Thu 23 Aug 2007
Number 1 Ranking In Google. Is Your Site Good Enough?
Posted by Shaun AndersonHere’s a secret some seo companies might not want you to know about. The number 1 reason a lot of sites get number 1 places in Google listings are….
…they are good enough. It really is that simple.
This simple:
- Basic good practice on page seo guidelines.
- Sprinkle a few high quality anchor text savvy links at the site while avoiding like the plague any “get links fast” schemes
- ENSURE on-site navigation is google friendly, and coherent.
- Ensure the site is easy to update
…then, round of with some killer, original content that is of at least similar quality to other sites and pages competing for the targetted terms and you know what, after rinsing and repeating ad nauseum, you’ll probably rank in Google for desired terms.
I am often bemused when I visit Webmasterworld and see poor webmasters who’ve been banned by Google (which i suspect happens a lot less than people think) or have completely lost previously high Google rankings. I automatically think to myself, if I visit these sites, will I be disappointed? Do they have the content or is their position “link generated”? If they do have the content, have they screwed up the simple stuff? Have they made a big mistake, somewhere critical?
Google doesn’t owe anybody good rankings. Just because you’ve been number 1 for years doesn’t mean the position is unmovable. And anyway, is there such a thing as “Number 1 in Google” these days? Ever flux and constant updating ensures a freshness to the top ten, so in reality no seo company can guarantee any company prolonged number (insert number or page) listings - although many do.
Every position in Google is up for grabs. Instead of buying links, mass link-bombing of keyterms, mass registration of fake domains or trying to “game” Google, why not just add good content to your site and make your site “better”? Don’t worry - with practice, it gets easier. In time, rankings come - but only with good content.
Sure, some sites bend the rules and get good rankings. They may even keep these rankings for some time. But in the end, they are generally hit by changes in the way Google deals with things.
That’s what we help customers with. We consult with them to try and make sites better. For Google and visitors. It’s a long term strategy, takes a lot of hours, but surely it’s the only sustainable method for Google success for most companies.
And you know what? It works.
We don’t know how Google works. No SEO company does or can know (and if they do, believe me, they are too busy making money for themselves to help you). We are successful because we know the kind of sites that Google likes (this is common knowledge), and we help clients to try and develop these.
Sometimes it’s knowing what not to do rather than what to do that gets listed at the top of Google.
If you want us to do your seo, you’ll need to understand this. If you have a one page website, basically an advert for your company, we’re not willing to spam the search engines for you, as this isn’t common sense sustainable business for you or us.
There’s too many customers out there who are willing to spend the time required making their website quality for visitors and Google. We’re too busy helping them.
If you’re one of these clients who want to make their website better, contact us. If not….
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Sometimes all you have to do on some sites is change some title tags and alter some content and away the site flies - best I’ve ever heard about was someone who fixed a robots file and walked out the door SEO cheque in hand and the site ranked like no ones business. Generally all a site needs is a bit of TLC and a bit of gentle push in a certain direction to start it going. Once you get your site kicked off well it should keep going. A solid foundation and your website will have the best chance of survival
Comment by imjuk — August 23, 2007 @ 5:29 pm
i hope you’re right, i just finally found a focus for my blog and so i changed the title tags, and they barely got indexed by google, but no change in rankings yet. ho hum.
Comment by goyin — August 28, 2007 @ 4:18 am
Yes I totally agree, I use Digital Point a fair bit and some of the sites people moan about not ranking are just awful. Ok so Google doesn’t penalise you for having a rubbish design but it has to effect the number of people wanting to view your site and also linking to your site. I don’t really do the whole reciprocal linking thing much but I personally would never link to a site that looked bad or generally had poor content.
Comment by DolphinPromotions — August 28, 2007 @ 10:20 am
Number 1 Ranking In Google is not enough if your site doesn’t have good content. Yes I agree. Better sites content tends to keep rankings than a sites having a poor content. Better content plus good Link building Strategy and good On-page optimisation, I think these will help in making a better sites.
Comment by Rafael — August 28, 2007 @ 12:23 pm
Goyin - If you’re having trouble getting your blog indexed in Google make sure you’re pinging the right places. In the default setting you’ll be using pingomatic which should be fine. You’re in technorati etc so you should be getting spidered. If you increase your ping list you may be able to get mroe links for each post increasing the rate at which your site gets spidered.
Comment by imjuk — August 28, 2007 @ 1:52 pm
IMJUK - I heard that one too. I think the guy got $40,000 dollars as a fee to get a site indexed by Google (years ago) that had previously resisted all efforts by the client to get listed.
In the end, it was a few lines of code in the Robots.txt file that was actually preventing Google from indexing the site and once fixed the site was, sure enough, indexed by Google.
Not a bad return on 2 minutes work. An expensive lesson for the client (who probably still doesn’t know) but who in the end hopefully made the money back through sales from his new google friendly website.
Comment by Shaun Anderson — August 28, 2007 @ 9:27 pm
So often it is a few minor changes that make a huge difference
Comment by geri — September 1, 2007 @ 4:31 am
i´d like to know what these “minor changes” are. but i don´t know if so many blogs appear in a normal google search at all…
Comment by chilli — September 10, 2007 @ 2:08 am
Chilli, I would guess that depends on the type of blog and what the blogger does to promote there website. As mentioned by imjuk aslong as you have the ping settings working you should be indexed pretty fast. Most new posts I make on 2 newish blogs get indexed within 24 hours. Google seems extremely fast at indexing at the moment, I have seen some of my reddit submissions be indexed in minutes recently.
Comment by James — September 10, 2007 @ 8:40 am
Rightly said, knowing about DONTs sometimes work more than that of the knowledge of DOs.
Comment by BlogOxide — September 16, 2007 @ 5:26 pm
I have an SEO site, and the question was asked - why would anyone link to it? Interesting blog articles are certain one part of what makes a site linkable, like this article. The question is, how do you have the same on clients websites? How do you encourage the owner to post random musings about their industry and then market that to their peers? At least with SEO, we are inherently internet savy.
I advised a new hotel client to email each of their clients the day after they stayed to make a blog post about their experience, and to make a blog post on their own blogs linking to the hotel. The Hotel will also have a video booth that gets fed to itube… Intelligent use of social media. Will be interesting to see how it works out once implemented, and when they replace their flash based site… http://www.hotelso.co.nz
Comment by Michael SEO — September 16, 2007 @ 8:41 pm
Michael, that’s a great idea. And I think that’s exactly what seo is. A part of it at least. Adding good quality content, or rather encouraging the addition of good quality, relevant, content to any site (your own, a client’s, or in this case another site altogether, is one of the single most important aspects in developing a successful website, and of course, generating that odd link or two
Comment by Shaun Anderson — September 16, 2007 @ 9:48 pm
Could’nt agree more with original post nor the last in most all
That’s why we are here ON Google Page 1 or 2 quality text/copy content - forward thinking and excellent inuition - an insight into human behaviour and a flair for knowing what ITt is that IS the happy balance between writing for search engines and for human surfers to.
Engaging the both - Insight
Comment by MrFlicks — December 19, 2007 @ 2:04 am
“The number 1 reason a lot of sites get number 1 places in Google listings are….
…they are good enough. It really is that simple.”
Corny but true. Great post I learnt some new things.
Comment by Ryan the New Zealand Website Designer — January 2, 2008 @ 10:47 pm
Pingback by Shaun Anderson SEO » The Best Hobo Web Blog Posts of 2007 — January 3, 2008 @ 5:19 am