How Do You Measure SEO Success?

There are many ways we can measure SEO success.

Keyword Rankings
This is a very popular measurement to determine success of an SEO campaign. Why? Simple. It’s easy to do (just feed your selected keywords on a software, select search engines, input client website, press the”Go” button and voila, you got a report) and easier to explain to client who thinks a top ranking is all that matters.

Visitor Number
Keyword ranking may be something someone can brag about. But does it really indicate success? Top rankings are good but if these keywords selected are so unpopular they are seldom ever used, they would hardly deliver any traffic to a client’s website at all. If a website is ranked well on popular keywords, it almost always follows that these rankings translate to visits to the website. So maybe a better indicator of successful SEO is through improved visitor number.

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Google Changes Page Titles on Search Results

An interesting observation I read from Philipp Lenssen’s Blogoscoped is that it is now possible for Google to alter page title on search engine results. From the blog’s example as well as examples from Ionut Alex Chitu, the changes are affecting homepage of business websites.

For example, if you search for napoleon engineering, search engine result would show “Napoleon Engineering Services” even if the actual page title is “NES – Custom Bearing Testing & Bearing Inspection- home – ball bearing testing”

I often mention the importance of page title as a key element in optimizing websites, but with this development, shall we say the power of page title has waned now that it can easily be overridden by Google’s preferences?

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Google Thinks Michael Jackson is Ugliest Person in the World

Taking cue from Search Engine Roundtable, a search for the term ugliest person in the world yielded Michael Jackson’s photo on top of the results.

As the world grieves the loss of King of Pop, this unsuspecting search term obviously angers fans of Michael Jackson. One might ask how does a search engine decide on which photo deserves to to be displayed once such term is used as search query. I guess part of the answer lies in the explanation at Search Engine Watch posted almost three years ago.

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Should Everyone Ignore SEO?

Belle and Adaline referred me to an article by someone on why everyone should ignore SEO now. I find it interesting but I’m not really surprised to hear such antagonism towards search engine optimization. I am sure many people share the same sentiment with this person. I have always read about how people practicing SEO are regarded as snake-oil salesmen who manage fly by night services that say empty promises and do nothing but empty clients’ wallets. That’s frustrating, not just to clients who have listened to broken promises but also to other search marketing professionals who are doing their jobs.

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10 Signs of SEO Scams, Fraud Tactics and Subplots

There’s a saying I often hear when I was growing up: Nobody will try to fool anyone if no one allows himself to be fooled. This piece of thought can be applied in search engine optimization, where a combination of personalities clash: demanding clients, pretending vendors, and more.

Here’s my take on businesses who should get rid of companies or individuals who try to get the business

1. We can rank your site in 72 hours!
Subplot: Within top 100 using your company name as search query.

This sounds too good to be true. While this is clearly a deception, this ranking pledge is very possible. Sadly, you’ll realize he did not make any commitment of first page ranking. We can rank your site in 72 hours, maybe within top 200 results for some unpopular keywords?

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