Why would a perfectly respectable website find itself with a spam-blasted Google listing? Follow along and test your own SEO expertise as we walk you through this actual SEO case study. The solution may surprise you! 

In our book, Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day, we recommend a method called “I Wonder Why That’s Happening.”  What is this method?  Nothing more than following your curiosity in a systematic way to discover answers to questions about how your website appears in search engines.  In this case study, we walk you through the “I Wonder Why” steps and ultimately solve our Google mystery.

The Setup

Your friend mentions to you that she’s disappointed with her website’s performance in the search engines.  The site isn’t ranking well and she doesn’t know why.  It’s a comment you hear a lot, but you’re surprised to hear it from her.  Her restaurant, Providence, is one of the hottest places to dine in Los Angeles.

Of course, your friend is a restaurant owner, not a web marketer, but still...with great press and a huge clientele, shouldn't the website be doing well without much of an effort from the restaurant management? You decide to investigate, using your SEO skills.

What’s your first step? (Click on your answer to move to the next step.)

1. Take a look at the site.
2. Check the site’s rank on the search engines.
3. Check the Google PageRank of the site

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posted 7/11/2006

Like what you see here? Our book, Search Engine Optimization: An Hour a Day, is full of similarly easy-to-follow advice about organic search, pay-per-click advertising, and conversion tracking. See inside the book here.