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An article from the New York Times about the experiences of JC Penny and their rather embarrassing foray into questionable Search Engine Optimisation practices.

It highlights the rather contradictory issues surrounding Google, including how their search engine works, how their Pay-Per-Click adverts and client relationships create a grey area for organic SEO and make you wonder in general about Google's overall quality and survivability in a world where everyone is desperate to be number 1.  Spamming Google is obviously bad, but somehow if you are paying for it, filling the Internet with adverts is somehow acceptable.

Quality content is what it should be all about, but with bottomless pockets, what is to prevent the links we follow being controlled almost exclusively by big business and cosy relationships between them and the Search Engine giants?

Go to the New York Times article...

Your comments are most welcome.

By Stefan Sojka

This blog is about how you can boost your keyword search ranking in Google.  It is also actually helping to boost ranking of this Website at the same time as it is telling you!

Blogging is a great way to add content to your Website – good, relevant, helpful content.  Search engines like to index more content on a Website, as it helps determine if your site is better than the next one and so should be higher up the ranks for the certain keywords your site or blog might be about.

Since I want to get found for, say, 'Website design Sydney', or 'Web design Sydney', it makes sense that I should blog about this topic and related topics.  It is an opportunity to tell people what you know about your business and your industry, which in turn lets people see that you are knowledgable and authoritative, and helps Google and other search engines index you better.

The best way to do this is to make sure that your blogs are topical and relevant – so this blog posting is about how to get better ranking in Google – by writing blogs!  It’s ironic, but by blogging about Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) for ‘Website design Sydney’, I am informing my readers and boosting search engine ranking at the same time.

So, like your blog, which will be all about your business, the posts in this blog covers many topics related to Web development, Internet marketing, business Websites, Internet culture, marketing tips and technical advice.  All of these add content and information, and help Google decide that this site is worth putting up the list a little more – in other words, is worth visiting.

If you do it right, chances are that other Websites will start linking to your blog articles.  This further increases your on-line footprint and lifts you higher up the listings.  It also boosts the overall quality of your industry’s presence on-line – because someone like you has taken the time to write something helpful and informative for your fellow industry members and customers.

Blogging is a great way to communicate and is also a really good way to add value to your Website in more ways than one.  Information, advice, expertise, link-building, search engine ranking – everything is given a little boost every time you post a blog.

Happy blogging, and if you are based in Sydney and are looking for a Web developer who understands Website marketing and internet business, give us a call. :-)

By Stefan Sojka

There is only one reason why Google has any money at all – businesses want to be found.  Sure they have other revenue streams now – like licensing out Google Earth – but without those AdWords, Google would be nothing.

Why does Google get so much money out of AdWords customers?  Because it works.  Businesses the world over are willing to pay Google for every click to their Web page from Google's 'sponsored links' panels, because they know that those clicks are qualified leads, which equals potential new business.  If it didn't work, they wouldn't do it.

Sure, some businesses do better than others.  If you sell items worth thousands of dollars and you are paying a dollar or two to attract a visitor to your site, then it is a drop in the ocean.  If you have small ticket items, you had better pray that every Pay-Per-Click visitor to your site has a high probability of becoming a paying customer.  Otherwise your profit margins are going to get squeezed rather tight.

Google has come up with a pretty elegant system.  It makes them squillions, but it also self-organises by operating on a bidding system.  Every single keyword and phrase in the known universe can be bid on, and the bidding reflects perfectly the popularity of the term and the willingness of Website owners to pay to be visited by people who searched for that term.

I did a quick calculation and discovered that Australian banks are willing to set aside a cool $5.1 million dollars a year (around $90 per click!) to appear as sponsored links under "mortgage".  If you think of all the related search terms, each big bank probably sets aside about $100 million dollars a year each for Google AdWords pay-per-click campaigns.  That is a guess, but I am probably not far off.  It kind of helps to explain how Google's share prices remain so high.  It's not just speculation – they are raking in cash every single day – hundreds of millions of dollars worth of cold hard cash.

So much for the level playing field in the "mortgage" search belt.

Cast your eyes away from the big ticket keywords, and you find a massive level of activity by smaller players.  All of them have realised that qualified traffic to their Website is worth big bucks.

Not everyone on-line is looking for a mortgage.  Some people are after plumbers, pest controllers, wedding videographers, wallpaper, rugs, toys, swaddling cloths – anything and everything that anyone else has got to offer, and some things that are not even available yet.  It would be interesting to know how many people in Australia are Googling to buy an electric car – even though none are available.

So the smart small businesses have realised that to grow in the Internet age, they need to be found.  They need Google.  Right now is a perfect time to get into not only Pay-Per-Click, but optimisation for the free (organic) search results.  After all there are only so many Websites on page one of Google for any search term.  It is the only place to be, really.

Cyrius Media Group helps people get found.  It's not easy and there are a whole lot of elements involved – not just in optimisation, but in making sure that if you pay Google to drive traffic your way, you need a Website that will turn those clickers into customers.  Right now people are cashing in big time on getting found.

It's going to get harder, and Google is going to have to re-think their system sooner or later.  Think about it.  Let's take signwriters.  There must be at least a couple of thousand of them in Australia.  How could every signwriter possibly expect to get a fair slice of the Google pie?  How could someone looking for a signwriter possibly expect that the first page of Google results is going to give them the quality service provider they need?  In a country town, they might search for "Signwriters Dubbo" and get only a few results, but in a big city the best signwriter might be a few suburbs away and Google can't help you find the right one very effectively.  Sooner rather than later the current Google model is going to start failing.

So what to do?

1) Make hay while the sun shines – get in there and get found.  Make your site worthy of being found, and your business worthy of being in business.

2) Be prepared for change.  Things change very fast on the Internet.  You need to be aware of what is going on, and plan strategies and tactics to ensure your business' viability no matter what happens.

Check out http://www.cyrius.com.au and get in touch with us to see what strategies we can implement for you.