Google is the #1 search engine

As more businesses get online with websites, blogs and social networking, they want to get good ranking in Google.  Learn debunk myths, lies and misconceptions about “rising to the top” in Google.

Notice all the annoying Google Adsense sprinkled throughout this post?  That’s to drive my point home that you should not spend hard earned money to “buy” Google Adwords.  Smart surfers know better than to click on them!

How People Find Websites

Search Engines

Word of Mouth

Advertising in paper, print, newsletters

Social networks

All About Google Search

Why Google is The Most Popular Search Engine in the World

Getting Listed in Google

Strategies

How Google Ranks Website

Paying for Listings in Google

Google Adwords

PPC or Pay Per Click

Getting in Google For Free

Write Good and Origional Content People Will Search For

Organic Search Results

Google Business Listings

Google Loves Blogs

Link Love

Case Study on Organic Search Results vs Google Adwords

Photo Credit: It's Hard Out Here for a Pup by cnash

Elaine is a breeder of Bull Mastiff’s in Conneticut wants people to know about her dogs.  She can start a blog and share about upcoming shows she will be attending, points she has earned on dogs and recent litters.

Share Your Business Personality

By sharing about what’s going on at her kennel and educating visitors, she will be answering common questions people have about Bull Mastiff’s, adopting dogs, purebred dogs, exhibiting dogs and so on.  Elaine can contact vendors as well to explore opportunities to cross promote items like dog clippers or dog food if she thinks it’s a good fit.  She won’t need to turn to Google Adwords because she is adding high quality content to her website on the blog and uploading photos to Flickr.

Taking Online Leads to Happy Endings Offline

A family in New Jersey finds Elaine’s website through her blog.  They talk by phone, fill out an adoption application and make an appointment to visit and see if a Bull Mastiff is the right dog for their family.  4 months later, they return to pick up their new dog, Razzy, a young 9 month old male who has just been neutered.

Google Adwords Can Be Deceptive

Now for a sad story.  There is a puppy mill breeder in Missouri named Frank.  He breeds dogs to make a profit and doesn’t care if they are healthy.  All his dogs go to pet shops and he needs to sell as many dogs as possible each month so he cuts corners on health checks and breeds dogs that have genetic problems.  He had decided he can sell more dogs by using Google Adwords.  He promises a money back guarantee on the dogs because he’s breeding over 200 puppies per month.  He uses keywords and phrases like, “Puppies that need homes!  Bullmastiffs.com” and “Purebred Mastiff Puppies AKCMastiffs.com” even though he doesn’t own either of those domains.  He’s using them because they look more legitimate.  He can now tell any story he likes about the dogs he will sell.  He may create a fake website for the dogs, put up photos of dogs he doesn’t own and sell dogs with fake AKC papers (or registered with the CKC).

Now I don’t mean to paint a horribly dark picture of Google Adwords but this type of marketing is saturated with snake oil, sales people looking to make a book and out of work marketing folks who don’t understand the first thing about an .htaccess file.  I recommend you start working on your website with quality content, good design and navigation.  By reviewing your visitor traffic in Google Analytics, you will be able to develop a powerful picture of your visitor’s experience on your site.

Tools of the Trade and They’re All Free!

Google Analytics - Sign up and get your code

Google Page Rank – Wikipedia article

Live PageRank - Firefox add-on to view Page Rank

Google Local Business Center – Create or Edit your business listings on Google

Google Hot Trends Search – Find out what people are searching for

Google Webmaster Tools – Get detailed site information, correct errors and optimize your site

10 Lies SEO Marketers Tell You And How to Call Their Bluff

1. Your site is not optimized
2. You don’t have the right keywords
3. You’re not in Google
4. You need to use “www” in your domain name
5. Ask to see the list of kyewords they are submitting your site for
6. Ask them what competitors of yours they are serving
7. Ask to speak with an existing customer
8. Ask the marketer to show you an “optimized” site and explain why
9. Ask for help from a friend to review the materials the marketer gives you
10. Review your SEO services at least twice a year

Number One In The Google

This video by PushOn is one of my favorites!  This video shows how most people think they get to #1 on the Google by paying for it.

They made another showing how you can really #1 for any search term if you don’t really care how many people are actually using that search

Did I leave something out?  Which ones would you add? And yes, I purposely sprinkled this post with Google Adsense to illustrate how it can not be a good use of your advertising dollars.