If you are in the search engine marketing game, I’ll bet you’ve heard that line from clients hundreds of times and if your like me, your SICK of it!

Google, Google, Google! This seems to be what the majority of business people think they need to succeed in their business model. Hey, I’m slightly anti-Google but that’s because those OO’s in Google just stare at me for hours most days of the week. In Australia we get a lot of search marketing success stories from the USA which Australians then expect Google search to provide the never ending traffic and leads from being ranked number one for a competitive search term.

The main issue here is that Australia has a population of 20 million people in a land area of 7617930 km² compared to the USA with 301 million people in a land area of 9161923 km². You do the math! Australia’s population is spread around the coastline with the middle of Australia collecting dust! So with only 20 million people over such a vast land area you need to keep your marketing more focussed as not many people are going to drive 4 days across Australia to buy a coffee with muffins if that’s your business is marketing.

Google is no silver bullet and it won’t be the reason your business succeeds however if combined with the rest of your marketing strategy, it can be a huge bonus to your marketing plan. From my experience, businesses who have built a strong brand tend to have better results in search marketing.

If you want to be number one on Google, build a brand and market that brand. Do this consistently and you will start to see results whether it’s search marketing or traditional off line marketing or a combination of both.