Keywords: Take Your SEO Clues From Reality
A Search for Siri vs Watson & Jeopardy Brought My Post to Google Page One
What really brings us up on page one of Google search results? I just took a look at my blog analytics. As I frequently am, I was surprised at what people typed into the Google search field that brought my blog up on page one – out of hundreds of thousands to millions of results. For almost none of these specific search terms did I set out to optimize my posts. But, nonetheless, they came up.
The lesson is that no matter how hard we work on our SEO, the people searching will determine by their searches if they land on our pages. The further reality is that we may or may not ultimately be relevant to what they’re looking for – but we never know.
It’s just a good thing to temper our SEO efforts with an understanding that there are infinite queries that can bring us to someone’s attention. This to me is what’s so exciting about marketing online!!! It’s the ultimate in interactivity with our audiences, and the possibilities are endless.
Here are the searches that brought me up on page one today– plus the url’s for the actual posts that came up with the search results. How relevant do you think my posts might have been to the queries?
- siri Watson http://bit.ly/rMKrdw (same for all of the Watson siri queries)
- siri vs Watson
- watson vs siri jeopardy
- watson siri
- siri versus Watson
- how are apple’s siri and ibm’s watson the same and different?
- siri vs. Watson
- how to identify key messages http://bit.ly/slp4f7
- respect and listening lessons http://bit.ly/swDGrt
- jazz manager ken Blanchard http://bit.ly/vXTYyP
- emily post etiquette social networking tips http://bit.ly/srjnwa
New PR Words - and Music! 
What am I missing here? You put in special tags so your SEO is improved? I apologize for sounding clueless. What happened to finding a specialist the classic way like via one’s network? Do people google everything now for services and products?
Jim Matorin
October 25, 2011
Hey, Jim. Always glad to have your thoughts. today they make me realize that I wasn’t as clear as I wanted to be on this post. What motivated it was how people were finding other recent posts. I have good analytic software in place that lets me see that information and it can be quite helpful in creating and optimizing future content. Yes we put our blog info into categories and we tag specific references to people and companies and concepts mentioned in the posts so that the folks who are typing queries into search engines on those topics can find what we’re producing. What I wanted to get across is that rather than trying to game the system on how to get to Google page one, we should pay attention to how people are actually looking for information that brings our content up on page one — maybe not how we think they’re looking for it.
When it comes to finding qualified specialists, I think that all traditional networking activities are very much on the table. I just attended a networking group today and will attend another on Thursday and I network all the time on social media – you and I being a case in point — however we’re in a world of ‘trust and verify’. Anytime I’m recommended by a networking contact, I assume that I’m going to be googled and vetted online before a call is made. When the phone rings today with a biz opportunity, I know I’m well on the way to being hired because they’ve already checked me out online. Hope this clarifies the original info!
Ellie Becker
October 25, 2011
In a pull marketing world, we can be as clever as we want with seo, but ultimately it is the customer who decides whether they find us and then use us.
I get lots of spurious visitors simply because my website has sex in the title :-)( – the www is a random world where accidents (good and bad) can occur.
Thanks for this post Ellie.
Peter Cook - The Rock'n'Roll Business Guru
October 26, 2011