Case Study: BestOnlineHighSchools.com

#1 in Google and 5,000+ Search Visitors Per Month

Tom Nixon, author of Complete Guide to Online High Schools: Distance Learning Options for Teens & Adults , approached us in late 2006. He wanted to create a new website, BestOnlineHighSchools.com, a directory of online high schools.

Search engine optimization was part of the planning from day one. Unlike many of our clients, Tom understood the importance of an SEO strategy. Together he and Simply Brilliant Solutions came up with a plan for SEO upgrades to the coding of his site (these SEO features are all now standard with our Entrepreneur website package). Tom had a solid plan for obtaining inbound links to his site, to which we added our suggestions.

The Results

Today, BestOnlineHighSchools.com is in the top 100,000 sites in the U.S.A.
Google PageRank 6
#1 in Google.com for the phrase online high schools
Top 5 Google.com rankings for online high school and free online high schools
Over 5,000 unique USA visits per month, most of which come from search

How Did It Happen?

BestOnlineHighSchools.com is a textbook example of how good search engine rankings happen. If a website owner starts with the foundation of expert onsite SEO and then works consistently at building relevant, authority inbound links, they are bound to see the site rise in the rankings over time. Everything that was done to achieve these results for BestOnlineHighSchools.com was sustainable, “white hat” SEO practice.

Here’s it is, broken down into bullet points so that you can put these strategies to work in your SEO.

Onsite SEO Features

The onsite SEO for BestOnlineHighSchools.com is not perfect. There are many features of the Entrepreneur package, such as XML sitemaps and enhanced page-by-page meta tag controls, that make our customers’ sites today even more search engine friendly than Tom’s site. But the most important features are there, and BestOnlineHighSchools.com shows the result of that solid foundation of onsite SEO features we implemented:

Search engine friendly URLs.
Text-linked site navigation and title tags on image-linked navigation features. No Flash navigation whatsoever.
Control over meta tags (title being the most critical one).
A WordPress blog with keyword-rich permalinks and RSS feed.
A content management system to make it easy to add many pages of original, quality content.

Offsite SEO

Tom appreciated the importance of inbound links right from the start. He made certain that, whenever possible, the anchor text for these links contained his keyword phrases. Here’s a rundown of the many sources of inbound links for the site:

Web directories including Dmoz.org
Technorati and other blog directories and search engines
Social bookmarking sites
Tom’s social media profiles (e.g. Twitter, HubPages, etc.)
Forum posts and signatures
Article signature boxes (EzineArticles.com etc.)
Guest posts on other people’s blogs
Tom’s own blogs on WordPress.com, Blogspot.com, Typepad.com etc.
Hubpages.com pages

Conclusion

BestOnlineHighSchools.com is a great example of the SEO results you can achieve with a combination of expert website development and a strategic approach to inbound linking. We provide this combination of onsite optimization and offsite SEO coaching in our Entrepreneur Website Package. If you would like to discuss your SEO goals with us, please contact catherine@simplybrilliantsolutions.com.