Tracking an article to Google’s top 1 in 30 days

This is the story of the top1 to 3 positioning of an article which, beyond its informative side, hides another objective: the writing of this article.

Many urban legends circulate about the positive and negative power of certain SEO parameters. The experiment recounted here was intended to verify its relevance or to invalidate its essence. Namely, these statements:

• “G+ clicks would have a positive impact on SEO” like Facebook “Likes“
• ” Blog comments are spam, it’s useless” (by the way, no one leaves them open anymore…)
• ” Links in comments penalize the article and the site risks a penalty.” (read on the net)
• “Backlinking is dead, I don’t do it” (heard by SEO experts)

A minor long-tail query

On June 4th, I start writing the necessary content to position the article (quickly) on the query ” first page Google “. A long-tail expression, it is a minor query on which no one bids on Adwords (a sign) and which does at best about fifty searches per month ( ref Semrush).

The key phrase should typically be considered as a support request just useful to:

• feed the blog for the benefit of the master pages (as part of a well-set up tree structure),
• to strengthen the relevance of the site’s theme (in this case, SEO).

If small streams make big rivers, small requests make big traffic…

However, my colleagues and friends at Vortex Solution thought it would be a good idea to create a micro-site on the domain name in order to occupy the request (and send each other a link). A headwind signal that decided me to take up the challenge on this keyword.

We will also notice the other site that tries to monopolize the keyword via its NDD, (premierepagegoogle.ca) of impose-toi.com, relies on heavy, spammy and outdated practices:

• Optimized NDD,
• keyword overload,
• poor text…

With that, would you be a customer? Being in top position is good, but you still have to convert…

Live SEO Lab: Writing the Article

Rather than promising “secrets” to get to the top 1, I choose to write the best possible page by attacking it from this angle:

What are the different types of results/engines that are displayed on the 1st page and why being out of the Top 3 is a delusion .

Content-heavy text

I line up 2800 words, structure my remarks, use the appropriate lexical field and put the necessary external links.

• I try to be complete (aware that it would take 5000 words to really be so),
• I slip in a few touches of promos here and there. ( Blogging is also at the service of content marketing).

I link (from the verb to link) the article to the site and backmesh it, keeping myself a future margin of maneuver, as I always do.

Numerous illustrations

I add relevant illustrations, put the table of contents with its internal anchors, write the metas, check the spelling one last time and presto, I put it online the next day, June 5th, not forgetting to promote it on my usual social media and blogs.

Positioning Tracking 1

On June 6 the article was 16th, the next day^9th and on June 13th, it was in 4th position. The article causes a peak of 600 visits in three days, no more and no less than usual, when I publish a new post.

Site Analytics June 10-13, 2017

10 days between each action taken

Perfectly arbitrary deadline, I wait 10 days to give Google time to properly crawl the page and re-evaluate it quietly, before taking action to optimize the page.

In fact, this period is not necessarily sufficient. John Mueller recently said in a hangout that it takes 6 months for a site to be perfectly indexed.

The Google + social click

On June 15th, I launched a call on LinkedIn and Google Plus and asked my 2 times 480 “relations” or “subscribers” to be kind enough to click on the “Google +” icon attached to the article.

I want to check if a serious if not massive contribution of recce from these s could have a quantifiable impact on the ranking of the article. The announced objective: to gain a place.

It was a bitter failure.

I get 80 clicks on the rating stars but only a dozen on the G+ in two days, this motivates me to write the same request to a few loyal friends who bring the total of social recommendations to a good twenty G+.

Ugh! I had imagined that the In vivo experience would interest my ” followers ” and that they would be keen to participate. Are my friends on social networks just a mirage?…

• Did I formulate my request incorrectly?
• Did the members of my “communities” find this approach cavalier?
• Don’t these supposedly seasoned Internet users know how to give an opinion by pressing the Google + button (you just have to be logged in to your Google account)

No bitter comments or generalities on this blunder, but no possible conclusions either about this first objective as the number of clicks gained is far from significant.

Opinion

Of social interaction, it is the visits it generates that are THE positive factor on the authority of the site, by increasing its traffic. By the way, at the beginning of the week, I received the monthly report from Google Business which mentions 1200 views of my business profile while Google Analytics confirms that more than 10% of my traffic arrives through this channel. Surprisingly, would local research become as effective for tertiary professions as it is for restaurants? The site remains in 4th position.

2nd solicitation

My second solicitation, from a few real friends, asks for a comment on the article (I mention that I will leave the links in ” follow ” it can’t hurt the motivation).

Eight of them play the game, most often pointing their link to a social profile (very good practice) rather than their website, I conscientiously respond to each thought, thank you friends.

Blog Comments

Since Penguin, bloggers have closed their comments. The possibility of links in the identification gave too much of a grip to spam, the anchors optimized out of context were a real pain to manage, it’s true that it didn’t look like anything anymore.

However, comments were the very essence of the blog when it became popular.

Giving the opportunity

• participate in a discussion,
• to provide its opinion and expertise,
• to bring readers together around the debate,

It is the idea of community that was defended outside of forums, whose use, much less flexible, was beginning to run out of steam and well before the rise of social networks.

In this the blog has lost a lot. I remain convinced that blog comments are a positive contribution to an article:

• It is additional content provided by the Internet user (therefore free) + 600 words in this case.
• It extends the life of the item and refreshes its content on a regular basis.

I have never closed the comments on my blog and still spend the time necessary to moderate it, even if spamming still represents 90% of this prose…

I simply, with a resigned click, throw the offending IP in the trash and banish. However, I sometimes have nice surprises with intelligent and constructive interventions.

What are the rules of ethical commentary?

• Enter your name in the name… Do we need to explain?
• To bring a real plus to the article, a real criticism, a real additional information, a real questioning, to provoke a real interaction.
• The link should point to a useful article, or a personal profile on the web.

20-day placement test :

On June 25, the site played yo-yo between the^3rd and^4th positions, stabilizing in^3rd position on most variants of the query. As far as the impact on the site is concerned, the contribution of these 600 additional words seems to be beneficial while the eight outbound links did not affect the credibility of the page.

Is netlinking dead?

It was on June 26th that I put 3 quality inbound links from solid media. When did the site finally jump into the top 1? I don’t know I didn’t ” monitor ” the query and didn’t behave like a compulsive tracker (a very nasty flaw), SEO is first and foremost patience.

It is on the^30th day that I notice that the article is displayed at the top of the SERP on the query searched for and some essential variations.

A page written “search engine oriented” targets a set of queries related to the main query. Various ways to write the query – including spelling mistakes and variations – including “1st Google page” of course.

Is this position sustainable?

1. The first places are made to be attacked.
2. The first positions are never absolute, from one computer to another variations are observed – which depend on many parameters (browsing history, computer IP, spelling variant, browser…) and that’s fine, because there is something for everyone.
3. This article could arouse vocations, the former number 1, the old micro blog belonging to Vortex could very well defend itself and “add a layer”.

Search performed on 30 June 2017 on Firefox, while browsing privately.

I finally published this article at the beginning of August, about 20 days later because the position was confirmed and I am able to give the metrics that concern it.

Impact of position on traffic

Analytic reports 45 unique landing visits on this page between July 1st and August 1st (it’s the 53rd page of my blog in number of visits/page) … Not enough to break 3 legs for a duck, but I find the demo nice for the test and the fact that this article exists.

I hope you have noted some lessons in it.

Was it worth spending 1o hours of work on such a minor request? Nothing less certain, but the site has lost nothing in the affair… and small streams make great rivers…