“But Can’t You Just Fix My Site So It Stays On The First Page Of Google Forever?”

You’d be surprised how often I hear comments like that from new and potential clients. And, while I could just flat out lie to them (like many companies offering SEO services do – mostly the ones who spam your inbox and have call centers with hundreds of telemarketers selling their services) -

But I’m an honest guy.

So, I tell them the painful truth… that SEO is a moving target, and it changes constantly. Yes, I can get them a first page ranking in Google for their most relevant keywords, but it will likely require some ongoing maintenance and work to keep them there.

Not only that, but “overnight” top three SERP (search engine results page) rankings are rare, and often fleeting at best. It may take weeks or months before their site gets in the top five (typically, I get much faster results – but you never know with Google), and there’s really no way to predict precisely how long that will take.

I may get fewer clients this way, but at least the ones I do get have realistic expectations of the SEO process, and subsequently are a lot easier to work with. (Besides, I’d rather under-promise at first, then over-deliver in the end.)

So Why Is Seo A Moving Target?

The thing is, search engine rankings are by their very nature dynamic and ever-changing. To understand why, we have to first look at how search engines find and rank content. Without getting overly technical, here’s how it works in a nutshell:

- Search engine spiders (sometimes called “robots” or “crawlers”) are software programs that are typically unique to each search engine. They are designed and built to constantly “crawl” or “spider” the internet, looking at web content and indexing information on that content in their vast data banks. They do this in an attempt to store (for future retrieval) the most important and relevant information on each piece of content (websites and pages, blog posts, videos, podcasts, etc.).

- In turn, search engines rank that content based on various (and varying) ranking criteria that are written into mathematical algorithms. The algorithmic programs (proprietary to each major search engine) crunch the data the spiders find, and spit out results that are the search engine rankings.

-  That way, when someone uses their search engine to do a search for a specific topic, they can serve up the most topically relevant content based on what the user requested.

A Quick And Dirty Explanation of How Search Engines Rank Content

The factors that search engines rank pages and content on are numerous, and include on-page factors (related to content relevancy) and off-page factors (mostly, how “popular” a page is on the internet).

It bears mentioning that nobody, except for the engineers at Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft, know exactly what all those factors are or exactly how important each one is according to the algorithm. So, SEOs do their work based largely on what has been proven to work time and again through trial and error. (Hint: If you’re going to hire an SEO, make sure they have a track record of getting results for their clients.)

On-page factors have to do with how often and where exactly key search terms show up on a page. Off-page factors mostly are related to how many times a site or other piece of content is linked from other sites, how topically relevant those sites are to the search term, as well as how popular those sites are in their own right.

As you might guess, the first place to start with SEO is the on-page optimization stuff. In fact, many times I can get an existing site on the first page of Google by doing nothing more than fixing the on-page ranking factors.

However, your competitors are all jostling for that top ranking as well. If they’re sharp, they probably have some idea of the importance of SEO too. So, they’re going to be constantly tweaking and tuning their content in an attempt to out-rank you in the SERPs…

Similarly, the off-page factors are also a constantly changing and evolving environment. Sites that may have linked to you in the past may remove those links. Or, those sites may go away, or their popularity may have decreased as other sites (and new social media) nudge them down in rankings and popularity.

More likely, however, is the fact that your competition is out there trying to improve their off-page ranking factors as well. So, while you may be on to of the heap one day, the next you may have fallen several spots.

Now, factor in the fact that the search engines (especially Google) are constantly trying to improve the accuracy and relevancy of the search results they serve up for their users. That means the algorithms are continually being updated and changed. (Ever hear of the Florida update? A lot of SEOs and internet marketers are still having nightmares from that one…)

And when they do, that top three Google ranking you were so proud of may very well go away completely – leaving your site languishing on the second page (or, horror of horrors, on the third page and beyond where nearly no one looks).

So, There You Have It…

That’s why SEO is a constantly and continually moving target. If you’re doing your own SEO in-house, make sure you are visiting and revisiting your rankings, and updating/improving your on-page and off-page factors on a weekly basis.

If you’ve hired an SEO, make certain they have a regular protocol they follow for “touching” and updating your site, rankings, and ranking factors. Remember, you’re paying them that monthly retainer for a reason, and that’s for them to be pro-active in (hopefully) heading off issues before they occur… not to react after the fact.

Note: No SEO can do this 100% of the time, but a good SEO is going to be looking ahead and will be pro-active in their search engine promotion strategy for your site.

So, now that you have a more realistic outlook on SEO, the next time some telemarketer calls to offer you “page one Goggle rankings at the unbelievably low one-time fee of…”

Well, you know what to do.

—