Mark Royko + Associates

Some of the most common spam landing in my mailbox these days starts with the subject line, "Rank Your Site Number 1 in Google." These are always from fly-by-night optimization companies promising that their SEO techniques will catapult my site to the top of the search engine charts. These are easily as annoying as emails from Nigerian Princes, and they might as well be coming from the same offices.

Sure, it's possible to rank number one on Google, but for what term? How long will it it take? What will it cost? Will it be for paid search or for organic search? Will it be specific to a single landing page or to the whole site? Will it be qualified traffic that wants to buy a product, or traffic from some link farm in Uzbekistan?

If you're starting out with SEO, the first thing you should realize is that it's not all that difficult to get your site to the first page of Google for "a" term. But it can be a long road to get your site well ranked for the term of your choice. (Even this may not be what you really need because ultimately, the most important SEO term isn't necessarily the one you want, it's the one your visitors are searching for right now. This can often be a term that you haven't even considered and can change over time.)

What spam SEO emails wont tell you about optimizing is that it's not magic: It's a collection of techniques starting with analytic research, creating relevant content, implementing solid site architecture, generating reciprocal links and establishing ongoing engagement with your visitors.

Using these best practices as a foundation, it's then best to focus on specific actions you'd like your visitors to take. If you want to push a certain product, focus on that. Build landing pages with clear calls to action. Follow your visitors throughout your site. And when you're done doing that, it's time to lather, rinse and repeat. It's not necessarily a quick road, but then again, did you really think you were going to get rich overnight from a Nigerian Prince?