From: Joshua Friedman

Hi Jill,

I'm pretty new to this sort of thing and there's a LOT of info out there so I'm hoping your newsletter can help me out. My site comes up great on MSN and ok on some other sites, but I'm having a hard time getting it on Google. I've been spending my days trying to get reciprocal links with good (high PageRank) Websites so hopefully that will help in the coming weeks.

I guess a quick question I would have (2 actually) is:

Roughly how long after someone adds me to their link page should it come up in a Google reverse link search? I've been on a few other sites for about a week now but the Google backlinks only show me on one site.

The second question is (and of course this is the $25,000 question): any other quick pointers for a beginner trying to get on Google? What would your 1 main point be for someone like me who has a pretty small budget but would really like a top 10 or even 20 listing on Google? I am all the way up to #3 on MSN when you search for one of my main keyword phrases, but I'm nowhere to be found on Google. I've used their AdWords a bit but would really like a ranking.

Thanks for any further help and I look forward to reading your newsletters.

Regards,

Joshua Friedman

~~~Jill's Response~~~

Hi Joshua,

Once a site adds a link to yours, it can take anywhere from a few weeks to a couple of months before you'll see it showing up as a backlink in Google. If the link is on a page that has a PageRank which is less than 4, it may not show up at all. That doesn't mean that it's not counted towards your overall link popularity quotient, but you may not see it in the list of links to your site.

In regards to your second question, I don't usually take a look at the sites that people email me (cuz I'd never get any work done!), but for some reason I took a look at yours. Unfortunately, whatever advice you were previously given was very bad. Your site is basically "spamming" the search engines, and because of this it is doubtful that you will see high rankings in Google. (Kind of interesting that MSN doesn't care.)

You're focusing on way too many keyword phrases on the home page, and then you have *stuffed* them everywhere on the site where they don't belong. Your Title tag is way too long and keyword stuffed, and you have comment tags that are spammy, along with all kinds of other keywords stuffed into non-standard tags which are not even supposed to be used for search engine optimization purposes.

None of this will help you with Google, and most of it will probably hurt you.

I would remove the link to the spammy search engine optimization company who did all this for you, and start over from scratch. I hope you didn't pay them too much. It's companies like that who give us a bad name. (And they always seem to be the ones that require a link back to them too...sheesh.)

Please read through my articles and the past newsletters to learn how to do things correctly, and hopefully you'll eventually have a chance at high rankings.

Think about just 2 or 3 targeted keyword phrases per page when you optimize, and don't simply stuff them places. Have a writer create some great content based on your phrases. Professional copywriting is worth every penny!

[Jill's note: I was going to go into a bit more detail on what the spammy SEO company had done with Joshua's site, but since I emailed him this info yesterday, I see he's removed the spam already! Good work, Joshua.]

One thing I just noticed that you still have on the site is a link to a "link farm" type of site. They are smart enough to claim that they are *not* a link farm, and yet they require a link to them if you want to add your site to their directory. I would strongly suggest that you get out of that program quickly. It doesn't appear that the link-swapping site is considered a "bad neighborhood" at this time (it has a PageRank of 5 on the main page), but it could very well be penalized at some point in the future.

A better way to build high-quality links to your site would be to have something interesting to offer potential partner sites. Have you written some articles on your area of expertise? Many sites are looking for well-written material they can publish online, and will be happy to add your article (which could include a link back to your site). This is a much smarter approach, as you won't have to worry about whom YOU are linking to. Plus, you can establish yourself as an expert in your field at the same time.

Good luck!

Jill