CADTutor SEO pays off

[David]

Well it has taken a long time but it's eventually happened. A few years ago I set myself the task of placing CADTutor at number one for the search phrase "AutoCAD tutorials". For a long time I've been in number 2 position, always beaten by the University of New South Wales site. Now, amazingly I'm at number one on Google.

Something has obviously changed. Do you think that hosting AdSense ads has caused a higher ranking?

I'm still number 2 at Yahoo! although Yahoo! UK has me at number 1. Yahoo! international has me at number one for the phrase "free AutoCAD tutorials" but a three word phrase is relatively easy. Since Yahoo! is now on the rise, I still need to keep working :(

[James]

That's excellent David - how long has it taken you to get there? I imagine "autocad tutorials" is the most commonly searched for term too.

I continue to find SEO tough. I get a handful of Google Images referrals and the odd AOL or MSN referral but nothing worth getting excited about. Most of my traffic comes not from search engines but from links on other sites.

The best I can do on Google is on a search for "free digital photos" (with the speech marks) - I am now 50th. I was 300th three months ago but "free digital photos" isn't a commonly used term.

This afternoon I contacted about 15 sites asking for links - my past experience shows only 10-15% site add me so I hope to get two or three agreeing.

At least things improve month on month - just very s-l-o-w-l-y!

I've decided I must build a site map too which is a chore. I don't think Google is going deep enough at the moment (some of my photos are several clicks from the homepage following the browsing links).

[Tom]

Well done. I'm curious to know whether the improved position 'pays off' in terms of traffic in the months ahead. They say it does.

I have had a comparable goal for searches on garden + history but have made no progress whatsoever. Its just a sort of game for me - I don't think many people come to the site through searches on garden history. But as with you and New South Wales it puzzles and interests me why some smaller, slower, less linked-to, less-visited websites score higher. Without evidence, I think the answer is legacy links. In the good 'ole days people used to hunt around for sites to link to. They thought it gave their sites kudos. Also it was free to get into directories which have since become expensive. My hypothesis is that older websites therefore have an advantage over newbies.

[David]

Tom, I think that is absolutely right. CADTutor seems to be listed in all sorts of search and listing sites that I've never heard of let alone submitted to. Legacy links definately play a big role but my view is that TIME is also a big issue. Sites take time to mature and become a part of the fabric of the web. Providing the content you are offering is good and useful, simply being there will improve your rank through time as people find and link to you.

[Tom]

Maybe some of your competitors, or their links, have fallen by the wayside. There is a Chinese proverb: 'If you sit by the river long enough you can see the bodies of all your enemies float past'. (Not that competitors are enemies - they are friends who keep us on our toes.)