SEARCH ENGINE FOOD-
Feed Us Please
Copyright © 2003, John Calder
The Ezine Dot Net
http://www.TheEzine.Net
THE POWER OF FOOD TO ENTICE
As a child, we learned the power of food to
entice animals to do our will. Ducks, chipmunks,
and dogs could all be enticed to come closer
to us for viewing or petting. Even our young
siblings were sometimes enticed --- and led
as a puppy --- with a trail of M&M's. <wink>
On the Internet, we can also use food of a
sort to pull people to our websites. Rather
than appealing to a person's desire for sustenance,
we appeal to the desires and whims of the human
mind through the use of strategically placed
words and images.
THE FOOD ANALOGY
To truly appreciate the analogy of food and
the Internet, you must first examine your own
methods of finding what you are looking for
online.
When you are searching for specific information
on a specific topic, product or service, how
do you get from your starting point to your
satisfaction point?
The truth is that the world does not search
for information much differently than you do.
Although the world may have different activities,
have different interests, and use different
tools than you, the process or pattern is not
going to be very different at all.
WHERE THE SEARCH BEGINS
The search either begins with a desire or a
desire is triggered while an individual is viewing
a website or doing other online activities.
DESIRE BROUGHT TO THE WEB
If the individual sits down to his or her computer
with a desire in mind, his or her search will
generally begin at a search engine. With hundreds
of search engines to choose from, the exact
starting point is rarely known unless it turns
up in your server logs.
According to a February 25, 2003 Search Engine
Watch report, the most used search databases
are as follows:
Service Searches Per Day
Google 250 million
Overture 167 million
Inktomi 80 million
LookSmart 45 million - includes MSN searches
FindWhat 33 million
Ask Jeeves 20 million
AltaVista 18 million
FAST 12 million
http://www.searchenginewatch.com/reports/article.php/2156461
Although these numbers provide the results
of "one day in the life" of the Internet,
they have remained somewhat consistent moving
forward in time.
The search begins with selecting a search engine
and then follows with picking keywords that
one feels will best deliver the desired results.
DESIRE TRIGGERED DURING WEB ACTIVITIES
Ads or articles seen during everyday online
activities can trigger desire. The ads or articles
may be seen in the user's favorite ezine or
on their favorite website. They may see a banner
ad or a pop-up ad. Or they may see a link in
their travels, which triggers their curiosity
and interest and perhaps a new search.
INTRODUCE THE CHAOS THEORY
Edward Lorenz was the first to show empirical
evidence of the Chaos Theory.
"Lorenz had obviously made an immense
breakthrough in not only chaos theory, but life.
Lorenz had proved that complex, dynamical systems
show order, but they never repeat. Since our
world is classified as a dynamical, complex
system, our lives, our weather, and our experiences
will never repeat; however, they should form
patterns."
http://www.duke.edu/~mjd/chaos/chaosp.html
I believe without fail that the chaos theory
as described here applies perfectly to the process
of how visitors reach your website. Patterns
will emerge, but the process will never repeat
itself.
Sure some people will follow the same link
through the same ad, but the process by which
people reach the particular link will never
duplicate itself.
ONLINE MARKETING WOULD BE EASY IF...
If only you could see what was in the mind
of the Internet surfer when he or she visited
your website or purchased your wares, then the
marketing game would be so much easier.
If only you could see the path that the customer
followed to reach your website --- reaching
ten or fifteen pages backwards in time --- then
it would be easier to duplicate the successes
that have come your way.
If you could truly understand the environmental
variables that were required to bring traffic
and convert your traffic to sales, then you
would not need to be reading this article right
now. Instead, your name might be Midas and all
that you touched would turn into gold.
THE PLAIN TRUTH
As mere human beings, we do not have a Midas
touch. We cannot possibly understand all of
the nuances and variables required to bring
traffic to our domains and to turn our traffic
into sales.
If anyone tries to tell you differently, run
far, far away, fast.
The best we can hope for is to recognize certain
patterns in our traffic and our sales, and then
to utilize that knowledge to increase our traffic
and sales.
COMING FULL CIRCLE
If we can begin to understand the patterns
that people use to find our website and to make
purchases of our products and services, then
we will better understand which "brain
food" to lay out for our target marketplace.
When all else fails, lay out hundreds or thousands
of pieces of "brain food" for your
visitors to utilize to reach your site. And
utilize sales copy for each visitor based on
the kind of"brain food" crumbs that
you have laid out to help your visitors to find
you.
I wish you the best of luck in your continuing
quest for traffic and sales.
Resource Box:
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John Calder is the owner and editor of http://www.TheEzine.Net
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