Project log 1: InternetForFree

One of my current SEO projects is a new ISP called InternetForFree. Unlike most of the stuff I do, this is a new site from scratch, so rather than trying to shoehorn some keywords into existing pages I had the chance to write a lot of the site copy myself. It also has a fairly generic but very search-friendly name, which would make my job easier if those particular keywords weren't an incredibly high source of competition. Another drawback to this new site is the fact that it took about a week after the site first went up for any of the major search engines to notice it, even after submitting sitemaps. However, it was rather satisfying to see the site immediately grab second spot on Google UK for 'internetforfree' once their spiders caught on. That's not my goal though. When it comes to 'internet for free' as a keyword, the valuable one, the site is nowhere. Funnily enough, a site I chose as a competitor for comparison, which happens to use very similar keywords and content, ranks around #11 for that phrase, despite using it less. It seems that being an older site really is a boon to your rankings, and the thousand or so inbound links it had from generic directories, although low-value, certainly didn't hurt it. Looks like I still have a way to go with the InternetForFree site, so I'm sure there will be plenty more posts on this topic to come. Hopefully I can keep a little progress report running on it and other projects.