The SERPs Teeter Totter

Erik Karey Aug 3rd, 2007 13 Comments

Teeter Totter Cartoon Since I started this blog, one of my goals was to rank in the search results for the keyword ‘Internet Entrepreneur’. According to SEOBook’s Keyword Suggestion Tool, the phrase gets 2,342 searches monthly which is a decent amount and assuming I can rank on the first page I could get a nice slice of the pie. However with 28,300,000 different pages being returned in Google alone for the keyword, the competition is stiff.

What are SERPs?
Before I get into my recent struggles with ranking for a specific keyword, I think it’s important to understand some of the terminology. Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) are the pages returned when you search for a specific phrase in a search engine.

In the field of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) they are important to us because you ideally would like to rank in the first 10 results or first page of the SERPs. That’s because the first page of results is where most users find their information. According to a recent study by Cornell University the first two listings on the first page of the SERPs capture over 50% of the user’s attention.

SERPs Click Distribution

What Factors Determine SERPs Rankings?
It’s obvious that’s it’s important to rank highly in the SERPs for related keywords if you want to build organic traffic. However it’s easier said than done depending on how fierce the competition is for your keyword and that’s where the profession of SEO comes in. Some of the major factors that influence SERPs positioning are:

Title Tags
Anchor Text on Inbound Links
Age of Site
Keyword Use in Body Text
Relevance of Linking Sites

These are just a few of the factors that influence your rank for specific keywords. Take a look at SEOmoz’s article describing 25 factors that influence your ranking.

My Battle with the SERPs
I’ve entitled this article “The SERPs Teeter Totter” because for the last month or so I’ve been teetering on the edge of the first and second page of Google for the keyword ‘Internet Entrepreneur’. As I write this article I’m ranked 12th for the keyword, yet 2 weeks ago I was ranked 9th for it.

It’s been interesting so far trying to stay on the first page of results and my war with the SERPs isn’t even over. I’m still aiming to be in the top 5 for the keyword if not the first result. Teetering on the edge of the first page last month, I ended up having 43 people visit my site by searching for that keyword and as my position goes up I expect that number to rise. With 2300+ searches a month, I only received a little less than 2% of the possible traffic.

Stay tuned over the next month as I discuss more topics on how to increase your SERPs ranking and how to build organic traffic.

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13 Comments

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1

car news guy August 3, 2007

This is an awesome post. I’ve never seen that “hot zone” chart before.
My biggest problem is trying to identify what ‘keyword’ I should target in order to get more visitors to my site.
2

Erik Karey August 3, 2007

I would suggest using the keyword suggestion tool using a broad keyword and then look through the list it generates. Look for keywords with low competition and a decent amount of searches per month.

Also have a look at what types of sites are the competition for various keywords. Sometimes the sites aren’t very well optimized and there is room for you to slip in if you use the right tactics.
3

shaun August 3, 2007

I’ve never seen that hot zone either, thats really cool. What are you doing speical to rank so high for the keyword Internet Entrepreneur?
4

Gregg Hawkins August 3, 2007

Great informative post..Thanks for sharing. I’m by no means a professional in SEO, but I’m trying to learn! I just figured out how to use h1 tags for my titles haha
5

Erik Karey August 3, 2007

Shaun - I’ll be discussing my strategies on how to rank high in upcoming posts, so look for that.

Gregg - I’m not a professional either, but I’m picking things up here and there and testing them out. It’s going well so far and I know there is so much more to learn.
6

Marc Eilbeck August 4, 2007

well done with your ranking so far erik and good luck with staying on page one
7

Paypal2u Bloggers August 4, 2007

What a nice post. I thought my site is SERP compliance but after reading your article I found out that I might made major error on SERP. Anyway thanks.
8

Andy August 6, 2007

I’m new to all this so am reading as much as I can to increase page ranking. I’ve got to say, this topic was particularly useful. Thanks.
9 Ranking in the SERPs - Part 1 - Keyword Selection by Erik Karey: Internet Entrepreneur August 7, 2007

[...] I discussed earlier this week, I am in a battle to rank this blog for the keyword ‘Internet Entrepreneur’. And as I write this article I see that I currently show up as the #7 [...]
10 Ranking in the SERPs - Part 2 - Influential Factors by Erik Karey: Internet Entrepreneur August 9, 2007

[...] I’ve already given you a bit of background information on my experience with ranking in the SERPs and I’ve also discussed how to decide which keywords to target in the SERPs. Now it’s time to [...]
11

Simon's Money Notes August 9, 2007

Excellent post Erik. I’m only now starting to realize the importance of SEO, and applying it to my blog, so thanks for the input.

Simon
12

John Burton August 18, 2007

“Hi,
This is a good post. It gives me the information I was in search of.

I have a small query - I don’t have any spam pages or websites. Still I am encountered with messages like “possible spam”, “Spam”, and so.

Do you have any idea why it’s such?

Thanks.”
13 My Fall from the Internet Entrepreneur SERPs by Erik Karey: Internet Entrepreneur November 12, 2007

[...] case you missed them, here are my previous articles on Ranking in the SERPs: The SERPs Teeter Totter Ranking in the SERPs - Part 1 - Keyword Selection Ranking in the SERPs - Part 2 - Influential [...]