SEO: Learn to work WITH Search Engines, not AGAINST them

When you first start thinking about marketing your website, it is very easy to be lured into thinking that getting a higher ranking in Google is a game and that you need to resort to trickery in order to accomplish your goal.

The purpose of this article is to teach you why Google should not be the main focus of your website marketing or article submission efforts.

Strangely, in order to succeed with the search engines, you need to stop making them the primary focus of your website marketing efforts. Below is a pretty simple explanation why:

Google and Yahoo are not your website visitors. You can’t build a relationship with search engines. Search engines are not interested in becoming your customers. Search engines won’t refer others to you after having had a great experience with you. Most important of all, Google and the other search engines won’t be spending any money with you!

Yes, it’s important to keep search engines in your peripheral vision and design and market your website so that it’s easy for them to determine what your site is about. Google shouldn’t be ignored, but it also certainly shouldn’t be the central focus of your site building or article marketing efforts.

Search Engines are Like travel agencies – Imagine that you are starting a new business – you’ve bought some land on a remote but beautiful island, and you are building an exotic island getaway for travelers. You know that much of your business will depend on referrals from travel agencies, so with single minded effort you set out to create marketing materials that falsely present your island getaway in the most attractive light so that you can maneuver your way into the travel agents’ listings.

Your marketing materials look great and are very convincing. The only problem is that your website does not deliver on what your marketing hype promises. In creating an image for your business, you have forgotten about the real people who will actually come and stay at your island getaway and come back if their experience has been positive.

When the travel agents learn from their customers that your island getaway is not what it’s cracked up to be, what do you think the outcome will be? You get the idea. Because they want to secure the quality experience of their own customers, of course they will move your business down on their referral list, and you will get a lot fewer visitors.

Create your website (and your articles) to serve your visitors – I’m sure you’ve picked up on the metaphor here – your website is the remote island getaway and Google and the other search engines are the travel agencies. What if you took a different approach and built your business to serve your visitors, always seeking to provide them with a better experience and more favorable impression of your island getaway?

You know that if you created a business that was customer-centric, that was truly a pleasure to visit and that served the needs of your customers, then travel agencies would naturally want to refer their customers to you, because it would reflect well on them.You wouldn’t need to resort to trickery or false impressions – all you would need to do would be to build a business that your visitors loved. The rest would fall into place on its own.

Google works the same way… – With your website, you need to stop concerning yourself with Google so much and start focusing your attention on the experience of your website visitors. If you do that, your rankings will naturally start to get better. You still need to market your site just as any island resort would have marketing materials to spread the word about their business. The difference is that creating a website that serves your visitors comes first and marketing always follows.

Do some homework – Think about what it would mean for you to have a website full of valuable content. If you please your viewers, then search engines will naturally be happy with you too. Market your website using a tried and tested honest marketing technique, such as article marketing (among other methods). Write articles that serve your viewers with helpful information. Both your articles and your website should be created with the mindset of providing value for your viewers.

Google is looking for one simple thing: Web pages that contain helpful, high quality information. It’s a very simple concept: If you want to please Google, your starting point is thinking about what will please the people who visit your website and read your articles.


/InternetStreets/