SEO in Melbourne
Back in 2005 I got to no.1 for the phrase “SEO Melbourne”. It’s a pretty tough phrase as you can imagine. Since then we have stayed on page 1 but the last several months we have been below the fold. I’m fairly sure we’re the only company since 2005 that has remained on page 1 consistently *pumps chest*. Our first drop from the no.1 spot happened when we moved from our old Joomla website which launched as a Mambo site back in 2003 and I just kept upgrading because I was so petrified of losing our no.1 spot for SEO Melbourne. Don’t get me wrong I would much prefer a wordpress site to a Joomla one these days. The reason for our drop was complicated but basically I think Google recalculated where it should rank the new site and we dropped. With the Penguin and Panda updates we have always done well and moved up a spot or two. A lot of other SEOs though have not been as lucky.
Who looks for SEO Melbourne?
In my experience it’s people who are shopping around. Naturally the logic is “if you are a Melbourne SEO company and you rank no.1 you must know your stuff.” I would qualify that by saying all our ranking for SEO Melbourne at no.1 for so long, demonstrated was that we knew how to rank that phrase on that particular site. In the past, people who have found us under the phrase SEO Melbourne have been price sensitive. Usually we are too expensive for them so I haven’t really chased that phrase. Don’t get me wrong, would I love to be no.1 again? Of course! It’s great bragging rights. However it takes a lot of effort and as any business owner knows you need to spend your resources where you will get the greatest return. Over the last 5 years there have been a lot of questionable practices in our industry and a lot of businesses have been burned. One of the reasons I started my SEO Videos was because I wanted to demystify what we do. It’s proved very successful to the point that the videos have been the deciding factor for a lot of customers. SO I have put more effort into that rather than trying to rank for specific SEO phrases and it’s paid off. This is one of the things I tell my clients when they want to rank no.1 for a ridiculously generic term. Most of the time it’s not worth the effort.
Who should be no.1 for SEO Melbourne?
I interviewed an SEO Analyst for a job just over a year ago and he told me that their company got to no. 1 for SEO by spending $5000 on backlinks and creating lots of content. They are not no.1 anymore. That’s a lot of effort and resources only to have it taken away. Of course I’ve examined some other companies ranking for the phrase and it’s quite weird when you look at the content and the backlink profiles. Google is not making a judgement call. They are simply looking at ranking factors. On occasion I’ve had to turn clients away because we are already ranking their keywords for another client. I get asked if I can recommend anyone else and I cant as I have not used their services. I tell them I know some great people in the SEO space in Melbourne but cannot vouch for their work. So I don’t know who should be no.1 for SEO Melbourne but we’ll see how this post goes 🙂
The answer to the question you are asking
I haven’t tried chasing the phrase SEO Melbourne for ages. I keep an eye on it but really that is about it. With the recent Google Hummingbird update I’ve observed some things which I am testing here for an upcoming show. Fresh relevant content is getting rewarded more than ever. In Australia for instance my post last week “SEO Starts Here” went to no.1 for that phrase. That never would have happened 12 months ago. This post may actually have an adverse effect on our ranking initially as Google recalculates if it is more relevant for the phrase than the page I wrote three years ago. What do you look for in an SEO Company? Is it simply that they rank high for SEO Company? Or do you ask around, get recommendations and try to evaluate their work?
UPDATE: This is hilarious. I just had a quick look at another SEO Company’s reviews on places. They have thirty seven like this and Google puts them on page 1. Insane.
Jim’s been here for a while, you know who he is.
