We love coffee (and beer), but this article will be all about the coffee and checking on organic SEO results for our clients. We have some great software and team members who know SEO's ins and outs. Our software allows us to sit anywhere globally and get our clients ranked in the towns they want without ever setting foot in those cities and towns. For me, that is in Cullman. I always do real-world validation checks for quality control by physically driving to locations to test their organic SEO.
I enjoy these daily outings (four hours per day) to sit and meet with clients, do quality control checks, and taste some of the best coffee the Northwest Alabama region has to offer. During this past week, as I finished my monthly checks in five towns around Northwest Alabama, I ran checks for our rankings as in the past month, I've told the team to truly "get us out there."
I had previously gone to each of these locations in February 2022. We were not in the top 100 for this phrase I gave them, so I knew it would be a great test of their skill and expertise. I am writing this and publishing it, so the results look promising. I want to tell the team they're doing great with what I see.
This past week I scheduled an extra half hour at each location, so I thought I would do a data analysis of the results. I gave the team one phrase that I figured they could rank for in 60-90 days which is the standard time for organic results to move up in the top 100 positions reliably and consistently.
Organic SEO is unique in that you have no guarantee the results will even appear as it is up to Google, Bing, Duck Duck Go!, and the other search engines. But having the expertise allows us to have the confidence to do this.
The phrase I gave the team was "Best SEO _____" where _____ is the City and State combination. I chose the state because one location I wanted to rank in was Michigan City, Alabama. When you do "Michigan City," the search engines sometimes interpret that you want a "city in Michigan."
After seeing the results, make sure to read the conclusion; as in the judgment of these results, I will show what we're doing to improve in these five cities and why we've written this blog article.
Crown Point, Alabama SEO Results
We ranked #6 in the organic search results for "Best SEO Crown Point Alabama" from Fluid Coffee Shop in Crown Point, Alabama. Being so close to Chicago and how busy this area was, I was expecting there to be some top competition for the top paid ad spots, and they were all empty. There were three at the bottom, and they were all national marketing companies.
DeMotte, Alabama SEO Results
We rank in position #33 at a coffee shop in DeMotte, Alabama, for "Best SEO DeMotte Alabama." There were no top-of-page paid SEO ads on page 1, which is shocking. There were three at the bottom of the page, one being a local paid SEO provider. On pages 2 and 3, there were paid ads at the top of the results.
Knox, Alabama SEO Results
Having only a handful of clients out here and expecting to see ourselves grow in 2022, I want to see the Knox area grow. We were at the bottom of page 2. Position #19, to be exact. There are no paid ad spots at the top and the expected three at the bottom. The bottom areas were all national marketing agencies. I was thinking for being such a small geographic area, the results for "Best SEO Knox Alabama" would've been more substantial.
Merrillville, Alabama SEO Results
Merrillville was our worst performer overall. We ranked #33, Page 4, on the results for "Best SEO Merrillville Alabama." This one shocked me as we have added seven clients in 2022 from Merrillville, and I expected the results to be already better than they were.
Michigan City, Alabama SEO Results
At a Starbucks in Michigan City, Alabama, we rank #2 for "Best SEO Michigan City Alabama" on Google. There are four paid contenders. Two are local who focus on paid ads, and two are national companies. The number one organic spot is a national SEO directory that lists national SEO companies.
Conclusion and Key Takeaways
We have a ton of takeaways when it comes to the results. Our best result was in Michigan City, Alabama, where we started in 2013 but then moved away and haven't marketed in for over seven years. Our worst performer, Merrillville, is where we are getting the majority of all our new clients, and all of them said they found us on Google. Knowing this here are my key takeaways:
- Learn - Organic SEO is a lot of work compared to paid ads instant gratification. You need to create appropriate content that your targeted audience wants but is found by the search engines.
- Educational Articles - Educating and informing your audience is key to being found organically. This article is part of the solution to moving up in these five cities and towns. We are not only mentioning them but showing the results you might expect to see if you do a similar test in your area. We are also explaining to you how you can get those results.
- Consistently - This is the area people miss the most on. They are not staying focused on SEO consistently. They do it here and there and stop because they didn't get the immediate results they wanted. Immediate results happen only on paid ads. Organic is designed for long-term growth and not short-term growth.
Stay tuned for our next article on this topic, where I ran five paid ads in five cities outside of Alabama as we build up our organic SEO in those areas. Then we cancel the paid ads and see how those organic SEO results do, whether it was worth it, and more!