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A search engine results page (SERP) is the listing of web pages returned by a search engine (Google, Yahoo, Bing, et al) in response to a keyword query. Results normally include a list of web pages with titles, one or more hyperlinks, and a short description of web pages you may choose to explore. A SERP may refer to a single page of links returned, or to the set of all links returned for a search query.

Being on page one of a SERP is the holy grail of search engine marketing.  When people open up their browser and search for something you sell, your hope is that you show up on page one of a SERP. The searcher then sees your link and clicks through to your web site. Once on your web site, the searcher contacts you or they buy one of your products online.

In this example above, you didn’t even need to look for this new customer, advertise to them, call them, or even mail them anything.  They found you!! How cool is that?

How do businesses show up on page one of a SERP?

Well…the answer to that question is called search engine marketing or search engine optimization (SEO). It almost always takes some effort. And quite frankly, SEO work is really (just between you and me) all about “sucking up to Google” and doing what Google wants you to do. Why should you care about that?

Google is the world’s most popular search engine. Search engine market shares look approximately like this at the time of this posting:

• Google  78.48%
• Bing         9.26%
• Yahoo     9.14%

So, hopefully, you can understand my “sucking up to Google” comment made just a moment ago. Clearly, any sensible SERP strategy would put the majority of money, time and effort into setting up and optimizing one’s web presence focusing mostly on making Google’s search engine algorithms like you very much.

The Value of Page Rank Position

Page rank position #4, #6, #1? What’s the big deal? There’s a ton of opportunity in moving up from position #6 (which is closer to the bottom of a page one SERP) to position #1.  Consider this: Position #6 on a page one SERP only draws about 5% of the clicks, while position #4 gets 8%, position #2 gets 17%, and position #1 gets about 34% of the clicks!

The 3 Steps to SEO

If you have any competition at all in your business, and any one would ever to think to use Google to find your company online, you need to get some help from a search marketing expert. Search engine optimization is not easy or obvious, and it has 3 parts:

1. SEO research
2. SEO website adjustments
3. SEO on-going optimization efforts

Taking short cuts or skipping anyone of those 3 steps always hurts. How does it hurt? It lets your competitors that take search marketing more seriously get the business that you should have gotten. That’s bad.

FINALLY - What’s the hardest part of all of this to accept?

Step 3 – “SEO on-going optimization efforts”

Why is step 3 so hard to accept? Because like it or not, SEO never stops and it costs your business a modest amount of time and/or money every month. Yep! Just like running Yellow Pages ads of the past, SEO is something you need to budget for month after month, every month going forward if you really want to dominate in the online SERP competition to gain new customers. Sorry…that’s just the way it is. Don’t shoot the messenger.  But the return on your SEO investment can be phenomenal when it’s done right. Call me to learn more: Paul DeBernardi 651-261-4581.

Have you looked at your website in an iPhone, Droid or Blackberry? Major brands like ESPN and Target know that over 20% of their web traffic comes from mobile devices. This trend is solid. You can bet the farm on it. We all know that more and more people are searching for things online today using their mobile phones. So how does your web site look on a mobile phone?

One of my customers, Aspen Limo, asked me, “Why is my website so hard to view and navigate on a mobile phone?” He was frustrated. He knew that many travelers arriving at the airport, for example, pull out there phones looking for a limo or town car. And …they are walking through the airport carrying bags so they only have one hand free! So using the scroll bar to move the web site pages left and right and up and down, and continually zooming in and out to be able to read even the links on the web site just isn’t a good customer experience. My customer also noticed using Google analytics that more and more connections to his website were coming from mobile devices. Being a business man that always strives to keep ahead of the market, he decided quickly to step up to a mobile solution with me.

Designing a great mobile site takes time and effort to get the most out of the limited screen resolution and navigation mechanisms available on mobile devices. And even if you LOVE your primary web site with tons of columns, flash banners, photos, videos, dancing bears and on and on –GET OVER IT!! Great mobile sites are consistent in branding (logos, colors, tone, etc.) but they DO NOT LOOK exactly like your main web site. That is, of course, intentional.

If I’m walking through the airport with a bag in one hand and my Blackberry in the other, I want the mobile site to be useable with just one hand. I’m also not interested in reading a two page history of your company for goodness sakes. I’m just looking for something to click on to auto-dial my phone so I can talk to you, ask a few questions about your service, get a quote, and have a car dispatched right away to pick me up so I don’t miss my next meeting.

If someone searches on Google for “limo services Minneapolis” and then see the Aspen Limo web link in the search results, they 1) click the link, then 2) software on the Aspen Limo site sees it’s a mobile call, and 3) sends the phone the mobile site home page of http://m.aspenlimo.net  (mobile site) instead of the main home page of www.aspenlimo.net (primary web site).

See the m. in the address instead of the www. ? Check out http://m.aspenlimo.net to see what a real mobile site looks like! And if you live in or travel in the Minneapolis area, bookmark http://m.aspenlimo.net on your iPhone, Droid or Blackberry device. Their limo and sedan services are awesome!!

Need a mobile version of your web site? Call Paul DeBernardi at 651-261-4581.