The Godfather of Search
Google has turned itself into a verb synonymous with "search." Just like we ask for a Q-tip or Band-aid in the United States instead of a cotton swab or bandage, we call our Internet searches "Googles." Enter the Titanic, because that is only the tip of the iceberg... Those of us with websites want to be ranked (indexed) high with Google when someone is searching for something we sell. Luckily for us, Google gives us all the tools to figure out how to make this happen--and they give it to us for free! They may change and set fire to the hoops we need to jump through every 1 to 3 months, but they tell us what those hoops are and how to douse the flames so we can be successful in moving our sites up the search rank ladder. Lately, the buzz is Google's plan to set higher search rank preferences for URLs containing targeted keywords. That means your company could rank higher if what you are selling is part of your domain name. So, even if Joe's Gutter Hole has been the top ranked watering hole when searching "fort lauderdale bars," they might just do better to buy the domain fortftlauderdalebarbarssdrinkscocktailsalcoholbeer.com. This really isn't anything new, Yahoo! and MSN already do this, but Google is the big daddy and, if it is going to make a difference in how search results rank, we're about to soon find out. Graphic designers have been educated to design websites in an "F" fashion--the left menu is the vertical line, the header and content the horizontals. Google sets keyword importance in the order they are hit when a spider or bot crawls a site. And, because they can, Google crawls the site from the upper left corner down meaning, if your site is built using industry standards, your left menu is hit first and it is not where keywords are placed...unless your keywords are "contact us," "home," "about us," etc. Kind of funny because I suppose this means most sites share the same first-searched keywords. Now fortftlauderdalebarbarsdrinkscocktailsalcoholbeer.com has to move its menu to the right column and shove as many keywords into the first sentence of the site, or better yet, a text box in the upper left corner of their header with linked keywords. The site is looking good, eh? That is if you can differentiate the domain name in the search results and don't confuse it with ftfortlauderdalebarbersbarberbobshagdohairdo.com. The fact that Google hands out things we "need" for free (Analytics, and I love my iGoogle homepage, my Gdocs, my Google calendars, and especially my Google sidebar with my Google widgets) is not all out of the goodness of their hearts. In exchange for all this, we have to run our business the way they say or we may just not have any customers. No, this isn't an episode of The Sopranos...or is it? I love Mark Cuban's blog. It's pretty eclectic and you can tell his mind runs with random ideas (like someone we know *ahem*) and he's come up with a fun little "what if?" Blog Maverick: Beating Google? Frank always tells me I get a bit overly excited (okay, "intense" is a term I've heard used to describe me on more than a few occasions) about my tech research and conspiracy theories, but I find it fun because the information never grows old. There is always something new to learn and a new way things become linked--working together in interesting ways. I'm also able to comfortably learn to work with the changes--right in the middle is a fun place to be! Has this gotten everyone freaked out yet? Are you ready to redesign your site to be hideous-yet-highly-ranked? Hold off for just a moment. As much as we all want to rank high, we also want customers to not run screaming from our sites. The basics still outweigh the payoffs to the Googlefather and, for our sites to retain customers, they need to remain aesthetically pleasing, easily navigable and friendly. We can't forget the human factor behind these online businesses either. A little good old fashioned customer service and marketing never hurt anyone. If I ordered a shirt and received a note from Joe (remember him from The-Bar-Formerly-Known-as-Joe's Gutter Hole?) that said, "Thank you so much for ordering our merchandise. We hope you enjoy it and, if you do, it would mean a lot to us to have your return business. Please, use this code for 20% off the next item you order and here is another certificate to give a friend so they can try us out!" I would feel there was more than just a screen taking my credit card. I would feel like a person gained something from my actions and that person actually appreciated that I fed my credit card into that screen! So, you write your thank you notes; make them personal; appreciate the consumers who choose you over the plethora of sites available on the global shopping mall we call the Internet and know that I'm here obsessing over the market trends and will be keeping you posted on what's up. Oh, and I'd like to mention that each and every one of Totera's customers are very important to us and we cherish your business. ...are you feeling the love? Donna Winter Project Development and Marketing Coordinator Totera Web Systems *originally posted 05/17/2008
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by Totera Web Systems
