The Internet is where people look for information about your product or service. Companies such as Microsoft (Bing), Yahoo and Google have created programs to help make it easier to find what you are looking for among the millions of sites on the Web.
The Web is stitched together with links. In the early days, following those links from page to page was the way to get more information on a topic. As the Web grew, a better search method was needed. WebCrawler was the first full text search engine using meta data to rank Web pages. I recall using Webcrawler for years until Yahoo, another meta data based ranking system, grabbed the attention of Web surfers.
Since the search engines were key-word based (meta data) the strategy was to use as many key words as possible to get your name to the top of the search results. In the late 1990s, Google came along and changed the search game.
I didn’t like Google’s search results in the beginning. Honestly, I thought they were awful. They based their results on links to a Web page using Google’s own formula called page rank. The Google algorithm has improved over time and is updated continuously. Recently Google released its newest incarnation of the algorithm called Caffeine. This version places more influence on the freshness of content by indexing pages quicker. This means not only do you need quality links coming to your site, but fresh content will play a greater role in were your Web page is listed in search results.
So, why is search important? Because it is the most-used method on the Web for people to find your product or service. If you are not thinking about how search engines can better find you and how you can become a more active member of the Web community. You are losing money.
Here is a great a video created by Google featuring Matt Cutts explaining how Google search works.
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Search is important for two reasons:
1) … to be found. If your client does not know you, he will not hire you. That’s pretty self explanatory. Much of our SEO effort is devoted to this goal. It is paramount. No questions asked.
2) … to be vetted. Once your potential client has found you – especially the smaller client – they want to know who you are. Who do they turn to to find out more about you? Google, of course. Their next search may be for your company name. How much SEO effort do you put into these results? Do you even know which link shows up first if you search for your company name? How about reviews on local search (listen to Rosh’s interview with me in last weeks podcast)?