Here are examples of “natural” or “organic” search results vs. “paid” search results on Google:
The orange boxes indicate paid search results. Google marks these as Sponsored Links. Sponsored Links always appear at the top or on the right side of search results pages. Businesses pay Google to be listed here. These are also called text advertisements, “paid placement” ads or “pay per click” ads.
The green box indicates a natural (also called “organic”) search results listing. As of today, October 23, 2007, McBuzz is at the top of local search results for “seattle marketing communications”. McBuzz does not pay Google to appear in this spot.
It’s worth noting that since this post was created, Google has done away with local search listings for “seattle marketing communications”, and McBuzz is no longer featured in this top position. Try “wordpress websites seattle” instead.
Yahoo! and MSN.com search results pages have a similar format — with both paid and natural search listings.
Google Indexes Pages Much More Frequently Than Before
Here’s an interesting sidebar. I created the post you are reading right now at 10:16 AM today, October 23. Looking at the Google search results page just now (at 10:30 PM the same day), I see that this post has already been indexed by Google, meaning that it shows up on page one (in the number 10 spot at the bottom of the page) for the same keyword.
Why is this important? Because it shows just how quickly new content on your website can affect its performance in search results.
The post you are reading right now was indexed by Google and listed on page one of serch results for “seattle marketing communications” the same day it was created! What does this tell us? When you apply basic search engine optimization techniques — including making frequent updates to your site with keyword-rich headlines, bullet points and text — you can see immediate results and bring in more customers.
You may recall the days when you had to wait three to four weeks, sometimes longer, for updates to your website to show up in search engine results pages. If you optimized your site, it might take at least that long to find out if what you did worked or not.
As this example shows, those days are long gone — provided you are doing the right things with your website. And that’s a significant qualification. What are the right things? Exactly what we talk about on mcbuzz.com, like following our Web Marketing Tips — and the fact that you should use content managment or “blogging” software like WordPress to build and maintain your site rather than old-fashioned, “static” format HTML. (The latter includes sites created with do-it-yourself, “site builder” tools you find on GoDaddy.com, Network Solutions and Yahoo! web hosting.)
Let me know what you think!
McBuzz Web Marketing Tips
#1: Use “site:url” to Find Out If Your Website Is Indexed by Google
#2: Use XML Sitemap Generator to Get All Your Website’s Pages Indexed by Google
#3: Submit an XML Sitemap to Google
#4: Use Keywords in Web Page Titles
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