BlueCapra

Using Technology To Solve Problems and Create Solutions

Where’s Alan Reeves? – One Year Later

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Where’s Alan Reeves? – The Final Post - Reaching #1Welcome back to my journey to being 1st on Google.  This is the one year anniversary of the finale, the final update for my attempt to rank this site first on Google for my name, Alan Reeves.  If you missed any of the posts, you can find the first one here and the last one here.

Way back on 6/22/14, this site hit #1.  It started at #91 and after 126 LONG weeks, reach the goal of being #1 on Google.

So, where am I now?  Well, I’m glad you asked… Here are the results from Monday, June 22, 2015

This week I’m at #17 on Google.  Overall, my top 5 results decreased 81 spots with 2 of the top 5 results occurring in the first 25 places.  As a whole, I showed up 8 times in the top 100 search results.  Hey, what do you expect after a year of not working toward a goal?A check at Google Images showed my picture at #20 and a total of 4 occurrences in the top 100 images.

Cornering the market – from Google to Bing

In addition to searching Google, I have been checking Bing results for my name, Alan Reeves (click here to do your own Bing search for Alan Reeves).  Here are the top 5 Bing results:

This week I’m at #5 on Bing.  Overall, my top 5 results increased 21 spots with 5 of the top 5 results occurring in the first 25 places.  As a whole, I showed up 11 times in the top 100 search results. Even after a year, my results in Bing have improved!  Never would have predicted that.

A check at Bing Images showed my picture at #10 and a total of 6 occurrences in the top 100 images.

Summary – The search for Alan Reeves

This journey was started about three and a half years ago, back on 1-25-12.  In that time, I’ve published 188 posts (including this one) on this site, BlueCapra.com, 143 posts on my QR code site, ScanThisGuide.com, and 115 on my laser engraving site, BookWormLaser.com.  That’s a total of 346 posts and a hand full of pages.

I’ve lost count at the Pinterest pins, the StumbleUpon shares, the Google bookmarks, and other social media marketing to spread the word about this site and the content.  Some of that sharing has worked but most has not.  Most websites do better with a consistent focus that is interesting to a group of people.  Apparently, trying to get to #1 on Google is interesting in the short term but after 126 weeks, it just drags on.

Overall, it was a good experiment.  I’m not sure if it is unique, but I’ve not found anything like it.  Most people focus on reaching #1 on Google for specific keywords, not your own name.  Of course, you name is just a few keywords but how you use your name compared to other keywords  is where thing get much more difficult.  Most people like to talk about themselves but imagine how boring it would be to write hundreds of articles about yourself.  Of course, articles and posts are not the only way to increase your ranking but it works for many keywords and eventually, for your own name.

Having a community, tribe, or following helps in an undertaking like this.  Unfortunately, I started as a relatively unknown person and did not progress much in the big scheme of things.  I did find a bunch more guys named Alan Reeves from around the world.  You never know who is out there in the wide, wide world.

In the end, this series of posts taught me a lot about the web, SEO, and persistence, among other things.  I hope you have gained some insight as well.  If you learned something along this journey with me, leave a comment and let me know.  Now, go out, take a chance, and do an experiment for yourself.

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