It’s not about ranking first, it’s about ranking first for the right keyword

Many people make it a goal to rank first in Google, and it’s not a bad plan. The problem is what you’re trying to rank first for.

This is a common tactic that spammers use — they can promise you a #1 ranking as long as they don’t promise exactly what you’d be ranking #1 for, and that’s the key. If you have a website, you almost certainly rank first for something already, but it may not be something that users are actually searching for.

For example, if you search for “ weekly previews inefficient”, a post of mine from a few years ago is likely the first one you’ll see. But is that of any value? Probably not, as it’s probably not something that people search for very often. But hey, I’m #1!

It takes some effort to find the right keywords and develop great content to help surface for them, but it’s worth the effort. After all, anyone can rank #1 for something, so make it worth your while to rank #1 for something great.

Originally published at https://www.mickmel.com on June 13, 2021.