Mirror, mirror on the wall
So, just who is the greatest web design agency on earth? We only ask because we noticed that one of our competitors, Alienation, were trying to get to the number one spot on Google for this very search term, and they employed a number of Search Engine Optimisation tactics to get there (perfectly reasonably, we're not suggesting that anything underhand went on at all!). We're pleased to report that if you search Google for the exact phrase "the greatest web design agency on earth" they come out number 1 - congrats guys!
That set us thinking... We knew they'd done a number of things to achieve the coveted #1 spot: they'd written a blog post with that exact phrase in the title, and they'd also Twittered about their quest (and probably some other stuff too). Alan, our SEO expert, thought it was a wee bit obvious, and wondered if we could get anywhere near their listing by just adding a comment to a blog with the phrase in. So, some time a couple of weeks ago, he posted a comment on one of our random blog posts that said "Thanks for the tips Kate you guys are the greatest web design agency on earth!". And then we sat back and waited...
Today we checked our results on Google, and just with that one little comment (we promise, we haven't done anything else at all to Search Engine Optimise our site for the search term "greatest web design agency on earth") we're now at the #4 spot! Wow!
This just goes to show the power of blogs, comments and Twitter in helping with Search Engine Optimisation - and of course, how important having relevant content on these is to SEO.
Of course, this is all in the name of fun (with just a little competitive edge!) and we doubt that many people search for "the greatest web design agency on earth" in Google. Or that if they do, they take much notice of the results.
So I was quite surprised to notice that a number of agencies were actually paying for Google Adwords on those search terms! Do you reckon their sponsorship of that search term wins them a lot of business?!
Photo credit: Kirk Teetzel on Flickr
- Published: 25 March 2009
(we promise, we haven't done anything else at all to Search Engine Optimise our site for the search term "greatest web design agency on earth")
I'm sure this blog will get you up another place, I count 5 of the exact phrase in it ;)
But this raises the question of trust in SEO results -- how long will people 'trust' the responses from google? Anyone thats ever searched for financial services, real estate, ladies shoes or pharmacutical goods will know theres an awful lot of 'engineering' of results going on.
Just because I say that that a web agency has the largest quantity of trombonists doesn't necessarily make it true. Unless of course you found this post using those terms through Google. Sorry about that.
@William - you're quite right, we're now up to #3 because of the effect of this blog. We were at #4 without it. Personally, I'm surprised/impressed that one comment took us to #4 in the first place. Which was the point of the blog. Although, you're right, it does look like the point of the blog was to get us higher. Oh well, that's the problem with being self-referential.
@Andrew - I search for ladies shoes all the time! You're right of course, although I don't know if people expect searches on Google to provide them with 'the answer', or if they know they're just being provided with a lot of possible answers... and this is a subjective question, so they really shouldn't expect a definitive answer. Wolfram's wotsit will help where the answer is objective and calculable, but in this case they're just going to have to put up with a bunch of SEO-and-SEOs having a bit of friendly rivalry! Do you think we were wrong to see what effect one comment would have? Have you tried asking Google which web agency has the largest quantity of trombonists and seeing if your comment registers??
You're now number 1. Did you do any other SEO?
Hi David
All we did was use the exact search term in a comment on our own website, which got us to #4. Then we blogged about our experience (the blog above) and we Tweeted about our blog post. But no other SEO. I think this shows a) how well-optimised the tictoc CMS and site are in general (not for that specific term, just making sure that content is accessible to search engines) and b) how helpful blogging and Tweeting can be too. Hope that helps!
David - I should add that our Tweet was probably retweeted, and that I'm pretty sure that some people added the page to social bookmarking sites (like Digg, or Delicious) - but that is the power of social networks! I am going to get all Karate Kid and say something wise like - you throw a stone in the water and you watch the ripples going outwards.