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COURTING GOOGLE
You need to develop a continuing relationship with Google. Here’s how to do it.
The Internet today makes up a large part of the fabric of our lives. Google, Facebook, Amazon and eBay have become household names. We use the Internet at home, work, and school, as well as wherever we happen to travel. Consumers and companies use it to contact people, find information and transact business.
Your company has a site on the Internet. You’ve invested to develop it. Why shouldn’t you be able to harness the power of Google, Facebook and other Internet tools to draw people to your website and increase your company’s bottom line? Online business would be a cinch if only you could throw up a couple of web pages and watch sales flood in. Unfortunately, however, success on the Internet requires substantial planning, implementation and follow–up, not unlike generating results off of the Internet. You’ll need to acquire the proper mindset and a mastery of certain key concepts in order to attract and engage interested and motivated visitors to your website.
In this article, I briefly discuss many of the strategies I’ve found instrumental in the past to help me build my own presence on the Internet—as well as those of businesses I’ve worked with. I hope to cover these topics in much greater depth in the future.
Also, just in case this happens to be our first encounter, I warn you that I have a rather dry sense of humor and a penchant for articulating seemingly random thoughts. Please try hard to bear with me and humor me.
Courting Google
About three billion people use the Google search engine each day. Some of them are searching for a product, service or information that you are able to provide.
Google will send such people to your website, as long as the search giant finds your site and believes that your site’s content is truly relevant and authoritative with respect their clients’ searches.
Consequently, you should be courting Google and developing an ongoing relationship based on mutual understanding and reciprocity. There are too many phonies and bogus websites online. You need to do whatever is necessary to demonstrate to Google that your web content is authentic, i.e., relevant, credible and authoritative. Google, in turn, will reciprocate and index your web pages, track your web pages’ content and direct targeted web traffic to them.
When courting Google, establishing your website’s credibility should be your main objective. Attempts to manipulate Google through elaborate schemes will harm your credibility and endanger your relationship with Google. In the best case, such attempts will result in temporary deception of the search engine and short–lived success.
However, in the worst case, Google will delist your website entirely, and it will fail to appear in search results for many months or longer. Your relationship with Google will be on the rocks, and your company’s reputation will have been sullied.
Google Mindset
Don’t underestimate the importance of having an effective paradigm and a healthy attitude. From what I’ve observed, failure on the Internet is most often due to lack of mental preparation for the obstacles that stand in the way.
Several close acquaintances, not to mention any names, of course, intelligent and capable people, embraced blogging, social networking and other web–based tools at about the same time as I. Each was extremely enthusiastic and wholly sincere at the outset, but each failed to convert that enthusiasm and sincerity into tangible results, ostensibly because they lacked sufficient commitment, or they lacked adequate focus. My perseverance allowed me to accomplish enough to remain in the game.
It’s an old saying that “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” Frankly, I don’t think you or I will be building Rome any time soon. However, even building a modest Internet presence requires both patience and endurance. Even if you have sufficient resources to move quickly, your website will still be scrutinized and subjected to Google’s vetting process, at their pace, not yours. I like to view web marketing as a marathon, not a sprint.
When I launched the Gevril Group website in December 2010, the site initially had no traffic, just like other brand new websites. My work was cut out for me. My goal was to exceed 100,000 monthly page views on the site by the end of 2012. After eight months of publishing content on the site and promoting it, only 13% of my goal has been realized. However, I’m pleased with the progress. I’ve laid a solid foundation for continued growth of website traffic and engagement, and in my mind, I see myself in a long–term marathon, not a short–term sprint.
Your website’s success may take six months, a year, or even longer. You need to pace yourself, review your progress frequently and, when indicated, make appropriate changes. By the way, chances are you won’t have the time or the expertise to accomplish everything on your own. I employ consultants to help me with web design and copyrighting. I’m also looking for a full time assistant whom I can teach to perform many of my tasks. He or she will probably have a different work style than I, but that doesn’t have to be bad. I have piles of papers on my desk. Hopefully that person won’t.
Regarding focus, it has been suggested that the acronym FOCUS stands for “follow one course until successful.” That course and how you follow it are up to you.
If you Google Larry Brauner, you’ll notice that I have profiles and content on scores of social websites. Your finding doesn’t necessarily mean that I lack focus. Casting a wide net is one of my principal strategies. Only about a dozen of those sites do I visit with any regularity, and I’ve joined the other sites just to be there in case visitors decide to drop in.
Furthermore, consider that if you change your name to Larry Brauner, how easily will you be able to compete for that name in Google? I just Googled Larry Brauner and the first three dozen pages were about me. All kidding aside, although my strategies will change over time as the Internet evolves, my course or objectives will remain more or less the same: Expose more people to my thinking, attract new followers and interact more. That’s my course. People are my focus, not websites; websites are merely tools. You will have chosen your own course, and your focus will be on that course, not on mine.
Now, since you can’t accomplish everything, don’t even try. Invest your effort where you expect the greatest return. Incorporate priorities in your planning. 
For example, I know that Linkedin and Twitter are useful tools for me, but I find Facebook better suited to my way of networking and marketing. I therefore expend much more effort on Facebook than on Linkedin or Twitter. The opposite might be true for you. Finding an optimal mix of activities will accelerate your progress.
During my career, I’ve observed more times than I can remember that simpler works better than more complex. That was especially true when I wrote computer programs and when I massaged data in Excel. It’s true now when courting Google. I never know what Google will do next, and I prefer not to shoot at moving targets. By keeping my approach very down-toearth, I have the best chance of adjusting to inevitable changes.
Mr. Eric Marder, a pioneer of modern market research who has since retired from business, was my mentor for more than 20 years. He often preached to his employees, “Make it complex and wonderful and the client will part in awe. But make it simple, and the client will part with his money.” If you make it simple, Google will part with its web traffic, which is as good as money.
The Key Role of Research
Speaking of research, an integral part of building an Internet presence is conducting research, such as market research, keyword research, competitive analysis and web analytics.
- ▶▶Market research lets you determine what customers want and how much they will pay.
- ▶▶Keyword research allows you to find the search terms that people are likely to use to find you when they’re searching. Competitive research permits you to study what your competitors are doing, so that you can formulate a strategy for competing.
- ▶▶Web analytics helps you to determine what keywords and traffic sources are working and what aren’t. It also helps you to understand visitor behavior.
Research is important for planning, and it also plays a role in refining your methodology, once your initiative is underway. Do enough research to make informed decisions but no more. Beware of the phenomenon called analysis paralysis. Excessive research and analysis will undoubtedly hinder your progress. When you do make changes, strive to make only one change at a time. If you make more than one, you won’t be able to determine how each is impacting on your new results.
The Right Internet Tools
Google itself is a tool, as are all search engines. Google also provides excellent free research tools that I use often:
- Google Adwords Keyword Tool – A keyword research tool you can use even if you don’t buy Google Adwords. CLICK HERE
- Google Analytics – Helps you track and analyze your Internet traffic as your project progresses. CLICK HERE
Other important Internet tools include social websites, such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Google Plus, Ning and Stumble Upon, content management systems, such as WordPress, and website widgets, such as Google Friend Connect, as well as many browser toolbars, such as Alexa, and addons, such as Rank Checker and Quirk SearchStatus.
Internet tools not only save time, they enable tasks that wouldn’t otherwise be feasible.
As I mentioned, social media websites are also Internet tools. A potential client for whom I may do some website optimization is skeptical about the value of social media to his B2B company that manufactures and sells specialized industrial equipment. I have to admit that finding a viable social strategy for his particular business niche won’t be easy, but at least one must exist.
Social media can be a strong complement to website optimization. When a website is brand new, social sites may deliver the only traffic the website receives. You can use social media to cultivate a community around your website. If people appreciate your website and link to it, those links will help you rank better in Google, since links to your website signal to the search engine that your site is authoritative – or at least credible. Social media is social and can be very enjoyable if you’re a social sort of person.
Thinking BIG and Small
When I set up Online Social Networking, in 2007, I made a serious error due to inexperience. Having had experimented with online networking for four years, I elected to write about that subject and decided upon “online social networking” as my primary keyword term. I could have picked “social networking sites” or “business networking,” but rejected them because they were too competitive for a new blogger according to my way of thinking at that time. Now that my website ranks #1 in Google for “online social networking,” it’s sort of anti-climactic. I regret that I hadn’t set my sights on more competitive, higher volume search terms. I strongly suggest that you aim high for the long run. Optimize your website for keywords that are difficult to capture now. The trick is to also optimize for less competitive terms too. You’ll grab more traffic not only in the long run but at the very beginning too, and your traffic will be more targeted.
Optimize for Humans
You will certainly want to optimize your website so that Google will rank your site high up in search results. That’s a given. However, develop your website for the people who visit, not just for the search engines. Don’t let your desire to rank well cause you to create website content that’s unreadable or confusing to your visits. That would defeat the purpose of having a website altogether.
Your website needs to be optimized for usability and conversion of visitors into readers, leads or customers. Pay special attention to the part of each page that can be viewed without scrolling down. Visitors choose quickly whether to stay or not based on what they see there without scrolling.
Each page needs a call to action that tells your visitor what to do next. Make it as easy as possible for the person to respond to your request or to reach you. Many websites make it challenging for a visitor to get in touch, and the owners of those sites have no idea why their website doesn’t work.
It’s time to go. Thank you for reading. Please enjoy the rest of the magazine!
Resource Box
Larry Brauner is a small business SEO and social media strategist with a passion and a skill for developing creative and comprehensive solutions to complex problems. He has applied this capability in many business areas. Presently, Larry is Social Media Director at watchmaker and watch distributor, Gevril Group (http://gevrilgroup.com), where he focuses his efforts on web-based marketing, branding and PR initiatives. Contact Larry via his blog (http://online-social-networking.com) or by email (larry@websearchstrategist.com).
