So your website has a page that is doing well, but not sitting at the number one spot. Maybe you?re sitting on page two for a term that you?re working on.

Page two is good. Page one is better, obviously. But making the move from page two to page one can be tough, and a bit risky if you don?t know how to do it. Many webmasters and site managers see the page two listings and instantly start making a bunch of ?optimization? changes to get that page hopping up to the front. But what they get, more times than not, is a page that falls in the ranking rather than going up.

Why?

Most of the time it?s simply because they lack the experience to know how to make the adjustments it takes to transition from page two to page one. They assume that if they take a look at the pages sitting above them and mimic what their competitors have done that they will overtake them instantly.

Not true.

Moving from page two in the SERP?s takes a bit more than just revamping the site and copying your competition. Remember that you are dealing with algorithm?s here my friends. Equations that use a multitude of factors to position sites on the SERP pages to offer the best quality content to their searchers. Your factors in the algorithm are different than your competitor?s. Though you are competing for the same keyword or phrase, the ingredients you are using to get there are probably different than their ingredients.

In an algorithm, you can change different factors and still come up with the same answer. You can change different pieces of the algorithm, giving more weight in some areas and less in others, but overall, come out with the same numeric value. In simple terms, 2+2=4 but so does 3+1.

Make sense?

Now how this affects your site in regard to tweaking your content to move up the scale can be tricky. What are your site?s strengths? What are it?s weaknesses? Do you know? More importantly, does the person handling your SEO efforts know?

This is huge, because tweaking the site to move up the SEO ladder may not require one bit of tweaking in regard to the actual content. Your content may be perfect. You may need to work on your inbound linking. Or you may need to work on your outbound links. Or, it might just be a matter of domain age. Or, it might be none of these. It might be one of many factors involved in the overall search engine optimization of a web page. But knowing what these factors are and where your site?s strengths are in each are super important.

Because changing any of them without knowing what it might do is just gambling. Not good SEO.

Don?t gamble with your SEO efforts. Know your website?s strengths and weaknesses when it comes to it?s overall search engine performance. Make small changes where necessary, and take small steps. Wait to see how these small changes effect your positioning, and then start the process all over again.

Work at moving up one position at a time. Sooner rather than later, you?ll find yourself sitting at the top.

Chuck Crawford is an established e-biz expert. Founder and CEO of Crawford Business Development L.L.C., & helping countless people achieve online success spanning his 13 yr career. Clients include fortune 500 firms & personal startups. visit Business Blog Optimization or Texas SEO or call (559) 761-0910