Learn to think like Google = Understand SEO

This is possibly the most important article on this website and once you understand the content of this lesson, it will focus your mind on what affiliate marketing is all about and how to gain free, targeted traffic via the Google search engine. There is so much conflicting advice about SEO that it is easy to get confused, so lets take a few moments to get into the head of Google and understand how they work, which in turn will tell us exactly what we need to do to rank well with them.

Google has developed into one of the most powerful organisations in the world and was recently valued at $23.7 billion. Although it operates a number of other projects including Google Maps, Google Checkout, etc, it’s dominance on the internet is derived from the Google Search Engine and the revenues derived from that.

Increasingly, when people are looking for information or want to find the answer to a problem, their immediate reaction is to “google it”. But why is it Google that we turn to instead of one of the many other search engines such as Yahoo, MSN, etc?  This is because we trust the reputation of the Google search engine. We believe that we can find quickly and efficiently what we are looking for by searching the Google database.

Google makes it’s money through the sponsored adverts (Adwords) on the right hand side of the page, where advertisers pay anywhere from £0.05 - £20 per click. This nets Google revenues of several million pounds per day. Google knows that these revenues are linked to the number of searches made each day and also that the number of searches is linked to the confidence and reputation in their search engine by consumers.

Therefore, Google users a series of complex algorithms (there is no benefit to you understanding the technical processes, it will only confuse you. All you need to do is understand the theory of what Google is looking for) to ensure that when a user searches for information, they are immediately presented with the information they are looking for. If the users needs are met, they will be satisfied with their experience and will continue to use Google ahead of Yahoo in future. On the other hand, if the Google results bring nothing but a list of tacky, advert filled spam pages then the user will likely try another search engine to meet their needs.

This is the major lesson to be learned and once you understand how Google makes their money, you should be able to focus your attention on what you need to do to ensure Google ranks your site highly. The countless adverts you have no doubt seen advertising programmes which “guarantee Google rankings” are fake – they do not work. Why would Google want a junk site to rank ahead of one with useful content?  Will users keep coming back if that is the sites Google recommends?  Of course not!

SEO is not confusing – it is simply about understanding how to build quality, relevant pages around the keywords you are targeting. If you can provide a useful website which will be of interest to a user searching for your topic, Google will want to rank it highly and as long as you “tell” Google of your good work then you will be rewarded.

If you like the information in this article, then please continue reading our other guides and consider signing up for our training programme where we will teach you in simple, easy to understand articles (with real live site examples) :

• How to Choose the right Keywords for your Website
• How to write good content which Google finds useful
• How to let Google know of your good work
• How to get traffic from thousands of different search phrases, just by writing content

Of course there is much more to be learned, but if you are a complete newbie, we’ll start you off with the basics rather than weigh you down with too much information.

You can even get personal, 1-on-1 training with one of our SEO experts who will work with you to build your site, choose your keywords, write your content and work towards a number one ranking.