Marketing Now

When I worked at Google, I talked to thousands of business owners seeking my help and advice. To them, Google was somewhat of a black box. They knew that organic search (the unpaid result set) was impor- tant, but they had no idea how to use search data and customer acquisi- tion from organic search in their business processes.

We built Google Webmaster Central 1 as a way to give business owners and Webmasters insight into how their sites were performing in Google and to help them identify problems and make improvements. During my tenure at Google and since, the business owners I talk to often fall into one of the following camps:

• Those who know search has become an important part of the customer engagement cycle, but aren’t sure where to start.
• Those who don’t think search is that important and believe that even if it is, businesses shouldn’t have to concern themselves with it. It’s Google’s job to sort things out.
• Those who get so caught up in optimizing their sites and ranking number one that they don’t step back to look at the bigger picture: to understand how searchers behave, how to engage with them, and how to turn them into lifelong customers.

After I left Google, I wanted to take what we started with Webmaster Central and go beyond helping people pinpoint issues that might be preventing them from doing well in search. I wanted to help them fix those areas, improve their sites, and take the focus off of ranking and put it on connecting with the right audience. In short, I wanted to change the conversation about search. I wanted to help businesses understand why organic search was important to their long-term success and show them how to harness it for better customer engagement, more informed business and product strategy-and introduce them to a whole new world of customers who they may have been missing. Thus, the idea for this book was born.

If you’ve picked up this book, you already realize that search is becoming the primary way in which many people get information, decide what to buy, and make those purchases. And you know that as customer behavior changes, businesses remain successful by changing with them. These days, your search strategy is your business strategy, whether you realize it or not, because that’s how potential customers are trying to find you. Search is the new Yellow Pages, 800-number, Sunday circular, card catalog, and cash register.

But how do you build a comprehensive search strategy? And how can you take advantage of the amazing amounts of data that search makes available about your potential customers? Much as our evolution to a searching culture was a fundamental shift in behavior, fully realizing the potential of search often requires such a shift in your business. This adjustment will help you better connect with potential customers, make more informed business decisions, and remain relevant as our world continues to change. This book will get you there.

Source: Vanessa Fox, “Marketing in the Age of Google: Your Online Strategy is Your Business Strategy,” JohnWiley & Sons, Inc, Hoboken, New Jersey, 2010

Republished by Marketing Now