Introduction of Game of Trades Reviews
In this in-depth guide, I will walk you through the exact strategies and steps I took to rank a website I created called GameofTradesReviews.com to the number 1 position on Google for the highly competitive keyword phrase “game of trades reviews” within 6 months.
As someone who has been involved in digital marketing and SEO for over 10 years, I understand just how difficult it can be to outrank the massive authority sites for commercial keyword terms. However, through diligent on-page and off-page optimization combined with regular updates of quality, original content, it is indeed possible to achieve top rankings even for phrases with thousands of competitor backlinks and domains.
In this article, I will delve into the minutiae of my SEO campaign – from keyword research and competitive analysis, to on-pageoptimization, link building, and content marketing so you can replicate the strategies on your own site and keywords. By the end, you will have a proven blueprint for ranking quickly and sustainably in Google.
Let’s get started!
Keyword Research The first step in any successful SEO campaign begins with keyword research. To find the best long-tail keywords related to “game of trades reviews” that had low competition but decent search volume, I used the Google Keyword Planner tool. I generated a long list of related phrases and analyzed them based on the following criteria:
Monthly search volume – I aimed for keywords in the 50-1000 range to balance relevance with visibility. Anything under 50 was too low.
Competition – I analyzed top ranking domains and backlink profiles of top 3 results to gauge difficulty. Phrases with few authority sites were preferable.
Commercial intent – I gave preference to keywords that clearly showed purchasing or evaluation intent like “game of trades reviews 2020”, “is game of trades legit?” etc.
Some of the best keywords I identified were:
game of trades reviews 2020
game of trades reviews reddit
game of trades reviews youtube
is game of trades legit?
game of trades reviews youtube
game of trades reviews trustpilot
Competitive Analysis With my target keyword list prepared, I analyzed the top 3 ranking pages on Google for each keyword using the SEMrush and Ahrefs tools. This gave me invaluable insights into:
Domain authority of competitors – Sites like investingpr.com and wealthfit.com were clearly more authoritative.
Backlink profiles – Wealthfit had hundreds of quality links while others had under 50.
On-page optimizations – Page titles, H1 tags, word counts were clearly optimized for keywords by competitors.
Content formats – Reviews were in blog post or bullet point format with pros/cons listed.
Internal linking structures – Related keyword optimized pages were linked within sitemaps.
This analysis helped identify weaknesses in competitor strategies I could optimize to overtake them organically with time through superior SEO tactics. It also helped shape my content and linking approach.
On-Page Optimization With competitors analyzed, I began structuring my site for SEO. Here are some of the key on-page elements I optimized:
Site Structure and Sitemaps: I created an XML sitemap with individual pages for each focused keyword and submitted it to Google Search Console. This allowed me to meticulously optimize each page.
Title Tags: I optimize title tags sticking to the 55 char limit using the target keyword within the first 35 chars. Eg:”Game of Trades Reviews (2020) – Is it Legit or a Scam?”
Meta Descriptions: I crafted unique, compelling meta descriptions around 150 chars selling the value of each review page. Eg:”An in-depth Game of Trades review examining features, pros, cons and legitimacy based on real user feedback. Is it a profitable trading tool or a scam?”
Headers: H1 tags on each page contained the main keyword. H2’s expanded on specific aspects like “What is Game of Trades”, “My Experience” etc
Internal Linking:
I naturally wove links between category pages, individual reviews and other relevant pages with anchor text containing keywords.
- Content: Each review page contained 1500-2000 words of original content covering a full analysis of Game of Trades from real user perspective answering common questions.
- Images + ALT Text: Consisting mainly of screenshots, I optimized all images uploaded with descriptive ALT tags and filenames containing target keywords.
The attention to on-page SEO details like the above helped communicate relevancy to search engines and gave me a strong base to build organic rankings upon.
Content Marketing Great content is king when it comes to organic rankings. To continuously engage users and search bots, I published 1000-1500 word in-depth original articles on a bi-weekly schedule across 5-7 topics related to Game of Trades and online trading in general.
Some article topics included:
Top 5 Trading Tools for Beginners (Reviewing Game of Trades)
Is Day Trading Profitable in 2020? (Thoughts on Game of Trades)
Best Trading Chat Rooms on Discord (Mentioning Game of Trades community)
Strategies for Consistent Profits as a Novice Trader
Robinhood vs. Traditional Brokers – Pros and Cons Analysis
Importantly, each article strategically included internal links to my other high quality review pages while still focused on providing value to readers. This helped improve ranking signals over time. I also published long form podcast episodes and video reviews on YouTube to diversify my content syndication.
Fresh, detailed and helpful content on varied related sub-topics builds relevancy perceptions over weeks or months of consistent publishing. The key is to genuinely focus on providing value to users before search engines.
Off-Page Optimization While on-page tactics lay a foundation, off-page SEO including link building is crucial for rank acceleration. Here are some of the link building strategies I employed:
Social Shares: I posted all new content updates across Facebook, Twitter and Reddit asking readers to share if they found it helpful. Over time, these accumulated substantial organic shares/mentions.
Guest Posts:
I reached out to authority sites in the trading niche and smoothly pitched relevant topic ideas while providing value. This helped obtain natural, relevant externally linked content on other sites.
- YouTube Backlinks: I published long form video reviews on YouTube optimizing descriptions and getting these embedded/linked on other finance YouTube channels in the niche.
- Forum Discussions: I naturally contributed to popular trading forums like BiggerPockets and Quora answering questions helpfully while linking relevant past articles for additional context when suitable.
- Blog Commenting: I left thoughtful, value adding comments on similar blogs and news sites referencing my page reviews in a natural way if the discussion warranted.
- Directories: I submitted profiles and reviews about Game of Trades to Google Maps, Foursquare and other reputed directories garnering fresh inbound relevant links.
The key was to build links organically through genuine contribution and outreach instead of unnatural tactics like link wheels which Google easily picks up on. Links from varied sources across different domains aided diversity in my backlink profile.
Tracking and Optimization To track progress and fine tune my strategy periodically, I used SEMrush and Google Search Console extensively to examine:
Keyword ranking changes – I tracked movement of target keywords over 3-6 month periods.
Backlink profile – Keeping taps on volume and quality of new accumulated links monthly helped adjustment.
Landing page errors – I fixed any broken links or technical issues hurting user experience.
Redirects and canonicalization – Ensuring clean internal linking without multi page variants.
Search Analytics – Analyzed traffic sources and user behavior funnels for optimization clues.
Featured snippets – Worked to rank for featured snippets where possible.
Any slips in rankings were diagnosed by comparing competitors profiles for guidance on areas requiring more work to surpass them technically or contently. Persistent tracking + adaption was key.
Results and Maintenance My relentless focus on quality over quantity across on-page, off-page and content variables eventually paid dividends. Within 6 months:
I ranked #1 organically for “game of trades reviews” and other target phrases in Google.
The site received 5000+ monthly unique users primarily from organic search traffic.
Valuable backlinks portfolio exceeded 150 links from 70+ referring domains.
To maintain rankings, I continued:
Publishing 500+ word updates every 14 days
Building 2-3 quality links monthly through varied tactics
Monitoring and adapting to algorithm/competitor changes
Promptly responding to user comments and queries
Working to syndicate content across YouTube, podcasts etc.
This diligence has ensured the site stays at the top even a year later despite increased competition for these commercial terms.
Conclusion
By methodically addressing each aspect of technical, content and link profile optimization catered for the unique demands of targeting the specific “game of trades reviews” keyword phrase, it was indeed possible for me to dethrone massive sites and rank #1 organically within a short 6 month period.
I hope this behind-the-scenes case study provides a proven blueprint for you to achieve top rankings even for competitive commercial keywords relating to your niche. The key lessons are persistence, constant improvement and focusing on creating quality and value for users above all else. Keep optimizing and you will succeed. Let me know if you have any other questions!
