The Reciprocal Consulting Blog

So you’ve built your website and now you’re ready to start promoting. Should you promote it to local prospects only or go broader, wider, more worldwide?

That’s the question every new website owner should answer. Hopefully, you’ve thought about it before you built your website. If you want to focus on local prospects, then it helps to optimize your website for local traffic. That includes adding your physical address and phone number to your web pages – especially your About and Contact pages, but possibly all of your pages. Globally targeted websites don’t need a physical address appearing on the site unless you do mail order.

Other considerations for local businesses include who your prospects are and how you intend to attract people to your business and website.

If your business products and services can only be distributed to local persons, then you obviously have to promote your website locally. For instance, a plumber can’t travel from New York to California to perform services; those services must be delivered to local home owners and businesses.

Promoting a website locally also includes some level of offline promotion. That might include earned media through local newspapers, TV, and radio as well as ad placements in those markets. It could also mean some phone prospecting or door-to-door, perhaps even some outdoor marketing. You’ll certainly want to include your web address on your business cards and stationery.

Local SEO involves listing your website in Google Places and Bing Local as well as other local directories like Yelp and MerchantCircle.

Global SEO has its strategies as well. The first step to website marketing is to decide what market your business will serve. Start there and the rest can almost take care of itself.

Site speed has been an important metric for webmasters for a time now. Recently, Google announced that they have added a site speed metric to its Google Analytics product.

This is good news for webmasters. No longer do you have to guess at how fast your site is loading. And you don’t have to go out and buy a third-party tool to figure it out. If you’ve already got an Analytics account with Google, just login and take a look at your Site Speed Report.

The Overview part of the report gives you a pretty good look at the important information that you should measure. It includes analytics for

• Average page load time by browser
• By country/territory
• By page

These are important overview metrics, but if you want to drill it down even further, then you can do that too. You can view site load times in three ways including Performance, Explorer, or Map Overlay simply by clicking on the appropriate tab.

Intelligence Reports are reports that analyze your website to highlight any variance in your statistics. You can receive alerts when variations occur. You can also view Site Speed metrics in your Intelligence Reports inside your Google Analytics account.

Google is a company that is constantly improving its products. Google Analytics is a free analytics tool that anyone can use, and I’d add that it is perhaps the best analytics tool on the market. There is really no need to pay for analytics when Google provides it all for free.

So what are you waiting for? Do you know how fast your website is loading?

One of the most important tasks for any webmaster is ensuring that you don’t have broken links on your website. But what kind of tool should you use for that purpose? I recently found a free broken link tool that I’d like to share with you.

Broken links can cause several problems. First, they can siphon off necessary link juice that flows from one page to another. If these pages are internal to your website, then you’ll have visitor usage problems, which can hurt your reputation. If those broken links are external and point in to your website, then you’ll get less traffic to your website. Either way, you’ll lose some authority points with the search engines and with your human audience.

All of this means you must identify and fix broken links quickly or suffer at the hands of the Internet gods.

Enter The Site Map Generator and Broken Link Tool from Internet Marketing Ninjas.

This tool is more than a broken link tool, obviously. But it serves as a useful tool for helping you find your broken links. It will crawl up to 10,000 pages at once. However, if you set it to crawl that many pages, expect it to take awhile. The bright side is you can have your broken link report e-mailed to you so you don’t have to wait.

The report is pretty thorough. It includes:

• Number of internal links
• Number of external links
• A list of your internal link errors
• A list of your redirects
• A list of your external link errors
• And a list of your external redirects

After reviewing these reports, you should have enough information available to identify your link problems and get those fixed.

Businesses that try to employ search engine optimization techniques to improve their search engine rankings often make costly mistakes that kill their rankings. Google has shared a video that is aimed at business owners and webmasters that tells how to avoid 5 mistakes often made with regard to SEO.

The 5 mistakes that website owners make, according to Google, are:

• They don’t have a value proposition – They have no value proposition, something that sets them apart from the competition. Instead of focusing on SEO and keyword densities, try instead to focus on valuable high quality content that will attract the type of people you are looking for to become your customers
• They use a segmented approach – Instead of approaching SEO holistically, many businesses use a segmented approach where the marketing department appears to not be communicating with other departments within the company.
• They get stuck in time-consuming workarounds – We see this one all the time. Many businesses get so stuck on SEO techniques that they spend all their time trying to find a workaround to high search engine rankings. You’d be better off just focusing on producing high quality content
• They get caught up in SEO trends – Here’s another big one. If you are chasing the algorithms, then you are likely wasting your time. They change so often that no one can keep up with every change. You should focus instead on finding your prospects with high quality content.
• They are slow iterators – Many professional SEOs fall into this category as well. Many SEOs are still stuck on 2005 link building techniques. If you focus on providing original, high quality content, then you can’t go wrong.

Watch the video for yourself (below), and when you want to get serious about quality content call an SEO company that understands how to make it stick.

Proposed legislation in Germany would require Google and other search engines to pay for content it borrows from website owners and publishes in its search results pages. I agree with Cynthia Boris’s analysis on the topic, but what about her conclusion?

Would Google really pull out of Germany?

I doubt it. I think what is more likely is that Google would figure out a way to include search results without taking snippets from the web pages it indexes. That would be the first adjustment the search engine would make, although it would likely not index photos and videos in Germany.

Remember when Google took its snippets from information provided by the Open Directory Project? It still does this at times. I think, if forced to, it would move to a similar policy in Germany and if that information wasn’t available there might not be a snippet at all. Or, the search engine might require webmasters supply their own snippet if they want a listing in the SERP.

Granted, that all might be a nightmare for the search engine to manage, but if you consider the lost revenue by simply pulling out, then it would likely be worth it in the long run.

Fair usage in the digital age is a murky game at best. We all want to protect content owners and producers, but what is the best way to do that? I can assure you that it isn’t by placing unreasonable restrictions on the search engines. After all, a high search engine ranking is compensation, isn’t it? What about traffic? If Google sends you visitors, couldn’t that be considered fair compensation for your 150 characters of content or reproduction of your image? I think so.

Sometimes, small business owners new to online marketing think that they can call up their website hosting company and ask them to fix some technical issue. It’s inevitable. It’s bound to happen. And, yes, sometimes server issues can cause SEO problems. You DO need to get those fixed.

I recommend calling your Web host in those cases. Don’t use the 24-hour chat or support ticket method unless they tell you to.

The reason you want to call your Web host for technical support if your server is configured incorrectly for a script you want to run, or another issue that is affecting your SEO, is because you can often learn something about how their servers work in the process. And you can start a dialogue about how your Web host can support you better.

It’s possible that your neighbors on a particular server are affecting your sites, or vice-versa. Speaking to your Web host and asking the right questions can lead to you being moved to another server where that won’t be an issue.

I’ve actually had Web hosts offer to upgrade their PHP for my sites or move me to a server that was running the latest version of PHP.

Your Web host wants your business. They will accommodate most reasonable requests from you so don’t be afraid to ask. But one area where you probably don’t want to get in too deep with your Web host is the area of search engine optimization. They need to know enough about SEO to help you with technical issues, but unless your issue is a server-side issue you’re best talking to a professional SEO about your on-site and off-site non-server-side SEO problems.

Facebook and Bing have been partners for some time. Recently, Facebook has started to get a little bit more aggressive at promoting search to its users.

The Bing ad appears to Facebook users when they log out of their Facebook accounts. Evidently, that happens often enough that Facebook thought it might be prudent to capture those users with an ad promoting their preferred search engine – Bing. Of course, it’s still too early to tell if the promotion has resulted in Bing picking up any market share. But it could happen.

What’s even more important is, How will this affect businesses who use Facebook? Or businesses who SEO their websites for Bing?

That brings up another point. ARE you SEOing your website for Bing? Of course, you should be.

Bing has nowhere near the search market share that Google has, but it’s still a sizable enough of a market share that you shouldn’t ignore it. People do still search the Internet with Bing and it seems that more and more people are doing so. Many websites show Bing as in the top five among referrers to their website. And that’s signficant.

If Bing is listed in your referrer log as a site that sends traffic to your website, then you should do as much as you can to encourage that traffic. SEO your website for Bing search. That means new pages and old pages.

You can improve your website’s Bing SEO for old pages by checking your rankings and tweaking your pages with some type of multivariate testing. You should employ solid SEO practices for your new pages to see how you make your Bing SEO shine.

Bottom line, don’t ignore Bing – or Facebook – for traffic.

Perhaps the most important search engine optimization practice that any webmaster can employ is the use of keywords. These are the basic building blocks of SEO. That doesn’t mean that crap copy with keywords stuffed in them will help your pages rank better or get you more customers. Good content must shine like a diamond. But these keyword practices are all guaranteed to make your diamond-studded content increase in value day by day.

1. Page Headlines – This is different than your page title. It’s the content header at the top of your page that is visible to humans and to search engines. Place your keyword phrase in that page headline. For instance, this blog post is headed “7 Keyword Optimization Strategies That Work All The Time.”
2. Long Tail Keywords – Long tail keywords are keywords that are narrower than your main keyword. For instance, if you sell hunting knives, it isn’t enough to use “knives” as your keyword. Narrow it down with long tail phrases like “Trail Master hunting knives” and “Laredo Bowie hunting knives.”
3. Keyword Variants – Not everyone uses the same phrase when they conduct a search. Some people will use “car lot” and others will use “automobile dealer.”
4. Synonyms – What words can you think of that are synonymous with your keywords? Use those in your content as well.
5. Keyword Stemming – Stemming is a practice that involves adding letters and syllables to key phrases. For instance, stems for the root word “run” would include “running,” “runner,” “runners,” etc.
6. Permalinks – Every web page has its own address. This is typically called a Uniform Resource Locator, or URL. It consists of your main website address followed by a forward slash (/) and the unique folder name for the page. It might look like this: websitename.com/individualpagename. You should your primary keyword phrase in that individual page name.
7. Semantic Language – Search engines today don’t need keywords to know what a page is about. If you mention “Ford,” “Chevrolet,” and “GMC” in your content, then they know your content is about cars.

These are not the only keyword optimization strategies that work, but they are important ones. Write great content and optimize it for search.

One question that arises fairly often in local search is whether keywords or business names are more important. The answer is, it depends. Really, it depends on a number of factors.

Those factors include your local culture, your niche or industry or type of business, and how well you market yourself off line.

For instance, if you live in a large metropolitan area where there are several different types of pizza restaurants including mom and pops as well as large national chains, then someone may simply search for “pizza” plus their area code or neighborhood name. In that case, they’re looking for the closest pizza restaurant.

On the other hand, if they want to eat at a specific restaurant, then they may search for that restaurant by name.

If you live in a smaller area – say, a rural area where a particular pizza restaurant is popular and there is little or no competition, then most searchers may search for that pizza restaurant by name.

But what if someone is locked out of their vehicle? It hardly matters where. They need a locksmith and they need one fast. They are not likely to search for a locksmith by name, especially if they are traveling. They are likely to search for a locksmith in relation to their location and just see what comes up.

When it comes to local search, it works in much the same way as universal search, but with a few additional factors. Place pages play a role in that, business names play a small role in it, and location-based content on your website is likely to play a role as well.

The bottom line is, you need to know your area and your niche. Local search is a growing area and will likely become as sophisticated as universal search in the next couple of years.

Google has announced that it has made 40 algorithm changes in February 2012, which sets a new record. Here are 5 notable changes to Google’s search algorithm changes and what they might mean for you.

1. Local predictions in YouTube – If you search YouTube on a specific topic, Google will predict your intentions based on your location. This could have a significant impact on video marketing for businesses. I think many marketers who use video will be testing this one.
2. Global shopping rich snippets – Rich snippets have not caught on popularly, but they are extremely valuable for search. If you run an e-commerce store, then you should learn about the shopping rich snippet. This one could prove to be a big advantage to webmasters who use it masterfully.
3. Freshness improvements – More and more, users want fresh search results. I’ve noticed that lately Google has delivered these more quickly. This is good, especially for bloggers. If you write a business blog, traditional SEO still works.
4. Improvements to local search results rankings – Speaking of traditional SEO, Google is saying that local search results now rely more on traditional SEO signals. If you run a local business online, then you should be testing this one.
5. Link evaluation – This could be a big one. Google is saying they have turned off link evaluation signals that they’ve been using for years. And that means that many websites that have relied on links for their rankings could see a decline in rankings if they continue to use the same link practices. This is one that will definitely be tested by a broad swath of SEOs in practice.

Google rarely is this specific about its algorithm updates. It’s time to start testing some of these changes to see if you can reverse engineer them. I know many SEOs have already started this process.

Natural language writing does not preclude use of keywords. In fact, you still want to employ some level of keyword usage, but you want to focus your writing on natural language techniques.

In the spirit of Google’s semantic language indexing policies, we’ve come up with 5 rules for natural language writing. Disobey these rules at your own peril.

1. Rule #1: Use Keywords – The first rule is to use keywords, but use them sparingly. You want your primary keyword in your title and if you are linking to another page, use your primary keyword as anchor text. Also, use it a couple of times in your body content for every 500-700 words of content.
2. Rule #2: Substitute Keywords – Take your primary keyword and find a synonym for it. Use your synonyms profusely. In fact, if you’ll write your content with a 5% keyword density, then go back and change some of those keyword phrases to synonymous phrases, you’ll be adding natural language fuel to your content.
3. Rule #3: Keep Your Content Focused – Don’t go off on a tangent. Keep your content tightly focused on one topic. Make salient points on that topic and support them with facts.
4. Rule #4: Speak In The Language Of Your Audience – I’m not talking about English vs. Spanish. That should be a given. I’m talking about using words that your audience can relate to. For instance, if you are writing about celebrities, would your audience say “celebs?” Would they use “stars” instead of “movie stars?” Don’t just use a word because the search engines like it. Use words that your audience will like.
5. Rule #5: Take Out The Fluff – Natural language writing is terse, tight, and to the point. Don’t belabor the message. Say it and get out.

Natural language writing has been around since long before the search engines. Instead of writing for robots, write for real people.

Checking out Google’s classic search page, there is now a little microphone in the search box. Do you know what that’s for? Try this as a test: Click the microphone and speak a search term. That’s right. Just tell Google what to search for.

That’s Google’s voice-to-text search feature. I’ll say it works pretty well. I’ve done a few tests myself.

So the big question is, if you are an SEO or concerned about search engine optimization at all, is this: How do you optimize a website for voice-to-text? And here’s the answer: The same way you’d optimize for text-only search.

The best that I can tell, the search results for voice-to-text and text-only are the same. So what Google has done is taken its search index and converted it to voice-to-text so that people who can’t type or who have physical or mental handicaps preventing them from making a text-only search can still enjoy the search experience. The overall index is the same.

This is a great feature for accessibility purposes. Some countries have laws that require websites online to meet accessibility requirements. That may be why Google introduced this feature in the first place.

SEO is SEO. You don’t have to try to figure out how to do it for handicapped persons. For the most part, their needs are the same as yours. You can, however, spend a little additional time and resource to make your website accessible and the best time to do that is in the design planning stage. Implement a good website design that is accessible to everyone and you’ll increase your searchability as well.

Talk to five SEOs and you’re likely to hear five different answers on any particular question involving search engine optimization. But for now, let’s talk about keywords. Are they necessary?

I don’t think there’s an SEO alive who would say “No” to that question, but why not? We live in a day of semantic language indexing. The search engines rank pages based on ideas, not keyword stuffing. In other words, if your on-page content is clearly about how to change a light bulb and you don’t use the phrase “light bulb” but two times in your article, you could still rank for that key phrase. It’s all about quality.

So keywords aren’t important then, right?

I’d say that’s a wrong assumption to make. While semantic language indexing rules the day, keywords are not discounted. I believe you should still focus your content on keywords, but don’t fixate on any one keyword. That is, use a little semantic language markup.

Are Keyword Tags Necessary?

One area where there is a lot of dispute over the use of keywords is in the keywords meta tag. There are two main ideas regarding the use of this tag.

1. Not necessary. The not necessary camp argues that keyword tags aren’t necessary because none of the major search engines look at them. While this is true, some smaller search engines still do consider this meta tag; and the major search engines are constantly tweaking their algorithms so you never know when they may start considering keywords meta tags again.
2. It doesn’t hurt. The rest of the SEO community falls into the “it doesn’t hurt” camp. Because of the two reasons mentioned above, they argue that it doesn’t hurt to use the tag. Someday, it may help.

It never hurts to employ a strategy that you won’t get penalized for. I would not dispense with keywords altogether. What you don’t want to do is stuff your content with keywords as that might get your pages banned, penalized, or de-indexed. Just use a little common sense in your search engine optimization practices.

If you like to watch SEOs argue (and who doesn’t?), you’ve probably noticed that there are essentially two types of SEOs. There is the “Content is King” crowd. Then there’s the links-are-the-most-important-strategy crowd. Almost all SEOs lean toward one end of the spectrum or the other.

I’ve always believed in both. Content and links, not one or the other. But my philosophy includes the necessary component that links are a form of content.

Only in that context can you truly say “content is king” if you believe that links are important tools for SEO.

It matters a great deal post-Panda.

Remember, the Panda update is the big “content farm” killer algorithm update that Google underwent last year. Big web properties, including many article directories, lost search engine rankings (and traffic) overnight. It caused a big ruckus among search engine optimization specialists all over the world.

And the problem wasn’t links. It was on-page content. But it was low-level content and that’s what Google went after.

If you believe that “content is content is content,” then you don’t understand the power of Google’s strong arm of the search engine law. Google has the power to kill your website at will, though they seldom go after individuals or particular sites. Rather, Google tends to incorporate changes to its algorithms that go after types of websites, or websites that pursue a particular strategy to game results.

So what should we learn from all this? Here’s the takeaway: Content is still king. But not just any content. Quality content.

Quality content is content that a searcher would consider answers the question they have when they conduct a particular search on one of the search engines. If you think about what those questions might be and seek to answer them with your content, then you’ll have a much better chance at winning in the search results.

Michael Martinez said something interesting in a blog post yesterday.

The problem is, as soon as a popular SEO blogpundit shares an idea or strategy with her or her audience, the idea loses value. That doesn’t mean it becomes worthless. It just means the idea loses value. Think of your brand new car depreciating a few hundred dollars as soon as you drive it off the lot. SEO ideas lose value in much the same way.

That’s pretty sage. But what is he saying?

SEO is a game. Popular SEOs figure out what is good strategy and they implement it. It works for them. Then they share it with the rest of the world. Lower level SEOs begin to adopt the strategies that the popular and well known SEOs have shared. Pretty soon, everyone is doing the same thing. Even spammers. That’s when the search engines change their algorithms.

Who are the first people to know the search engines have changed? The well known and popular SEOs. How do you think they became well known?

By the time the big guys figure out a new strategy, everyone else has adopted the old one. But that old strategy isn’t working any more because the popular SEOs have moved on. They’re doing something different.

Here’s the deal. The popular SEOs don’t share their successes right away. They test them first. Sometimes that takes 6 months or a year. Other times, it might take 2 or 3 years before they get around to sharing what they do that works (and you can bet they aren’t telling you everything). By the time they share what they are doing that is successful, those strategies have almost run their course with the search engines. Mass adoption occurs, but the search engines and popular SEOs have moved on.

So what should you make of this? If you think I’m saying “don’t trust anyone,” then you should go back and re-read the post. That’s not what I’m saying.

What I am saying is that you should trust an SEO company that isn’t blabbing all over the Web what they are doing for you that works. You should trust an SEO company that does its own testing rather than just following the leaders. Trust an SEO company that does what’s best for you, not what’s best for them.

Broken links can kill a website if allowed to go on for too long. That’s why you should identify them quickly and get them taken care of.

So what happens when your website has broken links?

If allowed to linger for too long, broken links can be a ding against your website’s SEO ranking. In other words, they can count against you. One or two might not hurt, but hundreds will. And many webmasters will allow their broken links to continue because they don’t monitor them.

A simple diagnostic tool will tell you if you have broken links on your website. Google Webmaster Tools is free and does the job for you. Google will tell you if your site has broken links.

After you have determined that you have broken links, go to the pages where those links exist and analyze your content. Can you find another source to link to? If so, then replace the broken link with a link to a resource that is just as helpful, or more, to your website visitors. If you can’t find one, then consider revising your content so that the link isn’t necessary.

When you revise your content you invite the search engines back to re-crawl your pages. They will then re-index your pages based on the latest crawl and re-rank them. Some webmasters have seen increased page rankings based on fixing broken links.

If you are looking for more opportunities to increase your website’s search engine optimization, find and fix your broken outbound links. It’s a small thing, but it can matter.

If you run an online web store and are concerned that your SEO might not be up to snuff, never fear. You can always improve your SEO and here are 6 on-page ways that you can give your SEO content a boost. All of these are easy to implement and will produce positive results for your onsite SEO.

1. Descriptive URLs – Let’s start with the URL. Instead of using dynamic URLs, use descriptive URLs that utilize your best keyword phrase for each content page. Your product name, a product description, or a phrase that best identifies each individual product is best for your product description pages.
2. Create Unique Content For Every Product – Every product page should have unique content, and I’ll add that each should have at least 250 words of content. If necessary, combine several like products on one page and give each one a unique description. Is there really that much of a difference between a blue widget and a yellow widget? Do they need separate pages? If so, make sure you provide enough content on each page that you give them maximum SEO value, and that means no duplicate content.
3. Use Category Pages – People don’t just shop for individual products. They also search for categories of product. If you sell cameras, have a section for digital cameras. Have another for camcorders. Make sure each category page has unique content.
4. Link Your Pages Together With Anchor Text – Link your pages together with appropriate anchor text. This alone can give your website a huge boost. Figure out the best internal linking strategy based on consumer buying habits, keyword phrase associations, and complimentary products.
5. Allow User Reviews – Every time you add new content to a page, the search engines return to crawl that page. When they do, they also re-index and re-rank it. Allowing user reviews, even negative reviews, can give your product pages a huge boost in the search engines.
6. Allow Social Media Sharing – Social media sharing can encourage your content to travel far and wide. That means more potential traffic, more potential product reviews, and better SEO overall.

Each of these specific on-page content solutions has at least one associated SEO benefit. If you want to improve your online shop’s SEO, try these on-page content tricks.

There is a misconception among many search engine optimization specialists that SEO must be a focus of content or the content just isn’t good. The truth is, great content and great SEO compliment each other. They can co-exist without hurting each other.

The key to this SEO philosophy is in the use of keywords and links. Keywords are the fuel in every search engine optimization strategy. You don’t want to overdo it, but you must do it.

What does that mean, exactly?

Keywords are a matter of targeting the right phrases for the right audience. If you are trying to reach people who purchase automobiles, then you have to target the right key phrases that attract automobile buyers. If you sell Ford vehicles specifically, then target your phrases to people who buy Ford vehicles. Sounds like a no-brainer, right?

It is, but you’d be surprised at how many SEOs target the wrong keywords for their audiences.

When it comes to links, you want your links to compliment your keyword phrases. They shouldn’t dominate. Anything in moderation is better than the same thing in overdose. Use links that compliment your keywords by incorporating the keywords into the link anchor text and pointing them to relevant pages on your website. Title attributes can also compliment your anchor text.

By complimentary title attributes, I don’t necessarily mean repeating your anchor text key phrase. I mean use a phrase that compliments it and is a more nuanced way of using your important keywords.

SEO is not a science. It certainly isn’t rocket science. Your first concern should be in creating great content. Make the SEO compliment the content.

A reader asked Mike Blumenthal if linking to her Google Places page would make it rank higher in the search engines.

The question has its basis on the longstanding practice of many SEOs to build inbound links to pages on their websites. Such inbound links have often increased the rankings of their web pages in the search engines. But there are flaws in thinking the same practice when applies to a Google Places page would have the same effect.

First, a Google Places page, as Mike Blumenthal points out, is a search result. Linking to it would be like linking to a search results page for a query that is related to your business niche. That wouldn’t boost your web pages any and it wouldn’t make any sense.

Secondly, linking out from your website to an external page would drain link juice that you could put to better use on your internal pages.

While such linking might be detrimental in terms of your website’s SEO, there may be times when linking to your Google Places page constitutes good marketing. For instance, if you want your website visitors to see all the rave reviews your business gets on Google, then you could link to the page. But I wouldn’t do that from your home page and I’d recommend that you do it using a no-follow link.

Sometimes, detrimental or harmful linking practices can be good marketing practices, and vice-versa. This is where you have to do some weighing of pros and cons. Choose a value that is most important to you and perform the action that makes that value work for you.

For the longest time now just about anyone you talked to in SEO circles would sing the praises of the No. 1 position in search results. But have you noticed that most PPC specialists – at least the ones who are worth their weight in salt – prefer to get their clients No. 2, 3, or 4 positions in the rankings? Why is that?

The truth is, No. 1 positions are the most clicked-on positions. That’s true for PPC and organic search listings. But those are not the most profitable positions.

The most profitable positions are the ones just below the No. 1 position. Why is that?

What most people don’t realize is that most searchers will click on that No. 1 position, but if it isn’t what they were looking for, then they hit the Back button and click on another search result. SEOs know this. Clients don’t necessarily know this. So everyone is scrambling to get that No. 1 position.

There’s nothing wrong with being No. 1. But you should be seeking to be No. 1 for the right search queries. What questions does your website answer? Those are the key terms you should seek No. 1 rankings for.

SEO results fluctuate. But they are also much more personal. Google now provides videos, images, and personalized results based on who your Google+ friends are your past search history. Your search results are not my search results. That makes the No. 1 position just about unattainable. Trying to get there is an exercise in absurdity.

The job for search engine marketers in today’s search climate is to produce the best content and promote it in the best places. Rankings won’t cure all your ills.