I've got a site and it's got some SEO probs with Google (Yahoo's fine, but Google hates it).

I've asked a bunch of SEO's their opinions and the first thing they all say is to get rid of my one page sales long sales letter and split it into smaller multiple pages, yadda, yadda.

Well sorry, but that's what sells my friend.

I know this can't be the case because I see one page letters in Google's top 10 all the time. Anybody got any advice? Not necessarily on SEO, but generally how to handle it or someone that knows this biz and SEO?

Study the one-page letters you mentioned that you see made it to Google's top 10. Maybe you'll see a commonality.

Alex

You can also try alternative formats, for example the advertorial.

I have a site or two that are in Googles top 10 with specific site keywords and random ones. If you check out the feedjit widgets on my blogs you'll see that the sites rank highly in Google on keywords that relate directly to my content.

See this one:

Big Brother 9 UK

It is 3rd on AOl search with keywords

big brother 9 uk

and is number TWO on Google out of 829,000
big brother 9 uk - Google Search

I know that the site name is specific but that is what fans of the show are searching with, I get 50ish hits a day. I also get hits from random keywords relating to the house, auditions etc.


I created this site for one reason only and that was to get traffic for my other sites. BB9UK hasn't even been filmed yet. I knew I could get it ranked highly quickly, so the plan was to use the BB fans to filter some off for my other sites. not sure it will work as is numbers game but will see how it goes when the series actually airs.

I have some SEO tips. If you'd like me to look at your page let me know.

I am most read author at problogs as I know how to create search bot friendly content. My client recently said I was one of the best authors at his article site (out of 6000) and that when it came to net savvy THE BEST.

Unless you created a letter that other marketers will point to as an example of how to write a letter, then I would get google out of your head. Their ranking depends mostly on off-page factors (links). And let me tell you...a few ezine articles aren't going to help. Another factor is time.

Pay your way. Use adwords.

Find offline ways to promote your letter.

Act as though google doesn't exist. If it's a good relevant site, it'll find its own way up google's scale.

What keyword are you trying to get top 10 for?

Fire all of your SEO "experts" and save your money.

Use multiple ways of getting Google and every other search engine's attention.

In no particular order:

1. Submit articles to article submission sites
2. Submit your site to directory sites
3. Post helpful comments on related blogs and forums. Have a link to your site as part of your signature file there.
4. Use Pay Per Click
5. Start your own blog on the same site and post good content on it at least once per month.

That's enough to keep you out of trouble for awhile.

Good luck,

Mike

My 2 cents:

You will only get a 1 page website to the front page of google if you have lots of good quality one way links with your keywords in the anchor text and your competition does not.

If there is another website competing with not just more content but also receives new content on a regular basis and also has good quality incoming links then google will rank this site higher. It's just the way google works. MSN and yahoo are easier to rank in, my last site I set up got into first page on these search engines in a couple of weeks.

For instance the site I originally came to this forum to get help with is ranked #1 and #2 on both UK search engines for the keyword "webmaster training" and I spent a short amount of time optimising it. I linked below so you can see for yourself:

webmaster training - Yahoo! Search Results

Live Search: webmaster training

It will take me 6 months to a year of hard work before I start to get my google rankings up (if i ever get the time that is). But the difference in traffic is amazing.

A few years ago I had a site rank #1 on every search engine except google where it ranked #10 and I still received more traffic from google. Any high revenue keyword in google is precious real estate and highly competed, you have to go the extra step to get ranked there.

Like Mike says, if you write some relevant articles, start a blog and link to them at the bottom of your sales page (within the main HTML table) then you can create some content that google will like. This can also help you get links.

The best way I have found for sky rocketing your google rankings is to develop lots of free tools and stuff on your website that are useful to your target market so they link to you of their own accord and you generate traffic from your target market. This is how I spend 100% of my SEO budget now. I won't see the results for a while as I am targetting some top keywords but I believe it will pay off in the long run.

Oh yeah, and don't sign up for any link building programs if you want to rank well in google.

Thanks for the replies.

I had done article and directory submissions and I think that's what got me in trouble. I was up to position 27 or so fairly quickly, and then one day I wake up and it's GONE. Hasn't come back. I heard that I may have added links too quickly.

When I say it's a 1 page letter, I just mean the format. It's a typical one page sales letter but I also have an articles section with a handful or articles, a resources section with good external links, privacy policy and terms, FAQ's, affiliates area, etc.

Hi Slippy,

If that is the case then I don't think splitting the main page into different pages will make much difference, make sure to add articles on a regular basis.

Do you know how often google crawls your website and how deep the googlebot goes? Also when was the domain registered and when was it first indexed?

If you go to the link below and run a report, how many incoming links do you have from the different search engines?:

Link Popularity Check - Marketleap Search Engine Marketing Tools

If you have been getting lots of links from link pages and directory sites in a short space of time the your website may be subject to the "sandbox" effect. SEO's love argueing about what this is but my view is that when google detects what it considers to be unnatural linkinging then it disregards these links until they age to make sure they are valid. It can also just be because a website has recently been indexed.

You can get yourself out of the sandbox by getting good quality links from trusted authority sites in your websites category and removing any outgoing link trade pages you may have.