Thanks, fastreplies.
I just wanted to add that a search engine, depending on what market you're in, it's either a vehicle of transportation or a huge, digital highway to your online store. More than likely, the latter applies to 99.99999% of everyone who needs traffic to their site.
Without any real statistics here, how many cars are driving on the highway? Let's say the closest highway to you, how many cars/vehicles pass by your 'location' an hour? ... A LOT, right? Next question, how many of those vehicles on the highway, stopped by your 'location?'
Really? That many?
Those who are traveling are constantly stopping for gas, food and maybe even shopping. They never stop at the first one they see. "Oh, next exit, next exit," they'll say. Once they take the exit though, they're confronted with which gas station, restaurant and shopping center to go to. The business signs and pictures on the windows are their only indications of what goes on inside the closed doors. Sometimes, they'll go with the first one they see, or they'll go for something that's the most familiar and sometimes something they've never heard of. It depends on their mood.
You're wondering how this ties in with your online business.
Well, like a highway, people are constantly on the search engine with a destination in mind (some are just lost and drive/surf aimlessly). They'll do a search and come to their first page of results (an exit). Now they're faced with 10 different locations to visit (these are your gas stations, restaurants and shopping center). Indications of what these sites are is when they 'exit' and see the 'business signs.' They either enter what seems to be most familiar or would be most beneficial to them.
Not everything on the first page could apply to them though. Go ahead, do a search in Google for "donut." You'll find ACTUAL restaurants and then you'll also see wikipedia talking about donuts and a page on MySpace talking about a donuts party. Probably not what you'd be looking for, but it's there. There's a lot of irrelevant content when you're searching.
A search engine is good when a visitor knows either exactly what they're looking for or 80% set on a particular interest. For instance, if I'm searching for a computer, it's a good idea to search for the "best computers," right? Well, there's a site in the top 10 results about computer, science and math JOKES. Is that really something I'd be interested in? Is there a great chance I'll just drive past it? Hell yeah, I will.
Alright, this is getting long. I'll stop here. I hope the point is clear. Forget having a high
PR. On that search with "best computers" I saw sites with PR3, 5, 6, 7 and 8. Let me just say, it's not very likely you'll reach that high and you'll be wasting your time. For those who are getting a lot of traffic from search engines, good for you. I'm happy for you and very proud of you. It takes a lot of work to do what you do... but how much work and time did you put into it?
I'm willing to bet I could spend less than half the time you spent and build more traffic than you without the search engines though. My traffic isn't from the 'highway' they're from the inside roads and people close to me. That's right, people who are familiar with my kind of work and become repeat customers. That's where the money is.
Have a great mother's day, everyone. Even if you're not a mom, just enjoy, man! I'm gonna go wake up my wifey, lol.
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