SEO: A Competitive Game
The top-left listing on the first page of Google is the first place people look. That's where Google lists sites it considers most relevant to the search
keywords entered.
This position is the "Fifth Avenue" of search engines. Getting search traffic means getting your listing as high up as possible on a Search Engine Results Page (SERP). This is called called SEO (Search Engine Optimization), and the people who help you do it are called SEO Analysts. SEO Analyists have many trade secrets, which is why they charge $2,000 a month for two kinds of work:
- making your web page content and code relevant to the keywords people are entering into Google ("on-page")
- placing links on other websites to your page (or site) to market your content ("off-page")
However, getting your listing seen by people is only part of the game. They've got to click on it, too! Searchers decide whether to click or move down-list based on three relevance factors:
- The Domain Name (an SEO analyst might suggest you change "Google.com" to "My-Favorite-Search-Engine.com" - be careful!)
- The Page Title (easy to change, and very important)
- The Content around the keywords (which shows the searcher how relevant the page is)
There are (by default) ten listings per page on Google. If your listing shows up on page eight (it's the 80th!), you might get found and clicked on..... However, if there are "up-stream" competitors, they'll get the clicks first, and you might never see them.
What if you can't get to page one no matter what, because the competition is too keen? There are only four corners to every intersection. Or are there? PPC is the fifth corner.
