It's been a slow year so far on this blog and I appologize.  I've been busy, been sick  and have had a hard time getting out of the holiday/winter lulls. I know it's February now but January seemed to just drag on and on.  Anyway, since it's been slow I thought I'd recycle some content that I wrote recently.  It is basically a proposal, or part of it anyway for a company who came to me wanting to enter the US market for their back pain product.  I ended up writing up this great 10+ page proposal all for nothing because well they didn't choose me.  Since there is some useful info in it I thought I'd share it with you instead of letting it go to waste.  It is by no means a comprehensive how-to guide.

It explains keyword research a bit and what is needed to dominate Google for competitive keywords.  So here it is…

Google's Keyword Tool – Understanding The Numbers

Here are examples of the two keywords you suggested you wanted to rank for “muscle pain” and “back pain”. As you can see below there are different numbers of searches performed for each which pertain to the way in which people search. The match types are “broad”, “exact” and “phrase”.

Broad Match means those keywords appear anywhere in the search parameter ex. “lower back pain” counts in that given search volume just as “back pain relief” or even “relieve my back pain”. It basicaly means those keywords “back” or “pain” appear anywhere and in any order when someone does a search. This is why it has the largest search volume.

Exact Match means that the person searching searched for exactly that phrase with no other keywords. This is why the search volume is lower than both Broad and Phrase matches.

Phrase Match means that the keyword was included in a search in that exact order. People searching might still include other keywords in their search but the order inwhich the keywords appear is always in the same order. So these keyword phrases would count towards that monthly search volume: “back pain relief”, “back pain medication”, but not “pain in lower back”.

The reason I am pointing this out is because you noted you want to rank for “muscle pain” and “back pain” which from a Broad Match perspective has a very high monthly search volume. That might lead you to believe you'll receive 2+ million unique visitors a month if you rank #1 for the term “back pain” but this is not the case.

These Broad Match search volume numbers come from hundreds in not thousands of different keyword phrases. You'd have to rank #1 for every single one to receive that many visitors a month.

A large portion of searches performed each month come from what are called “long tail keywords”. That basically means keyword phrases that have atleast 4 words in them. An example would be “How to cure back pain”.

To rank on the first page of Google or any other search engine you need to focus on several very competitive keywords but also have a large number of pages focused on smaller related “long tail” keywords.

So if you do a search on Google for “back pain” you'll notice that the sites that are on the first page are very large sites containing hundreds of pages. Sites like webmd.com and wikipedia.org are very hard, if not impossible to beat when it comes to SEO. They are considered authoritative sites and will most likely never fall off the first page under such competitive keywords.

But you'll notice a website ranked #9 on that page cure-back-pain.org that is operated by an individual who spent a lot of time writing articles about back pain and doing SEO so he ranks on the first page. He actually started the site in 2006 so it has been online for 2 years now. The age of a website also plays a role in SEO but I'll explain more about that later.

The reason I am pointing out his website is because he has hundreds of pages of content on his website and that is one of the main reasons why he is ranking so well.

To rank as well as his website you're going to need hundreds of pages of content all related to back pain. You're going to have to create a portal of information related to the symptoms people have and then explain how your products can help relieve these symptoms.

I am focusing on the keyword “back pain” because that is one of the keywords you mentioned but I noticed you have other products that you'll be selling from your site as well. Your product line contains items such as herbal tea, safron capsules, Tibetan rhodiola capsules etc. that are all considered natural medicines.

My thoughts are that you could focus on the natural aspect of your products. Or the fact that your products are Tibetan medicines.

One option you have is developing a portal about Tibetan medicine and the benefits of natural remedies for instance. This is possibly what you were trying to accomplish with your site *url deleted*.

SEO is a long term strategy and one that has a greater return on investment than say PPC advertising because once you do the work and build up a resourceful site you can reap the rewards of organic search traffic for years to come. And since 70% of people click on sites listed in the organic search results over the ads that appear alongside them you'll fair far better in terms of converting traffic to buyers.

How to Rank on The First Page of Google For Your Keywords

I'm going to now advise you of what is required for your company to dominate the U.S. market using internet marketing tactics such as SEO, affiliate marketing and social networking.

The main goal is to achieve maximum visibility wherever people are active online whether it be from an internet search or an online community. You want to be the first thing people see when they go online to look for help with their ailments.

To accomplish this you must apply a comprehensive online marketing strategy that will ensure your brand is at the forefront of major search terms, related websites, communities and social networks.

1. An ecommerce website with these features:

• SEO friendly meaning URLs are static and meta titles and descriptions can be controlled for every product page.
• Affiliate tracking so an affiliate program can be operated and run successfuly.
• Built in CMS so content can be added easily.
• W3C-standards compatible meaning everyone can see your store in the same way, regardless of which web browser they use.
• Ability to accept all major forms of payment including Paypal, Google Checkout etc.
• Ability to detect the geographical location of a customer and shows prices in their local currency.
• Integration with UPS, UPS online tools, USPS, FedEx, Canada Post, Australia Post and Royal Mail for live shipping quotes.
• Single page checkout system as well as guest checkout which make it easy to order.
• Complete backend for customers so they can view orders, track their shipments and order easily in the future.

Along with your products you should have at least 100 other content pages explaining the benefits of each product. In depth articles about how your products help customers as well as news and company info should be provided.

This ecommerce website should be hosted on a dedicated server which would have dedicated resources for it including a dedicated IP address. This adds a level of security that you cannot receive when dealing with shared hosting. Of course the site would be protected by 128 bit industry-standard SSL security.

2. An information portal with these features:

• SEO optimized including static URLs. This includes optimized Meta titles, descriptions, content and site structure.
• Ability to easily add content by multiple authors online via browser.
• Between 300-500 articles related to your products. These articles would be optimized for search engines but also humans so they are of high quality.
• A complete user forum (bulletin board) where people can join in discussions. This forum would be optimized for search engines so the pages and content get indexed on search engines.

3. Social Networking

Because a majority of people online are spending their time on social networking sites like Myspace and Facebook it is essential to add this to your online marketing strategy. It is fundamental to be proactive on such sites and be engaged in conversations related to your products.

• Myspace page optimized with your search terms and product info.
• Facebook business page

4. Press Release Distribution

Press releases are an excellent method for not only announcing news to the public but also for SEO.

5. Article Distribution

Articles written around keywords you are targeting should be written, optimized and submitted to the major article repositories online. Many of these articles are redistributed on news and personal websites that further help build your link popularity.

6. Social Media Optimization

Just like article repository websites there are websites that focus on user generated content such as hubpages.com and squidoo.com where you can create and distribute your own content. These sites are an essential part of creating buzz and interest around your product as well as driving traffic to your main website.

7. Satellite Websites

Because of the vast majority of keywords you'll be optimizing for it is suggested you create a number of satellite websites. Satellite websites are smaller informational websites optimized around alternative keywords. These sites would be focused on one main keyword such as “arthritis pain relief” and would contain unique information related solely to arthritis and relieving pain.

These Satellite websites would collect and drive traffic to your main ecommerce website to increase sales and also help boost the ranking of your main site.

8. Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is another essential component of online marketing that I suggest you implement. Affiliate marketing gives incentives to website owners and online marketers to promote your products online.

Affiliates drive traffic to your ecommerce store via their own websites, PPC ads with banners and text links you provide them so that they receive a commission when someone purchases your products. You pay out commissions only after an order is made.

A complete affiliate program can be implemented along with program management and ad creation.

9. Aquiring Websites

One method to fasttrack brand visibility online is to purhase existing websites that already rank for keywords that we want to rank for.

After doing some initial research I've found atleast one person who is willing to sell their website. I can aquire more info and negotiate a deal with them or others to see if it is worthwhile to pursue.

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So that is where I am stopping.  It gives you an overview of what I propose needed to be done to not only enter but dominate major keywords on Google.  This is a pretty big project and by no means do you need to do all of these things if you are a small business.  Of course the more marketing you do that is focused the better.

I hope someone finds this info useful.  I figured I'd post it instead of letting it sit in a folder on my hard drive.