SEO For Google – Is It Worth Your While?

Have you decided to promote your website? If so, you've taken the first step in the right direction! SEO (abbreviation of 'search engine optimization') means climbing to the top of the search results in the search engine result page, to gain maximum exposure. It is believed that Google is the leading search engine, but would investing in it be most lucrative? Are there alternatives, and should they be emphasized too? And while we're at it – what are the advantages of SEO for Google, compared to different search engines? The answers lies in the following lines.

SEO For Google – Usage Statistics

It is impossible to begin a paragraph that deals with market shares and advertising relevance without some numbers. Many organizations are engaged in mapping the Internet-based activity, including global search trends.
In 2006, the overall market share of Google reached a solid 48.5% of all searches. In the same period in 2008, the number was increased to a total of 61.6%. Judging by the statistics for April of 2011, no less than 78.58% of all searches worldwide are conducted via Google – including address-bar and toolbar searches, direct searches from Google.com and via other tools and media. Breaking it down into months, you can see an increase of about 1% for every month from the last quarter of 2010 and the first quarter of 2011.
These are staggering numbers, that add up to many services offered by Google, and help increasing their share even further.
The burning question is – do these numbers justify SEO for Google? There's an economics-related term called “long tail”, which is used to describe a situation in which even if the search term is extremely popular, you can reach wider audiences by targeting less popular, yet more focused, terms.

SEO For Google – Supplementary Products

Aside from the search bar, Google offers a variety of tools that connect to one another and form an array of Internet-based solutions. Starting from a website builder, through a statistics and data mining tools, applications that track global interests and trends, to specific systems that answer the needs of those who are engaged in Internet marketing – this giant sure offers many services.
Some may see an advantage in this fact, but sometimes the variety is too blinding.
When engaged in SEO for Google, the promoter often uses many tools that Google offers. This fact has implications – ranging from placing all eggs in one basket, to privacy policies that allow Google to collect information and usage statistics.

SEO For Google – Pros and Cons

The greatest advantage of SEO for Google is linked to the paragraph with the numbers – which speak for themselves. Most Internet users worldwide use this search engine, and the probability, that Google-originated traffic will be relevant, is high. The supplementary tools aforementioned provide another advantage, as you can manage your entire SEO activity from a single interface.
The major disadvantage originates in the main advantage, surprisingly – everyone is there. In many fields you will find fierce competition amongst all users that are interested in top places, just as you are, and we're speaking of months before your actions bear fruit. It's true that you mostly have ten major competitors (the ten results displayed on the first result page) – but the competition does not always justify the effort, in accordance with the “long tail” model.
Additionally, despite the constant improvements Google introduces to its algorithms, you can still find spam everywhere – unwanted and irrelevant search results that were placed there by competing SEO people to serve an interest – you'll find yourself competing with them as well.

SEO For Google – Who Else Is There?

If you don't do SEO for Google, who should you do it for? The gap left by Google is filled with several leading search engines – amongst them you will find Microsoft's Bing, Yahoo Search, Ask and even AOL. Business partnerships enhance the market share of competing search engines (for example: search within Facebook is now powered by Bing), and there are search engines that target specific niches. In this category, you can find Kosmix, that builds a content page looking like an encyclopedic entry – with a definition from Wikipedia, relevant content to the term and more. You can also find Wolfram, that offers scientific results, bundled with calculations. StumbleUpon offers contents that users recommended – and many more.
Aside from these, even though Google leads in the overall global market, every country has its own search preferences. For example, most of Russia's population are used to their local search engine, Yandex. Seznam is aimed at Czech population, Baidu is the preferred search engine in China. The meaning is that if you are seeking a niche to target or a specific locale, take a good look at their search preferences – Google will not win by default...
We've seen some examples, according to which exposure in search engines other than Google will yield more substance than competing with millions of search results on Google – if you target specific countries, people with specific interests, etc.

SEO For Google – Conclusions

We've seen that SEO for Google is almost always preferred, but we will not choose it by default – only after some inquiry and research. There are many competitors in the market, who offer solutions to a variety of needs. Thus, if we are aiming at the first places, it could be wiser to invest in secondary search engines, rather than competing with millions of other SEO people.
The importance of an SEO expert for a business is also manifested in market knowledge, and experience with tools that are meant to assess such markets. Consult with your SEO expert of choice and check if SEO for Google is the right solution for you. Following a research, you will be able to reach a solid conclusion – should you rank high in Google, or perhaps a different search engine will bring you more traffic with lesser effort.