Woo Hoo!! It don't get any better than this!! BINGO!!

[theiceman]

I've been optimizing for six key search phrases, working like a dog at getting over 800 back links for months and finally....tonight when I checked the search results on Google, my home page was #1 across the board for all six key seach phrases and a secondary page that had never been listed near the top of the results was #2 straight across the boards for the same six search phrases!!

Thanks to everyone on this site that has helped me over the months! Oh yeah, did I mention that I am totally booked on weddings to photograph for all Saturdays in June, July and August....with 33 weddings booked to photograph during the next 8 months! [That's the real pay-off!]

Actually Google is my #3 or #4 top referrer on the average day. Yahoo sends triple the number of hits and MSN comes in second and usually a website that posted a back link in exchange for using one of my wedding photos on their homepage, usually comes in either #3 or #4 and equals what Google sends me.

I also get a LOT of hits from the backlinks on those 800+ other websites, too. I put such a strong "teaser" in my description that those links themselves bring in a goodly amount of visitors daily. ["Get twice as much & triple the coverage for half what big city wedding photographers charge! Serving IN/OH/KY since 1964! Digital coverage available! See your wedding photos during your reception meal via my laptop slideshow!"]

So....Google is really not that big of a player in the mix, but, it's still good to see my hard work pay off!

ice

[http://www.proweddingphotos.com]
search terms: Indianapolis wedding photographes
Indianapolis wedding photographer
Indianapolis wedding photography
Cincinnati wedding photographers
Cincinnati wedding photographer
Cincinnati wedding photography

[theiceman]

I just rechecked one of the search phrases....and, at least for "Indianapolis wedding photographers", all five top positions are mine...either my site directly in #1 and #2 or pages on other sites that created pages for my site and containing back links to it.

Holly Cow!

ice

[gregorym]

That's great, congrats!
Hope you'll get a lot of targeted traffic...after all, it all about that.

[scot184]

iceman, what was the most effective change to your site? were you able to pinpoint each change and how they affected position? Where were you ranked originally, and how and why did you move up. I'm sure everyone could benefit from your story. And one last thing, are you in DMOZ or any of the paying sites?

[highlighter]

Well Done Ice !!!

[Linda Buquet]

Woo Hoo!! Kudos to Ice what a great score!

[urknighterrent]

Actually Google is my #3 or #4 top referrer on the average day. Yahoo sends triple the number of hits and MSN comes in second and usually a website that posted a back link in exchange for using one of my wedding photos on their homepage, usually comes in either #3 or #4 and equals what Google sends me.

Muah ha ha ha. Could it be the great and powerful google is slipping in cinci? You've made my day ice. Excellent work!

[Web Gazelle]

ICe,

What is you PR on your site? Could you share some of optimization strategies you used?

[tcampione]

Ice Ice baby....

Nice work. Do you do corporate meetings? That's our venue. Might be an interesting combo.

[theiceman]

My site has been in DMOZ for several years, back when it was free. My website has been up since '98 or '99.

My site got totally banned by google just about a year ago, back when I was doing some naughty things they didn't like to get better SERPs. Shame on me!

After being banned, I spent about $5K on paid internet ads/links/listings on top wedding directories and the website redesign. Ouch!!

Weddings booked also dropped off to 17 less than the year before, with none booked in Nov or Dec of '04, that's about $20K drop in income!!

[Fortunatly, now that I am back in Googles good graces, relisted and on top of the listings without any worry of being penalized again for anything done wrong... I'm now booked about 38 weddings for '05 already!!]

I cleaned up my act, took my lumps, learned my lessons, had my website redesigned and begged my way back into being listed in Google again about 9 months ago.

Then I went to work on getting relevant links, one at a time. It's been my second job for some time now!

Google visits my site at least every other day, so I got almost immediate feedback after each seo tweak I tried...so I could see what was working and what wasn't.

Towards the end, I spent more time deoptimizing it more than anything else.["less SEO is more"]...until it got into the top 10 in the SERPs, then I really poured on the linking campaign and left the page alone.

Let's eee, back on 11-27-04 it barely broke onto page 3 of the serps for the Indianapolis search terms. At tht time, the Cincinnati search terms, which I had been concentrating on were in the top 5 for all three phrases. So I turned my attention to getting back links for my three Indy search phrases and getting them to rapidly rise up the results.

I have 31 separate versions of my index page saved on my hard drive, each numbered 1 thru 31. If today is the 15th, then I upload the 15th version...so that there is always different/fresh content on the site every time googlebot comes around. [I change the top row of sample photos every day to different photos and rotate in a diffrent recent-bride's testimonial on the homepage.]

It's been a hell of a battle!
ice

[Bowe Packer]

Excellent job ICE....
I just did a keyword search on Google and sure enough you are in pole position...

Now, how did you do it??
I am sure I am not the only one who would be all ears or in this case eyes on your strategies......

I look forward to your expert insight.

Once again, nicely done.

[Mac 5]

Great Job!!

How did you build your links? Did you pay for any, trade, one way link?