Business Search Engine Trends

Our office is buzzing with the news that our Philadelphia Phillies have won the 2008 World Series. Pitching rotations, infielding skill, and managerial moves have highlighted the conversations. Some have even arrived in team jerseys and red colored shirts.

I jumped on Google to confirm my hunch that many people we're searching for information about our beloved baseball team. I was right. Out of the Top 100 there were about 20 listings for Phillies, Philadelphia, team clothing, and Philly baseball. The #1 search term was "Mambo Cologne" and the last was "Phinally" (the Philadelphia way to now spell anything that begins with the "f" sound.) P.S. I don't know what Mambo cologne is...

Surprisingly, out of the Top 100 I quickly scanned, there were less than three entries that were business related. Most were about celebrities I'm assuming are pop culture icons, the presidential election, and web-related sites.

Maybe it's time for www.business.com to take seriously the web address they paid millions for many years ago. It looks like a glorified paid-per-click site. Until then business owners will have to utilize the "majors" such as Google, Yahoo, and MSN and dig deep into search results to find the best match to their business inquiries.

Search Engine Optimization

Many designers and webmasters think that "content is king." The truth is that the way to get better rankings for your website is to make sure that the coding of the site is properly utilized.

Here's a surprising fact: Many search engines will not read pages if the URL contains a question mark. This symbol may indicate that the site's content might be generated automatically which is a no-no with search engine technology.

Page linking and coding are also extremely important aspects to think about BEFORE you design a site. Make sure you code your menus dynamically because of changes to CSS properties and only use hyperlinks that are standard HTML < A > tags.

The bottom-line is that "coders" and designers are many times trying to accomplish two very different goals. Unfortunately, coders are brought in too late, after thousands of dollars have been squandered on an eye-catching website, but one that the search engines can't find.

Remember, website functionality (and better search engine optimization) is always more important than pretty colors, video snippets, and spinning logos.

Search Marketing in Rush Hour Traffic

The impact of Google's search marketing methods is by now a world-renowned phenomenon, as Seth Godin points out. People will now actively seek out marketing messages via search engine queries, as opposed to having marketing message forced upon millions of people simultaneously through mass marketing (though this tactic can work as well, but most businesses don't have the money to support this type of program). It's one person seeking one thing at one time, and that marketer needs to be there in order to make the sale.

To put it into a real life perspective, you have to be the guy selling water bottles (or flowers, or--if you're from Philly-- soft pretzels) right when a car pulls up at a traffic light or during rush hour. If I'm thirsty and sitting in rush hour traffic, I just might buy a cold bottle of water if it doesn't require me to get out of my car and costs a reasonable price. That's one-to-one marketing at its simplest!

So, if your prospects are riding the (uh oh, please prepare for terrible metaphorical comparison) "information superhighway", is your company right there on the corner when they stop at a light and look your way? Your site needs to contain the right keywords and have strong SEO tactics to rise up high in the search rankings, and/or you need to have relevant, eye-catching, enticing ads if you do a pay-per-click program. That's the name of the game in one-to-one marketing online.

So what's the lesson here?

Simply, be there or be roadkill.