My favorite example for Google, or engines in general, are the gold mines and gold rushes. Gold mine drew in thousands of people seeking to get rich. Only a few got rich. Some made a living - some wasted time. Either way, the facts of the case were that the resources were limited. Its amusing how many people hope to get the riches of Google's page one of search results, because every week there are more websites. In the meantime, the resources are limited. Page one of -say- 10 results, never gets any bigger. Yet, people still rush to get rich. I still think that a lot of it for 40% to 50% of the keywords and niches, is who got to the riches first, and which site is the oldest. Its often much easier for a top site to hold the top if they do their work right, than it is for an underdog to try and overtake the top.
Yeah, it kind of sucks for people like me. I'm only just getting into the webmaster business and may have to look to other alternatives than search engines to find traffic. I'm still going to try, though, and it's still very possible for new sites to get ranked high.
That's untrue. Keep working at it and you will get to the top. People are inherently lazy, and always rationalize that things are impossible.
No, that's untrue. You can't make a promise like that. Nobody can guarantee PR nor search engine results. That's why so many people are like sitting on pins and needles is because its unpredictable. The only thing that can be guaranteed, is that a webmaster CAN improve the content of their website each month. Don't deal out fantasy. One possible thing that's a bit of a guarantee, is that someone can increase their traffic. Because search engines don't stand in the way of gaining inbound links which are extra exposure (and things like that). But rankings are an absolute unknown, very unpredictable. Someone can be #4 today, and become #67 tomorrow - no control over it whatsoever.
The oldest sites who have been number one do have lots of links and usually lots of resources, but there is room on page one. If you do lots of link building and optimize your pages, you can eventually get a top spot. The oldest and biggest sites usually offer total crap. All you need to do is offer a better product and you'll probably do better. Plus, large sites have large overhead. If times get bad, they might go out of business and you can take the top spot.
Well, that's one way of looking at it. But you're ignoring the other mine that less people are interested in. Like the coal mine where you can get to possition one 'coz less people want to get their hands dirty. In otherwords, you might not get to page 1 for highly competitive keywords but you can for long tail keywords. It might not get you as much money as the competitive keywords but you can still get quite rich at targeting a variety of long tail keywords
Its really the same game in miniature scale. "Hawaii vacation" might be a gold mine. And its limited. Hawaii won't be changing its name this year. That's etched in stone. The "coal mine" might be "lug nuts for Yugo", but either way, its one of a kind. Its a resource that has its limits. About the only exception I can think of, are new fads or entertainers. Yes, its a bit like the gold mine scenario, but it is a new mine that someone may be able to get to first. Take Britney Spears of the Backstreet Boys - those are established mines with limited payout and resources. But every year, some new celebrity comes out, and occassionally a new product. Those may be opportunities ripe for the person with a competitive nature who wants to be "mine owner" rather some someone with a gold pan, or someone who had to take a job in the mine drilling for explosives.
it's an intresting example to explain the relation between google and people. in my opinion, there is only one think that google loves. it's backlinks. and google has huge filters and the new web site must pass all the filters which means you need time to get good traffic from google. shortly, google likes old sites which has backlinks
Find a niche, then work harder and smarter than everyone else in that niche. As long as the niche you choose isn't crowded with millions of other sites, this strategy will not fail. At least I've never known it to fail.
I target the small and easy words...when you put them together it brings me a lot of traffic overall...after a while I find my site ranking better and better for the big terms over time
"Can", but very often may not. Suppose there are 200 websites this year for "RAM" memory. Next year there will not be less. And if there are 400 sites in 5 years, it gets no easier. So anything is possible - just not probable. Either way, there's no sense in a new site not designing the best phrases they can think of. It can't hurt.
Sometimes I compare the time it takes to get links. Counting every second involved with thought, email, searching, coding, etc.. And I convert it to money terms.
I find this interesting as I have always wondered if Google takes gold in the shower. I think it does.
I am blasting through serps in my Real Estate niche (which is not small at all) and no one is going to stop me. my site is almost 3 months old and I took out other, older competing sites so please..... get back to work and stop whining. there is always something to improve.
Don't use a small exception to the rule as a representation of the averages. And when a year is over, please check back in so we can see if the exception is worth even using for an illustration. I've seen some site's "blast" their way to the top and get blasted back to oblivion. Lets see how the 1, 2 and 3 year outlook turns out. Still nice to hear that you are getting some success though. By the way, you said "niche" which we have already discussed with other vocabulary. Did you read the entire thread, since you are repeating a concept already covered as if it was new news?
It's not an exception if you know what you're doing. There's nothing stopping you from regging a domain, stepping in to a market and taking page one in a few months.
And again, nothing to stop you from getting stomped right back down, right? You just said it yourself. I mean, you stated it as if its open territory to anyone who can do it. If they know what they are doing, right? And how many dozens know what they are doing? A lot, right? So once again, we are back to the averages.