I must apologize for not posting in over 10 days, but I stumbled onto something interesting, and wanted to make sure it wasn't a fluke before I brought it to your attention.
I use WebPosition 4 to track how my rankings are doing on my preferred keywords at each of the four most popular search engines (Google, Yahoo, Windows Live Search and Ask, in that order). My blog's signature phrase, "future of health IT", is the one I've talked about on occasions when I reported my rankings. As of yesterday, I was celebrating my first couple of days on page 1 on Google. That's below the fold, so 80% of Google's visitors entering that phrase wouldn't have seen the link, but page 1 is two orders of magnitude better than page 2. Reason to celebrate, right?
Meanwhile, though, my second most favorite search phrase, "healthcare scenario planning", went through the roof. Well, there's no way to go beyond number one, I admit, so that's hyperbole. There's good cause for hyperbole, though - my blog has entries in positions 1 through 5, and has held them there since Monday.
That's an achievement. I've locked down "page one, above the fold" on the most popular search engine. I have a great presence on Yahoo, the second most popular, with results number 1 and 2. I'm on page 2 on Windows Live and Ask, but that's nowhere near as important as Google and Yahoo. Between the two of them, I'm reaching about three quarters of online search.
Now that's optimization for you! I shouldn't get too proud, though - the results vary hour by hour. I checked just now, and someone just bumped me out of positions 4 and 5. You can check for yourself and see how I'm doing by visiting this link.
What is the lesson I should get from this? I'm a faint voice in the conversation on the future of health IT. I enjoy my participation and will continue. But I rule in healthcare scenario planning. Now the job is twofold: to stay on top, and to parlay that knowledge into something truly useful - maybe even monetization.