Whenever someone tells me they want to be in the first 10 search results I always ask- “why do you deserve to be in the top 10 search results?”
I recently asked a VP of Marketing that question . His company is the #2 market share leader in their category, they have been producing their product longer than anyone else and they have more diversity in their product offering that their competitors. Yet they don’t show up in the top ten search results. It sure sounds like they deserve to be showing up, right? Something must be holding them back.
As this VP told me “they are punching below their weight”. The good news is that it is much easier to correct that than if they had to produce fluff to try and get noticed. Getting top search engine rankings when you truly deserve it is very doable. It’s truly not very difficult to develop the content and linking strategy that gets the search engine spiders to take notice.
However, if you enjoy top rankings today but you are punching above your weight, please stop worrying only about what search optimization technique you can use next. To make sure you can keep punching strong, focus on developing a business that deserves notice.
Search engines are evolving and they are less susceptible to manipulation than they used to be. If you have a business that is worthy of being noticed, linked to, discussed, reviewed, commented on and/ or otherwise remarkable what you need is a search engine marketing strategy. If you don’t then you need to pray that truly remarkable competitors don’t develop a strategy until you fix your business.
If you focus on offering remarkable products and services then you can get higher rankings with simple strategies. If not you’ll live the life of a search engine optimist; good luck with that.
Are you punching below your weight?
Good Article.
WE won’t take an SEO job unless the search terms fit the client, after we get them to #1, if they are “punching ABOVE their weight” then the high bounce rate will knock us out of the #1 spot. So we always try and stay in the right weight class for the client.
.-= @steveplunkett´s last blog ..BBQ Addicts – a Bacon Explosion BBQ Recipe =-.
I agree. Often times we get clients that have been around for 20-30 years and have had websites sitting around for close to ten years and those types of companies really deserve that exposure. Often times it is very easy to get nice ranking for those types of clients because of the tremendous trust factor.
.-= Nick Stamoulis´s last blog ..Research is the Make or Break for your Search Marketing =-.
It's always fun to turn that questions around. I blogged about this a few months back and talked about why a website is a resource or of value. Prove that first and your rankings will follow. Great points.
.-= Aaron Weiche´s last blog ..E-commerce Web Designs: Let It Snow(mobile) =-.