Maybe you have a pretty website. Maybe you sell something really swell. Maybe your online product is a real bargain.

None of it matters squat … unless you can get visitors to your website. Unless you can get ‘traffic.’

The old slogan for a retail store is that the three things that matter the most are ‘location, location, and location.’ It’s true enough. Generally you visit the stores you can easily get to. That’s what other folks do also.

But … what is a location on the internet?

FREE TWENTY-DOLLAR BILLS

You could have a domain called ‘george-stevens-free-money.com’ where you give away twenty dollar bills. But nobody comes to your site to get a free twenty dollar bill. Why not?

Because … what is your location?

NEEDLE IN A HAYSTACK

That’s right. Your location is a needle in a haystack. You are hidden among the millions of websites on the internet. You begin your operation in a state of non-existance, as far as the rest of the world is concerned. You don’t exist.

Not much of a location.

SEARCH ENGINES

To find something on a street, you can just look around. Or you can peek in the phone book.

On the internet, people use a search engine.

If the search engine (like Google) has found your site, then you may be in the search engine. But if you just put your effort into putting up your pretty website, creating your dynamite product, and offering a great bargain, then most likely you are on page 327 of the Google listings.

Do you ever read hundreds of Google pages to pick the one you like?

Nope? Well, nobody else does either. So you’re in the search engine, but where is your location?

Still … your location is a needle in a haystack.

BUT SOME WEBSITES STAND OUT!

Some websites are not a needle in a haystack.

For example, Amazon, EBay, and Google itself. And thousands of other, smaller sites.

For example, if you’re looking for ‘golf balls,’ there’s a site called ‘golfballs.com.’ They have a darned good location for anybody looking around for golf balls. Right on Google’s front page. That’s a good location.

If you’re looking for a ‘seo book,’ there’s a site called ’seobook.com.’ They have a nice location as well. Right on Google’s front page. That’s a good location.

If you’re looking for a way of playing guitar by just touching the strings to the frets, called ‘touchstyle,’ there’s a site called ‘megatar.com’ which offers touchstyle lessons and touchstyle guitars. They have a nice location. Right on Google’s front page.

ARE YOU GETTING THE PICTURE?

It’s probably obvious that one way to have a great location on the internet is to be on the front page of Google.

Well, we’ve got that solved. That’s what you can do.

But … how?

That will be covered in our next article, ‘The Article Spinner - Sweet-Talking the Search Engines.’