Today Google could command millions of dollars for ads on its home page. But that would distract you from the task at hand. Searching. In fact, Google recently went a couple steps further. First, in September 2009, it made the search box bigger. Then, a few months later, it removed everything but the box, logo, and search buttons, only fading in the other menu items, links, and footer upon movement of the mouse.
Of course, what happens after you search is a different story. In the early days, Google results pages were pristine lists of blue links. Today, they resemble almost every other page on the Web, replete with images, widgets, and ads. This layout is quite calculated, however. Once you've already searched, Google doesn't want you to search again. It wants you to click. On whatever seems most relevant to you at the time. Organic listing. Image. Map. Ad. It doesn't matter. Just click. Hopefully you'll have found what you wanted and then come back again to search. Everything about the way Google lays out its pages says what it wants you to do. Search. Then click. And repeat.
In June 2000, Google struck a deal with Yahoo! to power its search results. But despite Yahoo! returning the exact same results as Google, more and more people flocked directly to Google.com when they wanted to find another Web site. Why? Simple. Google meant search. Yahoo! meant stay.
Google looks at the content of each Web site when deciding where to rank it in its index for particular queries. It's not enough to have millions of links pointing to your site; you must also have well organized content that's highly relevant to the search query.
Google's search ad specs call for a 25-character title and two lines of copy with a maximum of 35 characters each. If you can whittle your message down to 95 characters, you can test it against the world's largest focus group - Google searchers. Rotate a few different versions of your message and see what gets the highest click rate. Then take that message and tweak things like the title and call to action to further refine it. This time, don't rely on click rate alone; take into account the actions people take once they get to your Web site.
Even if your Web site doesn't currently reinforce the messaging, if the promise you made in the copy was something your company can deliver on, the searchers will sniff it out and tell you by their actions. If you see a lot of one-and-done visits resulting from your copy, the message is still not right. Now, once you've got your message right, it's time to get your Web site right. Once again, there are some quick and easy ways to use Google to find the right combination of variables.
Google Website Optimizer is a free tool that allows you to experiment with various elements of your Web pages - like images, headlines, copy, and layouts - and easily analyze the results and determine the winners. Meanwhile, Google Analytics is a free tool that tracks every activity on your Web site, from visits to visitors to page views to conversions, and provides robust reporting to cull insights into performance. Use these tools to continually refine your messaging and calls to action.
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