Search Engines

Use search engines to let customers find you

search is important

This short 2 minute clip from the BBC archive/website tells just how much. It shows how a restaurant in Brighton is a popular place with Chinese tourists. Thanks to Google and a Chinese blogger, they found this fish restaurant topping the search because of the high reviews it received.

The restaurant owner is very happy. Good results:

many more customers who in turn promote the restaurant; and
the Chinese eat a lot, so the income per customer has increased.

Of course the quality of the product is important. This in turn generates additional publicity as some visitors photograph their meals and share the image on line. It is a self-generating cycle.

Creating your own conditions to optimise your presence is normal. Gaining a reputation from external sources is even more powerful. It develops your online reputation quickly.

Of course you can lose out on "Search" to inferior products and services. If you believe in what you do why would you not want to make sure it had a prominent promotion.

Working with search engines

There are two "traditional" ways you can use search engines to gain an advantage.

Organic search
Being ranked in the top listings by a major search engine (Google) generates a constant flow of traffic to your website. Places are limited so very competitive. We know how to rank highly and doing it within the rules.
Read more

Paid advertising
Paying for space on search engines is becoming more expensive. It is important to search engines (and other players) as this is how they make their money. There are still benefits for you the advertiser. But it has to be done intelligently.
Read more.

Google, search engine marketing, and Amazon

Google has historically received the highest percentage of traffic on the web over any period of time. Excluding China it would receive some 80% of those using a search engine.

The biggest change to this has been the impact of Amazon. In retail and the search for products the Amazon site now dominates.

The smart thing to do is (still) to use Google and the options it offers as much as you can. Registering your business with Google means at least you are indexed. So people will find you if they search for your company/business.

But if you want to be competitive in today's world than you have no choice but to compete for prominent rankings on the search engines. The good news is: if it works for Google then the rest will follow, as all search engines use the same criteria.

Effective marketing on a search engine means takes precision and focus on your customer. The more precise you are the more you fit into the niches that the user are searching in. Specific niches could be anything from designer label shoes, to hiking holidays in the Himalayas, to intel pentium chips. Search engines let people find what they are looking for. And if you want to be found you need to follow the process.

The benefit of the search engines is that they tell you who is looking and what they are looking for. The fundamental process is : everyone is a buyer, so they have control. Trying to be cute and "sell them" does not work so well on the web. Having respect for the buyer is a fundamental of marketing on the web.

some essential points on how search engines work

How A Search Engine Works

A search engine is just like a library. It collects data and information from many different sources.These are: websites, blogs, articles, forums, shared images. In fact anything which is accessible on the worldwide web. The initial process of collection is called indexing. When a user wants to find something they type a search query. The results then show the pages and material the search engine believes are relevant to that search query. The number of relevant pages for any one query can total millions.

The Importance Of Keywords

The term given to the user's search query is a "Keyword" (or "keyword expression"). Often they may just be general (ex. plumbers, cheap travel, etc.) Or they may be more targeted: "low cost flights to Paris". The importance of keywords is they indicate intent. Is the user just browsing or are they now in buying mode. The more specific the query the more likely it is they have a need. Therefore keywords provide companies with information which allows them to target potential buyers.