25 January 2012
On an almost daily basis I get emails claiming to get my websites to position one of google, guaranteed and within a week. This article explains why you should not fall foul to these claims and instead use a reputable company.

"Guaranteed position 1 on google within 7 days for your chosen keyword", "first result on google with a week"

These are just some of the claims I get eack week sent to my email inbox.While I just find these emails amusing, some of my clients have fallen for these claims and have parted with their hard earned cash. Remember, when something sounds too good to be true generally it is!

Why is it not possible to make such a claim?

Search engine positioning has so many factors that influence your result that it would be simply impossible to make such a claim. While I myself have managed to get a site to position one of google for a certain keyword within a week it is not always that easy, and certainly not gauranteeable. Each site is different as is each keyword. Below are some of the factors that will influence search engine results:

Keywords
Keywords are the term that is being searched for such as "doctors in bristol" or "energy saving lightbulbs". Each set of keywords is different and will have a different number of websites competing for results. The more bespoke or uncommon the keywords the easier it will be to gain high results for. So keywords such as "candle maker aberdeen" will have less competition that "candle maker" and therefore be easier to gain first page or even position one results with.

Competition
The number of other websites fighting for results for your chosen keyword. The more there are the harder to get high results.

On page
The page HTML markup, page load time, content, keyword weight, use of META tags to name but a few. This is a topic for discussion in itself. A well coded site that has been designed with SEO (search engine optimisation) in mind will go a long way towards high results. This is the first port of call for any SEO company.

Off page
Your site on the web. As the search engines crawl the internet they build a picture of your website, they see who links to your site/content and who you link to as well as the relevance of the topic. Then quality as well as the quantity of links matters. Most unethical search engine optimisation companies will simply create tens of thousands of links to your new site from link directories and dummy websites, you may see quick "results" but the search engines are wise to this and will penialise your site once they have discovered that this tactic was used. It is harder to get a site high results after it has been tainted with negative un ethical tactics.
Was your domain used for another topic in the past? Has it been recently registered? Is it on any web blacklists? There are hundreds of off page factors that search engines take into concideration.

Social media
Is your site mentioned on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedn, blogs, article submissions and forum links to name but a few.

All these factors plus many more decide the fate of your website on Google and other search engines, now you know whats involved in search engine optimisation do not be fooled by these "snake oil salespeople" as it is simply impossible to guarantee results!