I want to be first in Google search results, or at least on the first page:

It’s possible, but not overnight, unless you’re willing to pay for sponsored placement. Everyone wants first page. Everyone. You understand that. The demand for this is so high that services have sprung up claiming they have a ‘partnership’ with Google (anyone can sign up for a ‘partnership’ with Google ‘ it’s free, and they don’t screen). These services usually offer to charge you a hefty fee to ‘guarantee’ you will get that ranking. Claims like this inundate the SEO market and set false expectations ‘ as though if you hire the right expert, this is something that can be promised. If you read the fine print a lot of those ‘SEO’ people have, or read their lingo carefully, they’ll either exempt themselves, or they aren’t actually promising anything ‘ they’re just creating excitement and interest. It’s highly possible to carve out a niche and get first page organic results in some areas. But first page organic results in all your search areas cannot be promised truthfully by anyone. No matter who tells you otherwise, no matter what their reputation is like, even if they have published a number of books and seminars, even if they know and are known by everyone. Think about this: as more and more of us are throwing away our phone books and using internet directories, who do you think dominates the first page of searches for most results? 1. Directory sites ‘ sites that simply charge for listings for lots and lots of people that do what you do ‘ including your competitors. 2. National sites that serve the entire US, have incredibly high page-ranking and traffic, and so also come up in your area. 3. Sites that have been around for a lot longer than you have and have achieved a steady traffic flow over time (Google pays attention to longevity ‘ in fact, new sites or newly optimized sites are placed in a sandbox to watch their performance for a while), and sites that have purchased their domains for years at a time, not one year (Google pays attention to that, too ‘ more years is usually better SEO), and sites that have keyword-rich domains and other search engine optimization features (that IS something you can act upon!). 4. Sites that have climbed the rankings over time, using a variety of techniques ‘ not sites that did a few black hat tricks and expected to be there overnight. It just doesn’t work that way. The sooner we get past the mythology, the sooner we can get down to you climbing the rankings through techniques that really do work, and dominating search areas that matter. Keep in mind, you may be focusing on the least effective search results ‘ why spend most of your effort on what produces the least useful contacts? There are some things we can do, quite often, to improve the likelihood of first page. But you shouldn’t give money to anyone who ‘guarantees’ it ‘ even if I manage to deliver the moon, promising it is really dishonest advertising