Yes, every now and then, even the major search engines have technical difficulties. Google continues to have indexing problems from time to time. It’s even talked about at length in the Google webmaster forum where they have discussed even valid (non spammy) Blogger blogs being de-indexed. On a side note – it’s great to see that Google is actually using its eating its own dog food here. If Blogger is having problems just like normal websites are, then it stands to reason that Google is in fact using its own indexing system for products that it owns, as well as using it for the rest of us.

One thing that always concerns me is the fact that people tend to freak out when big G makes a change that affects them directly. Sure, they’re worried that the decrease in traffic will affect their revenues, which is a valid concern. But, why are they building their entire Internet Empire around something they have absolutely no control over?

Building your entire traffic plan around Google or any other search engine is not a wise business decision. Sure they are currently the main search engine and we have to make the necessary concessions on our end to please them. It’s a fact – we need them as long as they’re the top search provider. But, you shouldn’t build your entire business around them. It doesn’t matter if you have a brick and mortar store with a website that drives sales to your offline business, or if you have a virtual business and your entire revenue base comes from the Internet.

Why not think of them as a business partner who sends you traffic in return for your high value content. The same concept is equally true for Yahoo and Bing. The difference here is that it’s not really a close business partnership. They’re pretty vague about what they tell you they want and you are always trying to figure out what they want. That has to be immensely frustrating!

So, how can you make the most out of this weak business partnership? First, continue to hold up your end of the bargain by providing high quality content that adds value to your site visitors, and quit worrying about the technicalities of the search engines. Leave that to me and other SEO consultants. Check back often or better yet sign up for my newsletter and I’ll keep you informed. Second, as long as Google continues to send you traffic what are you going to do with it? Are you going to hope that someone buys something, calls you or fills out your contact form when they land on your website? What if they don’t? Did you take every opportunity to capture their information so you can follow up?

This is one thing I coach all of my clients on – You have to do everything within your power to capture the visitor information so you can follow up with them and keep them in your sales pipeline. If you don’t, it’s no different than a customer walking into a brick and mortar business and no one asks them if they can be helped…they eventually leave and may not come back. Your aim is to capture their name and at least one contact method. The three primary contact methods are address, phone number and email address. Make those all required fields on your capture forms and test repeatedly to see where the sweet spot is for your visitor demographic. Some people don’t want to disclose their information, some do freely and some simply don’t trust you enough yet because your site didn’t earn that trust yet. (That’s a topic for another article at another time)

So, make sure you’re taking advantage of the traffic the search engines are sending you – and that you’re doing your best to capture visitor information so that you can follow up with them directly. If you do that, then you don’t have to rely on search engines for the majority of your business.

Author Bio: Matthew Bass is the CEO of SEOFIX.com – a full service small business seo firm dedicated to helping small to medium businesses with seo, website design, reputation management, email marketing and more. Our business is to help you get more business! Contact us today to receive a free SEO consultation.

Category: Marketing
Keywords: google indexing,small business seo