have much by way of quantity, and you all likely make more money passively than me – that’s fine – but I’ll be a deep fried cat fish if this formula doesn’t “work” – even after Google Instant and after Caffeine and May Day:

1. Do Keyword Research, Find Low Compete Terms
2. Buy EMD
3. Vomit…Voila! Website with Chum-as-Content
4. Get 5 links (seriously, this kills me, but the EMD has a major upward boost on SEO).
5. Add Affiliate Links
6. Repeat…

Well, I’ll be a monkey’s turd if I can’t out do THAT. Here’s a tip for all the ‘tough’ niches out there, the tough-to-rank spots:

Before you call it quits on a niche, look again. Can’t you out-do that LAME website?

I mean, really – here’s a can of SEO Whoop Ass for you, a formula you can bank on, as it were:

Dominate
Dominate the first page. See what’s ranking and how, and emulate it. Do you see any other articles from directories there? There are a number of web 2.0 sites that you begin to see at the top of search listings…maybe you could use one of those. If you don’t see any articles on the front page, what about the second page? Do you think you can backlink an article or two or 9 to take that front page?

If there are videos, news results, or any other Web 2.0′s on the front page, MAKE a video, make a competing Web 2.0 property, release a Press Release…

The first page is TELLING YOU what to do to out rank your competition – and you know what? If you can’t outrank them on THAT term – use SEO Spyglass and dig up their other terms, measure their other backlinks according to PR (you can do this with SEO Quake as well, and both are free), or use WebSite Auditor to see how your competition is stacking their on-page SEO in their favor…

Here’s a thought – if a term you cannot seem to rank for gets “15k” with the “exact” search count or phrase count, then what you want to do is find other terms that you CAN rank for that add up to 15k. Make sense? It’s not hard, the front page is telling you what it takes, and SEO PowerSuite gives you the XRay vision as it were to draw more clearer conslusions as to “what it takes” to oust them.

Improve
Just out-do the chum content pushers out there. This is about as hard to do as breaking a nail – depending on your niche – if you see your competition’s sites, evaluate them. Then do it better. There are some things you can’t do, like domain age – but the rest you certainly can (in most cases). Just step your game up.

Backlinks
Know what I use to whoop some tail feathers? They’re listed on my Recommended Tools page:

• Backlinks Philippines (easiest of them all, no monthly)
• Article Marketing Robot (new favorite article submitter)
• Unique Article Wizard (the link beast with the biggest network)
• Magic Submitter (still my fave submitter)
• Magic Article Submitter (only get this if you do NOT have Article Marketing Robot!)
• ArticleRanks (they bookmark your backlinks now for free!)
• The Link Juicer (less writing, drip fed links)
• Free Traffic System (name says it all – and offer other services too)

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Editor’s Note: Magic Article Submitter has been replaced utterly by Article Marketing Robot, hands-down. This was written before I really began using AMR in earnest, you can read my review of Article Marketing Robot to find out more.
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Heck YES I use and have used them all – this is my business, my bread and cheddar – I’m not in it just to have cool stuff to write about! This isn’t my “extra” money – this is how I eat, keep the lights on, pay bills – there is no “extra” money for me – it’s all “just money.” So I’m not here to fool around, and I don’t believe my competitors are about to relent their onslaught. This is business, business is war, and I’m not carrying a pea shooter.

To whoop ‘em, make links like you’re a sausage factory! With a little time and persistence (and ingenuity) anyone can. And NO, you don’t need to use all those services, pick 1-2 and move on, but I’ll be darned if they don’t work and play nice together.

Stomp
Say you’ve created the bomb content, great review, whatever – you’ve improved on your competitor’s link profile using SEO Spyglass to check out their linking profile and you’ve either copied their top links or just out-did them in terms of getting high PR backlinks…You’ve taken 3 spots in the top 10, multiple long tails and various key terms. Now what?

Now you stomp them. Not kidding. Use SEO Spyglass, find their backlinks, and if you see a bunch of PR 0 backlinks to forums…that is easy to emulate, out perform, and out muscle. Backlinks Philippines would love to help with that, and you can use the profile links in Magic Submitter, too.

You can find links on the cheap. My suggestion is to simply outdo them with the higher PR links and stay out of the forums – BUT sometimes a link’s a link, and right now business is war. Taking one keyword for #1 isn’t enough – and because of Google Instant, taking #2 or #3 isn’t that hot – the “Suggest” drop down menu pushes them underneath the fold.

You need to push for #1 listings. Do it where your competition is trying to do it – and you can use Rank Tracker to check that, along with SEO Spyglass. (Free tools, just for the record, all inside SEO PowerSuite.) Once you have campaigns going to take several fronts, several keywords, don’t stop – it’s time to stomp the competition.

I call it “DIBS” for short. My own personal “stomper net.”

Oh, in case you haven’t yet, it would be a really good idea to double check that front page of your terms again. Do you see any videos on the front page? What about images with the “Alt” text as the keywords you’re targeting? Hmmm…

That’s easy. Properly SEO your site, then just out-do the lemmings – because you’re better than that, and because you can.

For on-page SEO, including the “SEO Spyglass” tool I mentioned, nothing beats the free suite of tools in SEO PowerSuite. Don’t bother backlinking unless your site’s been SEO’d – it’s a waste of time and money (trust me, even Backlinks Philippines gets tired of trying).

Don’t know what that is? I’ve written on it before, my FREE SEO Download post and Squidoo on SEO PowerSuite. Needless to say, it’s my can of SEO Whoop Ass – that and some ingenuity.

And an energy drink or three.

And my kids looking at me wondering what’s for dinner.

And a hug from my best friend and absolute dream-come-true, the real “can” of whoop arse, my wife.

Just remember:

Dominate~Improve~Backlink~STOMP

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