Here’s a question for the new year: Does a first page Google search ranking replace the need to keep spending on advertising? After all, if you’ve made it to the top of the charts in Google search results, what more do you need?

Times have certainly changed. Understatement of the year, right? But it is true. Having been in the marketing business for over 35 years, I have to marvel at the difference a few decades have made. I am corrected: what difference a few years Have made.

Things were going pretty well during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s until the Internet came of age. Until then, we knew what it took to reach our desired markets and what was involved in radio, television and print to do it. As expensive as those options were, at least we had a handle on the world of corporate marketing.

Enter “older brother”. There is nothing that has had more impact on our world than the arrival of Google and its omnipresent “surveillance” (to put it politely) of every detail in which we humans engage.

Our homes? Just check Google Maps. From all angles. Satelite. Land. Street. Baby Cart.

Our lives? Just enter your name in the Google search field and cross your fingers.

While some lament the fact that Google has indexed the good, the bad, and the ugly from what seems to be no escape (if someone comes across a ten-year-old misdeed in some dark…or not-so-dark… .search results), we at Mid-Hudson Marketing feel quite fortunate that Google has done a lot of work for us.

How have we managed to reach this enviable position? On the one hand, we’ve stayed informed about what’s important in today’s Google-dominated universe. What, please tell me, is that, you may ask?

Well, it’s certainly a combination of things, but it all comes down to the critical need to have a search engine optimized website, better known as the Internet’s lifeblood of SEO.

While you may have heard of this and considered it superfluous to your daily activity, compared to the air we breathe and the work we do to stay alive, nothing could be further from the truth. SEO it is the air we breathe and without it, you might as well start writing your business obituary. Maybe not today or even tomorrow, but soon, maybe next year, he’ll start to realize that if his website (if he has a website at all) doesn’t rank significantly in search results, he you will have an expensive trip. moving towards maintaining any semblance of business success.

Those who have done their SEO due diligence are reaping the benefits in many different ways. On the one hand, having a website or references to your business appear on the first page of Google search results is synonymous with having a brilliant article on the front page of the world’s leading newspapers. It beats the power of a full-page ad or infomercial on TV because it’s something you pay dearly for, compared to the prestige of having editorial endorsement in a globally respected medium. That is certainly the stature of Google: global, powerful and completely unbiased. What does that mean? It means that it is totally credible, something of little importance in the skeptical world in which we live.

The sheer brilliance of achieving a page one position in the top twenty listings in a search that returns more than two, five or a hundred million results speaks volumes about the intelligence behind entities at such a level of achievement! The question is not how it is possible for a small business or an individual person to be at the top of such a competitive index, but how can that happen in today’s world for free!!

Of course, we all know that nothing is ever totally free. Achieving such a position is the result of many costly years of accumulated investment in time, self-education, effort, and risk. Being in business for decades is no small thing in itself. Doing so while keeping up with exploding technology and all that it demands is all the more commendable, especially if the business also achieves a financial triumph in the process.

Does this mean that mastering SEO now comes with relief from the cost and need for advertising? Can a well-optimized website replace the tried and true marketing, networking, and merchandising strategies? How far do Google’s search tentacles reach?

First of all, different searches generate different search results, just as different direct mailings done on different dates have different numbers of respondents, if any. We all know that placing an ad in a magazine or newspaper is a roll of the dice for response rate, depending on who read the publication on that particular date, and whether they even noticed the ad, let alone responded to it! ! All trading methods are subject to the vagaries of chance, making them as risky as investing in the stock market. You pay your dues and hold your breath.

While not everyone in the world can see your stellar Google ranking as a result of a certain combination of search terms, and not everyone is an Internet user, the beauty here is that this phenomenon hasn’t involved any cash outlays. It is there for the taking. Similar to having a free listing in the yellow pages but with so much more prominence and reach, you can’t even compare the two! And while someone may call you from your free yellow pages list, if you’re lucky, if someone clicks on your web address as a result of your free Google list, once it arrives, you’ll have a whole encyclopedic volume of information about you and your company carefully designed to make an impressive presentation, take them to the conclusion you want and direct them to buy your product or service or respond with a positive desire to learn more, all without ever talking to anyone in your company!

It’s hard to downplay the benefits of those kinds of achievements at any level. I ask again, does it replace the need to continue allocating precious marketing dollars to the endless options of expensive advertising that includes participation in the yellow pages, traditional print ads, radio and television ads, billboards on our highways, or billboard ads? websites, networking efforts through industry memberships and/or trade show presentations, direct mail and/or email marketing, guerrilla marketing on community bulletin boards or direct marketing on shopping carts, mall kiosks, shop counters or panel trucks? In a down economy, certainly much of this can be put on hold while more personal effort is put into improving one’s SEO.

So what are the secrets to mastering SEO? Let me count the ways:

First, there is no single most important parameter; rather, it is a combination of things that add up to SEO excellence. Simply put, being in the right place at the right time is very important. This means having your business associated with large, powerful and popular websites that will include a “back link” to your URL (www.yourwebsite.com) for an extended period of time. Social networking sites immediately come to mind because they are steps you can take yourself for free with the potential to reap huge dividends. Having a blog that constantly generates new content draws Google’s attention, especially if the content is “rich” or valuable in its informational contribution. No fluffery here.

This also applies to your website. Think in terms of the tasks you had to accomplish in advanced college courses for professors who expected you to perform at little less than genius level. Now apply that kind of effort to your web page content, making sure to include marketing and graphic appeal so your visitors stay on your pages and thirsty for more. You’ll need to predict what types of search terms your preferred visitors will use to find and enjoy your site because these magic words will be the key to your future business. (Hence the term “keywords!”) And you’ll need to incorporate these golden nuggets into your page flow to make your search and your content relevant to each other.

You will also need to have active links from your pages to other content within your website that further addresses their search for more details about what they are looking for. Whether your website is simply informational or offers merchandise for sale, your goal is to reward your visitors with complete satisfaction. Remember, every happy customer is a source of future referral!

While SEO relevance also includes the suitability of your domain name, your page titles, tags, and descriptions, it’s mind-boggling to learn that Google has recently shaken up the internet universe by tweaking its search algorithm in some mysterious way. , making the job that much more challenging for those of us who study all things Google on a daily basis. Translation: is never a done deal!

Since we are only a few years into the Google paradigm, we need to take our time to evaluate and re-evaluate the right plan going forward, especially if your company has a long established history. Deciding to suddenly cut spending on the marketing and advertising strategies that have put you where you are today may not be the smartest thing to do. coup de grace. One last thought: It may be the success of your marketing and advertising over the years that has contributed to your current stature among SEO experts. There is an old adage in the world of advertising paraphrased as follows: if the train travels at 90 mph, the engine will not die!