How to get an ebook website onto page one of Google
I built my simple personal comedy ebooks website – www.blancminge.com – in early January 2009. These days it’s on page one of Google for four of my top key phrases.
A surprise really. I haven’t dedicated much time to it. I’ve just been fiddling around whenever I’ve had a few spare moments.
Key phrase: comedy ebooks
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number 2 on page 1 Google UK
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number 1 on page 2 Google web
Key phrase: comedy ebook
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number 1 on page 1 Google UK
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number 10 page 1 Google web
Key phrase: funny ebooks
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number 2 on page 1 Google UK
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number 5 on page 1 Google web
Key phrase: funny ebook
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number 4 on page 1 Google UK
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number 4 on page 1 Google web
Here’s how I got my ebook site onto page 1 of Google
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named the pages sensibly so they match my key phrases: funny-ebook, comedy-ebook etc
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used at least 300 words of keyword-rich copy on every page for search engines to grab hold of
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wrote reasonably seo-aware meta data
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updated the content at least twice a month
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added a sitemap
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did a few hours’ consistent manual link building via online directories with decent page ranks – from 2 to 6
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wrote about it in a couple of blogs, using key words and phrases in my link text
This is what I did to keep human visitors happy
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made the site interactive on a very basic level, with special offers and free ebook previews
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added images of the ebooks’ covers for visual interest
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provided payment by PayPal for customer trust and familiarity
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added extra services: ebook design and ebook editing
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launched a new ebook, with its own web page, every three months
This is NOT a perfect site… in some ways blancminge.com is fairly awful. I’m only part way through completing the basic things that make a site SEO-friendly. And if I’d had my head straight the day I bought it, I’d have dreamed up a url with ’comedy ebook’ or ‘funny ebook’ in it.
Despite all that, in ten months my comedy ebook site hauled itself up onto page one of Google’s SERPs, for a variety of key phrases, across the entire interweb. Cool, that.
It just shows you how far you can get on your own, taking regular, sensible steps to build up a solid presence via nice, additive free, natural SEO. No tricks, no dodgy stuff and no big bucks. Just persistence.
