How I Got on Page #1 of Google in 3 Days (there is no magic)

Google SuccessMy client is a college that markets to military students. Because of the new GI Bill that went into effect August 1, 2009, there was a huge push in this industry to reach out to veterans who might be interested in getting a – - basically free – - education. My goal was to build the site around the keywords most applicable to the a) topic; and b) demographic.

On Monday,  I purchased the domain name.

On Tuesday, I installed a WordPress Blog and plugins and set up my Feedburner feed.

Components used were:

The rest of Tuesday I started building out categories and content

On Wednesday,  I added more content.  By late Wednesday Google had indexed the site.

On Thursday, I added more content, and by Thursday afternoon the site was on page #1 of Google for 3 of my main keywords and on page #2 for the other 2 keywords.

By Friday, analytics showed that I was already getting search-engine based traffic.

What’s the Magic?

There is none.  Are you disappointed? Don’t be, because if there is no magic, my success is duplicatable.

My thoughts about the quick success:

  1. The site used WordPress, which we know gets indexed quickly by Google
  2. The site has a laser focus
  3. My target demographic was well-defined (meaning I knew exactly what information they were seeking)
  4. My content was totally relevant to my focus and demographic

I believe the key to quick indexing was using the WordPress platform

and the keys to getting on page #1 for my keywords are:

  • a laser-focused site
  • knowing your demographic so well that you know exactly what information they need

Let me know what you think.

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All that glitters is not gold; not all who wander are lost.

Tagged as: Analytics, Dept Of Veterans Affairs, Domain Name, Education Theme, gi bill, Google, Google Analytics, Keywords, Military Students, Mobile Phone, Mobile Press, Search Engine, Traffic, Wordpress Blog, Xml

Craig Tuller July 10, 2009 at 10:05 am

Yes, Google loves WordPress blogs, but the reason you got indexed quickly was because you used the Google XML Sitemap plugin. It notifies Google to index the site whenever there are changes.

Getting to the #1 position takes some work, in the majority of cases, and well-written, keyword focused content is most of the battle. Great job!

Nik July 10, 2009 at 10:19 am

Nice work, Nancy!

I hereby confirm the “WordPress effect.” One on my students has had an old-school site for years but his new WP project was light years ahead of it on Google only a few months after launch.

dinu July 15, 2009 at 5:04 am

good job :)

admin July 23, 2009 at 7:57 am

Thanks for the comment Nik – although Craig Tuller (studiopress.com) tells me that having the Google XML sitemap generator really does the trick. Put that together with laser focused content and I think you’ll always have a winner. Nancy

Steve July 29, 2009 at 2:40 pm

Just about to change our company’s website from Dreamweaver to Wordpress. We’re in the Motor Industry in the UK and I haven’t come across any dealers sites in Wordpress so this could be a great step forward in obtaining higher Google pagerankings.
I also use studiopress for a number of other websites I have done for customers and now looking forward to the new ‘News’ theme which I will customise to a Motor Dealer site.
Thanks agaian for the info above, some great tips noted down.

David @ Web Hosting August 2, 2009 at 11:16 am

Wow – You must be very good at SEO. It would seem to me that to rank on Google that fast the keywords must not have been too competitive. And – of course – all of your content must have been original and extremely relevant to the keywords of your site’s title tag and URL. Anyways, bravo! If you client lets you post the URL that would be great – I’ll check back. Many thanks, David

Ruri@Free article directory August 12, 2009 at 4:27 pm

Congratulation. The more important is not you put your site on top of Google but how many people come to your site from the keywords you choose.

Lonely freelances October 10, 2009 at 12:19 pm

Great advice…Would you tell us the keyword that you ranked on serp?

lady kingdom July 30, 2010 at 9:16 am

Waw, it’s very amazing and unbelievable

Just in 3 days ???

Currency Broker Pete February 14, 2011 at 7:04 am

Hi there,

Nice going! I’ve had similar success in the past creating a site selling CV writing services for people who speak English as a second language. Unfortunately some niches though are simply more competitive!

Thanks!

Pete @ Pure FX

Currency Broker Pete February 14, 2011 at 7:05 am

Incidentally for that CV service I also built in Wordpress. : )

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