Reflecting on Everett
Or how I got both the number one and two spot on Google for “Everett Tanker Fire”
Working for TargetSafety as a ‘defacto web guy’* has taught me a great deal. I was able to use what I learned to take both the number one and two positions for a rather major search tern for a huge news event without being a news source of any kind. So, I figured I should share some of how the process worked.
*By defacto web guy I mean the person taked with becoming the expert on SEO and social media. I work for a tech startup, so most of the people are much better programmers and tech people than I am, I just have my area of specialty.
Being Early is Being on Top
The fire happened at about 1 AM. When I got to work close to 9 AM the only report I could find that was already indexed was from The Boston Globe. They had a quick story and some pictures that did a great job of summing up the story. But there was really no other coverage.
I did not wait and think, I posted! Whenever you see a story that has not been well covered and you have anything to say, say it. Being the first blogger on the scene is the same as getting the exclusive photo. Waiting for more sources to generate a more comprehensive article will hurt you on the SEO side.
Don’t try to Beat the Experts
I did not try to ad anything new or interesting to the story of the Everett tanker fire. People one the scene and real journalists were in a better position to do that. Instead I focused on getting the pictures from The Globe to a wider audience (and properly credited the images). I then added my opinion about safety.
It took almost two full days for sources like the Boston Herald to rank above me on my particular search term. And I did not make any attempt to cover the news better than they did. This goes hand in hand with being early. By linking directly to the actual story I gave the reader who wanted to get the fulls news the access they needed. Every other reader could get my opinion and advice with some relevant imagery.
Use the Right Tools
If you are running a blog, make sure the right tool are ready to get you to the top. I use the All-in-One SEO Pack for Wordpress. I made sure to have all the appropriate META data in place so that the article could be accurately indexed.
The real power of doing this should be easily demonstrated by the fact that of my main blogs (Sustainable Democracy and this blog) were ranked. I did not take the number one result and a subpage, I had to distinct URLs stealing the spotlight. Neither one linked to the other. There were no tricks involved. Actually that is a good point as well.
Don’t Try to Trick Users or Engines
Everything I did was accurate to my article.
- I did not keyword stuff
- I did not link farm
- I did not add any embelishment to the news
- I linked to a more authoritative source
- I gave advice/opinion that was seperate from regular news
By doing these very small things I got an extra 500-600 views of my pages. And I felt good about getting an edge over the billion dollar news industry. I was able to make my very small and rather unknown blogs center stage for a huge state news item. And by following some simple rules of the road I am still on the first page of results (As of December 8th 2007) ahead of many major news sources.
So have fun, and get your site or blog ahead of the big guns.
