Number One Position In Google Search. Now What?

So you have added unique and useful posts to your blog or website frequently. And have worked tirelessly to get those backlinks to your blog.

And finally one day, you find your site at the coveted number one position for your chosen keyword or bunch of keywords in the search engines. Yippee

But what next?

The thing with search engine optimization is it is unfortunately a continual process. You have to continue working to maintain that number one position. Or your website may begin to slide in the search engine results pages. Especially if you are in a competitive niche.

So why does the decay occur? There are a few reasons for this

• Changing algorithms

From time to time, Google changes the algorithm which it uses to assign relevance to websites. Because of this it is important to stay on top of what is going on in the SEO world so that you can adapt to these changes. A lot of webmasters wake up one day to find their listings have disappeared from position one or even page one of the relevant keyword results pages. Sometimes this occurs as a result of a penalty but often it simply is an algorithm change that favours other sites ahead of yours in the search engine positions race

• Links devalued

Some links that you have created to your site may become devalued over time. Or the webmaster of the site your links are on could do a revamp and either delete the page your link is on or convert his put going links to no follow. This means a reduction of the SEO boost from your links.

• Competition

You have to keep in mind that not all your competitors are naive about SEO. In fact with the credit crunch and the rapid expansion of online marketing and increasing competition, a lot of website owners are gaining some knowledge about and applying SEO. SO what does this mean? While you are busy counting the dollars earned as a result of your increased traffic from successful optimization, some of your competitors are busy building more and more links to their sites and getting fresh content.

The good news is once you have achieved your number one position in the SERPs, you really do not need to work as hard to maintain the position as you did to attain the number one spot.

I have some websites that have been number one in the weight loss niche and the internet marketing niche for competitive keywords for a while now. All I have done to maintain these positions is, from time to time, post a few articles to the article directories with backlinks to the sites. And of course add fresh content. But certainly not with the same desperate frequency as when I was trying to get the sites ranked.

So if you have a website or blog that you have managed to get to the number one position for a competitive keyword, and if the resulting traffic is making a significant amount of income for you, take the time or do some outsourcing to make sure that this position is maintained in the long term