Posted by: Allen - March 16, 2010

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That is the question...the number one question that I hear most often from customers and prospective customers. Specifically, "How do I get on the first page or two of Google searches?".

Everyone wants a website to be on the first page of Google using their particular search phrase. So there are probably a lot of websites competing for the top 10 positions for any particular search. One common solution to the age old question is to hire search engine experts and let them wave their magic Google wand and put you up top, for a price of course. That is exactly the pitch that is very common in my spam folder. Please don't fall for spammers and their tricks.

Be aware that there are such things as "white hat" and "black hat" Search Engine Optimization, or SEO for short. White hat SEO is doing things to your website that search engine providers approve of, and indeed hope you do to score the best you can. After all, their job is to place better websites ahead of lesser ones. Black Hat SEO is updating websites and performing activities to trick search engines into giving you perhaps a better ranking that you might otherwise deserve. This sometimes works but it can actually lead to negative results. Not all SEO experts practice the black arts, and some are quite legitimate and good at providing honest SEO services. The trick is to tell the difference.

However you can do a lot yourself in terms of SEO. Where do you begin? I like to begin with a question of my own - Is anyone linking to your site?. If you don't quite know the exact answer to that question, then this series of blogs is for you. Keep reading. I'll leave it for now by saying that increasing numbers of higher ranking sites that are linking to your site is what gives you a boost in search engines.

In many ways, SEO is like drag racing. I remember back in the 1970's, some guys were hopping up their cars and putting the petal to the metal. They spent many hours and hard earned dollars on four barrel carburetors, aluminum manifolds, dual point distributors, and exhaust headers, all designed to make their cars faster (or at least louder) compared to old factory equipment.

Now imagine if Joe Blow drives a factory car, changed its oil, and filled up with gas, but that's about it. Compare that to Crazy Larry who spends hours and dollars each day not only has an investment, but as a hobby and a passion, and in some extreme cases, an obsession. In a drag race between the two guys, guess who wins every time?

There is nothing wrong with saving money or running efficiently, but if you expect to compete with super hot rods, that may not be a realistic approach. Depending on your particular line of business, the competition might not be very steep. For example, if you manufacture coffee roasters, only 10 or so manufactures may exist. In that case, it isn't so hard to claw your way to the top of a relatively short pole. In fact, some lucky website owners find themselves on the first page without any effort at all. I can assure you that is not the case though for many realtors, trial lawyers, and others who must work much harder to earn top rank in a highly competitive online marketplace.

Getting high ranking sites to link to you is half of your new job as your own "SEO Guru". The other half of the job involves measuring the results of your labor. Years ago, I was once battling a problem with my air conditioning unit which nobody seemed to be able to fix.  An older and evidently much wiser repair man showed up one day and I told him my woes of high temps and high bills. He then spoke the following proverb that I will never forget. It's simple and it goes like this; "If you aren't measuring, then you're just guessing". Actually it may have sounded a little more like this. "If ya ain't measurin', then ya just guessin'".  He then grabbed his screwdriver off his belt and poked a small hole where air goes into the unit.  He then pulled out a digital thermometer and stuck it into the hole and said, "Son,you have leak in your air return", and sure enough I did have a leak, a big leak that existed for many years since my house was built. This guy really stumped some so-called "certified experts" with their credentials, calculators, and theories on why my A/C wasn't working correctly. Not one of them took a measurement of that part of the system.

This proverb is true when tuning a car, repairing an air conditioner, and guess what? Yes, optimizing a website for search engines. How do you know if you are making progress if you don't have any feedback on what is going on, if you are not measuring anything? It is important to get a reference point when making any journey. With a website, the journey begins with learning your Google Rank for starters.

What is "Google Rank" and how do you find out what your Google rank is?  Well I'll tell you. It's a number from 0 to 10, with new sites starting out at 0 and of course Google being a 10. If you have the "Google toolbar" installed, you can turn on "ranking" and see the rank of any particular website you visit. First visit your site and note your score. Brand new sites may be listed as "unranked" which is just as bad as a zero. After seeing your Google rank, visit your competitor's site and look at their Google rank. If you are a 0 and your competitor is a 5, well there's your answer to the "to be or not to be" question.

Maybe I should explain how to turn on "ranking" in the Google toolbar next blog. It is buried in there somewhere under "options", then "tools", then "PageRank". I hope you tune in for more.

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| | | | Article Posted by: Allen