“Perfect”, as I’m using it, is quite different from “relevant.” For common search terms, there are thousands of relevant results: there will be no perfect result, since the search can’t be resolved that explicitly from an algorithmic perspective.

@ all: In real search terms, being #1 is very nearly irrelevant. Note that I specified media type as an important part of being a perfect result. This concept of Universal Search has made this an important aspect of search - the actual first results may not even be the type of information you’re looking for. As a result, you’ll inevitably end up continuing past the top results. Enumerating results at all becomes much more difficult, since you may obtain the first position for your class of result, but still appear as the fourth or fifth listing on the page.

@David: Yes, the actual search phrases people use can be mind boggling…

To make matters worse, I am always amazed when I review my server logs and see some of the strange ways in which people keyword their search strings. No wonder the concept of SEO is so confusing!

So, you can see that there’s a paradox between having a perfect search result and actually receiving traffic: it’s easy to accomplish a unique search result or top rankings only if you accept that the specific term for which you rank is very uncommon.

I don’t see that as a paradox.

Sure, it’s a compromise - you can focus your attention entirely on being #1 for a certain uncommon phrase, or entirely on being on page 1 for a more common phrase, or any mix in between. But that kind of compromise is not unusual.

Another thing to bear in mind is that if your site appears in, let’s say, #3 to #6 on the SERP, but is the highest ranking relevant result, it probably isn’t a problem that you’re not #1. If the results that the search engine puts at the top are less relevant than yours, a high proportion of searchers will still look at your site. It’s only when competing sites offering a similar service appear above yours, or when your site is so low down the list that most people will stop looking first, that you are in trouble.