Staying Ranked in 2007
 by Ian Cook

Sustainable SEO/SEM is not just Getting Ranked, it's...
Staying Ranked in 2007!
—by Stephen Mahaney

There's an old saying regarding money that the only thing harder than making money is keeping it! That's a pearl of wisdom one might also extend to search engine marketing as in...

The only thing harder than getting ranked is staying ranked!

Even so, the fact is that wise people who make money know how to keep it and wise search engine marketers get ranked and stay ranked. Both share a common thread of wisdom. That is, they develop sustainable systems and strategies that maintain their success!

Conversely, 'get-rich-quick' and 'get-ranked-quick' remain the folly of the foolish. Even if either temporarily succeeds, they cannot maintain their cash or their rankings once the winds of fortune change direction. Always bear in mind that the race is long. Even those who appear to be leading with their short-cuts are doomed to be out run by the wise old "tortoises" that pace themselves for the long haul. Skeptical? ...well let's examine some facts going forward.

Sustainable vs. Unsustainable SEO

It's certainly no secret that we, search engine marketers, have always had a plethora of ways to manipulate our rankings within the search results. Some of these "manipulative" strategies are hated by the search engines while others are embraced. The examples are far too many to clutter-up this article but suffice it to say that strategies like relevant natural incoming links, keywords in title tags, and great site content are examples of systems and strategies (S&S) that not only help rankings but are also encouraged by search engines because they help them provide relevant results.

On the other side of the coin, S&S that employs the use of artificial incoming links (reciprocal linking, paid links, mini-nets, etc.) keyword stuffing, doorway pages and so forth represent systems and s...

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