How Tricky is SEO?

by rob on July 2, 2009 · Comments

Search Engine Optimization. I’ve been looking at it with fresh eyes lately and plan to say more about it in a later post, but as I was doing some homework, I found something really interesting.

I was logged into Google and did a search for the word “the” in an attempt to determine about how many websites Google knows about. I was impressed with the results but for some reason I did it again when I wasn’t logged into Google – and the results were different! These screenshots prove it, but how did Google know to rank Colbert #2 for me?

Now you know why ranking high in Google is such a difficult thing to hit all the time. In this case, the people who do the SEO for TheColbertNation.com didn’t do anything different to rank #2. Google just gave it to them when I did the search.

I guess somehow Google felt like I was more interested in Stephen Colbert than Barack Obama? Or could it be that the #1 website is a clue (it’s satire!). Ha!

Save, Share and Enjoy:

BrandTastic

I am actually muddling through with something called RankTracker
from http://www.link-assistant.com/
They have a suite of tools. They just upgraded the tools and they work fairly well.

Most pros seem to use Web CEO
http://www.webceo.com
which I hope to upgrade to soon. I think both companies have trial versions.

rob

@Frank - excellent point about rank checking when not logged into Google. I need to go back and double-check some I just did for a site. What tool do you use to check rankings?

BrandTastic

Another quick point, if you are checking your ranking (or a clients ranking) while you are logged into your analytics or Google account with another browser or software, it may skew the results in your favor. Many times I was fooled into thinking that I had great rank for a client until I logged out and checked it again - then I knew that I needed to get back to work! This amounts to delivering results of pages that you spend a lot of time on when you are logged into your account like Rob pointed out.

BrandTastic

Such may be a taste of what is to come. Rumor is that Google will be "personalizing" our search results and giving us even more ways to segment our search in order to deliver us the most relevant results that fit our preferences. Seems like a bit of an invasion of our privacy, but I suppose if we have a Goggle account and we have history ticking away they will get a pretty good idea of what our "preferences" are without us saying a thing. Where it gets tricky is if they start to push out those kind of filtered results to those who don't have accounts. Another new "feature" they are playing with is ppc suggestions that will appear in the search box as you are typing. That happens now, but we assume that it is based on our cache or on the top searched things. Soon it may be a ppc event and if you choose it to fill out your search you will be delivered to a page that had a sponsor pay for you to get there. How far can we be from ppc in the Local (map) results too? One thing I know for sure, it will likely make it even harder for those of us who practice SEO!

rob

UPDATE: Steve Rubel just pointed out that if you're logged into Google (and have filled out your Google Profile), do a search for "me" and your profile comes up first!