The Search Engine Rank Increase Game Vaporizes Monthly

[mdvaden]

Thought it was worth pointing out that the big game for sites to rush for increased website ranking seems to be vaporizing weekly, just as the Alaskan and Califonian Gold Rush Days' mines depleted of resources.

It's not like SEO will never be around. Any site can get a tweak and optimizing that fine tunes it. But the chances of rating high in the rankings a vaporizing for the average website owner.

It is possible to succeed, with effort, content and time. But most website owners lack one or all of those. Or, contribute less of each than others. And there is an advantage to the website owners who have been on page one, and equally contribute effort and content.

If there were, say, 10 tree services competing for Google's first page 4 years ago, and if there are 100 tree service websites competing now, do you think all 100 can be top dogs by optimizing? If you think so, its time to see a phychiatrist or go into de-tox.

Not only are there a lot more sites, but Google changes the way it works yearly. There was a huge change just the past 4 to 6 months. A whole bunch of sites shifted around, regardless of optimizing. Really, only a handful remained fairly high in ranking, and consistently close to where they used to be. A lot of those stable sites were older sites, with not just decent SEO, but also a good chuck of content. But there's more that they did beyond just mere SEO that they won't tell you about, and I can't include here because its trade secrets.

So for those starting out, or getting used to this game right now, if you hope to use SEO to get high rankings and increased traffic, give it a try but go at it with no expectations other than making a clean website.

The glory days where new sites could reach page one easy have slipped into the past. All that remains is ONE first page on Google, with a multitude of websites growing almost exponentially.

Keep in mind that you will never advance by being sloppy about SEO or other techniques. Just don't stake your business on it.

[TheGoat]

I don't need to be page one on everyone's search, just those who live around me. So far I am one of the few with a website and my lawn service ("http://www.hungrygoatlawns.com) is seeing new business every week, even in the winter, because of it. There may come a day when there are so many competitors that I have to put in more than the 10 minutes a day that it takes now to keep me at the top of page one, but by then I'll have built the content it takes to stay there organically.

On a national level, yes it is very difficult to compete, but I'm not trying to sell service to the whole country, just my tiny little part of it.

Further, the search engines make their money by giving highly relevant returns when users search a term. if the search return is relevant, the user keeps using, and on one of those uses, may click a sponsored link.

Fret, not!
I'll be just fine. and so will you.

[mdvaden]

I don't need to be page one on everyone's search, just those who live around me. So far I am one of the few with a website and my lawn service ("http://www.hungrygoatlawns.com) is seeing new business every week, even in the winter, because of it. There may come a day when there are so many competitors that I have to put in more than the 10 minutes a day that it takes now to keep me at the top of page one, but by then I'll have built the content it takes to stay there organically.

On a national level, yes it is very difficult to compete, but I'm not trying to sell service to the whole country, just my tiny little part of it.

Further, the search engines make their money by giving highly relevant returns when users search a term. if the search return is relevant, the user keeps using, and on one of those uses, may click a sponsored link.

Fret, not!
I'll be just fine. and so will you.

If there are a few sites in a town that is handy.

I'm in Beaverton and that's a piece of cake to be in the top for a town of 80,000. Even to 150,000.

But in large cities like Los Angeles, Seattle or Atlanta, the number of companies is usually highly competitive. National almost is irrelevant after that level.

In Portland, there are dozens of websites for each niche:

Tree Service
Landscapers and Maintenance
Landcape Designers

Each niche has more than plenty to stuff the first page of results to overflowing. Enough so that the bidding for Google Adwords is competitive too.

But as long as you have little competition in an area now, enjoy it.

[matt spinniken]

TheGoat, you say that you spend around 10 minutes a day to stay at the stop of the search engines. Would you mind sharing what kind of things you do on a daily basis?

[mdvaden]

TheGoat, you say that you spend around 10 minutes a day to stay at the stop of the search engines. Would you mind sharing what kind of things you do on a daily basis?

Maybe they could explain what search words they had in mind.

I tested a simple search ...

"deltona florida lawn service"

And their website was 20th down the page? After 3 ads and a bunch of local results.

Maybe The Goat could explain that one? When I omitted "service" and used just "deltona florida lawn" they were not on the first page.

For myself, I tested "Beaverton Oregon landscape service" and "Beaverton Oregon landscape" placing #2 after the sponsored ads.

Beaverton's population 2009 was 86,000 and Deltona's in 2008 was 85,000. So the two cities are virtually the same amount of people.

In that case, it looks like the Goat is far below the benchmark I mentioned for smaller cities. They would get their clock cleaned in a major urban center. At least for those search terms. But if there are other keywords where they place higher, those would be interesting to see spelled out.

[matt spinniken]

mdvaden, good point. If you have a second would you mind checking out my site? I'm competeing in a smaller town area which makes it much easier, but I want to make sure Im doing everything that I can with seo.

I think you are right on what the average website owner has to look forward to in regards to search engine placement. I don't think that it will be impossible for new companies to do well with seo, it just will take more time and effort.

[mdvaden]

mdvaden, good point. If you have a second would you mind checking out my site? I'm competeing in a smaller town area which makes it much easier, but I want to make sure Im doing everything that I can with seo.

I think you are right on what the average website owner has to look forward to in regards to search engine placement. I don't think that it will be impossible for new companies to do well with seo, it just will take more time and effort.

Can offer one pointer.

You know all those small images on the page bottom? The associated or alt text in the code for those may be better with landscape or lawn words rather than just "Picture1" or "Picture 2"

Right click on my photos on my home page and look at the text for the photos, and you might see what I mean.

Nothing on a home page should go to waste if it can be used in some way.

[landscapebuilders]

SEO is mainly about getting links and updating content. Otherwise keywords in the URL.

[TheGoat]

Maybe they could explain what search words they had in mind.

I tested a simple search ...

"deltona florida lawn service"

And their website was 20th down the page? After 3 ads and a bunch of local results.

Maybe The Goat could explain that one? When I omitted "service" and used just "deltona florida lawn" they were not on the first page.

For myself, I tested "Beaverton Oregon landscape service" and "Beaverton Oregon landscape" placing #2 after the sponsored ads.

Beaverton's population 2009 was 86,000 and Deltona's in 2008 was 85,000. So the two cities are virtually the same amount of people.

In that case, it looks like the Goat is far below the benchmark I mentioned for smaller cities. They would get their clock cleaned in a major urban center. At least for those search terms. But if there are other keywords where they place higher, those would be interesting to see spelled out.

you seem kinda angry bro.

My keywords are simple "lawn service, lawn mowing, lawn cutting, lawn maintenance, and landscape maintenance."

As for the difference between the two search terms you mentioned, I have targeted "lawn service" as my primary keyword because it most accurately describes what I do. I'm just into my 2nd year and i'm focusing on growing my customer base while maintaining a high quality of service. For me that means expanding into new service offerings slowly. Irrigation or hardscaping for example, I'm focusing on delivering more than I promise.

Further I think we have all had the experience of entering a broad search term, like lawn for example, and have gotten lots of results that are not even close to what we are looking for. btw, I do come up on page one when searching "deltona florida lawn."

As far as google places, I don't yet know how to get my page ranked above those. I suspect that going down the road it will be more and more difficult to do if you have achieved that, as google is now offering "featured places" or something like that on the Place returns that you can buy for $25 a month, I think it was.

No one outranks the paid adds.

Lastly, I don't much care for your tone. It's very adversarial. Page one is good enough for me for now. I'm sorry if a person getting that result after less than 10 hours of studying and working SEO makes you mad. I don't mind sharing what I've learned because I know things will change no matter what I do, like they always do, and I will adapt, as I always do. As for benchmarking and the state of my clock, I don't really care, because I don't live and operate in a major urban center, I live and operate in a sleepy Orlando suburb. As I said before, I don't need to own the market nationally, just my little part of it.

[mdvaden]

you seem kinda angry bro.

My keywords are simple "lawn service, lawn mowing, lawn cutting, lawn maintenance, and landscape maintenance."



Lastly, I don't much care for your tone. It's very adversarial.

You sound defensive. Mainly because you expressed your attitude. You decided to enter the topic, so maybe you just need to deal with basic opinions at face value.

As far as your keywords, those that you provided show your site from the middle of the page, to the bottom of the page, to the second page or more.

Pretty much in line with what one of my earlier replies stated or connoted about a smaller city.

Also, for anyone else who might live outside the city limits for where they do business, see if you can have friends or someone search for your service and keywords from inside the service area. That can reveal more.

[TheGoat]

You sound defensive. Mainly because you expressed your attitude. You decided to enter the topic, so maybe you just need to deal with basic opinions at face value.

As far as your keywords, those that you provided show your site from the middle of the page, to the bottom of the page, to the second page or more.

Pretty much in line with what one of my earlier replies stated or connoted about a smaller city.

Relevance is scaled by location as well as search terms. From a local computer, excepting google places, I return #1 for each of my keywords.

[mdvaden]

Relevance is scaled by location as well as search terms. From a local computer, excepting google places, I return #1 for each of my keywords.

Hopefully you can stretch that out for as long as possible.

It seems that its easier to hold a top position for an extended amount of time, than it is to to try and rise from below.

I was surprised to see how close Deltona was to Beaverton, where I'm at, in regards to population. Basically the same.

Used to be just 7,000 or so back in 1963 when we moved here. Now over 80,000.