Is it something really obvious or is off-site link building all thats missing?

[sunscreem]

I'm trying to get a client ranked for the keyword Quaich and its like pulling teeth

This keyword performs brilliantly for adwords but I've never got it ranked at all in googles SERPs.

Last November I created this page:

http://kiltmakers.co.uk/quaich

Which ranks as A with seo-moz but still nothing.

I'm still a newbie to SEO work but can someone point me in the right direction? Is it just the domain authority that the issue - should I switch my focus to link building off-site?

[danatanseo]

Hi Robert,

First let me say that I think this is the best keyword ever! I've never heard of a Quaich and considering half my heritage is Scottish I definitely learned something new today.

Okay, for the matter at hand. Just for grins, try changing your title to "Quaich Shop | Free Delivery | kiltmakers.co.uk" - Why? Your current title has "stop" words in it (i.e. "and" "the" "with" etc.) and  "Quaich Store" or "Quaich Shop" is a completely accurate description of what your page is about.

The only other suggestion I have for on-page optimization is that your article is pretty short, and basically repeats, in a substantially similar way, other information that is already on the Web about the Quaich. Write something longer, more interesting, maybe even funny (are there any Quaich jokes? lol). For such an unsually item (I'd never heard of it before and couldn't even begin to pronounce it) I'd think you could write an awesome article that doesn't just repeat other stuff that's out there.

Then see what happens.

Hope that helps!

Dana

[ChadBreezy]

I would definitely say your off-site seo would be the first place to start.

If you are new, you need to make some investment on time building links.

*There are a few ways to do something like this.

1.)You can start with free and paid directories.

=>spend sometime finding niche specific directories for free listings

=> spend sometime on premium directories

*only submit every 90 days like to 5 or 10.

*also use your brand name instead of exact anchor matches.

2.) You can try to do some custom link building by looking up blogs and building relationships with blogging experts. This is very white-hate-seo and naturally takes time. Don' get anxious in trying to get a ton of these links. Last year's algo Penguin rocked the SEO industry in over optimizing in links (the amount) and the exact match of the same anchor terms (keyword phrases) and Google devalued them.

*Try to use a variety of phrases instead of the same anchor over and over. Make your custom links look natural and do 10 - 15 each month

*Use link prospecting like "list hunting" top 10 blogging (keyword phrase) and you should be able to find websites or blogs listed as hot or the best.

*Offer to send your product or service to them for review in exchange for link.

3.) Produce better content!

->Syndicate your content with Web 2.0 bookmarking and forums.

-> Again this is also white-hate-seo and will take you time.

-> I suggest doing some research to find your users "paint-points" and making a map of your content.

This content should be well thought out. You'll need to get inside your consumers-visitors heads.

Think implicit thoughts and explicit thoughts. (Google if you don't know much about this)

Make a spreadsheet and start tracking the results you find.

*I find forums are a great place to find out these thoughts, pain-points, and your demographics.

*Great content will produce natural links for you. If it is really dynamic, you get social signals and other quality signals that will help your site rank better.

Also silo your website (Google silo website for seo) and start planning how you are going to inter-link your inner pages. The bigger the website the better. This will help in distribution of your website for other pages that you want rank or long-tail-keyword you want to target.

This should get you start; you have an arsenal of info here and research to do.

Tools:

Use Majestic SEO to study competition back-link profiles and you own as it progresses. Great way to find broken links of expired domains or against older competitors and reach-out to the webmasters they use to have links to and try to get your site's link there. All around great tool

Ahrefs is another web-based to tool to study back-links

Authority Labs will help you track many keywords you want to target. It's free for like 30 days

SEM Rush will help you study competition and counter them.

Good Luck!

[sunscreem]

Thanks Dana,

You've already got me thinking. I'm wondering if an totally different approach here might be creating a blog post or similar along the line of Ten Funny Facts about The Quaich - or maybe - 5 Things You Didnt Know About The Scottish Quaich. You've got me thinking already.

I'll amend that title shortly too Thanks for the tips. BTW - The client sells hundred of quaichs to the UK and America - if I can crack this keyword they should become more commonly known Oh and (it took me a while to get it) it's pronounced kwake (like awake but with a k at the start instead of an a)