I am a hunter of words. Today’s were: Vibration Analyzer. I slayed a 3000 word article authored by an entrepreneur that had sat, enthroned on the top of the SERP, for months, daring me to try my hand. He had the featured snippet, content enriched by technical expertise, and even a little note to their readers to “take a break, go grab some gummy worms and cookies, and come back!” A fearsome foe — victory over him was sweet, like sinking my teeth into one of the giant cookies he invited his readers to partake in. Ahh. I do hope to meet him again, somewhere on the keyword landscape, erecting one of his giant uber-articles for me to topple. How do I do it, you may ask? Well, ranking #1 is quite simple. Read, learn, and be masterful. All there is to it. Gather every knowledge resource within your grasp, visualize the tome of truth your readers seek, and deliver to them a text that burns with the fiery runes they ache for deep within when they type in the words “Vibration Analyzer.”
Here’s what I’m trying to say: lately, I’m taking more pride in my job. Being an SEO analyst is like being a writer and a predator at once. A warrior on the battlefield of ideas fighting for his cause, his company, to be #1 in Google for their chosen keywords. To explain, when I say I slayed the guy’s article, I mean I gave my company’s webpage a 500-word boost that speared us to the top of the search results for Vibration Analyzer. A vibration analyzer is a — you know what, Google it if you want to know. My article will tell you. You’ll see it has a featured snippet, which means Google gives it a place on its own little altar at the top of the SERP – search engine results page. Go and see for yourself. Featured snippets are worshiped above all other prey, because they give your page the power of the Google gods who saw fit to raise you up. People believe in them. A whisper in your ear you take for a fact, an engraved commandment that is actually many times a seat of power won by the apex predator.
Now, I’m a normal guy, not an apex predator. My company’s website is focused on renting niche test equipment to engineers looking to diagnose, inspect and measure things. We’re not Amazon. But when I hear the call of a competitor’s #1 ranked webpage… and, sitting at my desk, I take a deep breath and dive into the research… I feel like I’m on the fresh trail of some mythical beast, stalking it deep into the jungle, peering out from behind the vines as I catch a glimpse of its tropical plumage — a weak point! — and strike, my spear soaring into a vital I didn’t even really believe was there myself until I saw the spear sink in. Taste the blood of another’s loss… mount the temple of Google to the featured snippet… and you’ll never look back.
We writers, we live now not for beauty, but for the thrill of the hunt, and is it really we who should be the guardians of the SERPs, giving the people the truths they live by? We don’t know. We are hungry.
Richard Freeland 