You’ve got a website… Fantastic! Are customers finding you? Without a blog or advertising program, probably not. Having a telephone number is not very helpful if you aren’t listed a phone book (or online equivalent). The website is the same way – except that the “phone book” has been replaced with the search engine (with Google being the best known example). Millions of people are using search engines everyday to find what they want. It could be anything from finding a lawyer, a window installation person, or managing your finances better. If you rank higher, you’ll get more customers.
Let’s pretend you are Acme Corporation. While you’re business is doing okay, you really only have one customer: Wile E. Coyote. He comes to you faithfully every day in his attempt to capture the Road Runner. Problem is, he only buys a couple of anvils a month – you need to sell more. What if all the millions of people searching Google for anvils found your website? If you have a quality anvil at a fair price, you might expect a phone call, a sale, and a new customer – hopefully as good as Wile.
The difference may seem subtle, but it’s important. The people searching for the Acme Corporation directly are already likely to find your website. These people are also likely your existing customers or someone who has already been referred by someone else. The person searching for anvils doesn’t know you and won’t find you unless you tell the search engines that you are an expert on anvils.
How do you become an expert on anvils? You give the search engines what they want. The search engines are looking for four things:
- Content – Without content, search engines would be out of business. If you write about anvils a lot, the search engines are going to notice.
- Updated Content – It’s not enough to just write a batch of articles on anvils. You could put 100 articles up on anvils tomorrow and the search engines might be impressed. However, after a couple of weeks, they’d realize that you aren’t providing them with anything new and gravitate to another site on anvils.
- Page Layout – There’s a science to telling the search engines what’s important and what is not important on your website. Search engines really appreciate it when you help them out and highlight the important parts. This is often called Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in the industry.
- Links From Others – If other websites link to your articles about anvils, the search engines count that as a vote in your favor. These votes are tallied and weighed with the other factors
A well-architected, corporate blog is the best way to score big with the first three. Some customers may find that’s all they need to become “anvil experts.” We do provide services and strategies for the getting links from others making Buildify your a complete solution.
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Originally posted 2008-07-08 05:45:41. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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1 comment so far ↓
You know, my boss at ToysPeriod has a philosophy that I don’t understand.
His principles are as follows:
1)Never try to steal business away from anyone else. There is enough for everyone. If we steal from each other, everyone becomes an enemy.
2) Never post something on the site that isn’t helpful or is off message, especially ads and popups.
3) Write articles that are interesting, not with the view of getting people to buy, but with a view to educating and entertaining
4) Think of the other guy first and he will think of you.
5) Don’t live life like its a zero sum game. (related to #1)
6) Don’t let search engines rule the world. If all decisions are made to “appease” Google or Yahoo, we in effect are turning our world over to these corporate giants.
In other words, my boss says, if ToysPeriod can’t survive by just providing a good product every time someone orders. If Google can’t find us because we don’t write copy with them in mind. If we have to try to steal business away from others by bombing their blogs with our messages, then it’s best not to be on the net at all.
It’s as if, my boss says, Satan had made a plan to turn everyone into a suspicious, competing, evil individual and called that a network.
Networks are meant to include everyone in a positive way. He says the SEO idea is just another way of saying, “Let’s ace the other guy.”
What can I tell him?
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