MARKETING BLOG

MARKETING • TECHNOLOGY • RESULTS

Over the years, Vovéo has done a lot of marketing work for b-to-b technology companies. One of the reason’s we’ve been so successful is our ability to take a complex product or service offering and distill it down to a few simple concepts that the average business person can understand and appreciate. I often find myself in the same position when offering SEO services. Clients hear a lot about it - and believe they need it, but generally don’t understand the concepts involved. So here is a simple analogy of how search works.

Google and other search engines perform a service, and not unlike other service businesses, their reputation depends on how well they do so. Their goal is to satisfy each search request with the most credible, or “relevant” information thereby ensuring the loyalty and satisfaction of their customers.

Finding the most relevant web page is a lot like finding anything else. Imagine for a moment you are walking the streets of your favorite city, shopping for an engagement ring. The first thing you might look for would be a sign such as “Jeweler”. On the web, a storefront sign is somewhat analogous to a page title. If you were in Philadelphia, you might wonder over to Sansom street, otherwise known as Jeweler’s Row - street addresses are analogous to URLs on the web. Once you had identified a potential jewelry store, you would most likely look in the window and peek at some of the inventory - i.e. meta description. Somewhat convinced you’d found a reasonable place to buy a ring, you probably enter the store to have a further look.

Once inside the store, you’d begin to look around for additional signs - i.e. heading tags. At some point, you may even ask a store clerk for assistance or directions - i.e. internal links to the ring section. Once you had located the rings, you begin to look through the inventory - or content. OK, so now that you are properly oriented, you can get down to the business of purchasing a ring, right? Wrong! Choosing an engagement ring is a big decision. How do you know that you’ve found a credible jeweler - one that will sell you the highest quality engagement ring at the best possible price and support you after you’ve made the purchase? Simple, you check references - i.e. inbound links. As the opinions roll in, you begin weighing them - assigning high value to those received from credible sources - i.e. high page rank, and progressively lower value to others. Properly armed with all of the necessary information, you proceed to make the right decision… and break off your engagement.

So there you have it. In practice, SEO is more involved than this article would illustrate, but the concepts are really quite simple. Google and other search engines seek to find the most relevant information they can, your goal is to give them the information they need to make that determination.