You know the people, the ones that never miss an opportunity to tell you that they rank number one on Google for all of the keywords relating to their business.

Yeah. Right. Sure You Do.

I know for a fact one of these so-called Google Braggers uses this line to woo new clients who don’t know any better… Ah the illustrious promise of the Google Promise Land.

Here’s my problem with that. Those statements 99.9% of the time are FALSE!

Yep. They are false. And, here’s the even bigger problem… the people claiming to have reached this state of Google Nirvana with their site ranking number one for every keyword, usually have no idea that they are making false claims because they don’t understand search engine optimization (seo) and rankings.

Take for example a local Sacramento company that makes this claim often. They aren’t even in the search engine optimization business, so it clear that they don’t realize how silly what they are claiming really is.

After about the fifth time I’ve seen them make this claim both in person and on Facebook, I decided to check it out. I cleared my browser history, I cleared my cache, I logged out of Google and I searched. Yes, they ranked number one for their business name and the two owners’ names – but everyone should rank number one for their branded keywords. Then I searched for them under the top seven keywords and key phrases I could think of that would fit their business and they didn’t even crack the top three pages. For several keywords, they didn’t even crack the top ten pages.

Here’s what you need to know. Your search results are relative.

The sites that come up in the results when you search for something are affected by your browsing history, the links you click on, whether or not you’re logged into Google, your location, whether you search for yourself 100 times a day, and more. That means that just because you come up number one when you search for yourself, it doesn’t mean you will when other people search for you.

Now, you can log out of Google, wipe your browser history clean, and clear your cache, etc. to get a fairly accurate and clean look at where your site stands. You also can use Google’s Webmaster Tools and other tools available to see your true stats.

If you get one thing out of this article, I want you to understand that everything online is relative and as we move more toward the socialization of the web, it will become even more so.

Also, don’t get sucked in by the promises of reaching the number one spot on Google for every keyword that applies to your business. There are companies that get paid millions of dollars a year to achieve that and if they have a hard time getting it done and have to work on hitting that goals day in and day out, your local entrepreneur, for whom SEO isn’t even a part of their business, isn’t going to make it happen.

What you can do, is hire a reputable company to do some keyword research for you and provide you a report back on the appropriate keywords and key phrases for your business that you can successfully compete on, and which keywords and key phrases that, no matter how hard you try, there is just too much competition in the market to be successful without a lot of money and a lot (and I mean a lot) of effort. That way you can get the best results for your efforts.

When we build websites and blogsites for our clients, we almost always recommend a custom designed WordPress site with an integrated blog. In fact, part of our intake process with new clients includes explaining the value of blogging for business and how it can help them increase website traffic and attract new clients. You can learn more in the article 6 Reasons Why WordPress is Perfect for Small Business.

Relevant, targeted, and fresh content is what search engines like Google want, and high rankings within the search engine results are what every website owner wants.

So how do you feed the search engines regularly updated, focused content and increase your website rankings?

The answer is blogging. The main pages of your site tend be more generalized and provide an overview about you or your company, your products and services, or your programs. A blog however, allows you to focus content on specific topics that your audience wants to know about. And, guess what? The search engines reward you for your efforts.

Want the proof?

We launched the Bourn Creative blog in the summer of 2009 and since then have had several blog articles appear in the top ten search results of Google for targeted keyword searches. The posts that appear in the search results link directly back to the blog posts and articles, not the Bourn Creative home page.

The Bourn Creative home page didn’t even appear anywhere within the same search results. These first page rankings on Google resulted directly from publishing well written and targeted content that focuses on our readers and the information they want.

So, blogging helps your website visitors, your prospects, and your target market cut through the labyrinth of search results and find a direct path right to your content.

Also, after analyzing the Bourn Creative website in Google’s Webmaster Tools, we found that the majority of external links or inbound links to our site pointed straight to some of our best blog articles.

When it comes to search engine optimization, getting a referring link (a link to your site from another site) is like getting someone to vote for your site and say that your content is good enough to share with their readers too. Building inbound links, or external links, is one of the hardest parts of search engine optimization (SEO) and one of the most important.

Want more proof that blogging is great for business?

Through Google Analytics, we found that during the last month 5 out of our top 10 landing pages were blog articles that were reached through our email newsletter, Facebook posts, Twitter posts, search engine results, and other referring sites. Also, we found that the majority of our new visitors reached our site directly through a blog article.

So what do all these blog stats mean?

For us, publishing a blog with well written, frequently updated content has attracted new visitors to our site via search engines, enticed friends from Facebook and followers from Twitter to click-through the links we posted, and has earned the Bourn Creative site external links from other websites.

Overall, blogging has been one the most effective ways we have been able to increase website traffic with new and regular visitors and that IS the whole goal of marketing your business online!

If you want help with your blog or want to start a blog of your own, I invite you to read more of our articles on blogging for business and web design, or contact us to help you build your online presence with a custom blogsite and blog training.

In order to be found, the search robots, spiders, or crawlers need to index your website. The search bots are scanning your HTML for content, links, images, headlines, meta tags, and more. They will then combine the information they find to determine your search engine page rankings.

In order to have your site crawled by search robots, they need a reason to visit your website and index your web pages.

The number one way to get your site indexed by the search engines is to update the content frequently and consistently. You need to be kind to the search engines by giving them what they want – fresh content, clean coding, and user friendly design.

Most website owners submit their site to the search engines when it originally launches and then they do nothing for weeks, months, or even years! They just let their site sit there like a boring, lifeless, standard, tri-fold print brochure.

Unfortunately, this strategy doesn’t work. That is why a lot of small business websites stink!

As an example, say a search bot scans your website and sets itself to come back in one week. One week later it comes back and because nothing has changed, it sets itself to come back in two weeks. Two weeks later it comes back and because nothing has changed, it sets itself to come back in four weeks.

Do you see how a lack of fresh content and website updates can hurt your search engine results?

Now, on the other hand, if in one week the search bot came back and saw new content, it may set itself to come back again in a week. A week later the bot comes back and because it saw more new content, it sets itself to come back in four days. Four days later the search robot comes back and because it sees more new content, it sets itself to come back every day.

These are just examples, but you can easily see how consistently updating website content through news rooms, press releases, blog posts, articles, and more can drastically impact how often you are found by your target market online.

Got a different idea on updating content and how it can help your business and your website? Let me know!

• Inbound links: Links to your website from external sources.
• Outbound links: Links to other sites from your website.
• Internal links: Links between individual pages on your website.

Search engines also look at the quality of this links. Check out the blog post I wrote on link quality titled: Don’t Let Your Site Hang Out On The Wrong Side Of The Tracks.

Your overall goal is to build a good mix of inbound links, outbound links, and internal links that are relevant to your content, business, industry, and audience. Inbound links from in-industry authority websites, especially those that use anchor text, are the most valuable links you can get – but they are very hard to get.

Here are some tips you can use to start building quality links to your website:

1. Grab a Profile on every social network available and complete the full profile. Take advantage of all of the automation features offered, such as linking your blog. This not only increases your visibility and builds links back to your site, but it also prevents others from using your name or business name on those networks.
2. Review books related to your industry on book sites like Amazon and include a link back to your site in the signature.
3. Update membership profiles for any networking organizations, trade organizations, and business associations you belong to online and make sure your profile is complete.
4. Publish articles online on sites like www.ezinearticles.com, www.articlesbase.com, and www.self-growth.com and include a link back to your website in your author resource box.
5. Comment on other blogs and participate in public forums.
6. Ask to link trade with colleagues that serve the same target market you do, but offer a different and complimentary service.

Do you have more ideas for simple link building? Or did you try one of these an experienced good/bad results? Let me know – I’d love to hear what you think!