Hi Marshall and Gary here,

We like to post on many and varied online marketing topics here at Small Business Internet Marketing. We are also fairly inquisitive – so when the experts say “ipso facto, this is the truth”, we wonder “is it really so?”

We have posted a lot of late about the Google algorithm and backlinks, or so called off-page SEO. We also recently posted a list of 7 critical on-page SEO factors for small business. There is no doubting the importance of PageRank and backlinks and most SEO experts hammer on and on about it, but sometimes the simple things are often the best.

The Small Business Internet Marketing blog has been running since the start of this year. We have been diligent, if not a bit anal, about on-page SEO. This is due to the fact that quality backlinks and a good PageRank take time and effort. It is not that we are not trying, it is just that it takes lots of time. If its one thing we know its that small business owners do not have a lot of spare time to chase elusive links. It is a bit like the chicken and the egg – good sites do not want to share links with a newbie or low ranking site with no presence, but a good presence requires backlinks. See the problem?

Like most new sites, we sat and waited for Google to index us. And then we waited to see where we would rank. After being indexed we came in at around the 80 mark for our main keyword – not bad we thought. After a month or two, and lots and lots of on-page work, we found ourselves on the front page of Google. We then for some reason suffered a Google slap and were banished back to the 80’s for a while. We applied everything we knew to get the ranking back up – but it refused to budge.

Then out of the blue (and ironically on Marshall’s birthday), we landed at number 2. We have remained at 2 or 3 since – based on a Google.com.au search for our main keywords or phrase small business internet marketing.

We use a great piece of software called Market Samurai which allows you to check the strength of the top 10 competition for your chosen keyword. This is a screenshot of the top 10 for small business internet marketing:

Small Business Internet Marketing top 10 search results

You can see the small business internet marketing blog sitting at number 3. But look how strong the sites around us are in terms of off-page SEO. Without going through all the headings, a quick summary is:

DA – domain age – see how there are all 3 years or older, very strong
PR – PageRank – 3 and up, again very strong when we are at nil at the moment
BLP/BLD – number of backlinks – boy do we have some work to do here
Title/URL/Desc/Head – do these use the targeted keyword

So we’ve managed to attain and then hold onto a high ranking based almost exclusively from on-page SEO. It makes you wonder.

The moral to the story – control the controllables! On-page SEO, particularly judicious use of keywords is totally within your control – so use it as effectively as you can. It does pay dividends. But do not ignore off-page SEO, it will help raise and consolidate your position but it takes time.

Yours business buddies
Marshall and Gary

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