Several years ago, back in 2014, while out driving in my car running errands around the city, I heard an add on a local radio station for a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) service that promoted a “local SEO expert” that was so good he would not even bother to tell you the name of his company. “Just Google Hutchinson SEO and you will find me in the number one spot,” the voice in the ad said.
I live in Hutchinson, Kansas, and I had no idea who this SEO expert was. When I got home I got on my computer and Googled. There he was. Well, at least there was an SEO company in the number one spot. It was a generic result, not a paid ad. I was surprise to see that it was not a hutchinsonseo.com domain name. It was not a local company. either, and that irked me a little. I am not really sure way. However, it offered a challenge.
I opened up a tab to my domain registration provider and checked on domain registry status for hutchinsonseo.com. To my surprise it was available. I immediately registered it. I did a little more checking on the Google search engine return pages (SERPs) for the term Hutchinson SEO and found three domains showing in the top two pages that had recently expired. I grabbed those too.
I set up basic WordPress website installations on hosting for all four domains and began optimizing the four websites for the term Hutchinson SEO. I have done a little SEO in my time and felt pretty confident. I linked the other three websites back to hutchinsonseo.com and did the same from some of my other websites. I did a few other SEO things that are not really magic but might seem like it to some.
The long and the short of it was, in less than 30 days my hutchinsonseo.com website was listed number one in search returns for the term Hutchinson SEO and the other three sites, plus two more of my own, and 4 of my social media profiles, ranked in the ten spots on the first page. If you heard that guy’s ad and Googled Hutchinson SEO as he suggested, you would find me in spots 1 through 10. He was pushed all the way to page two.
I got inquiries and did a little SEO work, however I did not actually do much SEO work in the local area. At the time is was not my focus, so a few months after proving my point (whatever it was) I gave up the websites and allowed the four domain names to expire when they came up for renewal after a year.
What really surprised me as I am writing this post now (December 4, 2023) is that if you search in Google or Duck Duck Go (yes, that really is a search engine) you will find my listings (social media and other websites) in the first 2 spots after any paid ads.
That is not to shabby after all these years!
And here is something else. I checked and the domain hutchinsonseo.com has come available again. It was picked up shortly after I let it go way back then by an SEO guy somewhere in the north west U.S. by an SEO guy whose last name was Hutchinson. He must have gone out of business or something as I was able to grab it just today.
Going into the new year, I am refocusing on online presence development and that includes SEO. So I am setting up a website on hutchinsonseo.com and will be working on getting it back up to spot 1 in the SERPs. I will not be working as hard on it as I am already represented in spots 1 and 2, but it will be fun to see how long it takes.
The moral of this story is not to brag too much about your skills in any field. Yes, share who you are and what you do and work on being found in search. Keep in mind, however, that no matter how good you are, there is likely someone better who can (and will) push you off the top of the heap. That goes for me too!
What we can all do, what we can only do, is our best. And if we learn our craft and get better at it day by day, we will do alright for ourselves. You can too. And if you do not want to do it yourself, you can always hire it done.
The time to hire your guide is before you get lost in the woods!
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