Two months into SEO and I have a few questions. Read on.

[ashfield1984]

Hey Moz Community

Basically, I have been suspended from my job in November (with pay) on railway. Since I have nothing to do. I came across SEO, and since then. these past two months I've been addicted! firstly, I read up on how to make money buying and selling exact match domains. I failed miserably! newbie error and I still have around 10 domains in my godaddy account

Anyway, I came across moz and a few other sites i read -backlino & quicksprout. I decided to go down the root of just starting a blog on one of my domains based at the health and fitness niche, the sites alot like bodybuilding.com. So this site and SEO has kind of became my hobby as I learn.

I am now a MOZ pro member and have my site on there getting weekly reports. I do alot of keyword research and I try my best to write posts on what I have researched and by using the yoast WP-pluging. I optimize my article/post.

this week I had a report back from moz saying one of my keywords are #31 . So i put the term in google and go along to page 5 I think it was and there I see it. My post! yesterday I check again and its on page 3, then i see it on page 4, around a few hours later. it is back on page 5 and today. it is back on page 3?? Can somebody explain why it is doing this?

Also, the keyword difficulty was 38% and theres over 3 million results for that term.. so to see it there in the top #51 was a shock, as all I have done is On page SEO. No social shares yet or Links pointing to the page. So does this mean with social shares and Links. this could easily end up on page 1?

I have around 5 articles on the site so far.. all are around 1000 words each and are all optimized the same way but are not in the top #51 on google. one post has even had around 60 social shares and even flooded over 3000 visits in 2 days and still isn't ranking??

and My final long question is this.. I train at my gym and have mentioned to a few of the fellas about my new hobby and it's all I talk about. Then a week or two later, I have this Guy tap me on the shoulder as I'm working out and puts his hand out to shake mine. "hi I'm Tim. One of the lads mentioned to me that your learning SEO and your passionate about what you do".

Anyway, too cut a massive story short. He told me he owns a catering company over here in the UK and really wants me to put what I'm learning into practice for his company. He's offered me a wage and commission if I start making sales through his site.

Thing is I'm still new to all of this.. I said I will look at his site, his products and pick out low competition keywords. See what the keyword difficulty score is on moz, and create a blog - writing posts the same why I do on my fitness site... optimize the post, share through social networks etc, find who links to his competitors and reach out etc for links and do the broken link tactic to.

Can you guys give me some advice? as i'm no big seo company. I'm also thinking of spending the next few days digging deep into google adwords and facebook ads. As I think getting traffic this way will also be good to start off with, even if it is paid.

I know alot of you guys work or own an SEO company. So can you give me some points or link me to some good information on how I should do this process for my first, should I say Client?

I know this Is one big Q&A.. but I'm trying to explain everything.

Thanks Again.

Carl

[donsilvernail]

When you are searching your keywords make sure you are not logged into your Google account that  is linked to your blog/website. Many times Google shows you what you want to see ranking your page much higher when you search but not others. logging out of your Google account will give you a better view of your keywords rank.

Google in general can fluctuate search results especially based on the location of the IP address. Google has become location based and will return relevant information based on geographic regions that searches are preformed.

[Justian]

Hi  Carl Ashfield

First of all SEO is a marathon - not a sprint!

And it seems to me, that you might be rushing into things a bit. I am not trying to discourage you, but it does seem like you might be better of working on your own project for a few months to gain more experience before you start on selling your services to customers.

There are alot of factors to consider, when it comes to ranking on page for a keyword/phrase even with a score of 38%

obviously links and social signals will help you rank, no doubt about that, but there are other metrics to take into considerations as well.

Maybe its better to tell you that I would do if I was in your shoes.

First of all, I would start by working on the domain authority, gaining links, mentions, awareness in your specific niche. I know this part takes some time, but take the time and put in the effort to gain some editorial links instead of adding you link to link directories.

Again, there are lots of ways to do that, but i would suggest that you take a step back, take a look at you link profile and figure out how to address this matter, from a natural and relationship building approach.

Take look at the page that you have build for a specific product/service and put yourself in the searchers/customers shoes and ask your self that obvious question, how are you addressing your visitors problem and what makes your content stand out?

Sure, I know there a lot of SEO guides are talking about "unique content" or "SEO optimized pages" but what you really want to do, is not just write 1000 words of content and hope that you content is a bit more compelling that the competitors content. what you should want to achieve is finding some unique value that everyone else is missing.. So, what might that be? - Well it might be making a video, collect data and make it more compelling for the reader with graphs or making a calculator etc.

Always keep the customer/visitor in mind, what are they expecting to see on you page and how can you present it in interesting and engaging way?

Make it simple for the visitor - What do you want them to do once the visit your page? Watch a video? Signup for a newsletter? buy a product? Yeah I know that the "Call to action" seems like a no brainer, but again and again I see companies forgetting to implement this very important part.

Keep track of bounce rate, time on site and other metrics that will have a impact on your rankings. If you don't already have an Google Analytics account - Make one

[DirkC]

Hi Carl,

The fluctuations in ranking are quite normal. Think of Google as an automated "learning" machine. Your site is pretty new, so is probably not getting that much visitors. By playing with the rankings, you will be able to get a little bit more traffic, generating additional data, which Google can than use again to see how your site is performing compared to the competition in terms of visitor engagement.

However, this is only one of the many factors involved, incoming links, number of articles,... etc all play a role (an exhaustive list can be found here).

Unfortunately, while being at number 51 with one post with no shares & links, doesn't guarantee a number 1 position if you add the shares & the links. Patience is a virtue you definitely will need to have if you're doing SEO.

Given the limited experience you have, I think you'll have quite a challenge by taking on your first client. I imagine that you already read the Moz Beginners Guide to SEO (http://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo). There are some very good articles on SEO audit on Moz as well (here and here)  and plenty of resources on keyword research (http://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo/keyword-research for starters).

Be honest with your first "customer", and make it clear to him that this will also be part of your personal learning process. SEO is not an exact science, and the basics are quite easy to learn, but as these basic techniques are known by everyone in the business, you're not going to make a huge difference by only applying these rules.

Most important rule in SEO for me would be - Imagine the different kind of visitors/customers you would like to attract. Put yourself in their position, and think about how you could deliver them the best experience possible on your site. If you are able to make your visitors happy, and you succeed in making them happier than your competitors can (by having excellent content, great products, fine usability,...etc), you are on the right track.

Dirk

[donford]

Hi Carl,

We're glad to have you here.

Your first question about the ranking fluctuations: this is actually very normal. Typically Google will feel out new sites give them higher ranks to see how traffic reacts then pull back some. Some of our keywords go up and down up to 10 ranks per week, these are the ones that we don't perform well on, while the top page (1-10) won't fluctuate as much.

On going for page 1. Well, there is no magic formula, certainly Social Media can help in this regards, not so much just being there, but being there and making a splash. If you get your article linked on other blogs, news sites, or any reputable website for that matter you'll see more traffic from those links and a boost in your SERPs (Search Engine Results Page).

On helping others. You may get mixed answers to this, so take this just as my opinion. Yes, absolutely help him! I say this because you learn best by doing. If he is willing to pay you to learn I see that as a win win. As a person who has taught myself many things, I have always found that doing and teaching others is the best way to help myself. All that said that is why I am here.

I hope I touched on your main questions and I do wish you the best of luck