If you've been involved with Internet or affiliate marketing for any length of time, you know how important getting to page one on Google is. This is what we spend hours and hours working on. We research keywords until out fingers bleed and our minds have turned to mush. We read every bit of insider information that comes out on how to get into the top results of the search engines. It is the number one goal of SEO (search engine optimization), natural organic searches and article marketing efforts.
Page One of Google
Why do we do this? Why do we care where we are in the Google results? Traffic! Customers! Sales! Google and to a lesser degree Yahoo and Bing are our vehicles to our customers. This is how everyone that gets on the Internet finds us along with thousands of our competitors. Whether or not we get there via non-paid methods or we pay for ads on one of these search engines; we must be on page one if we are to succeed. Especially, if we are just starting out.
So what propels us to the first page of Google or one of the other major search engines? Relevancy for the most part. How well does our web page match up with what keywords the searcher has entered? Google has algorithms out the wazoo and they look at many different parts of our pages to determine if they are indeed relevant to the search request. Many people spend their days trying to figure out these super secret algorithms so they will have insider information and perhaps gain an edge on their competition.
Understanding Search Engines
Needless to say, trying to understand what search engines use to determine whether our page is more relevant than another will mostly stay secret for a good reason. Imagine the kind of trickery and smoke and mirrors unscrupulous types would employ to gain first position in the results from Google or Yahoo and Bing. The Internet would turn into a heap of garbage and irrelevant to all of us.
I for one don't want that to happen. I say, good on you Google for working hard to keep the Internet and the information we find there useful and informative. We can all learn to think quality first and yes, do some research and find out what your customers need and want and try to provide that through your site. That is the core of Internet marketing or at least I'd like to think so.