So, what value is there in being Nº1 on Google?

[artwebster]

I don't know how much this affects other people but I was just having a discussion with a friend about the merit or otherwise of being Nº1 on Google.

I believe that if you have to search using inverted commas to show up as Nº1 and are absolutely nowhere without them that you have been miss informed about your true position.

To try to demonstrate this, I asked him to do a search for his Nº1 keyword without the inverted commas and, sure enough, he wasn't any where near the first four pages.

There was, however, something a little screwy with the reults.

Although we both searched for the same keyword (and we checked the spacing and spelling very carefully) the only thing that was the same in our results was the number of results! We both had 7,700,000 results BUT the results on the first few pages were totally different.

On his browser there was a notice that Google had provided results based upon his browser history. On a quick check, only seven of the first twenty results were the same but they were not in the same positions.

Doesn't this rather make a mockery of all the work done to achieve Nº1?

[napoleonfirst]

Well, you will get 40% or more of the traffic for a keyword.

[Smokey_Joe]

Well, there is direct value to get out of position #1 on google (provided this is a search term people are really searching, not something out of the blue). However, google results are not homogeneous (as you have mentioned, they can be altered depending on the browser history or the geographical location). So it is necessary to rely on tools rather than the bare eyes, so to speak, to figure out the real rankings for the keyword you are targeting.

Once this one is clear, it is also worth pointing out once again that the first position is no guarantee of heavier traffic and that which will convert well.

[CTABUK]

The inverted commas are what we use for anchor text reasons, you can use then in forum posting if the theme is on topic. You may have been getting different results because of the geographical location. In fact you can get different results from different PC's ! I have gone through to my wife's office and said hey we just made number one for a certain search term and she gets different results! And she's ten feet away