Page 2 to page 1

[S_Curtis]

I've found a lot of times it does not take much activity to get a keyword from ranking on page 3 of Google or further down to page 2 but there seems to be a hurdle from page 2 to page 1.  It is very frustrating to be between 11 and 15 but not being able to make that push to 9 or 10. Has anyone got or seen any data to justifiy this?

[Chris.Menke]

This is very common.  Often those sites on the top of the search results are the ones who's owners have put considerable time and effort into optimizing, while the ones lower down in the results may have little or no optimization (this depends on the search term and the niche).  Because of that, it can be very easy to pop up to page 2 with very little effort but moving up from there to page 1 is often the hard part

[Asjad]

Well,, It is Very Common that getting to Top Spot rankings is Difficult. Usually Its Easy to get keywords(Local terms) from Page 10 to Page 2 in a Month or so and then It takes alot of effort to get to Page 1.

Likewise, Its Easy to get to Spot 8 or 9 but Getting in First 5 spots always take alot of effort.

So Don't get worried and keep doing what you are doing and hopefully be on Page 1 Soon.

best of luck.

[S_Curtis]

Thanks Chris and ImWaqas, I'll keep plugging away.  Is it fair to say that with some keyword optimisation to get to grade A and some internal linking it's easy to get to page 2 but to get to page 1 there needs to be some out reach or social programme?

[Chris.Menke]

Yes, that's probably fair to say, although, in a lot of niches, you'll need more than just some of one or the other--it can take a lot of both.