In an interview with Popular Mechanic, reclusive Google search guru Udi Manber offers this simple exchange:
MP: What do you think a person expects from a Web search?
UM: They want to get an answer. Our goal is very simple: We want to return to the user the answer that they need.
Wow. That was…crystal clear. If you’ve read anything about how Google works, you know the man behind the curtain is actually a mysterious, complex algorithm. Translation: It’s so complex, even SEO experts can’t agree on how Google decides what to spit back to you.
A Lesson for Your Business?
If you stop thinking of Google as a Web search tool for a minute, and think of it as a business, Manber’s words resonate as sage advice: Give the user what they’re looking for.
When customers encounter you — by visiting your place of business, by finding you in the Yellow Pages, by visiting your Web site — they are searching for something. When they come to you, do you switch immediately into sales mode, or do you help them find the “it” that is most relevant to them?