Getting Google search results

Yesterday I posted “Los Angeles non-techie needs web site” and today, when you do a Google search for “Los Angeles non techie” it comes up in the number two result.

Easy, right? Well, not so fast. While I am a little surprised at the quick results, it is not easy to make that happen. Here are the things that I did to make it happen:

1. “Los Angeles non techie” is not a common or competitive search term. There are not thousands of web sites that are trying to get to the top of that search result, therefore it was relatively easy for me to slip in there.

2. That post was designed to get a Google search result. The key term was right there in the headline, in the url, and in the page title — all places where Google looks for key terms.

3. The post was delivered from a WordPress blog, which is intentionally designed to make it as easy as possible for the search engines.

4. And finally, here is really the only reason that it showed up in Google search results so well and so quickly: I posted a link to it on my other site, West L.A. Online, with the key term in the anchor text (the hyperlinked text).

The reason the link on West L.A. Online was so effective is that it is a web site that I have been working on for over five years. It is well established on the web and in the search engines as a news and information site for West Los Angeles. It takes time and effort to establish that kind of reputation.

The point of this exercise is three-fold. First, it demonstrates that I have some expertise in search engine optimization (SEO). Second, it’s not easy to get get meaningful results from SEO. And third, it’s not too hard to make it look easy. Beware of SEO snake oil.