Google search engine

If you’ve been around online marketing for long enough it’s highly likely you’ll hear somebody make the claim, ‘I can guarantee you number 1 position on Google natural listing!’ Obviously this is a fantastic claim but can it be true, is it possible to guarantee it?

Achieving a number 1 position on Google can be very difficult but it can also be relatively straight forward. The main factor to account for is competition. If the chosen search term is a long multi-word string with only a few other sites ranked for that term, none of which are focused on that term then it should be quite simple. However if your chosen search term is a single word with a huge amount of competition, with a great deal of this competition focused on that term then it is going to be a lot more difficult, however it is certainly not impossible.

I had the opportunity to work with one client where part of the strategy was to focus on a single word search term which was the most generic one for their market where this term was highly competitive, having around 85 million results on Google. Well we did achieve the number 1 natural ranking,  but this was at the cost of other parts of the strategy. Subsequently we found that the competition, some of whom were much bigger than my client with much deeper pockets didn’t want to be pushed down the rankings and reinvested heavily in regaining the position. We also found out that the word we had chased so hard wasn’t particularly good in terms of return for our extra investment. An interesting learning curve knowing that we could achieve number 1 position for a highly competitive search term and equally interesting to know it didn’t necessarily give us the edge in our strategy. It should be noted the cost of achieving this was significant and the resources at hand where not just those of the client. I have to say I gave far more than I had to myself as I was keen to see what we could achieve given the opportunity. This was a definitely one-off, if I had had multiple clients at the same time with the same requirement I certainly wouldn’t of been able to do the same for them all.

The answer to the question whether you can guarantee number 1 position on Google is yes, in theory you can achieve a number 1 position for anything. However to do this you will have to have the appropriate resources. If the term you are chasing is highly competitive these resources are going to have to be significant. Of course it helps if you know what you are doing so that you might be able to limit the splurge of resources to the minimum required but this could still be considerable. If someone tells you they can guarantee you a number 1 natural position on Google then you need to tread very cautiously. Of course for any term it’s possible as there is always a number 1 position on Google but if it is being guaranteed then I would be highly suspicious.

Google SEO starter guide

If you are just starting out learning about SEO you might like to know that Google provides a handy little PDF document to help you out. I am still surprised when a client assumes that Google wouldn’t provide you with this sort of basic information. Google isn’t a closed book and they do want new website owners to better understand how to achieve a proper Google ranking. Please remember Google is vehicle to search for websites and it is in their interest for all websites to be optimised for search engines so they easily understand those sites’ content and therefore how significant a ranking it should be awarding for appropriate searches.

If you haven’t already read the starter guide then I highly recommend you spend 20 minutes doing so.

Update: This guide has just been released in a variety of other languages.

Google search engine optimization starter guide

One thing in common all online marketing agencies have is no matter what they specialise in is they will all tell you the same thing, that they know what they are doing! This might not surprise you as any business worth its salt should know what it is doing, however this isn’t always the case with all O.M Agencies.

Online marketing is a relatively new field to some extent with new techniques being continually developed. With the exception of a select few nobody could truely claim to know everything about it, myself included. Beware of anyone who does! If they don’t own Google, Microsoft or other global superpower, or can back it up through the billions in the bank they have accumulated through this knowledge then I suggest you tread very carefully before entangling yourself in legally binding contracts or handing over the reigns of your online marketing to a self proclaimed guru.

Now I don’t want to tell you all online marketing agencies are snake oil salesman, in fact far from it. But, in my experience there are plenty that are. So how can you tell which one is and which one isn’t? Well to begin with you need to forget about finding an agency, your first question should be ‘What am I am looking to achieve through online marketing?’ and your second, ‘What is my online marketing strategy?’.

Until you know what you are looking to achieve through online marketing you should stay clear of O.M Agencies  altogether. There are not many companies that will turn away business of value to them irrespective of whether or not it provides value to you. Therefore evaluate what you are looking to achieve through online marketing first, then decide if you want to use an agency or not.

Your decision to use an agency should be based on whether that agency is capable of delivering what you need and whether that delivery is going to be cost effective against the return you expect to see.