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Well, when I say the mother, the other search engines are dwarfed in comparison. The leading data gathering services all seem to vary by a few percentage points on the companies’ market share, but the end result is unanimous.

In the infographic Google looks a bit like a Pac-Man about to eat up the competition – and they could do based on their performance over the past few years.

With over 100 mergers and acquisitions under its belt, and an annual net income in excess of $10 billion, it’s hard to see how anyone else is going to have the resources to compete.

Google and SEO

In one way, it makes thing easier just having one search engine to concentrate on, but it can be a double edged sword.

Not that many years ago, the market was split quite evenly between several players. If one changed its algorithm, the impact on your site traffic would be lessened by the others. These days, when Google changes its mind about how to rate sites, the results can be dramatic (as recently happened with its Penguin update).

Google’s power on your business

I hate analogies, but “having all your eggs in one basket” fits in this case. And so if your web design / SEO company has taken on aggressive and slightly dodgy approach, you could be riding high one month, and then disappear completely. All it takes is one change to their algorithm.

The answer is balance and consistency across all your search engine optimization strategies.

Hard work, developing good content and interactivity through developing links and social networks will always win – because Google Search’s prime directive will always be against spammers who go for the quick and easy fix.

I’ve been given an SEO brief by a UK online retailer with a wide range of ladies dressing gowns, pyjamas and nightshirts.

Although their e-commerce website had been online for two years, sales had been virtually non existent.

Their nightwear range had been selling successfully on Amazon and eBay shops, so we know that the product and the pricing are not in question.

So it all boils down to search engine optimization, if the product got in front of potential shoppers, it will sell.

What are women looking for in the nightwear department?

Before you can asses the website for its performance, you need to know what your customers are looking for – which boils down to research.

Obviously my client would love to be number one for “dressing gowns” or “nightshirts,” however you have to be pragmatic about these things, getting a balance between which search phases are achievable and give a return for the budget. It would take a team of people many months and tens of thousands of pounds to compete with the likes of Debenhams or Marks & Spencer, the current reigning champion.

For example, one thing that has already been flagged up a glaring error is that “womens dressing gowns” gets 700 searches per month, whereas the site should have targeted “ladies dressing gowns” which gets 1,600 searches per month and only has slightly more competition. All this data is available on subscription from service providers such as WordTracker and SEO Moz.

With the chosen key search phrases targeted it’s time to get down to the nitty gritty of search engine optimization: this will entail re-writing all the content and meta data of the website, re-organizing the page hierarchy and link structure, then engaging a link building programme.

I’ll keep you posted.

When it comes to SEO, everyone seems to be an “expert” or “guru”. Which is odd – you don’t get “expert” web designers or copywriters.

SEO is shrouded in mystery and often conflicting theories – and because so few clients have a thorough understanding of how the web works, they are left wide open for abuse.

One simple way to see if your SEO Expert’s actions match their words is to see how they perform on Google themselves. Then go to their portfolio and see how their client’s sites are doing.

I am in the top 5 for all my main targets “web design leeds” etc. and for countless other search phrases.

I get pretty good results for all my clients just through common sense and building the sites right. There is no great secret to it: research the search phrases that you are going to target, and then build the structure and create the content to target them.

I think it’s common sense. My clients like this common sense approach because it generates leads and sales. If you want anything more than common sense, then you’ll have to consult an “expert.”