So, I have always had the question, by clients, friends, networking partners and etc about ranking on page 1 with Google. I have also often been asked if I can get a client on page 1 and in X time. Then recently I saw a post of an ‘SEO expert’ who indicated that she got one of her clients on page 1 of Google and anyone who does what she teaches them can do. So this provoked me to shed some light on the infamous Page 1 and share what I’d like to call The Good, Bad and the Ugly.
A brief moment on search engines and SEO
First, the search engines all work essentially the same, have an algorithm of what works and take into account certain factors which also includes the customer, but most are more concerned with Google so I will use Google as a generic term for ‘search engines’.
Then, search engine optimization is just that… optimizing a website to meet the needs of the search engines. The needs of the search engines are to please their consumers – ‘the searchers’. We, the business owner, optimize our websites to please the search engines in hopes to show up in search, where our consumers and target market is located.
The Good
The good news is that if you optimize your website and blog (also optimizing as you go) on a regular basis then you are creating an website which provides value in an easy to read, easy to follow, keyword rich for each specific page and when you land on an inner page on someone’s website they don’t have to work to find what they wanted as they landed right where they need to be. Don’t make the consumer work or you’ll lose them.
The key essentials to optimize your website is to:
- provide valuable keyword rich (not to be confused with keyword stuffed – that’s spammy) content to the consumer ON your website
- utilized various keywords that you and your consumers would recognize and use them throughout your website in a natural manner and appropriate to the page it’s on
- add unique meta title tags and meta description to create enticing, keyword rich and informative snippets for the search engines
- header tags to help space things out so readers can skim your content for what they want to read and tells the search engines about the following paragraphs
- internal linking which helps the consumer lead to the next relevant topic, keeps them on your website and helps the search engine spiders crawl your site
- back-linking which are links back to your website from other blogs, social media, social bookmarking site, business citations and etc which helps spread your total internet footprint and linking to you tells search engines you are important
- alt tags which means you are adding visuals to make it easy to read, to tell your story and these tags tell search engines what your images portray
- keep it pretty and skimmable which deserved another mention because if your site is overly bold, color, different sizes, too many font styles, no white space, too much, hard to follow or hard to navigate, they will leave
- remember natural, because your website’s end goal is to sell a product/service and if you can’t keep your consumer on it, then the search engines will remember it and you won’t show up in search
I know.. I said basics… but I get all nerdy on this stuff. #sorrynotsorry #imageekokay Now back to my point. So, the good news is YOU CAN do all this. You don’t have to if you have the means to outsource it and I would be happy to take that on for you, but you have the tools, IF you have the time and it makes the most CENTS for you to do it. 🙂
The Bad
So, the bad, it isn’t that it is that bad, but something that you, as a business owner, should consider, or questions you should be asking when someone says they can get you on page 1 of Google.
When someone says they can get you on Page 1 of Google - be leery & ask questions, or RUN! #SEO Click To Tweet- What keywords, specifically, are you going to show up for on page 1?
- FYI, I can get Kristen Wilson showing on page 1, even the # 1 ranking for ‘Kristen Wilson Dickson Texas’ Go figure, right? Think about it, it’s all relative. Let’s do a more general one – how about a gunsmith in city xyz? Well, it depends, how many gunsmiths are in that city? Would the keyword be ‘gunsmith league city texas’ or ‘league city gunsmith’ or ‘john smith league city gunsmith’ and etc? Each keyword combination could change the ranking slightly.. and the population as well as how many widgets are in the city of y? Make sense?
- How many keywords are you going to show up for on page 1?
- Remember, that on a search engine results page (SERP) there are 10 organic rankings and typically 10 paid (PPC) rankings. Consider this – ONLY 10 organic will show up at any given time, at any given location for any given keyword phrase.
- I could see ‘john smith league city gunsmith’ (my fake client) come up on page 1, ranking #3 but you, a state away could see my fake client using the same exact keyword phrase as #10.
- If the ‘SEO guru’ or firm is claiming to rank you on page 1 for 50 words, you are clearly being misguided
- Remember, that on a search engine results page (SERP) there are 10 organic rankings and typically 10 paid (PPC) rankings. Consider this – ONLY 10 organic will show up at any given time, at any given location for any given keyword phrase.
- What will they be doing to get you on page 1?
- Remember The Good? That’s what they should be doing, touches on your website monthly, maybe some off-site link building, maybe some business citations, maybe some website updates to keep it running and functioning as it should.
- However, some black hat tactics are going to land you in “Google jail” and you will be penalized, which will require more work and more money to pull your website out.
- Two websites – this is not a good thing – that was a “good idea” years ago, not now – it’s trying to trick Google and doesn’t work, actually makes it worse but that’s another story. A potential client and I just spoke a few days ago and he has two websites; and as I was checking out his sites, one site I couldn’t look at because my browser warned me that it had malicious content / malware.
- Worthless business industry listings – same person – in doing a search for that same site, I found him listed on sites that had no value for him, a business listing for children’s clothing and he’s a mechanic. No value here!
- It’s all a scam to list his site a ton of places, like paid for, to get back links.
- Try to get links to complimentary businesses – it’s not a good practice unless there is.
- Local listings – consider the location of the listing as well, especially if you are a local business.
- What will they do once you get there and how long will you stay there?
- Longevity – consider that again, there are only 10 organic listings so you can’t be there forever especially if they are doing black hat (similar to get rich quick schemes) tactics. So, find out how long it will take and for how long you will be listed there.
The Ugly
As if it can get any worse than The Bad? Well, I think I pretty much covered most of it already, if you hire someone or you choose to use unethical means to try to move you to page 1 of Google, know, Google is smarter and you will get caught eventually. You will be penalized and it will cost you much more time and money than it did to get you there in the first place and very tough to pull yourself out, if at all.
Don't waste time or money on unethical SEO practices, it isn't worth it. Click To TweetSo, spend your time and money where it needs to be spent… in work on your site (all the time) or research on your SEO firm or marketing consultant. Do things right in the first place and it will last longer. I think of it like a lie – tell the truth because the truth is easier to remember and you can always build truths on top of truths and it doesn’t change. When you try to lie, the stories change and more lies build up and it becomes hard to pull yourself out, if at all.
Bottom line
So the next time someone says that they could either get you to page 1 of Google or teach you how to get to page 1 of Google…. take note and recall The Good, The Bad & The Ugly and start asking questions – be an informed consumer/business owner. To get, be and stay on page 1 is no easy feat and shouldn’t be taken lightly. Remember good things come to those who wait, or work. Nothing comes easy, you need to work for it. If it’s too good to be true, it probably is.
SEO is work & needs to be done monthly, not one & done. Getting to page 1 isn't easy peasy w/o lots of work Click To TweetHopefully this has been helpful and giving you a nice understanding of search engine optimization, search engines, what you can do to move up in the search engine rankings of the SERP, and things that you need to consider as a consumer buying into a service, or as a business owner doing the work yourself.
~Kristen
This just fascinates me, Kristen. I have to say, I’ve never done my own SEO, so, so much of this is by me. But I can see all the work my SEO person does! My editorial service does come up on page 1 of Google, and it’s happened the old-fashioned way–blogging, all the keywords and meta-tags, true SEO work, for MANY years.
As always, an enlightening blog from you!
Lucky you Susan.. the old fashioned way WILL sustain you, for sure!
Kristen,
A great article with so many ways to understand SEO especially liked the one about what Keywords ad how they are described on page one. This article was Cleary written and love the fact that I can read straight through no breaks. NiceWork!
Lori English
Why thank you Lori… glad you see the value and it makes sense to you!
Trying to take shortcuts by cheating and being deceptive is bound to land you in hot water. It’s true it’s hard to pull yourself out when you start to lie. Much better to remember that good things come to those who wait, and work.
That’s exactly it Tami… good things come to those who WORK!
Many years ago I remember hearing about how some of the ‘big’ players in the online world were using black hat tactics. I know that wouldn’t fly in today’s online world of course. I’ve always tried to keep it clean and must say that being a contributor to the HuffPost has really contributed to my Google rankings. I appreciate all the info you share, Kristen and in a very crowded online world, we all need all the tips and tools we can to stand out from the crowd.
I would ABSOLUTELY agree that contributing to HuffPost boosts your rankings Bev, and having someone like that link back to you, HUGE!
Wow this is soo interesting and good information and still what I need to do at least for my blog and then my translation website. Not the bad…but the good SEO 😉
I knew you meant the good Kata! 🙂 Thank you
great information. I get at least one person daily trying to get me on page one of Google searches. I agree that most of these people are not doing all the back end things necessary to keep someone on page one. And it is interesting that you mention someone putting in key words that have nothing to do with our business. Amazing how many scams there are out there. Guess it only takes a few to fall for the pitch. Thanks so much for your honest approach to helping us build our online businesses.
I meant more about listings that don’t compliment the business Alene and thank you
Can’t believe folks still fall for the page one pitches. Even huge corporations have to work at this. Always good to learn from the right kind of expert so bad stuff won’t happen. Good to know the kinds of things that help. Awesome comprehensive article!
Why thank you Robin and yes… people still do.. which is why relationships are so important these days.
There are no shortcuts. Thank you for pointing out the things that many of us (like me) might not know to look out for. It truly does pay to do things the right way and just keep on keeping on. Hard work will pay off in the end.
No ma’am.. no shortcuts. I does pay to do things the right way from the start. Thanks Christy
I recall having a discussion last year about SEO and how to get on Page 1 of Google. A woman in that meeting stuck her chest out and told us that she is always on Page 1 of Google. Of course, we all became interested and gathered around her computer until she proved it us…as she googled her unusual name!
Bahahhaa, exactly it Rachel!
Always great points, Kristen, beautifully translated into layperson-ese – thank you! It’s great to hear a common sense approach applied to something that often mystifies non-techy types like myself!
Why thank you Reba, I do try to put it into terms that anyone can understand. Thank you!
Boom! You always tell it like it is, no nonsense, and I appreciate that about you. So many good points here, such as using the right tactics to show up in search and doing the hard work because it’s what pays off in the end. You know so much about this stuff! I used to dread SEO, but you’ve made the topic much better and highly understandable. Top notch!
Thanks Meghan, that’s all I’ve got.. 100% genuine. I am not perfect, but do my best to put out the best information… and in terms that make sense. I’m glad that you are finally getting on board with SEO friendliness
Excellent information as always, Kristen. You are so good at making geeky things understandable. I’m working on a site now where we have consistently ranked on the first 3 pages of Google search for our keywords…and this is organic, not paid. What some folks don’t understand is that your organic results in search may change from day to day, depending on many factors.
That’s great that the website you are working on is even on Page 3, 90% won’t get to it.. but hey there are only 10 spots for page 1 and a ton of companies. Great Jackie
Very helpful post Kristen on the importance of SEO for one and how to learn from the “right” ones that know what they are doing to help you get on page 1 of Google. Those search engines are so important and know how to show up to your potential customer is key! Thanks for sharing your valuable tips 🙂
So true Joan, search IS so important and isn’t a one and done thing but something that you do each and every month until you sell or close the company
These types of blog posts are super helpful for any business, no matter what size! I enjoy Kristen’s discussion point of how there are no shortcuts to search engine optimization (SEO).
Any entity or individual who promises a website owner page 1, position 1 should immediately run for the hills :-)! All that time and energy a website owner put into crafting their website, and should continue optimizing, will be wasted if malicious (black hat) tactics were used to gain an upper hand. As Kristen said, Google is smarter than those black hat SEO folks.
Ask the necessary questions mentioned in this article and I am sure you will be able to separate out the experts from the amateurs.
Great post Kristen!
That is absolutely it Andrew… if they say Page 1 and #1 ranking… you best run, unless that keyword is your business name or birth name, otherwise, it just might not be happening and any time in the near future either.
I LOVE this article, Kristen! I truly hope many people read this and learn from it. Too many think they can land page 1 right away and are getting ripped off by SEO companies telling them the same. I always suggest to my clients to get their business listed on directory listings BUT to make sure the listing makes sense, as you say here. I am bookmarking this article to share with clients and prospective clients – thank you!
Why thank you Mindy.. and I would agree, of course, business industry listings are helpful as well. Thanks for bookmarking and sharing!
I get emails almost daily offering to get my site on page 1. It’s so annoying. I’m there for a few keywords, but I’d love to be there for more. Here’s a question. When you look at page 1 and it shows a google + article, is that showing that to me because it is someone in one of my circles or is that google + article truly ranking? I’ve wondered and see how it could go both ways because a) it’s google, and b) it’s a social network so it could be showing things I have an affinity for.
Without seeing it, Jennifer, I would say that it was because it is Google… and right.. it’s social!
I’m sitting here shaking my head at how much value you always give, Kristen. #youareageek. Lol.
I’m the first to admit that I get confused about tags, etc. and how to do them. I got a SEO plugin and that has helped guide me somewhat.
Thanks for sharing! Question, you mentioned that having 2 websites is bad. I have multiple sites but they aren’t called the same trying. I have tandy elisala.com (my main site), coach tandy ( group program) and a few others for different things. Please tell me this is okay:).
I’m sitting here with a swelled head Tandy. lol Thank you so much.
I need to write a blog on tags and categories then.. but categories are more like a way to organize the blogs and tags are like keywords, just a few. I am glad you have an SEO plugin… but it’s only as good as the info you put in there.
If you have two sites for two different purposes and doesn’t primarily link back and forth to draw the same traffic with the same content .. then you are fine. So, sounds like you are okay. 😉
I am slowly working on all those tips for SEO. It is slow when you have a small, one person business, but I think I am getting better and better at it. I have heard of those who have used “poor” tactics. Personally I believe it will come back to haunt you when you do that. Slow and steady wins the race for me.
Agreed Karen… do wrong it will haunt you. I understand at being the small biz… so just do one or two pages each time you add a blog… you’ll be fine!