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Hello everyone,
About 2 days ago I made a post in my FREE FB Group – https://www.facebook.com/groups/RankandRentStrategy/ – about how we started ranking multiple keywords for a client of ours.
So I decided to take a few days and write out a detailed in depth case study on how we rank our websites. My intention is to provide so much value here that this case study can be treated as a blueprint to rank websites.
This case study, coupled with my Rank and Rent Ebook that I had written in 2018 (and upgraded in 2019) should be good enough for anyone to be able to rank a website in most markets.
About six years ago I stumbled upon “online marketing” and specifically Search Engine Optimization when I was working as a computer engineer in General Motors.
I remember sitting in my cubicle and just hoping and wishing I could get out of a JOB!
I couldn’t see myself do a 9-5 job till I was 65! And then hope social security and pension would cover my expenses!
“So why return to rank and rent,” you ask?
Fast forward a couple of years of running my SEO Agency along with my day job at GM, one day I realized what I truly wanted in life.
I was making around $9k/mo at my job. After taxes, 401k, social security, etc, I was netting $6k/mo.
If I could just figure out a way to make $6000/mo passively , I would not be sitting at my desk at my job pretending to have interesting conversations with my colleagues. I’d rather be playing with my 2 year old and my 6 year old at home.
And then I took out a piece of paper and wrote ALL my house expenses – at surprise surprise it came out to $6000 (figure how that works! Expenses always rise to meet income!).
And so I decided to add another $2000 (savings cushion – incase of a rainy day). And then I added another $2000 (need to pay good old Uncle Sam).
So all in all I needed $10k/mo to walk away from my JOB.
And I put a plan to execute this over the next 12 months! – which led me to write the Freedom Number eBook
Lets get some nomenclature/ lingo out of the way first.
SEO – Search Engine Optimization
According to Moz,
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, which is the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results.
SEO is basically the art (to most people, science to us;) of ranking a website on top of page #1 of Google , Yahoo, Bing for keywords (search terms) that people are searching for in their niche.
SEO Agencies reach out to clients (dentists, lawyers, contractors) and perform “SEO WorK” on their website (on page elements) and to their website (backlinks) to optimize the site (to influence Google) to show up high in the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages)
Rank and Rent is performing SEO on assets (websites, web properties) we own, ranking the website on top of SERPs and then renting the website out to a company for a monthly rental fee.
You can sell leads (Pay Per Lead model) , I prefer to rent the whole website (along with all the calls that site generates) for a flat monthly rental fee.
So now that we have the basics out of the way, let’s get started.
In over 6 years of being in the SEO industry , and over 5 years in the Lead Gen/ Rank and Rent game, I have seen quite a few things.
Over the last 2 years , ever since I started my FB Group and eventually started teaching Rank and Rent and SEO, I have done over a 100 one on one coaching calls, plus many more group coaching calls, case study videos and posts on my FB group and my YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoH4aw1p7blFrcm8k2UhAWg
And over a period of time I have seen many patterns (common mistakes people make, common scams out there etc).
Picking a Niche and City to Rank
The common mistake I see with most people is going after the “popular niches”. Plumbing, HVAC, Dentist, Lawyer, Water Damage.
And going for large metropolitan cities like Dallas, New York, Miami, Chicago.
These niches in these cities may be lucrative, but are also very competitive, with every SEO guy and his mother in law trying to outrank each other.
I like to pick niches in smaller cities – cities with populations under 150k.
You can go to Home Advisor and see a list of niches – https://www.homeadvisor.com/category/startRequest.html
You can get list of cities in US between 100k and 200k here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by_population
There are 200 cities just in the US alone, with populations between 100k and 200k.
And there are 100s of niches we can get into in each city.
Lets do the math
200 cities * 100 niches = 200,000 niches/markets options.
The small tree guy in Mesquite, TX
The gutter repair guy in Thornton, CO
The interior decorator lady in Surprise, AZ
The flooring guy in Springfield, MO
You get the idea.
My philosophy is “Why fight with Mike Tyson and try to win the National championship, when you can fight with a 3rd grader and win the local school championship?”
Why take 12 months and rank for “Personal Injury Lawyer in Chicago” and then hope to make $5000/mo, when you can rank for “gutter repair Thornton CO” in 2-3 months and make $500/mo.
You can then rinse and repeat this process over and over again.
Whether you’re a Fortune 500 corporation or a small local business, you’ll gain new clarity.
WE BUILD a customized SEO plan that’s unique to you and your market. Because no other business is just like yours.
WE LAUNCH your SEO campaign with our proprietary tools, tested and proven since 2006.
WE IMPROVE your rankings in Google and other search engines by continually adjusting and improving your website content, architecture, and links.
WE PROTECT your new, higher rankings by adjusting to Google’s regular updates. Unlike other SEO services, we play both offense and defense for you!
