This blog post stems from an email and question I received from a customer this morning. If you knew this customer, you would understand that it is a completely valid question. This customer has very little internet marketing experience and has been recently exposed to Google Analytics as a measurement tool for a web site that we have managed for him for a number of years. Now, he clearly sees the value of search engines as a traffic driver because search is the #1 source of traffic to his site – accounting for 52% of the total traffic to his site. Anyway, we just rolled out a second domain (that I will refer to as XYZ.com) that aims to provide quality content that is not directly related to his primary domain and business. XYZ.com is highly relative to where his business is geographically located and his primary service business, but aims to acquire visitors that are looking for his services but may not know it.
So, first and foremost, this customer is an authority on the topic of xyz.com and more than qualified to produce quality and value added content on the core subject matter. We have done a good job of ensuring an optimized coding/URL environment that makes it “simple” for search engine robots to crawl, read and index xyz.com. We have crafted the home page meta title, meta description and keywords sets and trained him how to write meta titles in a manner that includes a reasonable amount of key-word/phrase targeting AND human interest. I have impressed upon him that “Ranking, is only half the battle and you have to have titles and content that entice users to click and want to consume your content!” Of course, Google Analytics is installed on this domain and now he has 2 sites that he can monitor through Google Analytics. On his primary domain, he can now validate and justify his advertising spending by measuring how much traffic each referrer is bringing. So, for the first time ever, he can see and evaluate his ROI for online advertising spending. He can see the power of search engines (52% of total traffic) and see exactly what search terms are working for him. He can see (via average time on page for each search term) what content his visitors like and don’t like. He can see where visitors are coming from and make geo-targeted advertising decisions based on fact. He is, infact, in the #1 ranking position on Google for many terms that his primary site targets – and if not #1 – he is somewhere close in the running.
Now, just last week we rolled out this new domain with new quality and fresh content. It is not even linked to from any other relevant and trusted domains, yet, including his primary domain. He is able to produce good quality and relative content on his own and he is eager and as ambitious as an authentic SEO professional to do the hard work to get good quality, relative and meaning results (traffic.) So, he’s off and running and 2 or 3 days pass and I get an email that says “When will I be #1 on Google?” Again, this is a man and a customer whom I respect and admire and look up to in so many ways. This is not an IT marketing professional who understands the infinite complexities of SEO, and in his case, the question makes perfect sense. But, it is a question that, to some degree, is always asked – even if it unsaid.
So, rather than respond to his email with a long winded discussion and examples and demonstrations as I have done many times – I decided to do it once and for all and turn his question into a blog topic that I can send to all of my existing and future customers. Here is what I have learned, believe to be true and say to existing and new customers. In some cases I am speaking in hyperbole.
1. Nothing is guaranteed
2. Everyone, in every industry thinks that they deserve to be #1 for each and every search term in natural search
3. If we work smart and focus on the fundamentals of quality technology and producing quality and meaningful content in the context of the manner people are searching on it, we should do better than we are doing now.
4. The proof of concept and proof of results is seen in the work I have already done for you and for many others. (look at 52% of total traffic from search engines on your other domain. Without good/quality SEO that would still be somewhere between 9-15%)
5. You will never be #1 for “everything.” If you were – that would be a lie and I wouldn’t even value a search engine that presented “you” as #1 for everything
6. Nobody knows exactly what Google will do, but Google
7. First make sure your code is structured well, so that Google can find your content and read your content. Because if you have the best content in the world, but the code of the web site is not optimized – than its possible that Google won’t be able to find it, read it and rank it.
8. Google tells us exactly what to do in terms of optimizing code and producing QUALITY content!
9. But we didn’t really need Google to tell us about good content, we know what good content is because we are also consumers of content
10. When you do a search for something, you evaluate content without even knowing it. If you click on a result and then immediately click the back button – you weren’t happy with that result. If you click on a result and stay on that website and enjoy and consume that content for a long time, you were happy with that content.
11. Google (the Google robot) is at work 24/7/365 measuring all of this activity on your domain.
12. So, getting the code in order and knowing how to properly tag and title content is “simple.” And that is really nothing more than necessary and preliminary work.
13. The real work is producing quality content that people like, in the context of the search terms they used to get to your content. So, if you try to “trick” them by targeting key words and phrases and don’t deliver on your promise – they will immediately leave your site – Google is measuring that activity and you will not rank well – nor do you deserve to.
14. The Google robot is very smart. After all the algorithm that they own is ultimately all they have and one could argue that it is responsible for the 30 billion dollars (estimate) of business Google does annually. Google does not put the heart and soul of their business (their algorithm) in the hands of just anyone. Some of the smartest mathematicians, coders and developers in the world build and maintain the algorithm and instruct the Google Robot.
15. The list of things that the Google Bot uses evaluate any domain and every single piece of content on that domain is almost incomprehensible. How long has the domain been on the web, total number of pages, total number of links pointing to this domain from other quality and relevant websites, average time on site etc.
16. The one fundamental and simple truth is this. Google wants to find good, quality content. Infact it has to! After all, how valuable would Google be without any content? Not very valuable at all. So, if you are a quality content producer than you need Google and Google needs you! Because, like any other service or product, Google wants to produce the best possible results to its users who are relying on their product (the search engine) to present them with the best content
17. The best thing you can do is continue to produce quality and meaningful content and focusing on serving your visitors and potential visitors. Align yourself with quality and relevant websites and partners in your industry and get links to your website from theirs. But ready for this, if you produce absolutely amazing quality content that adds value, you won’t have to ask anyone for anything – because other websites and blogs will want to link to you!
18. The best example I can give is this blog post. Is it tagged right with a truthful meta title? I like to think so. Does the title include keywords + human interest? I like to think so. Does the content within this article speak directly towards the topic of the title in the context of which I presented? I like to think so. Is everything absolutely perfect in terms of spelling and grammar, etc.? Probably not, but I tried my best. Does this article aim to provide ultimate value to the reader, by helping to further and better understand SEO? I like to think so. Is this article the “end-all-be-all” on the topic of SEO? No way! Do I deserve to rank #1 or even appear in Google for the term “SEO Search Engine Optimization?” Maybe, maybe not. That is ultimately up to YOU, the reader, and Google who is measuring YOU right now to see if you do in fact like this article in comparison to the 100’s of millions of other people who would like to rank 1-30 on Google for this term. Did I put my heart and soul into this article and take 4 hours of my time to write it? Yes! So, from my perspective is it “the best” content on this topic? It is “the best” I can do and that’s all I can do. After that it is up to Google and You to determine ranking and all of that stuff. And rather than try to tweak the title of this article and make it more than it is and worry about if it will rank and where it will rank; I would rather spend my time and energy writing a new article that aims at providing ultimate value to my customers and readers, in the best way I can do that. Because In the case of answering the question that I was initially asked, “When will I be #1 on Google?” – I think I have done a good job within the context it was asked and I have added value to my customer by bettering his understanding of SEO. And, if this article results in him doing a better job of producing good, truthful, helpful, meaningful and relevant content than he will be better serving his search engine visitors and if he focuses on doing that – I don’t have to worry about telling him he will or won’t rank – it will be Google’s job to recognize that xyz.com domain is a source of good quality content. I have no doubt that Google will be able to find it and make that decision on its own – because as I said before, Google wants to find the best, most meaningful and relevant content!