Ok, I'm sure I have your attention and I promise not to disappoint you, even though the topic of this article is G rated and has nothing to do with adult entertainment. This is about how to put yourself, your business, product or service at the top of Google. What does this mean? It means more of the people who are doing an internet search for your product or service will find you.

Internet Search Engines

A search engine is a set of programs which searches an index and returns matches to a specified keyword. In other words, it is a directory of internet content. If you are looking for information on a specific subject, a search engine will list the websites or internet content where you will be likely to find what you are looking for.

The Top of Google

Google, the most popular search engine, is used by over 60% of the market, followed by Yahoo and MSN. Let's say you have a pet boa constrictor snake that isn't looking too healthy. How do you go about finding a doctor who specializes in snakes? You could do a Google search, using the keywords, ?reptile doctor? or ?reptile veterinarian,? followed by the city and state where you live. There is a shaded area at the top of the page, labeled sponsored links. There are more sponsored links going down the right side of the page. These businesses pay Google to appear here. It's like having one of the larger ads in the Yellow Pages of the Phone Book (remember phone books?).

Then you have what is called the organic searches. These are all the others who show up on a Google search. Look at the top of the page, where it says something like ?Results 1 ? 10 of about 603,000 for reptile doctors? (or, whatever keywords you used in your search). This means that there are many pages of information about reptile doctors. Of all these results, about 42% of the people are going to click on the first of the organic results, followed by around 11% on the second one. This is where you want to be if you have a business. Only about 4% of the market is going to bother going to page two or further of a Google search. Why should they when the good information is right where you want to be'on top!

So Would You Like to Be on Top?

Ok, again, I remind you; we are talking about internet marketing, and putting your business at the top of a Google search. There are many ways to accomplish this through online marketing, including press releases, articles, classifieds and blogs.

Let's go back to the shaded area of Google. Some people wonder why those who are in the sponsored links aren't necessarily the most popular. Remember the Yellow pages in the old fashioned telephone books? The companies with the larger ads paid dearly to take up this much space on the page. Therefore, they were either very successful or they charged dearly for their services. Most people would take the time to read through the smaller ads and even call several of them before selecting one to serve their needs.

People who search the internet feel the same way. They feel that the ?underdog? who makes the effort to be number one in an organic search will be one who takes the time to provide a good service. This company will be more ?customer friendly? and nicer to work with than the ?Fat Cat? corporation who just writes a check to be in the number one position.

The same principle applies to television. The special guest who is interviewed on CNN or Fox News will be given more credibility than the sponsor who is advertised during the commercial break.

How to Get on Top

Now you know how good it is to be on top! But, how does one accomplish this? There are free websites where you can submit your work and have it published online. You can use the Google search engine and keywords to find these sites. Just type in ?free press release sites?, ?free article submitters?, or ?free classifieds.? You get the idea. Most of the sites you find will be user friendly and they will provide instructions as to how to use them. Some will provide marketing tips to help you get started. Many of them will look familiar to you if you have Google searched other businesses and services and found press releases or articles submitted to their sites to be on page one of Google. If this is the case, this is a good site to submit your material to.

Join many of these types of websites and write lots of material, using good keywords in your headings. Be sure to use these keywords as many times as you can throughout your material as that is what the search engines will be looking for when people start doing Google searches when looking for your products or services. These are just a few tips to get you started with online marketing.

This article was written by Mark Maupin, who always likes to be on top! Mark is a college instructor who teaches internet marketing and search engine optimization classes. Mark has been hired by many national franchises to do their internet marketing and he has been very successful at getting them to the top of a Google search. To get Mark's FREE CD of market proven strategies that he uses every day to generate traffic to his website and his business go to http://www.imtruegrit.com