Recogition in the Online World

A high ranking at Google is essential for online success as the latest Search Engine research by Neilson Online shows:

1. Google owns a 59% share of the U.S. search market
2. Yahoo and Microsoft's MSN combined command 30% of the market
3. All other search engines make up the remaining 11%

Conclusion: Google dominates the US search market. If you want influence, focus on Google. What does Google feel is important? They flat out tell us in their Webmaster's area:

"Webmasters can improve the rank of their sites by increasing the number of high-quality sites that link to their pages. Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. The more votes a page has, the higher it ranks."

So what does that mean to our marketing strategy?

It means Google knows how many votes your pages have and ranks them accordingly. It's just about that simple.

So what can you do to increase your number of votes?

Take time and get your site listed with as many good sites as possible. A single high-quality link is like gold to Google. You get high-quality links by contacting web sites and directories personally, filling in the forms, in some cases paying a fee, and getting listed.

For example, most Chamber of Commerce web sites allow members to list their company Web site on the chamber's site. This is a marketing opportunity to get an external link. Take the time to get your site listed with the chamber. A site listed with a chamber site will rank higher than one that isn't. If you're a chamber member, take advantage of this opportunity.

If you want traffic, talk others into linking their site to you, even if you have to pay. Don't get discouraged. If you have two good external links and you score a third, you've increased you link count 50 percent. You don't need a million links because most sites have none.