Search Engine Ranking Nirvana: A Transitory State of Bliss.

Achieving smashing success with Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a great feeling... enjoy it while it lasts, because SEO is a variable treadmill and if one doesn't keep running, organic search ranking results can fall fast and deep. Break out the champagne when you win but don't drink the whole bottle... you need to keep your wits about you. It's a tough SEO world out there!

I  recently enjoyed a grand slam success in SEO on Google. I hit a Trifecta + Bonus... an almost mythologically rare result in Google organic searchdom. Out of over 4,300,000 indexed webpages for an important search term, my related webpages from one website scored 1st, 2nd, and 3rd for organic search. An allied blog I run scored at 4th place. So I acheived 1,2,3,4 for organic search... very nice and exceedingly valuable. To hedge it all, I ran an Adword which ranked 2nd  for paid search ads. So I dominated 5 of the top 6 search engine marketing positions for that search term. In other words, I OWNED that search term on Google. It was MINE.

The short search term discussed above has high strategic value for the business... we cannot accept anything else but a high ranking in Google search.

I continue to dominate that search result today, but the ultra-perfect 1,2,3,4 + 2 result above was from last week, great for bragging rights but of no use today. My reality is what is going on now. And sure enough, this week Google took me down a notch and removed one of my 3 ranked webpages, but graciously allowed me to keep the 1st and 2nd ranked pages plus the blog at 3rd place. Why? Who knows? I can only speculate and take SEO action. The good news is that I still "own" that search at the 1,2 and 3 spots, out of 4.3 million potential competitors. My ad is also now number one, with no changes made to PPC. Now I'm at 1,2,3, + 1.

Go figure. Rankings can change quickly, never take them for granted.

For best results, one must remain alert and vigilant with SEO... total victory today can disintegrate into future disaster tomorrow if a well performing webpage for a competitive search term is neglected.

Every day is an adventure with SEO and Search Engine Marketing. SEO is kind of like a horse race. Make sure you're not betting on "Three Legged Wonder", hoping it wins the race. The Google Search Gods can be capricious... changing, advancing, and demolishing search results on what seems like a whim... using their inscrutable, dynamic and logical search algorithm. Good SEO, relevant content, and constant care and attention to your webpages will greatly help in achieving top rankings.

Learning to Live With The BOMB: Google Search

Questions about Google's Search Engine, Algorithm, Competition:

Another great question on LinkedIn prompted me to offer some search engine marketing thoughts on the dominance of Google and having to learn to "Live With The Bomb".... Google's Search Engine Algorithm.

Lead generation lives and dies by Google's Search relevancy rankings and evolving algorithms. Google Search criteria are always evolving. We depend upon high rankings to pull in quality B2B leads via Google organic search. In short, the Algorithm can make things very lucrative for us or very frustrating.

A few Google inspired thoughts:

1. Google owns search related patents, but the algorithm is a strategic, dynamic and proprietary tool... while patents offer protection they are public and eventually expire, competition can see your secrets and work to duplicate them once the patent is expired, or worse, create a 'work-around' of the patent and release a competitive product even sooner. This needs to be confirmed, but I suspect Google would not want to patent any version of the search algorithm for public viewing, a situation similar to Coca-Cola keeping the original formula for Coke locked up in a safe, and never patenting the formula.

2. I find Google's search results much better as a general rule, more relevant. They filter better, they handle 'similar results' better, they index more webpages, and they hire very intelligent people to work on making the site ever more relevant for the search engine user. This is one reason why technical and business professionals overwhelming use Google, as high as 80% usage. I often get strange or odd results using BING, Yahoo and all those little engines out there trying to survive or be the next Google.

3. Google is dominant because they had first-mover advantage and produced a great product early on. Everybody else has been playing catch-up ever since. Having praised Google, I have to say near-monopolies make me a bit nervous. I depend upon Google for business, I use it for my personal use search almost exclusively, I use Gmail, Chrome and other exanding bits of the Google empire. I even visited GooglePlex in Mountain View, California (Awsome). I really like Google.... but Google needs a worthy competitor to keep them on their toes and give us customers optimal choices in the market. Perhaps BING or a revived Yahoo can play that role in the future.