November of 2007, I went to New York for my very first time. Besides having the time of my life, I didn’t notice much SEO buzz while I was out there (maybe I was doing the wrong things). I searched magazines, billboards, community event centers, calendars, etc. Not once did I hear of a SEO. Then I went to check out the competition on the SERP’s for terms relating to New York and internet marketing. The competition was weak. One night with some friends and my girlfriend, we all came to the conclusion that my girlfriend and I should move to New York city. I mean, we were having the time of our lives and in the world’s greatest city. Why not move out there? So without thinking about finances and my dedication to my job here in San Diego, I decided to create JameSEO.com in effort to rank high for New York SEO and any variation of it just in case we decided to make the move.
For the majority of 2008, JameSEO.com was #1 for the term ‘new york seo‘. This can pay tribute to naming my blog “New York SEO” in a couple blog directories and to my ‘I Love New York‘ Flickr account. I figured if I take a ton of New York pictures and titled them New York something with a new york seo link in every picture’s description, I would be able to compete. So I did just that. Of course, Flickr decided to nofollow their links right after this, however that didn’t seem to make a difference as far as relevance goes, maybe for Pagerank though.
Within a couple months of returning back to San Diego, I was ranking for a variety of terms relating to new york and seo. However as time went by, Google’s algorithm calculated that I had nothing to do with New York or being a SEO specialist. Slowly but surely my rankings disappeared from the SERP’s. I am still on the 1st page of Google for the term ‘new york seo’. But the traffic is nothing. More people actually search for terms like ‘new york seo specialist’ or ‘web seo ny’.
Well, I enjoyed my #1 position for new york seo. So you may noticed in my new few blogs when discussing key terms and local SEO, I just might use terms that will bring my site back up to #1 in my SEO examples. I don’t plan on moving to New York. But that term was quite possibly the easiest ranking I’ve ever achieved. Plus, SMX is coming to NY.
Through this project I’ve learned few things about ranking well on Google. If I had to pick Google’s top 5 ranking factors (based on this project) I would pick;
- Links from Authority Sites or Sites with High Trust Rank
- Similar & Almost Identical Anchor Texts in Backlinks
- Bounce Rate & Average Time on Site
- Average Pages visited
- Direct Traffic/% of New Visits
- Keyword Phrase Naturally in Body Content
These factors are everything to Google these days. Remember Google wants to deliver the most relevant sites that will give users the most pleasant experience. How do you see through SEO link building and keyword-rich copy writing? You use natural metrics that prove your site is the best for the visitor. ie bounce rate, time on site, % of new visits, consistent user paths, etc.
Long story short; my next few posts will be helping me rank for terms like ‘new york seo specialist’ and ‘ny seo specialist’. Basically I want my rankings back!
**UPDATE** October 4th 2008
… stayed #1