Photo courtesy of Google, Inc.

I went out to eat last night at Outback Steakhouse, and one side of my coaster read:

“I searched for myself on Google and found nothing.”

Think about that for a minute.

Google has become so powerful in our lives that a coaster at Outback talks about the search engine. Plus, the ultimate slam would be to search for ourselves on the Big G and find nothing. Wow.

“Google” is now used as a noun, a verb, and an adjective. You’ll often hear TV and news shows refer to “Googling” for something when they’re searching on the Web.  (verb)

We often refer to Google-friendly Web sites (adjective). Google itself is a proper noun.

Yet, I can remember when Google was a minor engine and Yahoo! was the big game in town. Yahoo! was a directory only, and AltaVista was the Big Boy search engine. We didn’t particularly care about Google. We wanted to hear what Yahoo! and AV had to say. And believe it or not, this wasn’t very many years ago–maybe six or so.

Things change at lightning speed in the SEO industry (which used to be called the Web positioning industry).

When you watch TV, listen to how many times you hear newscasters or actors talk about Googling something. This is particularly true if you watch crime shows.

Also, watch commercials. You’ll see a lot of Google mentions there too.

By the way, I told you what one side of the coaster said. Want to know what the other side said?

“No Worries.”

:)

No worries, because if you take the advice from this blog and begin creating quality content that your visitors want to see on your Web site, your name or your Web site’s name will appear in Google. AND, your link popularity will be built naturally.

That, my friends, is the moral of this story. Google may be loaded with power, but use that power by giving Google what it wants to see: quality content and naturally built links. It will, in turn, give you what you want: a highly visible site.

Robin