The Online Sunshine Plan

V. Search Engine Optimization

As I’ve hinted earlier, the search engines (and so search engine optimization) are a dying breed. That being said, they will always be around in some format – just not as the over-important Everest you “just have to” climb in order to break into Internet Marketing.

Why do people think search engines are important?

The essential use for Search Engines is for people to find things. (No, duh?) But more specifically, it’s to find things they don’t already know about – people use search engines to find new things. So search engines and advertising are a good match, as they are both set to enable people to find companies, products, services, and information that they didn’t know before.

The trick is that once people get their trusted sites, they seldom go back to find more stuff. People like sameness predictability – even though Nightingale says they want stimulation (or change), they also equally want security (or sameness). People are going to narrow down their universe to a handful of routine sites they keep up with, while also spending some time browsing. People will re-watch a favorite DVD, but will occasionally go out for a new movie as well.

Consider your own life. How much of what you do is the same day-to-day? Same bed, same phone, same house, same car, same spouse, same kids, same neighbors… How much is really different?  TV tries to be different every day, but the plots and characters are mostly the same – the news is always slanted and mostly can’t be trusted (like government – the only things they do the same is take your money without asking and spend it without accounting for someone else’s benefit.)

Once you get the spouse, car, house, neighborhood you want, you don’t change much. Like your job – you want to change this as little as possible.  On the weekends you might want to change it up a bit – not unwelcome changes like having to mow the yard again, or something breaking that needs to be fixed, or a sudden mess that has to be cleaned up. You want changes of choice – like movie for the whole family and dinner out (budget permitting) or a DVD rental with popcorn and soft drinks in front of the TV as a family.

The bulk of your life remains the same and you seek some stimulation through changes you chose. Safe ones – that don’t lead to results you are required to solve, fix, or live with.

OK, I’ve beat this one to death.

People build their worldview around themselves, especially on the Internet. All their bookmarks, their home-pages, their regularly visited sites – these are what they keep the same. On a regular basis, the go back to the search engines to find answers to new questions that come up in their lives. Reason: to continue to survive and evolve. And each year, a tiny minority of this sameness will get permanently changed to something better.

Sure, there are exceptions, like “change of life” and natural disasters. And people who live in “Tornado Alley” or hurricane zones have different “normals” than others. I’ve heard of people who have a normal that includes being snowed in for four months out of the year, so stock up on food before these times and learn to deal with a sameness which might bring “cabin fever” on most of the rest of us.

What you want to do is to become a regular feature in their lives with your content and your services or products. That is a function of the quality of your content and your sales funnel.

And you want people looking for something new to find  you first. That is what search engines are for.