Editorial Opinion Shouldn't Google Get Real? Google vs. WebPosition in the context of search engine marketing reality — by Stephen Mahaney

In Google's perfect terms-of-service world, every search engine marketer and optimizer should be perfectly happy while...

Flying Blind!

But, somewhere between concept and profitability, Internet marketing professionals come face-to-face with a reality check that shouts...

Top rankings within Google's organic search results are
planned and on-purpose. Always have been, always will be.

True, it's not only smart to "play nice" with the engines for financially motivated political reasons, it also happens to be an integral part of good ranking strategy. Just as the flagrantly rude person at a cocktail party is ostracized from the social circle regardless of technical correctness, anyone who uses automation to flagrantly assault the engines can expect to be dropped from the search results regardless of need. It's just the way it is. To expect otherwise isn't being realistic.

From our view, we see four pillars of search engine marketing (SEM) that are key to a financially successful online presence in the real world;

1. great site content,
2. high quality and on-topic inbound links,
3. intelligent position monitoring,
4. making smart use of web analytics.

To expect a continuous online profit stream, one must align all four pillars to lend balanced support for your coordinated SEM efforts. Great site content facilitates links. Links are key to good rankings. Knowing where your pages rank is critical to making incremental improvements that increase site traffic. And, tracking analysis identifies where visitors are coming from as well as which site elements they're responding to.

If any one of these four pillars are missing, the roof caves in on your profit model. Obviously, without...