Twas the night before Linksmas, when all through the business
Many a creature was stirring, as we launched our new site with swiftness.
The website’s pages had been optimized with care,
In hopes that St. Googlebots soon would be there.
Our team worked late, instead of at home in our beds,
While visions of #1 rankings danced in our heads.
Cory in his pajamas, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a brief copywriter’s nap.
When in my office arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the breakroom to see what was the matter.
Away to my computer I flew like a flash,
And opened Search Console, hoping the site had made quite a splash.
The data revealed on my computer monitor
The lustre of new SERP rankings beneath Google's logo and moniker.
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a litany of authoritative links, and man did we cheer!
With a list so impressive, so authoritative and quick,
I knew in a moment Google would proclaim them "sick!"
More awesome than eagles these new backlinks came,
And I whistled, and shouted, and called them by name!
"Now, SEL! now, SEJ! now, SEW and The SEM post!
On, SEMrush! On, Moz! on, HubSpot and Yoast!
To a number of pages! Links Google would crawl!
Now send referral traffic! Referral traffic! Referral traffic from all!"
Optimizing titles tags, H1s, and meta descriptions can be dry,
But with these new links, our rankings would surely be high.
So up through the SERPs our keyword rankings grew,
Both with St Bingolas, and St Googleas too.
And then in a twinkling, I heard from the conference room
Surprise and delight; quite opposite of gloom.
As I collected myself, and was turning around,
Into my office Cory came with a bound.
He was dressed in appropriate office-setting attire,
And his clothes were cleanly pressed, coming fresh from the dryer.
A thermos of coffee he had grasped in his hand,
And the gestures he made were demonstrative and grand.
His eyes-how they twinkled! his smile how merry!
He jumped up and down, his delight was almost scary!
His eyes were open wide, as his excitement continued to spiral,
“We did it!” he said, “Our website has gone viral!”.
The stump of a pen he held tight in his teeth,
As more of my colleagues encircled him in a wreath.
“All our hard work Andrew, it all has paid off”,
“Even as spammers built manipulative links”, he scoffed.
We built links like Matt Cutts, with creativity and sweat,
And we were proud of them all, no link builder’s regret!
We crafted our website, and promoted it right,
And we outreached to every last relevant site.
“That’s how you do it”, Cory said, “to get the links you deserve.
Build useful content, and promote it to the audience you serve.”
Although the links came in steadily, it didn’t happen by magic.
Had we not done our research upfront, the results could have been tragic!
Cory said, “Okay, okay, back to our meeting”, and gave a thumbs up,
Approval clear on his face, as he sipped coffee from cup,
And I heard him exclaim, ‘ere he drove out of sight,
"Happy Linksmas to all, and to all a good-night!"
Happy holidays everyone! Cory Collins here—I hoped you enjoyed Andrew's delightful link-themed take on the classic "Twas the Night before Christmas".
We truly did relaunch our website recently with significant updates. It was a group effort, requiring long hours, never-ending critical thought, and care from everyone across the company, particularly our humble marketing department.
It's been well received by the community:
@Coryrcollins @pageonepower I dig how your value is communicated at a glance now. Well done, P1P!
— Don Rhoades (@TheGonzoSEO) December 8, 2016
@Coryrcollins @pageonepower but, just want to say looks really good and IMO resonates well/is true to your brand - two thumbs up.
— John-Henry Scherck (@JHTScherck) December 8, 2016
@Coryrcollins @pageonepower this looks great!
— Anthony Randall (@tonyxrandall) December 8, 2016
But best of all, the rankings and traffic we've worked hard to build over the last three years remain stable, with a few increases.
Thank you to everyone who reached out both publicly and privately to compliment the redesign and update. It was a long time coming and we couldn't be more proud of the site. We're excited for 2017 and the wonderful year ahead.
Most of all, a heartfelt thanks to everyone involved. This project couldn't have happened without tireless work from countless sources.
Thank you:
- AJ Odgen, our graphic designer. Without your creativity, vision, and style we couldn't have achieved the new design.
- Dawn Anderson: our web developer. You took AJ's vision and made it reality, patiently working through many iterations. Thanks for your work and patience, Dawn!
- Andrew Dennis: thank you for bearing with me as I updated copy over and over again, asking for copyedits after copyedits after copyedits. Thanks for your always honest feedback.
- Nathan Smith: your critical eye was cructial to preserving brand integrity and the high standards for which we strive.
- Jon and Zach Ball: your insight, feedback, and approval has always been the driving force behind Page One Power. Thank you for sharing it liberally in this project.
- Jan Schmidt: Thank you for your oversight and help. Keeping the project on track was no mean feat, and despite the ongoing issues you were always ready to lend a hand and keep us steady.
- Nicholas Chimonas: your technical SEO expertise was critical to ensuring we didn't break anything (too valuable) during this redesign. Thank you for reviewing pre and post launch!
- Thomas Swisher: Thanks for your analysis, analytics, and advice. We continue to montior the performance of our new pages and I appreciate you being at the helm.
- Countless others: throughout the course of this project we needed advice, help, expertise, and feedback from more people than I can reasonably name. To all of you, my sincere thanks. This project couldn't have happened without you.
Head over to our homepage and surf around. It's never too late for feedback—email me (Cory) at ccollins@pageonepower.com.
Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night :)
