Would you like to know how to rank no.1 in the search engines?

I thought you would.

OK, I’ll let you into the secret: I checked yesterday and, behold, found myself, yours truly, this very blog at the top of Google and Yahoo.

Do you want proof? Here it is:

14 million pages found for the search term ‘max alter’ (broad search) in Google. This blog is no. 1. And underneath it are my Twitter accounts and my Ecademy profile.

59.6 million pages found for the same search term in Yahoo and, yes, we are no.1, too. And underneath it are some other activities of mine. How they got there, Yahoo only knows.

Alas, on Bing, this blog is nowhere to be seen. My Twitter accounts are no. 1 and 2, though. 🙂  I guess I can live with riding the crest of the wave for 90 percent of online searches for this search term.

Alright, enough showing off. Instead, let me show you what I did to get there.

First of all, I did what my coach told me to do. I took action. Thanks, Alex.

It seems that I must have done at least something right; otherwise these results wouldn’t be what they are.

Here are the details:

• My blog is reasonably well SEO optimised. This wasn’t as difficult as it sounds since my WP theme (Thesis) was specifically designed (among other things) for SEO optimisation.
• One SEO element is still missing, though. I don’t yet have a meta description for my blog, but all posts are fully optimised.
• I have Google XML sitemap installed and activated.
• My blog is dofollow. It should be, shouldn’t it, after my two blog posts on this topic.
• I have a few supplementary pages that are not really optional since Google wants them on blogs/sites that are serious about being ranked: About me, Terms and Conditions, Privacy, Contact.

Here is a puzzling bit, to say the least: all this SEO and linking mumbo jumbo notwithstanding, you need to have content. I have only 11 blog posts in total (this one is number 12)!!! Admittedly, I also have a couple of relevant videos. Apparently, Google, and also Yahoo love them.

Some other actions that I have taken:

• My blog posts are automatically tweeted to my Twitter account (only the new posts, not revisions).
• I visited a number of relevant blogs and forums and participated actively. But this was only a small number of oil rigs.

All this has generated 151 backlinks and has brought 122 unique visitors to my blog, 82% of them from referring sites.

55 percent of this traffic, though, did not come from MWA – Alex Jeffreys’ coaching programme.

Maestro, chapeau!

So far, Google has indexed 24 pages, the last time 7 days ago.

That’s where I am at right now. Exactly one month after my first blog post and 2.5 posts per week.

I guess I am ready to get started now.

I’d love to have your comments and suggestions how I can improve the performance of this blog.