Posted on Wednesday, 30th September 2009 by CopywritingCat
I can’t believe it’s still happening. This is the Internet marketing classic SEO magic trick. But I want to be sure my readers get it.
Someone writes an enthusiastic article promising you can get your site, article and/or blog post on page 1 of Google. This is SO impressive. I have been on Page 1 of Google in some categories myself, at least some days, so you can bet I was curious about how I could do this all the time.
This time the trick appeared in an article that was published as a post in a popular online forum. Let’s call the author Marvin because it’s easier to use a name. The article included links to show where Marvin’s article appeared on page 1 of Google for certain search terms.
Now please start taking notes here:
Whenever someone tells you, “I’m on Page 1 in Google for Search Term X, so you should pay me for SEO,” stop. Do these two things.
First, look at the number of Google pay-per-click ads on the page. If there are no ads, or just a few, you might be suspicious.
Regardless, continue to Step 2. Find a keyword tool. (You get a free one at Google. Just google “keyword search google adwords external.”) Look up the term. How many searches per month does this term generate? Less than 10,000? Difficult to place but not impossible. Less than 5,000? Easier still. And less than 1,000? You don’t need to pay for this. Nobody’s looking for what you have.
It’s like placing a big billboard on a deadend street that gets maybe 3 cars a week. Not a great investment.
The more people are looking for your search term, the more challenge you’ll have to be on page 1 for that term. Not many people are looking for “canine urban princess,” which is an alternate name for my dog’s blog (www.CanineUrbanPrincess.com). I could own that page, but who cares? Nobody’s looking there. But thousands of people are looking up “city dog.” Getting on page 1 would be an accomplishment.
Back to Marvin’s article. You guessed it. One search term had so few searches Google wrote, “Unable to determine.” Sure enough, Marvin was on page 1. Marvin was bragging about it as a reason for us to buy his SEO tool.
Scratch Marvin from the list and move on.
Bottom line: All keywords are not created equal. If you’re going to put energy into getting to page 1, let alone hire someone, make sure it’s a keyword with LOTS of monthly searches.
And if you don’t know what I’m talking about, forget about hiring someone for SEO. You just might get creamed.
Comments (1)
Tags: internet marketing, SEO
Posted in Professional Services Marketing, SEO and Organic Search
September 30th, 2009 at 13:44
Thanks for this info. It makes a heck of a lot of sense and the newbies out there definitely needs to know this.