If you’ve read some of my previous posts in the past, you’ve probably heard me preach about backlinks and how it’s the backbone to higher search rankings. For most webmasters, having a good backlinking strategy will drastically increase their daily traffic numbers.
“Keywords will get you there, but backlinks will keep you there”
Look, you can’t control which keywords your competitors are trying to rank for, BUT…..you can see how much work you have to put in to outrank those sites in the top 3 spots in the SERPs. With great online tools like Keyword Elite 2, you can lay the ground work by choosing the right keywords to add to your list of possible keywords to optimize for your site/blog.
What you can control is the number of backlinks your site will have. But how many backlinks do you need to reach the first page of the search results page?
Here’s the juice:
1. From your list of keywords that you’ve jotted down after using Keyword Elite 2 for your keyword search, copy each keyword and paste it in the search bar of Google. Why Google? Because they’re the 900lb Gorilla of search engines, don’t waste your time on the other SEs yet until you’ve ranked high in Google. Yes, this will take time and No I will not sell you an ebook that will show you how to cut this time in half for $50. Suck it up or give it up…..
2. For each KW check out the top 3 sites sittin’ pretty on the first page of Google. You’ll notice right below the search bar you’ll see a large number (ex. About 121,000,000 results….), this number is the number of competing websites online for that given keyword phrase you’ve pasted in step 1.
Before you pass out, take a deep breath and don’t let that number scare you! That number represents EVERY competing site for that KW phrase, meaning that a site will be accounted for ANY mention of that keyword that is taken in and out of context. So if there was a blog post that mentioned their experience for “product X” and there was a site selling “product X”, then those two sites will be counted in that number. You see how that number can be misleading? If you’re starting a site that sells “product X”, you don’t really care about that little blog post review on that product because they are not really a competing site to yours.
3. Try to rank for keywords with <100K results because the lower amount of competition you have to go against, the easier it will be for you to rank for that keyword phrase….BUT you have to check the number of backlinks those sites sitting at the top of the SERPs have. How? Read below 
4. At this point, you’ve found some low competing keywords, and you’ve researched the # of competing sites online for each keyword phrase you’ve found. Once you’ve analyzed the top 3 sites, you’ll need to see how many backlinks they have. This will ultimately tell you how fast you can rank for that specific keyword.
(hint: if you see a high-caliber site sitting in the top of the SERPs for that keyword like Dell.com, Amazon.com, etc., skip that keyword and move on to the next. We’re trying to find fast long tail keyword rankings here). Here are some FREE ways to find the number of backlinks a site or blog has:
- BackLink Watch: Free online tool to for backlink research on your competitors
- Yahoo: Enter linkdomain:www.competitorURL.com in the search bar
- SEOQuake: Great FireFox Plugin that will tell you the number of backlinks right in the SERPs!
Yes, it’s a lot of work, but this is how it’s going to be if you’re serious about your search rankings. Cheers.
Related posts:
- Link Building For SEO | Why Link Building Will Never Die
- How To Get 300+ DoFollow BackLinks Each Month In 10 Minutes A Day
- 3 Easy Ways To Find Keywords Using Google
- Search Engine Marketing: SEO vs PPC
- 19 Sites To Submit Your Blog For Backlinks
JackNguyen.com Runs On The Thesis Theme!
Thesis is the search engine optimized Wordpress theme for serious bloggers and for those without PHP or any other coding background.
For advance users, Thesis has amazing customization possibilities via Thesis hooks, design options, you can use the template over and over again without having it look like the same site. With the Developer's License you can run multiple blogs on Thesis.
Loading ...
{ 42 comments… read them below or add one }
It’s good that you indicated here on how to track the number of backlinks one competitor has. Thanks again for the share.
Teena@Skydiving Sydney´s last blog ..Extreme Whale Watching, SPECIAL OFFER 2-FOR-1 – Jervis Bay, NSW SAVE $85
Twitter: jacknguyencom
June 10, 2010 at 6:25 am
No problem Teena! Checking your competitor’s backlinks is a common task in SEO…
Why do we care how many backlinks our competitors have?
FreakSmack@Funny Criminal Arrest Photos´s last blog ..Angelita Hutchinson was charged with Criminal Damage for Drawing on Property in Maricopa county
Twitter: jacknguyencom
June 10, 2010 at 6:27 am
Freaksmack – backlinking is a powerful way to move your site’s rankings higher….and the best way to get to the spot where you want to be, is to have MORE backlinks than the site currently holding that spot.
Twitter: danalingga
June 8, 2010 at 6:35 am
Nice tips. It is always worthy to target low competition keyword when we just start a blog. It is more visible and reasonable for new blog.
Dana @ Blogging Tips Blog´s last blog ..50% Discount for FreshLife, The Newest WordPress Theme from Theme Junkie
Twitter: jacknguyencom
June 10, 2010 at 6:29 am
Very reasonable Dana for a new blog! You’ve hit it right on the nail!
I’ve been using Keyword Elite along with Google last 3 years it’s such a great tool for keyword research. Well written article!
Twitter: jacknguyencom
June 10, 2010 at 6:32 am
It’s a very robust tool indeed!!
I’ve been using Keyword Elite along with Google last 3 years it’s such a great tool for keyword research. Well written article!
Twitter: AndBreak
June 10, 2010 at 12:15 am
I think that choosing the right keyword is important. I am not sure whether I chose the right keyword for my mini sites but I will see. I am not yet ranking very well in SERPs but it’s starting to get better. It’s cool to see how your site slides closer and closer to the top of the SERPs. How is your mini site planning going?
Twitter: jacknguyencom
June 10, 2010 at 6:34 am
Hey Julius – To be honest I haven’t started my mini sites project yet. I’m actually at Internet Retailer in Chicago this whole week and I got some GOOD stuff to write about for search marketing, email techniques, etc.!! Been in Chicago all week this week. What a great city!
At the end of the day, backlinks is what its all about. I had a friend who had been doing well, and was ranking strongly for his website, but all of the sudden he lost most of the links he had pointing to his website, and all of that ranking and traffic took a huge dive. So in the end… it really is all about the backlinks.
Twitter: jacknguyencom
June 11, 2010 at 11:36 pm
how did he lose all of his sites? I’m guessing he only did one backlinking strategy…That’s why it’s important to diversify….
He didn’t lose all of his websites, he only had one… And yes it was because he was using just one link strategy. So hes having to re-work his entire strategy, lol.
A link from a page with a PR but it doesn’t help too much. And a link from a page not related to your site’s content is NO help and can even hurt… so don’t spend too much time building links from irrelevant or low ranking sites.
Twitter: AuraDev
June 11, 2010 at 4:15 pm
But how do you get those quality back links so you can outrank the competitors? By writing articles and guest posting on other peoples blogs?
Twitter: jacknguyencom
June 11, 2010 at 11:38 pm
Hi Chris – Yes, those should be a good part of your backlinking strategy. You can also comment on blogs, create profiles on reputable sites like Flickr, YouTube, etc with a link back to tour site.
Thanks jack, i am totally agree with you. Keyword and backlinks both are essential part of search ranking. Keyword rich content just may help to get a place but it doesn’t refer that it will stay there for that you need quality backlinks. Thanks again
Thanks Jack, i am agree with you that keyword rich content really help to get top position on search rank. But backlink will help to keep your position there.
thank’s for a useful post, you can also use opensite explorer and alexa to see backlinks, both are free but alexa is a bit unreliable. With opensite you can also see which of your competitors links are dofollow or nofollow.
To achieve the best results, links should be posted continuously in order to keep your rankings. We recommend that you subscribe to a monthly service, where we post links for you automatically every month.
Twitter: mothersland
June 17, 2010 at 6:21 am
You need to do lots of research in other to find the keyword that will get you there and you must get backlink from quality and related website and blogs.
I use IBP
Agree with previous comment. Content and keywords gets you there, backlink keeps you there.
getting back links from different websites is only half the battle. You also have to make sure that these back links get indexed by Google or they are totally useless. So wherever you have back links make sure you participate in that website to increase your chances of being indexed.
There are really no secrets to SEO… If you build a lot of links, people will still know where your links came from. This makes SEO and SEM more challenging… Keywords and Backlinks are the most essential in the many signals that search engines use.
Twitter: jacknguyencom
June 21, 2010 at 12:26 am
Hi Mark! As long as you follow the fundamentals, you’ll be in good shape! Don’t get any program or listen to anything who says they’ve found a new secret to SEO, etc.
I agree with you. Keyword selection is extremely important. Before I choose a domain to purchase, I know all of the competition, the urls available, the trend of the topic etc… It is so much easier for a site to rank if a lot of the work is done up front.
Twitter: jacknguyencom
June 21, 2010 at 12:34 am
That’s right David…do the research upfront and save yourself the headache down the road
It’s a great strategy, but very time consuming. I’ve tried hard, but the work just never ends. I’ve picked up a few tips in here I hope to take with me to change my strategy a bit and hopefully make it to the top.
Twitter: jacknguyencom
June 22, 2010 at 10:51 pm
It’s not going to be easy. If it were, you know how hard it will be to rank on the first page? Lol
Twitter: pravin sharma
July 12, 2010 at 2:40 am
is there any backlink software available for free that filters out the nofollow websites? I mean, and automatically finds the dofollow ones and automatically posts a comment you write and a link to your website on all of them.
Used Machinery´s last blog ..Mechanism at its best……-
Twitter: pravin sharma
July 12, 2010 at 2:41 am
How long does it take for google to recognize backlinks?
Used Machinery´s last blog ..Mechanism at its best……-
Twitter: pravin sharma
July 23, 2010 at 1:06 am
Great post. Link building is not only beneficial for search engine rankings, but more importantly, it is required for getting good quality traffic to the website. the more relevant an incoming link, the more credible your website appears.
Used Machinery´s last blog ..Mechanism at its best……!
Twitter: manchesterpsych
August 2, 2010 at 9:09 am
My main competitor has over 300 back links – I’ve got some serious work to do
Ian Tomlinson´s last blog ..How Imago Couples Therapy Can Transform Your Relationship
Twitter: jacknguyencom
August 3, 2010 at 12:05 pm
Hi Ian – Actually you’re in a pretty good position. 300 backlinks isnt a lot actually. You can easily get that many within a month or so.
Twitter: techfreaks
August 4, 2010 at 5:13 am
It a misconception that the number of search results are a competition to your search rankings.. Most of the results are not competing with you and they are just indexed by Google so they are sown..
Rohit Sane@ Tech Freak´s last blog ..5 Important Tips for Facebook SEO
Thank you Jack, for this very helpful post. I might be a little late, but this article will help me a lot on my quest for backlinks for my new blog.
Felicia @ No deposit poker´s last blog ..Phil Laak seriously injured in crash
Twitter: pravin sharma
August 18, 2010 at 4:19 am
I don’t know if there exist such a software, and I believe that’s considered to be spamming. If I don’t know the answer that doesn’t mean others don’t. There is a website called Black Hat World. It’s actually a forum where you will probably find that kind of software, although maybe not for free.
Hi Jack, Like your tag here “Keywords will get you there, but backlinks will keep you there”
Really excellent post . Many thanks for sharing this informative insights.
I appreciate this is a “beginner” article and so you’re trying to keep things simple here but it’s also worth mentioning that while the number of links the top rankings sites have is a useful metric to give you an indication of how easily you can rank for a certain keyword it may be an overly simplistic system in my experience. As well as the *number* of links it is also a good idea to look at the *quality* of links.
As an example I regularly outcompete sites with 100x the links my sites have because I go after high quality, authority links rather than hundreds of social bookmarks and low-quality directory submissions to build my links.
I appreciate what you’re doing (KISS!) but it’s just one extra element that I think a lot of newbies don’t realize when it comes to analyzing search engine competition.
Richard @ Lifestyle Design Unleashed´s last blog ..When To Quit Lifestyle Design
More links more better for a site also more keywords more attraction you will get.
Twitter: jacknguyencom
August 31, 2010 at 9:13 am
That’s right Ron!
{ 1 trackback }