Comments on: Not On Page 1? You Might As Well be On Page 30!

By: Dave Bascom

Dave Bascom — Thu, 14 May 2009 14:47:57 +0000

I think on the whole, Google does a good job putting the best sites at the top of the results. That’s why they’ve been so successful. But, like Dalesh says, it’s not always easy when it’s all automated, and when there is a huge financial incentive for site owners to game the system.

By: Dalesh

Dalesh — Thu, 14 May 2009 14:38:38 +0000

“I hope that Google in the long run will prioritize sites with quality content.”

I think that they try to do that but it’s not exactly the easiest thing to do since everything is automated. Link backs used to only occur when users found quality in a page and it’s content that’s why, I would assume, that this method was used. Now days, everyone just finds new ways to exploit that knowledge.

By: Tyrone

Tyrone — Thu, 14 May 2009 00:10:54 +0000

Definitely, the first page is where you get the traffic and the money too. I have a friend who run a very successful site on SEO and he is not working anymore. I think he earns around US$2,000 per month on adsense alone because of SEO.

Unfortunately, some SEO bloggers do not provide quality content. They just arrived in the first page because of link building and not really providing good content.

I hope that google in the long run will prioritize sites with quality content.

By: Jody

Jody — Wed, 13 May 2009 15:36:26 +0000

Yes, that is normally the case unless 95% of the results on the first page are focusing on broad term keywords and have no relevance. I see what you mean about being on the first page for a keyword, but people also need to realize this first page rankings usually best with longtail keywords otherwise you are wasting your efforts on non-converting broad keywords that never convert and only increase your bounce rate. SEO can learn a lot from SEM/PPC – broad keywords only increase bounce rate.

By: Dave Bascom

Dave Bascom — Wed, 13 May 2009 13:32:21 +0000

Yes, the money is on page one, and typically it’s worth the time, effort, and cost it takes to get to the first page, but I think there are some cases where the search volume doesn’t justify the expense. You’ve got to be targeting the right keywords, too, or you could spend a lot of your resources to get very little return.

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 13 May 2009 12:44:26 +0000

In general, you’re right. Page 1 is where the money’s at. But it really depends on the keyword phrase and industry. Certain phrases people will dig into deeper search results for. For example, if I’m doing research for an academic paper or business case and need a specific statistic then clicking through to page 2, 3, sometimes even 4 isn’t uncommon. Also, if you’re a small business in a very competitive, niche market, then being on page 2 might not be so bad in the grand scheme of things.