A recent student asked me a couple of question via Facebook about what to do once you’ve had some success on Google.

He asked:

1. I’m showing up at #3, what do I really need to do to fight for the #1 or #2 position?
2. OK, so I am finally #1, now what?

The answer to the first questions depends on several things. First, have you made sure that the rankings you are seeing are not due to the Personalization of Search? Be sure you are logged out of your Google account when doing a search.  It might also be helpful to ask a friend from another part of the country to do the same search you are doing and have them tell you where they see your listing.  Check out this link for several other things Google says you can do to help turn off search history personalization.

Once you are certain you are not showing up at the top of the listings due to personalization, you’ll need to look at who are you competing against?

For example, if you are number 2 or 3 for Olympus Digital Cameras and number 1 is Olympus.com and number two is Amazon.com, the odds are you are NEVER going to be #1. It’s nearly impossible to beat out the website of the company that owns the name brand of a product you are trying to sell.

If the sites listed at #1 or #2 are not related to a particular brand then you need to evaluate some of the other search factors that play a roll in competitive industries such as:

• the quality and number of inbound links,
• the authority of your site and of the sites that link to you,
• the title tags of the pages that link to you,
• the text used on those sites that link back to you,
• your own title tags, quality of your content and other on-site SEO factors,
• the age of the sites ranking above you,
• quality of the content, etc.

If you can’t stand toe-to-toe with them on those fronts then you will need to work on those aspects of your SEO.

You might also want to look into a competitive analysis tool like the one from Michael Marshall called SEO Recon.  It can help you figure out what SEO factors of your site you need to work on and what areas not to change in order to compete for competitive phrases.

The easy answer to question #2 is to pat yourself on the back and continue doing what you’ve been doing! Obviously it’s working.

The thing NOT to do is to do nothing and expect your number 1 listing to remain. Stay diligent in your SEO efforts and be sure to stay on top of the latest changes to the Search Engines algorithms or you might find your #1 site is now #101.

Good Luck and Good Rankings!

Steve Scott
SEO Training Educator
877-736-7361

A friend of mine recently reached out to me on Facebook and asked, “Hey Steve, can you give me some tidbits on how to increase website traffic to http://www.momcentral.com“.

Here was my response:

“Boy is that a loaded question! These open ended general questions really need to be looked at on a case by case basis as every company has a different set of goals, competitors, and requirements to being successful.

The best single tidbit I could give you for SEARCH traffic is to build links to your site from other high quality websites that are in similar or related fields using the keywords you want to get your site found for.

The other thing is to write new and unique content for your website on at least a weekly basis (2-3 times a week is even better).  Don’t forget about the Social Networks like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.  Participation in those places is necessary.

You could also try doing targeted Pay-Per-Click Ads or even targeted Facebook Ads to really reach your specific demographic.

The thing is that there are over 200 Ranking Factors that Google and the rest look at to evaluate your site… many of them having to do with the architecture/design of your site.

Also, you compete for traffic on a keyword phrase by keyword phrase basis and not business to business so the words you want to be found for need to be researched and qualified and the content and links you create should focus on those words.

The whole process is MUCH more complex than it was 10 years ago and it’s harder and harder to manage.  I mean, I teach a 5 Day SEO Training course that runs from 9-5 each day and even after all those hours we’re only really scratching the surface.  Many of the topics I cover could easily be stretched out into a full day course in and of itself.

The best thing to do is to try to stay on top of the changes.  One way to do that is to sign up for my SEO Tip of the Day at http://www.tampa-seo.com/. Another way is to check out and get involved in SEO industry sites like http://www.searchengineland.com or http://www.seomoz.org or even http://www.searchenginenews.com.  Each of these sites (as well as many others) have great info and articles every day that help you learn and stay on top of what’s going on in the Search Engine Optimization and Internet Marketing Universe.

Good Luck!”

Steve Scott
Tampa SEO Training Academy