Chasing 'Google Page 1' - Don't believe the hyp...

This is actually my 4sight that i've done recently in London & Bristol and forms part of the structure of my Internet marketing workshop (coming to a conference venue near you soon!).

Nowadays, it's so common to hear people saying how important it is to be on page one of Google. I'm here to remind you all that as a matter of fact, that is a load of bollo*ks for most people within 4networking (ooooh controversial!).

• Why do people want to be at page one of Google?

Usually, it's to get more traffic.

Well, if its more traffic & conversions you're after here are a few ways of making sh!t loads of money without worrying about being on page one of Google.

1. Video Marketing

There are 3 main types of videos you can create yourself - 1) talking head (i.e. YOU talking about your product/service); 2) screen video/demos (i.e. if your product is software or online based); 3) Third-party videos (i.e. endorsements and testimonials). You don't need a fancy camera for this..a FLIP cam or webcam is good to get started at least. If you have resources to do it professionally, good for you.

Take your videos (3-4mins long) and get them distributed on video sharing sites such as youtube. A good way of distributing your vids to multiple sites is to use tubemogul.com (allows you to share vids to multiple video sharing sites including youtube)

2. Article Marketing

Similar concept to video marketing, but you are distributing text articles. If you've never done this before then a good place to start distributing your articles is on ezinearticles.com (they have strict policies on content so make sure your work is original).

You are usually allowed 3-4 links back to your website within the body of the article so people reading them can click to go through to your website.

Try keeping articles between 200-500 words to make them easy to read.

Don't know what to write about? People love reading lists (i.e. top 10 things to look out for, 5 mistakes people make, the do's and don'ts of...etc) that are relevant to your industry.

3. Use your RSS feeds
Most blogs & websites nowadays will have an RSS feed. Take this feed and plug it into your web 2.0 properties and your social networking accounts so that when you update your blog by adding new content, everyone will know about it (an example of this is the orange box in my sig below).
Other people can also use your RSS feeds to feed your content into their own websites/blog/social networks.

I talk about 3-4 more during my 4sight but don't want this thread to get too long so.

The point i'm trying to make here is that i've given you 3 ways of increasing traffic in a very very very substantial way without worrying about SEO or about Google. You will notice that what i've said is no dark art and certainly no secret..

I accept that depending on your industry having good search engine rankings is helpful, but it's not essential for most people. In fact, most people won't be able to rank on page one of google (for their real keywords) because their industry is so competitive.

Right...now I need a new 4sight!

Totally agree.
If your 2nd question is "How do i get to number 1 on google" then you're asking the wrong question.

Thanks, Suraj. I found your 4Sight @ Kings X really useful and this is a good reminder. Now it's time to start writing those articles!

Thanks Suraj, superb stuff, especially the Ezinearticle site.

My understanding of SEO is that it is an accumulation of things from domain name, early words on the landing page, constant change and additions to the site and of course directing traffic to it.

The power of 4N on Google is awesome (as is Ecademy for that matter).

I just concentrate on being found locally, I don't need to conquer the world.

Regards

Mark

Mark..spot on.. seriously, i wish i could get away with charging people to tell them this, but i'll leave that to the cowboys who really give me and my industry a bad name.

SEO is a tiny weeny midget part of Internet Marketing, but for some reason SEO has been made into its own industry.

Good optimisation (on-page and off-page) is made up of lots of factors which all contribute small amounts to the bigger picture.

You are absolutely right in that 4N and Ecademy give lots of google love to the links within the sites (ecademy a bit more strict about this though).

Thanks for the tip about tubemogul.com Suraj. Am about to load various videos I've produced onto it.

Great post Suraj, really good stuff. And certainly whets my appetite for what's to come at the workshop I'm going to in Bristol!

Thanks for your post Suraj..........espeically liked the rss signature thing and promptly added it to mine!!

What are your thoughts on www.xtranormal.com? If someone made a short video using this tool and then posted it on their blog, other web 2.0 sites would this fall under your definition of 'video marketing'?

thanks...i did notice a few more people now have orange boxes in their sigs!

Xtranormal is very cool - used properly you can really easily use an xtranormal vid to create a viral campaign because it's something different to the standard video's that you see.

another very cool tool that you can use is Animoto (free version does the job, but premium version does it better as it takes out the animoto branding).

using xtranormal or animoto does fall under my definition of video marketing..the 3 examples of videos i gave are the standard things you see but using these tools is thinking out of the box and can help make your vids viral

Nice one, thanks......think I'll have a play about before even trying to post anything........anyone got any ideas for a good HR viral?

What a great post Suraj.

Beat me to it about using xtranormal or any other form of " rich media " content to boost your web site performance. I think one just needs to be cautious about how appropriate some of these animations are to the core offer on a site.

Thanks for the tubemogul tip. Fantastic.

Gary - taking the P out of your own industry is always a favourite...using xtranormal you can do a spoof sketch of a typical meeting between a HR service provider (i.e. you) and a client demanding the world...

somebody did a hilarious sketch of a graphic designer & a difficult (typical) client who wanted some design work doing using xtranormal...it's somewhere on the forum (anyone got a link to it?)

Opps - Removed the posted video when I realized it needs to be on the 18+ section.

Here's the link - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfprIxNfCjk

great post - a nice and simple explanation of the dark arts!

Thanks for posting that link Sam, one of my favourite viral videos of last year, apart for being highly sweary and lol-worthy it is uncomfortably close to the truth!

Back on topic, Suraj, you speak great truth - I am so sick of SEO cowboys baffling my clients with ridiculous claims about google ranking and just stuffing their sites full of keywords to achieve it.

Keep up the good work.