By: Stoney deGeyter | Source: isedb.com

Since the late 90’s top search engine rankings have been the thing to have, if you’re a website owner of course. Only lately has the SEO industry begun to try to move away from the "rankings are everything" mindset and focus on more traditional marketing aspects at the same time. It’s not been an easy process as "rankings" have been beat into our web-heads for so long. Many SEO companies themselves are having a hard time making the transition, let alone business owners who still think that top rankings are a measure of success.

The real answer to the question, "What’s a Top Ranking Worth" is, "this much," which, of course, doesn’t provide much help at all. But that’s because the value of a top position for a keyword is determined by a number of fluid factors. In fact, if you really want to know what a top ranking is worth, you need to first answer these questions:

What is a Search Engine Worth?

The value of a top ranking on Google is different from that of Yahoo or MSN. Every engine gets a different volume of searchers, a different quality of searchers and a different intensity of searchers. Each of these plays a role in determining the value that a top ranking provides.

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By: Michael Arrington | Source: techcrunch.com

voice services and automated directory assistance (DA) provider TellMe, is being acquired by Microsoft. If that’s true it would be both strange and a potentially big deal.

Why strange?

It would be strange because Microsoft already has its own considerable speech processing assets. But it would also be significant because TellMe powers DA for AT&T’s 411 and now offers a number of consumer facing mobile-local search products (1-800-555-Tell) and TellMe by Mobile. This would give Microsoft, which has a relationship with US mobile carrier Sprint and various mobile search options, a very powerful additional tool in the emerging mobile market.

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