A generation ago the word “google” meant nothing more than a very long number with a lot of zeros at the end. Some people used to say that a google of was the number “1” followed by 100 zeros. When you think of it Google – the company – has become so immense that it those 100 zeros might end up being the net worth of Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
It is hard to imagine now that Google started out as a search engine. Back in 1999 and 2000, Yahoo and even MSN offered a lot more than Google, which did not even have its own email at the time. However, early on Google focused on one thing – being the best search engine on the web. As a result, Google had already become known as the scholar’s search engine of choice by 2001. At one point Yahoo’s search engine even stated “Powered by Google” next to its search field.
While Google has become so much more over the last decade plus, its search engine remains its bread and butter. And it achieved that status because people learned to trust it. As result, Google commands about 70% of the global search engine market. In North American, controls approximately of all search engine traffic. For this reason, Google rankings have become crucial to internet marketing companies and the online marketing campaigns of the clients.
Google is so popular that some companies live and die by Google rankings. Why is this? Well, it is rather simple. Company website with high search engine rankings are the ones that get the most hits by web users. Since websites that get the most hits appear highest first on search results, companies that know the score look at Google rankings like an online marketing game. Only this game could mean success or utter failure in the uber competitive realm of online marketing.