When your prospects are attempting to solve a specific problem in their life, they are very likely to go to a search engine to find information to help them. Most statistical analyses state that when people do this, they use Google.com as their primary source.

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When they seek out this information, they tend to look to the first set of results that they get from Google. In other words, the internet user first types in a phrase representing the information that they're looking for. When this request is sent, the search engine website returns 10 listings of websites that have relevant information.

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Rarely do these users look beyond page 2 of those results. Page 3 is the absolute last set of results that they will ever look for. This has definite implications for your small business.

Google has once again changed the way that businesses make themselves visible in search engines. For the last 10 years, Google has set the rules for visibility across all search engines. The reason for this is that Google users visit its website 66% percent of the time that they are looking for information in search engines.  As a result, companies focus their efforts on being visible in Google assuming their efforts will have similar effects on other sites.

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For most of the years that Google has made its search engine available to business websites, it was done so based on the 'keywords' that users would type in. In other words, when a user was looking for a plumber in Chicago, they would go to the search bar and type in "plumber Chicago".

In their popular business book of 2009, called "The Blue Ocean Strategy", W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne suggested a theory to small business owners about marketing their business.  The authors said that small and mid-sized companies do most of their marketing where there is lots of competition.  In the book, they called these markets "Red Ocean"-like, because of the bloody nature of brutal competition.  Instead of blindly looking to jump in highly competitive markets, they suggested that companies look to move into markets where there was demand for their product, but also where there was little or no competition.   The authors called these markets, "Blue Ocean"-like. This is/was a great strategy, in theory. 

Using SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, to get traffic to your website is an important part of generating additional revenues.  Internet surfers and searchers go to the major search engines (such as Google, Yahoo and/or Bing) in search of a solution to a problem that they are having.  They then use the search engine by typing in keywords to find some information or a person who can help them. When the searcher pushes the "enter" button, the search engine retrieves what is considered to be the best possible set of results for the keyword that was typed in.  

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SEO is a favorable way to get traffic to a website or business because it is not a direct advertising expense...

In our last discussion, we talked about making sure that a business is covered by both direct and indirect keywords.   A business can benefit from having people find them after they have searched for information on what they know to be the solution to their problems.  For example, a patient is near-sighted and knows that an optometrist can help them solve their vision problem.  That person might start looking to research different optometrists in their local area, or what they can expect from these specialists.

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However, some people may not know that it is an optometrist that can help them with their problem; so they may start by doing research on "near-sighted" or "the symptoms of being near-sighted."  Regardless of where the customer starts his or her search, it is a good strategy for a business to want to have their website show up in the "top ten" for both phrases in the search engines.  SEO can help them to appear in both the direct and indirect searches as long as they are relevant to the business.

In our last lesson, we talked about the benefits of having multiple web properties to optimize for the search engines.  In fact, as you may have been thinking about your own website, you know that it might not make much sense to address all keywords (directly and indirectly related) in one place.  In some cases, the best approach may be to use different web properties to address different keywords.  We mentioned general categories of web properties: Blogs, Internet Videos, Social Media Sites, Audio Podcasts, etc. The practice of using different properties to cover different keywords is a good approach because: 1) it can be done over time, and 2) it can help a company to adapt to customer's preferences in the marketplace.

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But using different kinds of web properties also makes sense when a company takes advantage of the unique characteristics of the properties themselves... 

In sales situations where a demonstration would make a sale more possible; optimizing a video for the targeted keywords is the best option.  In sales situations where interaction with the public is of benefit to the company; optimizing a fan page for the top ten results will make the biggest impact.  Yet again where open casual discussion of the business and industry would be most beneficial, it will make the most sense to optimize a blog for SEO.

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However, there are times when a written discussion is not necessarily a convincing factor.  There are times when searchers or internet users want to hear an actual discussion take place with business owners and/or industry leaders. They want to know how knowledgeable the owners are, because it is pretty difficult to fake a discussion.  These prospects want to hear what one of your meetings might be like as you make decisions about what you think about what the market wants.  These factors play well into a podcasting format. 

Internet Video gives a business advantages that a regular website doesn't.  Podcasting give a business advantages that Internet Video does not have.  We could extend this example repeatedly across the different categories of web properties: Internet Video, Podcasting, Social Media and Blogging. So it makes sense to know your audience, in the context of turning them into your future client(s).  When you think in those terms, you then make the effort to optimize the right medium to make the process effective.

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When a business optimizes a blog for SEO, they are choosing a certain kind of web property that has certain advantages that neither their company web site, nor their other properties have.  A blog has three main advantages over a traditional website:..

For those searchers that might need more visuals to make a decision, a business can create and optimize an internet video for search.  For those who might be interested in reading about the mindset of the business's management and ownership, a blog would be appropriate to optimize.   For those who might like to listen to an interactive discussion about the industry with management, a podcast would be best to optimize for search.  But for those businesses who thrive in interacting with their customers and prospects, there is really only one suitable medium: social media.  By building a social media web property a business' owner or management can get the 'pulse' of the public and adjust to make sure that their products and services are relevant and meet needs.

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Although there are literally hundreds of different social media web properties to build a platform for your company on, only one boasts a critical mass of active users in the hundreds of millions: Facebook.com.

No one knows exactly what the new search engine landscape will be once Google's "Hummingbird" update takes place with its search engine robot (Marketers call Google's search engine robot their algorithm). As a result there is uncertainty among SEO consultants and the marketing community about how to proceed with traditional internet marketing efforts.  Companies that have depended on being found in search engines are wondering if they will be able to depend on the same tactics that made them visible there going forward.

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So what is Google's algorithm now looking for to rank it's websites?

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What is it that they would use to determine search rankings?

In order for you to be able to take the concepts that we have been talking about and make them profitable, you must do as one very famous and well used phrase suggests. You will need think globally and act locally. The concepts we have been discussing have been global, but in order for them to profit your business, you will need to execute them locally.  In fact, when you exercise SEO concepts locally, they are very doable and beneficial to your business.

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Most beneficial to your business is making your company website visible to people who are searching for the solution that your company offers to solve the problem that they are experiencing. When the public goes to a search engine either from their home computer or their mobile phone to research a solution to their problem, they would probably like to solve at that moment.  They probably do not want to order it online and have it delivered.  They want to find out where they can get it, and go to that store and buy it.  So by having your business "in the way" of their intent to solve their problem, means that you will see immediate benefits from increased foot traffic and higher sales.