Step 5b - Competitive Web SEO Research – A Case History

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Synopsis –
This step of our Web Design process looks at our client competitors’ strategies with an eye toward learning how competitors [that are on the first SERP] got to the “Promised Land” of “Top Ten’ search result rank for our targeted keyword. Since we are in the SEO business we used the term “SEO Services” for this Case History. Why? Because these are the competitors we will have to beat or make alliances with if our SEO services are maximize ROI. From reading this case history we hope to show you that highly ranked SEO practitioners 1) set up separate Websites to increase the number of back links to their sites, 2) concentrate on high-value back links, 3) publish profusely and are generally open with their practices [as we are], and practice what they preach by sticking to the fundamentals of organic SEO optimization. As a result of this analysis we found that we could differentiate ourselves by providing a strategic positioning front-end and an IT-integration back-end and using BPM best practices in between.
Case History –
We thought a good example would be our own “SEO Services” business, so we applied our process to this search term and describe what we found in this paper.
1. We first wanted to see who was in #1 position for the term “SEO Services,” so we did a Google search for this term and found that a site names www.BeanStalk-inc.com was #1 organic SERP.
a. We found this search result as #1 on Google:
Expert SEO Services by Beanstalk
Beanstalk Search Engine Optimization are experts at Organic SEO Services with a performance-based guarantee and services starting at $495/Month.
Free SEO Tools - SEO Services - About Us - Top 10
www.beanstalk-inc.com/ - 15k - Cached - Similar pages -
2. Then we started to piece together the formula Beanstalk-inc was using to achieve their “promised land” by visiting their site and viewing their HTML source code1.
a. We found these metatags proclaiming they are experts at organic SEO w/ a guarantee

b. We also found the company is in Canada and owned by Dave and Mary Davies who are prolific writers on www.seopapers.com
c. We learned from the beanstalk link on their “Testimonials” page that Dave Davies is an “open kimono” type guy [like us] and has published and spoken extensively on SEO.
d. We suspected that this was connected to the Beanstalk SEO strategy of setting up various sites and creating high quality back links so that his site got to the “promised land” of high organic SERP rank as he has done for many years now.
e. Finally we did a WHOIS database search at http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/index.jsp and:
(1) Learned that Beanstalk was owned by Mary Davies and Beanstalk SEO
(2) Learned that www.seopapers.com is owned by Troy Augustine, iNet Interactive dns-admin@inetinteractive.com iNET Interactive, 9100 West Chester Towne Centre Rd, Suite 200, West Chester, Ohio 45069
(3) Learned http://www.inetinteractive.com is ALSO owned by Troy Augustine
3. We then used the “link:” tool and did the Google search for “link:www.beanstalk-inc.com” to learn that Beanstalk has 124 incoming links that are known as “back links”
a. We found a very interesting backlink from SEOPAPERS.com
SeoPapers - article Ten Steps To A Well Optimized Website Part 7 ...
1 To view HTML source code for any site click “View” to bring down the “pull down menu” then Click “Source” and you will see the HTML source code. Although this might vary somewhat between IE, Firefox, Netscape etc. all source code on the Internet MUST be visible to everyone who knows how to view it.
While there are definitely more critical areas of the website optimization process there is perhaps no area subject to as much misinformation and to such a ...
www.seopapers.com/article/201 - 32k - Cached - Similar pages
(1) SEP Papers has a left NavBar that lists over 1000 papers on various keyword topics. Directories (11), Google (134), Interviews (9), Keywords (30), Link Development (40), Marketing (48), MetaTags (7), Optimization (112), Promotion 30), SE News (995), Spiders & Robots (22), Submission (8), Traffic Analysis (6), Tools (7), Algorithm (11), PPC (18), Domain Names (6), SEO Services (40)
(2) SEOPapers has [in turn] 61 back links mostly from other SEO papers links but also from iNET Interactive and from various blogs
b. We then went to the Optimization papers and found an interesting one
at http://www.seopapers.com/article/201
b. We searched for authors on SeoPapers and found that 924 of the papers were provided by http://www.techpadagency.com which is owned by
c. When we checked WHOIS database to see who owned http://www.techpadagency.com [and it’s 924 papers] we found it was registered through a proxy domain service that disguises the real owner:
a. Domains by Proxy, Inc. DomainsByProxy.com, 15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353, Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
b. From their help wanted ads we found that TechPad is in TechPad Agency, LLC 6031 N Main Street Road #341, Webb City, MO 64870
4. We then looked back to Beanstalk and used the link: command to analyze their back links finding that many came from another Victoria BC address from WeDoHosting.com Inc. #101-4226 Commerce Circle, Victoria, BC V8Z-6N6 CA
Other References on the Art and Science of Organic SEO
Ten Steps To Higher Search Engine Positioning http://www.seopapers.com/article/189
Table Structures For Top Search Engine Positioning http://www.seopapers.com/article/188
SEO & Competition Analysis – Part One http://www.seopapers.com/article/282
SEO & Competition Analysis – Part Two http://www.seopapers.com/article/283
SEO For Google http://www.seopapers.com/article/352
SEO For MSN http://www.seopapers.com/article/347
Ecommerce & SEO http://www.seopapers.com/article/280
Jump Start Your Link Building http://www.seopapers.com/article/203