Google Should Rank My Website #1: My Keywords Are Targeted To The Content

• Newbie Online Marketer Cries Competitor’s Keyword Ranking “Not Fair!” •
• How Can Non-Relevant Sites Out-Rank Your Keyword Focused Site? •

I recently provided a Complimentary 30-minute SEO Consultation to an individual I’ll refer to as “NOM” (newbie online marketer), who is trying to build a website to promote their computer accessory product.

NOM is very much a newbie, and I certainly can understand their frustration with not knowing how to deal with HTML codes, navigation, best-practice linking structure and similar issues. NOM was doing their best at targeting the few keyword phrases that exactly matched the product they were promoting. They had a few pages of descriptive content that I can say certainly did a good job of explaining the product, how to use it, what it cost, and how to order it.

But one thing NOM said to me was how they could not understand how “junk sites”, those that had absolutely nothing even closely related to the keyword phrases they were ranking for, could out-rank NOM’s website which did indeed sell a very specific product that was 100% related to the keyword phrases in question.

In other words, how come NOM’s Google ranking for “super duper computer accessory” wasn’t even in the top 100 results, but spam sites were ranking in the top-ten?

NOM’s comment, which is the reason I thought I’d share this with those of you who are brand new to online marketing and the reality of how Google determines ranking positions was this:

“I am going to package up my product and send it off to the owners of Google and tell them in a letter that I should be Number One for my keyword phrase “super duper computer accessory”! I actually make and sell a super duper computer accessory. Those others sites don’t!  How come they rank so highly?  They’re nothing but spam sites!”

Send your product with a letter to the owners of Google and demand a #1 ranking? 

No offense to NOM, but it was very hard for me to not break out laughing. (And if this individual is reading this, please … I mean absolutely NO disrespect by my comments nor by this post. I think your belief about rankings is not that unusual for beginners, and others can learn by your statement, and my reply.)

I had to reply that rankings were NOT, unfortunately, handled in that manner. That if sending a letter and your product to the big chiefs at Google was all that was necessary, well … maybe the organic search results would possibly be skewed more in the favor of “legitimate” websites. But yes, sometimes it just doesn’t seem fair at all as to how Google ranks one site above another.

So if you are brand spankin’ new to online marketing, and you are trying to learn (figure out) what “search engine ranking” is all about, here is a very very simplified way to understand it for now:

• your organic search engine ranking has to do with the relevancy of the content on your web page and to the keyword phrase you have determined to be what the content is all about;
• the number of webpages on your site containing quality content is taken into consideration;
• the age of your website is taken into consideration;
• the number of other quality, theme related websites that have a link on their site that points to your website helps your ranking position; and
• your attention to basic on-page SEO techniques is of great importance (please get a copy of my free guide “The SEO Edge” and learn how to write effective Title and Description tags, and content).

But here’s the kicker to everything I’ve just listed, and back to what NOM was angrily complaining about to me … somehow, junky spammy sites can rank above legitimate, quality sites. There can be umpteen reasons for this, of which I wouldn’t be able to answer unless I dug in and started to research each non-relevant website to the keyword phrase in question.

However, without writing a novel on this very subject, which trust me, one could easily do, I can tell you this. No matter how ‘unfair’ keyword ranking positions may be, I’ll bet you good money-$$ that ultimately those sites that right now rank well for keyword phrases which they really ought not to …they will drop-drop-drop down in rankings and soon will be non-existent ranking-wise for all intent puposes.

As my dear Grandma Sadie used to say, “Patience is a virtue.” And sometimes, in the search engine rankings wars … patience truly is a virtue! But in the end … our content rich, keyword targeted sites will  rank well.