SEO and Google: Going For The Big Win

Nielson NetRatings reports that in November 2007, searchers used Google 57.7% of the time.

Google has been steadily increasing it's marketshare, while Yahoo and MSN are declining. A look at this chart gives you some cold, hard facts:

	June	July	Aug	Sept	Oct	Nov
Google	52.7	53.3	53.6	54.0	55.5	57.7
Yahoo!	20.2	20.1	19.9	19.5	18.8	17.9
MSN/Windows Live	13.3	13.6	12.9	12.0	13.8	12.0

When I'm teaching my SEO For Everyone class, I focus strongly on getting good results in Google. Even if Microsoft buys Yahoo (as hinted about in this Motley Fool article), the combined result still won't equal Google's power and scope.

What does Google care about? Content. Pure and simple, Google loves a site with lots of content. And even better, Google loves a site where there's continually new content. This is a vote for adding new stuff to your site. If you write a newsletter, add your newsletter articles to your site after each publication of your newsletter. Put a blog on your site. Interview people in your industry and put those on your site. Always be thinking of ways to add content.

Of course, Google loves a site that other sites link to. You can create a sophisticated link strategy, but here's a hint: create content that others want to link to, and they will.

Should you ignore Yahoo! and MSN? No. But your first priority when optimizing a site is to figure out what Google wants and give it to them. You don't even have to search far: Google Webmaster Central will give you some tips.

Go Look In The Mirror

Who creates your calendar and books every waking moment of your time? Who asks you to work evenings and weekends to grow your business? Who forces you to work with clients who are not really a good match, or pushes you to sell, sell, sell when you are tired or sick?

Being self employed means you are the boss. You set the agenda. Alan Weiss has written a good blog post about it here.

If you're unhappy with the way your business is going or how hard you are working, go look in the mirror. And ask yourself: Am I working hard because I have to -- or because I THINK I have to?

Sure, there are times when we have to put in that extra effort to get a project done before a deadline. But there are too many self-employed people who complain that they are working 60- and 80-hour work weeks, as if working hard (to the point of illness sometimes!) is going to get you "extra credit" points in Heaven.

StartUp Nation reports from a survey: "80% of small business owners planned to work during the holiday break. 56% said they would even interrupt holiday dinner for an important customer phone call. "

Did I hear that wrong??? You would interrupt dinner with your family to take a business call on a holiday???

The American Work Ethic tells us we have to work hard to be a good person, a good provider, a good citizen. I'm not against working hard, but if you are working hard all the time, perhaps now is the time to ask yourself, Have I taken the American Work Ethic too far? What's the point of being self-employed if my boss is a tyrant?

And the next time you are feeling overworked and overwhelmed, cancel an appointment and go for a walk or take a nap. You can't work at peak performance 24-hours a day.

(P.S. I give you permission to take next Friday off from work. I'm going to!)

Find a Mastermind Group for 2008!

Mastermind groups are a great way to get the support and brainstorming you need to be successful in your personal and business life. We have created a Mastermind Group Finder so that you can research all the free and fee mastermind groups looking for new members.

Read our description of what a Mastermind Group is and is not, so that you can be sure these types of groups are right for you.