1st on Google – Week 7

Welcome back to my journey to being 1st on Google. If you missed the first few posts, you can find the first one here, 6th Week update here, and the ones in between on my Project page. Below are the results as of Sunday, 03-11-12 (click here to do your own search):

• #3 – My LinkedIn profile (down 1 from last week at #2)
• #14 – My personal blog, BlueCapra.com, with picture (no change from last week)
• #17 – My profile page on 48Days.net (up 54 places from last week at #71)
• #29 – My profile on Vimeo – check out my video series Can You Etch It – (up 48 places from last week at #77)
• #59 – BlueCapra.com tag page; posts tagged ‘Alan Reeves’ (up 20 places from last week at #79)

This week was pretty good for my journey to 1st on Google. I dropped to the #3 spot for my first occurrence which is not so good, but progress in other areas made up for that drop.  Overall, my top 5 results increased 121 places with 1 spot down, 1 spot the same, and 3 spots up.  I showed up 8 times in the top 100 search results,  which is 2 more than any of the previous weeks.  Even though my first occurrence was down one spot, 4 of the first 5 results were in the top 50 which was an improvement over previous weeks.

Strategies for 1st

This week I found 8 relevant posts that I could comment.  I also submitted an article to EzineArticles and I am awaiting for it to be reviewed.  If accepted, that will be my second article on the site.  I did not devote as much time as I wanted toward reading other blogs, but I tried to get a little deeper into the archives of the blogs I did focus on.

I decided to change my strategy just a little.  Last week, I did a little research on the blogs I read to determine a rough estimate of their PageRank using this web site.  I then looked at my list of incoming links from Google Webmaster Tools.  I tried to concentrate my efforts on the sites where I already had several links and had a good PageRank (most sites had an estimated PageRank of 4 out of 10).  Commenting on other blogs is a long term strategy but I do monitor the referrals I get from those sites as well as the back links.

I am not commenting only to increase my ranking in Google but I am focusing my efforts when I have limited time on the sources that will potentially help the most.  I still read the blogs I normally follow and every now and then, add more.  My journey to be 1st on Google is not a task to be completed at all cost, rather it is a project to learn from.

Blogs I have commented on during the past week

CoachRadio.tv – Scared Out of My Mind

Expert Enough – How to Improve: 3 Must Read Essays on Getting Better Everyday

Expert Enough – 8 Wastes of Time That Can Actually Make You Smart

Expert Enough – Reach That Goal! 3 Key Steps to Get You to Any Finish Line

Expert Enough – Ask the Readers: When Can You Call Yourself an Expert?

Expert Enough – Can You Ever Lose Expert Status?

Blog of Impossible Things – Short & Sweet

Blog of Impossible Things – 5 Reasons Why Your Next Race Should Be An Adventure Race

Summary – The search for Alan Reeves

I’ve been able to make a good amount of progress so far, going from #93 on 1-25-12 to #3 on 3-11-12. That’s an 90 place improvement in 46 days. My name is most likely not the most sought after keyword on the internet, but to those with it, Alan Reeves can be an important marketing tool.

Stay tuned to see if next week is the week I reach the 1st spot on Google.  If you have any suggestions to get me there, leave a comment and let me know.

Click here for the Week 8 Update

(photo by scottchan)