How hard it is to rank good in google with keyword "rakeback"

[Melvin]

How hard it is to rank in google nowadays with popular keywords such as "poker rakeback"?
Im working on a domain www.ratemyrakeback.com atm, how hard it would be for me to get on the front page in google, or atleast generate decent traffic of lets say 1000 unique visitors daily?

[raphnix]

How hard it is to rank in google nowadays with popular keywords such as "poker rakeback"?
Im working on a domain www.ratemyrakeback.com atm, how hard it would be for me to get on the front page in google, or atleast generate decent traffic of lets say 1000 unique visitors daily?

According to my keyword research, it's not impossible for you to target 1000 unique visitors from the keywords rake back or rakeback, rakeback poker as you can gain as much as 50% of 20,000 total organic searchers from Google.

You just need to be at least in top 10 for these keywords to realize that. Need hardwork and capital to boot.

[pokerextras]

How hard it is to rank in google nowadays with popular keywords such as "poker rakeback"?
Im working on a domain www.ratemyrakeback.com atm, how hard it would be for me to get on the front page in google, or atleast generate decent traffic of lets say 1000 unique visitors daily?

without alot of money to pay for alot of high pr links, and we're talking alot, you have next to no hope of even getting into the top one hundred positions.

[thepokerkeep]

I have a 6 month old site listed on Google in the low 60's for the term poker rakeback. Same site is in low 50's for rakeback.

There are a lot of factors that determine position...
Domain name is very important.
While links are important, most affiliates over value them.
I have not done any link exchanges or purchases with this site.
I do link to it from my other sites - all with equal or higher PR.
I actually ignore this site for the most part so it does not get much updating.
Some pages are SEO optimized but many aren't.

Go for the big keyword but also optimize for some with less competition... best of both worlds!

[pokerextras]

I have a 6 month old site listed on Google in the low 60's for the term poker rakeback. Same site is in low 50's for rakeback.

There are a lot of factors that determine position...
Domain name is very important.
While links are important, most affiliates over value them.
I have not done any link exchanges or purchases with this site.
I do link to it from my other sites - all with equal or higher PR.
I actually ignore this site for the most part so it does not get much updating.
Some pages are SEO optimized but many aren't.

Go for the big keyword but also optimize for some with less competition... best of both worlds!

i think that linking to it from your other sites that have good pr is a BIG factor in it even getting into the 60's. For people who don't have high pr sites to link from, paying people can be costly. What else do you think other that keyword optimization and inlinks will give the site position? Other than the obvious age and time the domain has been paid for which are pretty much unchangable.

[pauljones]

just saw this thread-

I'm on page 1 of google.com for rakeback, and top 3 for a bunch of related kws.

doing battle with very rich companies buying hundreds of backlinks every month is not fun! wish I had gone for a casino keyword instead sometimes.

good luck - you will need it

[thepokerkeep]

i think that linking to it from your other sites that have good pr is a BIG factor in it even getting into the 60's. For people who don't have high pr sites to link from, paying people can be costly. What else do you think other that keyword optimization and inlinks will give the site position? Other than the obvious age and time the domain has been paid for which are pretty much unchangable.

What gives a site position other than links?

Optimization
number of pages
relevance of all pages to the main theme (keywords) of the site
having main keyword(s) in domain name
natural one way links that come with age and quality content
age of site
regularly updating and adding pages

Content and optimization are where I put my time and money. Most sites are not SE friendly so even a reasonably well optimized site will rank quickly for all but the most competitive keywords.

I believe Google knows the difference between link exchanges and natural links. I know they penalize sites for buying links. So I don't waste my energy on either option.

[pokerextras]

Here's how relevant i think links are. Of my two sites, zenrakeback.com and zenkickback.com, zenkickback obviously has kickback in the url, and has poker kickback as main keywords in the text, has poker kickback in the meta keywords, the meta description, and the title. It also has a few inlinks with the anchor text poker kickback bonuses. zenrakeback.com doesn't have kickback in the meta tags or description, or even in the text, and has no in links with kickback as an anchor. The word kickback is only in the title, yet it ranks higher in a google search for "poker kickback", because it has more links overall. That shows the power of links.

[pokerextras]

just saw this thread-

I'm on page 1 of google.com for rakeback, and top 3 for a bunch of related kws.

doing battle with very rich companies buying hundreds of backlinks every month is not fun! wish I had gone for a casino keyword instead sometimes.

good luck - you will need it

so please tell me how you do compete without the money and inlinks, because i have neither . Also, what's your site?

[thepokerkeep]

Here's how relevant i think links are. Of my two sites, zenrakeback.com and zenkickback.com, zenkickback obviously has kickback in the url, and has poker kickback as main keywords in the text, has poker kickback in the meta keywords, the meta description, and the title. It also has a few inlinks with the anchor text poker kickback bonuses. zenrakeback.com doesn't have kickback in the meta tags or description, or even in the text, and has no in links with kickback as an anchor. The word kickback is only in the title, yet it ranks higher in a google search for "poker kickback", because it has more links overall. That shows the power of links.

Look at the difference in competitiveness of the keyword...

Results 1 - 10 of about 111,000 for poker kickback.
Results 1 - 10 of about 430,000 for poker rakeback.
Results 1 - 10 of about 1,980,000 for rakeback

Anyway, you heard my opinion and I'll stick with it. This is a debate that's gone on forever.

[pokerextras]

Lol. I think you missed my point. Zenrakeback ranks higher for poker KICKBACK than zenkickback, even though zenkickback has url, title, meta, keywords and inlinks with poker kickback, and zenrakeback doesn't.

Look at the difference in competitiveness of the keyword...

Results 1 - 10 of about 111,000 for poker kickback.
Results 1 - 10 of about 430,000 for poker rakeback.
Results 1 - 10 of about 1,980,000 for rakeback

Anyway, you heard my opinion and I'll stick with it. This is a debate that's gone on forever.

[universal4]

I believe you missed the point.

It ranks higher for "poker kickback" BECAUSE it has links with that anchor.

And the main point of his post was that it was easier to rank for "poker kickback" because there was less competition than "rakeback".

Had the links that you got for "poker kickback" used an anchor of "zenkickback" then you would likely see that ranking higher.

I personally think you are better off ranking using the poker term.

Rick
Universal4

[pokerextras]

I believe you missed the point.

It ranks higher for "poker kickback" BECAUSE it has links with that anchor.

And the main point of his post was that it was easier to rank for "poker kickback" because there was less competition than "rakeback".

Had the links that you got for "poker kickback" used an anchor of "zenkickback" then you would likely see that ranking higher.

I personally think you are better off ranking using the poker term.

Rick
Universal4

you're not understanding. It DOESN'T have links with kickback as an anchor. Zenkickback DOES have inlinks with kickback as an anchor, and has poker kickback as keywords in the text, and the meta is set up for poker kickback, and it has kickback in the url but it still ranks LOWER in a search for poker kickback because zenrakeback has more overall links. None with kickback as an anchor.

[thepokerkeep]

without alot of money to pay for alot of high pr links, and we're talking alot, you have next to no hope of even getting into the top one hundred positions.

The above was the statement that I was originally responding to.

I proved that you don't need deep pockets to break the top 100 for rakeback. There are always other means than buying links for getting ranked.

For the record, I have broken the top 100 for dozens of very competitive keywords (including page 1 and even outranking the poker room itself with the number 1 spot in one case) on my Pokerkeep site without ever exchanging or buying links. This was before I had any other site to cross link with.

So, I stand by my comments.

Go ahead and buy or trade links all day long, I'll stick with my plan, and we'll both be happy. Like I said, this debate has gone on forever, we won't resolve it today.

[pokerextras]

The above was the statement that I was originally responding to.

I proved that you don't need deep pockets to break the top 100 for rakeback. There are always other means than buying links for getting ranked.

For the record, I have broken the top 100 for dozens of very competitive keywords (including page 1 and even outranking the poker room itself with the number 1 spot in one case) on my Pokerkeep site without ever exchanging or buying links. This was before I had any other site to cross link with.

So, I stand by my comments.

Go ahead and buy or trade links all day long, I'll stick with my plan, and we'll both be happy. Like I said, this debate has gone on forever, we won't resolve it today.

i don't doubt you for one second, which is why i asked what, other than links and domain registry, you think is important for positioning.

[thepokerkeep]

This is the list of things I think are relevant to ranking;

optimization
total number of pages on site
relevance of all pages to the main theme (keywords) of the site
having main keyword(s) in domain name
natural one way links that come with age and quality content
age of site
regularly updating content and adding pages

All these things working together will help you achieve decent page rank. Trading a few links, if done properly, probably will gain some positions as well but in my humble opinion, most link exchanges are worthless. In my opinion (and everyone has differing views) Placing a link on a page with 50 other links in exchange for someone else doing the same for you does little or nothing to improve PR or SE ranking.

[pokerextras]

Thanks. I agree with you that link page trades have little to no value, but i believe that in content links on "real" pages still carry quite a bit of weight.