Mark McLaren and National Workplace Napping Day: Why Google Search Marketing Is Not Yet a Science

When Making Communications Buzz got off the ground in April of last year, my second post was about National Workplace Napping Day. It was intended to be humorous, but now I guess the laugh is on me.

Here is one example of why search engine marketing is not a science.

Part of search engine marketing is search engine optimization, which means doing things that make web pages show up at or near the top of search engine results, like adding descriptive, keyword-rich text to the page, getting the right web sites to link to that page, making sure the site is listed in directories like the Open Directory Project (www.dmoz.org) and so forth.

When you hire an "SEO" or search engine optimization company like McBuzz Communications, you expect that they know all the right things to do to get your web pages to show up high in search engine results.

But there are always a few more variables to account for than even the best SEOs know about. Sometimes this leads to unexpected and, depending on your perspective, humorous results.

Take Mark McLaren (me) and National Workplace Napping Day, for example.

Do a search on Google right now for "National Workplace Napping Day". You will find this blog, Making Communications Buzz, on page one. Cool, eh?

No, not really.

This suggests that, out of about 459,000 web pages indexed by Google, Mark McLaren and the one-day-old McBuzz Communications blog had something important and authoritative to say about National Workpace Napping Day — on April 4, 2006 — and I was able to do so in a pithy 138 words.

Read the post and judge for yourself.

Now search Google for "Mark McLaren". You will find this blog on page 7, or maybe 8. Who's counting? Until a few weeks ago, Making Communications Buzz was basking in the glory on page one. What happened? I have no clue. As someone who makes a living telling people how to optimize a web page — among other things — you would hope that I could explain this.

My response is that, like Saturday Night Live's Middle-Aged Man says about his beer gut, I'M WORKING ON IT!

But can anyone explain why Making Communications Buzz should be on page one of Google results for "National Workplace Napping Day"? Some matters in SEO are just beyond comprehension. But this makes it fun and keeps SEOs on their toes.

And until I figure it out, look for me on page one of Google results for "Saturday Night Live's Middle-Aged Man".