Am I joking, do I really think that Paul Simister is a brilliant internet marketer?
As it is me, I can say that I'm not bad but I wouldn't describe myself as brilliant.
I've put it together as a demonstration of a little bit of deception I see from "internet marketing experts" who sell to small businesses with big promises of more business from the Internet.
The trick is to demonstrate expertise by ranking at the top of Google for a search phrase that no one searches for and then producing it as evidence of their own skill in search engine optimisation and traffic generation.
In this case, my chosen phrase is
Paul Simister is a Brilliant Internet marketer
When Google has had a chance to index this page, I'll list how well it is doing in the search engine for potentially impressive phrases.
Update on August 28th, i.e. two days after I first wrote and published this article, I can share my preliminary Google search results with you.
For the phrase Paul Simister is a brilliant Internet marketer, this article now ranks #1 out of 4,970 results - check Google for yourself
That sounds impressive doesn't it? There I am, in the very top position in Google.
So what happens if I drop the Paul Simister bit and search instead for brilliant Internet marketer?
Wow - I'm still #1 in Google but this time out of 29,300,000 search results - check for yourself.
That sounds really good proof of my expertise. Perhaps Paul Simister really is a brilliant internet marketer.
I even checked that Google wasn't fooling me through personalised search. This is where Google automatically ranks your favourite (most popular) websites in a higher position for you than others see it. You eliminate this bias by doing you search and then adding &pws=0 at the end of the search string and refreshing.
Will I keep the high rankings?
Well I should keep the first but I'm probably not going to stay at the top position for the second because others will think it's a wonderful wheeze and put more effort into the SEO so they register as a brilliant internet marketer.
The Sad Truth - No One Is Searching For The Phrase Paul Simister Is A Brilliant Internet Marketer
No one is searching for Paul Simister and brilliant Internet marketer together and that's true of many other impressive sounding keyword phrases.
You can do your own research using the Google Keyword Tool. No one knows more about what people are actually searching for than Google. It's not without its flaws and discrepancies but it is the best we've got and it's free. There are paid for services but they use the Google data too.
It's fairly easy to use and your local Internet marketing expert may use it themselves to demonstrate traffic opportunities. There's just two things to look out for
- The selection of country searches or global
- Insist on exact match which shows you the popular phrases people are typing in. Don't use broad match because Google uses a special facility which groups together similar phrases and it can wildly exaggerate the number of searches.
Paul Simister isn't a brilliant Internet marketer but he knows some of the tricks.
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