The superbow.. oh wait. No. Due to copyright issues and trademarks, I’ll refer to the Big Game either as “The Big Game” or as the “Superb Owl.” The commercials during the Big Game are watched by a lot of people. Even people who hate football, hang around to see what the commercials are OR they wait until they are on YouTube.
Google showed us all a commercial to highlight the way to use Google in a really fast and satisfying way. It showed a user typing questions and finding solutions through a progression of life events starting with studying abroad
and ending with looking for a baby crib.
What is really interesting is what the commercial does NOT show and it’s these things that make Search Engine Optimization stand out.
1. It didn’t show Google AdWords – Sorry Guys, but even though PPC can be a great marketing asset, the real meat to get answers lies in the organic results.
2. It didn’t show beyond the first page of results – Are you on page 2? page 5? Well, being on page 1 for what you provide is paramount even if you are the best in the market.
3. It didn’t show the 1st result always being clicked – I had some people tell that they don’t always click on the first result for different reasons. You don’t have to be #1, you just have to relevant.
4. The websites were all about providing solutions – Does your website talk more about yourself rather than the solution you provide? It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been in business, it doesn’t matter what you’ve come through to be here, what matters is getting people what they want. The old adage goes “A man doesn’t go to the store to buy a drill, he goes because he needs a quarter inch hole.”
There could be other things to point out such as the effective use of site descriptions, title tags, etc but the main pace of the ad is “I need answers quickly!” The Internet is not becoming something one curls up with next to a fire for an evening of verbose visual digestion. It’s becoming more of a resource for information that what was ever envisioned. With companies arranging their info into a slick streamlined answer to people’s problems, you turn Internet browsing back into “surfing” rather than “wading.”
Check out The Adventures of SEO Boy: Heroic Feats of Search Engine Optimization at http://www.seoboy.com/. Copyright © 2008-2009 Hanapin Marketing, LLC.
