I have heard Robert Scoble a couple of times this week say that at Microsoft they did research that showed that 3% of people out there went beyond page 1 of search results in their searches performed.  This can be very scary if you are a small business and want to gain customers on the Internet.  The first thing I ask customers when they ask me what we offer in the area of search engine optimization (SEO) or in search engine marketing (SEM) is "where is your company positioned in Google?"  If they don’t know, that tells me right away that they have no idea whether my answer to their question regarding search is right or wrong.  Google always seems to be used as the example because they have over 50% of the market share in search.  Companies have paid large sums of money to be on page 1 of Google search results.  Many companies also have paid exactly zero to be on page one.  Those without a page 1 marketing budget are the ones that get the position through organic search. 

"How do we get organic search results?"

This is one of the most popular questions that is asked of my company when I speak to customers about blogging and SEO.  I can talk about how great blogging is for SEO and for SEM but until they see actual results, it seems to be a skeptical look at blogging and its power.  My best example is a Daddy Blogger.  This Daddy Blogger I know started blogging back in early 2004 about his children and what it was like to be a father.  He spent exactly $0.00 on a SEO campaign and never once tweaked his site to make sure it was optimized for search.  His handle that he began with was Genuine.  That seems to be a very broad term, name, or search word.  Many companies have this in their company name or title or even in their tagline.  Some of the ones that I can think of are obvious, like Microsoft Genuine Advantage software, Genuine.com a software company, Genuine scooters, and many others.  I tell my prospective client to open their browser and type in the keyword Genuine.  After a few seconds I ask them to tell me what appears on page 1 of their search quest.  After the first three results, I would tell them to stop.  This Daddy blogger usually has always been mentioned. 

The reason I know of this example is simple.  I am that Daddy Blogger.  I never spent a dime on search engine optimization, no advertising budget, and I spent very little time each day to make sure I was on the top of the list.  This example is very effective to show that many of the companies out there are spending loads on advertising, when they need only be blogging.  Our clients are becoming more and more prevalent on the first page of Google in their genres or niche.  They are spending much less than their competition, but their results are growing at an alarming rate. You should also be vying for page 1 results on Google through organic search.  Contact me and let’s get your company out front.

Tags: Robert Scoble, Microsoft, Search, SEO, SEM, Google, Organic Search, Daddy Blogger, Genuine