How do the first listings on Google or Yahoo get to their lofty position? Its not money, luck, or nepotism. Rather, try the right kind of search-engine optimization.

BY PAUL ROLICH

I just did a Google search on the single word insurance. The return was about 99,900,000 documents. At the top of the page were two obviously purchased links. Down the right side of the page was a list of other sponsored links. I guess the two sponsored links at the top cost a lot more than the Google AdWords links on the right. The AdWords are a slick way to drive traffic to your siteyou are charged per click at a rate you choose. Of course, the higher the rate you choose, the higher placement you are going to get.

The top real listing on the search page was a major insurance carrier. I use the word real in this context to mean results that are purportedly a direct result of Googles spider and search engines. There were two other Fortune 500 insurance companies listed above the fold. How did they get there? Did they buy their way in? Do they know someone? Or did they design a Web page that optimized search-engine placement?

Good Home-Page Design?

I took a look at the Google number-one return on insurance. Examining meta tags, HTML, and links, the word insurance appeared 36 times on the home page. The next two listed carriers used the word insurance 23 and 19 times, respectively. Does that mean all you need to do is create a home page where insurance appears 37 times and you will take over the Google number-one slot? Nope. Do you remember that paid link at the top of the page? That was a link to another major insurance carrier, and that home page had the word insurance 37 timesand apparently the only way it could get on page one was to pay.

The practice of repeating the same word or phrase on a Web page in hope of getting good search-engine results on those words or terms is known as spamming (surprise, surprise), and any decent search-engine algorithm would have controls on spamming. Otherwise, search-engine optimization would become simply a numbers game. Ever look in the yellow pages under plumbers? There are listings for AAAAAA plumbing and AAAAA plumbing and so on and so forth. Actually, bail bondsmen are more aggressive in this creative marketing technique than plumbers, but I made the assumption more of our readers would have been likely to call a plumber than a bondsman. Call me an optimist.

Anyone Can Be Number One?

A few years ago, I was asked by my boss (actually, I think I was told) to improve search-engine results for a particular term. It seems he and his wife had been experimenting with their new home broadband, and they couldnt understand why a particular search term didnt return The National Underwriter Co. as a first-page result. I think I may have ignored his request a few times, but he finally threw down the gauntlet in a new and imaginative way, and I took up the challenge. Within six weeks, we were the top result for that term on Google and still are today. How did I do it? I spent an hour or so reading about search-engine optimization and then applied a few tweaks to our home page. No spamming, no white-on-white text, no payments, no secret handshakesmerely a little common sense. So with just a bit of effort, I was able to push a particular page to the top of Google. I must be only Google-smart, thoughthat same search term on Yahoo gives me no more than a 23 ranking. Must be something else going on here.

Heres the rub. Achieving number-one ranking for that particular search term has had no discernable effect on traffic to or sales from our Web site. Successful Web marketing obviously is a lot more complex than top results on search engines. In fact, that particular term that was so important to my boss does not even show up when I look at our Web reports. We track which search terms from which search engines direct traffic to our Web sites, and that little gem never appears.

Search-Engine Optimization

Search-engine optimization is one of those buzzword terms managers like to bandy about. Throw in a little ROI and leverage your core competencies in a world-class synergistic panoply of best practices, and you could keep a gaggle of senior management busy for days. Actually, search-engine optimization has so many different meanings and interpretations it can mean whatever you want it to. We will take it down to the lowest common denominator and say it simply means getting particular search terms to rise to the top of a search on those terms. What happens after that is where the real art comes into play. Merely snagging a top-10 spot on Google is no guarantee of anything but that.

Is It Worth It?

Marketing is an even more arcane operation than search-engine optimizations. I mean, how do marketing geeks justify spending $2.25 million for a 30-second spot during the Super Bowl. It arguably might make sense for beer and car manufacturers because those are favorite items for the couch-potato crowd. I suppose it is possible you might switch brands when getting your second-half 12-pack because you just saw a talking pig or two lizards eating some flies. Do you remember Apple Computers 1984 Super Bowl ad? In the third quarter of the 84 Super Bowl, a new and terrific advertisement appeared on the TV screens of the nation. It was a dark vision of a world ruled by Big Brother (that is, a George Orwell Big Brother, not the insipid peep show on TV today). We see cowering crowds in a vast auditorium watching Big Brother on a giant screen. One lone woman breaks free from the storm troopers and hurls a hammer at the image of Big Brother. We hear a voice-over: On January 24th, Apple Computer will introduce the Macintosh. And youll see why 1984 wont be like 1984. Brilliant show, brilliant marketing, but it wasnt enough. At the end of the day, I still will eat M&Ms even if E.T. did eat Reeses Pieces.

Getting Listed

There are only three different types of listings on Internet search engines:

Crawler listingsan automated program spiders or crawls your site, gathers all text, indexes it, and then using a constantly changing, proprietary secret algorithm, returns search results based on that algorithm. Search algorithms are more closely protected than Colonel Sanders original recipe for fried chicken.
Directorieshuman-powered assemblies of listings. You submit your proposed listing to a directory, and it may or may not be accepted into that directory. Yahoo started as an online directory service. Yahoo directories still constitute a major part of www.yahoo.com. If you are selling commodity consumer items, a directory is a good place to be. There are some hybrid directories that are a combination of crawler listings with some human intelligence applied. Maybe I should say human intervention.

Paid listingsjust what it says. You pay your money, and you get a listing. The more you are willing to pay, the more prominent your listing. This is nothing but paid advertising, pure and simple.

Search-engine inner sanctumWhats up? Thought we said there were three types of listings? Well, thats true, but that doesnt account for what many believe are the true inner workings of the search-engine worldthe search-engine sancto sanctorum.

The Boys From Brazil

Actually, there are very few options in the world of search engines. Crawler results are supplied by Yahoo or Google. Paid results are controlled either by Google or Overture, and directory results begin with Yahoo or Open Directory. It doesnt matter whether you are using Alta Vista, MSN, or Netscape for searching. All the results are coming from one of the aforementioned tools. (OK, I know that is a slight exaggeration, but for all practical purposes, it is true.) Lets enter the realm beyond provable truth.

Among the cognoscenti, there is a common understanding the world of Web search tools (and the Web search results) ultimately is controlled by a small number of individuals. Following in the footsteps of the Knights Templar, Free Masonry, the Illuminati, and the New World Order, there purportedly exists a group of a dozen or so individuals who completely control the Web and, more importantly, Web search engines. This shadow organization theoretically controls the world economy simply by controlling the top results on Google. Having no evidence to the contrary, I will not pass judgment on this particular theory.

Its All About the Design

Lets just assume you have valid business and marketing reasons that make it important for your Web site to rise to the top for various search terms. It really isnt all that difficult. First of all, be realistic. Dont use very common terms and expect to win the game on the basis of those common terms. Note the single word insurance had about 100 million hits on Google. The phrase term insurance returned 450,000 hits, while the phrase term life insurance had 1.3 million hits. Work with marketing and make the decision to use phrases, not individual words.

Once you decide on the phrase you are going to emphasize, it is all about placement. The HTML