Effort for "moderate competition" keywords

[yoni45]

I'm rather new to this, and while I'm getting some sense of everything I'm trying to figure out what kind of scope of work lays ahead of me.

The keywords I'm looking to rank for are "moderate difficulty" -- somewhere between the 45%-55% "difficulty scale" on seomoz's keyword difficulty report.

Assuming I have a number of "A-grade" (according to SEOmoz's reports) optimized pages for these keywords, how many links of a given quality level should I be looking at building up? I mean, of course, the more the better, but if I'm gunning for high DA/PA pages, am I looking at dozens here or hundreds of such links?

I can imagine that any answer isn't going to come with much specificity, but if there was just an "idea" of the scale of backlinking involved here, that'd be great!

[TinaGammon]

I sent you one last pm. Thanks

[yoni45]

Makes sense! Working on redirecting the URL first -- learning PHP by manner of reverse engineering, so might take me a few moments. Replied to PM -- thanks again!

[TinaGammon]

I sent you a private message too.

[TinaGammon]

I didn't see that page I would still rename it, or redirect it.

"Regarding the meta description -- I was under the impression that these are just for CTR purposes and the the engines don't actually use those?"

You will hear different people say different things, my best advice is to never listen to anyone, except Google. You can't directly ask them questions, but you can look at how they list other sites and then figure out the patterns from there.

In your case if the top 3 sites have Canada in their title, or description I would have it in mine as well.

Also I would do  /lsat-courses instead of course because courses has course in it, not the other way around.

[yoni45]

Whoa -- thanks!

Now, in my defense, I wasn't targeting that page for the LSAT courses at all -- I was actually aiming the /live-course pages towards that... ^_^

That's a pretty noticeable find on the URL though -- I figured keywords in URL wouldn't make that much of a difference, but that's definitely something to look into. I'm thinking I'll get started by creating an /lsat-course subdir instead for use, and 301 the live-course pages towards those...

Regarding the meta description -- I was under the impression that these are just for CTR purposes and the the engines don't actually use those?

Thanks again!

[TinaGammon]

Hi well if your going for google.ca it would be good to have Canada in your title tag.

After looking at your site I believe you need a whole lot more than back links.

I like to analyze how my competitors are listed in Google, and look for trends.

For example your competitors in Google.ca are:

www.oxfordseminars.ca/LSAT/lsat_dates.php

www.oxfordseminars.ca/LSAT/

www.ivyglobal.ca/lsat

www.kaptest.com/lsat

www.testmasters.net/

www.powerscore.com/lsat/

cstudies.ubc.ca/test-preparation/LSAT.html

www.ivyglobal.ca/lsat/

www.renertonline.com/index.php?p=lsat

By the looks of it the trend is to have a page called /lsat I see you have this page  harvardready.com/lsat

This is the page I would focus on.

Now you will want to build links to every page including your homepage however,

**I would save some of my best quality links for this page. **

**Looking at the meta title, and description you will notice the top 3 sites mention Canada **

1. LSAT Test Preparation Courses All Across Canada: Alberta, BC ...

   <cite>www.oxfordseminars.ca/LSAT/</cite>Cached_LSAT_ test preparation courses in 22 cities all across Canada: Alberta, BC, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan. Proven ...

2. Canadian LSAT Test Prep Course Locations: Toronto, Ottawa ...

   <cite>www.oxfordseminars.ca/LSAT/lsat_dates.php</cite>Cached - Similar7, 8, 9, 27, Oct. 4, Edmonton - U of A • Halifax - Dalhousie U Toronto - U of T • Victoria - UVic. Sept. 14, 15 ... Edmonton LSAT Test Preparation Course - U of A ...

3. Ivy Global | LSAT Prep

   <cite>www.ivyglobal.ca/lsat/</cite>CachedIvy Global's LSAT Prep program is designed to give students in Canada the necessary resources to maximise their performance on the LSATs.Yours says:

               <title>The LSAT Explained | Harvard Readytitle>

           "<a class="attribute-value">Get the details on the LSAT -- </a>

<a class="attribute-value">we explain the section breakdown, the scoring algorithm, and provide</a>

<a class="attribute-value">you with the score and percentile templates.</a>" />

**I would mention Canada in my description as well especially if you're targeting Google.ca. **

**Next your on-site content looks like it needs work you have a good start but no keyword definition. **

**Your site is not telling the search engines this is what I should be listed for. **
```

1.  **I would contain LSAT prep, or courses in my title since your competitors do, and since that's the keyword you're shooting for. ****Your competitors use the term LSAT COURSE 10-19 times in the body of their website, you use it 0 times.****Remember your text tells the search engines what your site is about, and what keywords to list your site for. ****I would use it in my site.****Your competitors use Lsat course up to 80 times in their H2-4 tags, you use it 0 times. ****I would probably use it there as well.****Your competitors also use Lsat or course in their image alt tags, and in their image names like Lsat.jpg****Now lets look at oxford seminars since they are the #1 website listed on Google.ca for that keyword, and try to figure out why they are there.****The first thing I see is their link structure Home ![](http://www.oxfordseminars.ca/LSAT/images/arrow.gif) LSAT Preparation ![](http://www.oxfordseminars.ca/LSAT/images/arrow.gif) LSAT Test Preparation Courses. ****Second a defined H1 tag **

# LSAT Test Preparation Courses All Across Canada

**Third keyword rich text:**

 With courses from Halifax to Victoria and many more in between, Oxford Seminars is

the leading provider of LSAT test preparation courses all across Canada. Since 1992,

we have been providing the most comprehensive LSAT test preparation courses

available for your valuable time and money.

Now lets look at your site.

# The LSAT

The Law School Admission test (LSAT) is a half-day standardized test administered by

the lovely folks at the Law School Admission Council (LSAC). Pretty much all the

common-law schools across North America think the LSAT is a pretty big deal for

admitting students, which is a pretty good reason for you to care about it. Unless you're

not applying to law school, which means you're probably reading this for someone else.

That's cool too.

**Now for some reason you mentioned North America, but you're targeting Canada.**

**You need to say Canada remember the search engines can't guess.**

**You have no mention of courses, or a call to action you need to tell people this is what I am selling.**

There are a lot of other issues as well I would address, but I think these things should be worked on before worrying about back links.

One other thing almost 50% of the text on your page is random numbers I think I would remove it.

I am talking about the chart while it may serve a purpose in the eyes of the search engines it looks like this: 

```
```
<tr><td>180td><td>99.9td><td>149td><td>40.0tr><td>179
```
```
td><td>99.9td><td>148td><td>46.3
```
```
td>tr><tr><td>178td><td>99.8td><td>147td><td>32.9td>
```
```
tr>
<tr><td>177td><td>99.7td><td>146td><td>29.6td>tr>
```

```
**Perhaps** **place the chart on an image named Lstat-course-chart.jpg and**
```
```
 **then add some good call to action content to** **your website as well in place of random numbers.**   
```

```

[Vizergy]

I couldn't agree more, Tina.  Thumbs up

[yoni45]

Nope, I agree -- getting that 'A' grade wasn't difficult; just wanted to get it out there that on-page optimization shouldn't be an issue holding me back.

In terms of the context, the keywords I'm looking for are (more or less): "LSAT courses" (or variations thereof, such as "LSAT course"). This is on the google.ca engine.

The site I'm looking to rank is www,harvardready ,com .

Any insight you had would be great!

[TinaGammon]

I don't think there is a magic number of links it will have a lot to do with your content as well, and how you build the links. I have seen one good press release give someone thousands of links over night, and while they received a boost it was not enough to place them on the first page for a "moderate difficulty" keyword.

I have also seen a site with excellent content take a  "moderate difficulty" keyword with less than 100 back links.

It is more about the quality of the links, and content than the quantity.

We could possibly help you a little better if we knew at least one of the keywords, and how much back linking you have done in the past (this can be a big factor as well). I doubt it will hurt anything to post one. Also it would help if we had a link to your site. It is not too hard to get an A- grade.