[update Aug21] It doesn’t appear to work any more. That’s a pity.

[Double-update Feb 11 2010:  Victor Volder from LSI keywords has commented to say it DOES work again! Here's the link - go play!]

This came to my attention today and I’ve used it to perform a ‘last check’ on the keywords that I want to tweak this site for over the next few weeks.

It’s a fairly straightforward tool but what’s good about it is that it highlights the one- two- and three-word keyword combinations generated from the phrase you started with. It also shows you the top sites for the combination you entered which is quite interesting.

Do I trust what it’s telling me? For now, yes. Is it clear where it comes from? No. Is there any sign of who made it? No. If you do a search for ‘lsikeywords.com’ you’ll find this blog very near the top of Google. The only other significant reference is a forum post from the guy who had it made for him.

Every time I want to know about something, I go behind the scenes in Google and look for a sense of who, where, what, how. I’m looking for solidity, history… substance. Most of all, though, I’m looking for interconnectedness… how someone or something interacts and relates to the rest of the world. Is it deeply rooted? Embedded? Or has it just appeared out of thin air?

For a single fee of £75, you’ll get:

• a front page ad on our site (see ‘sponsored by’ slot opposite)
• a single-page feature with links to your site (like the page you’re currently reading)

Your ad will stay on the front page for a week but your feature will continue to appear on P1 or P2 of the Google search results for several months for your chosen keywords.

Get Found Easy is aimed at local businesses who want to be found for key phrases that include a region or town – such as “heating installers devon” or “picture framing st.austell”

Here’s the best bit: you only pay for results. If we can’t get your ad a P1 or P2 listing within 48hrs, you don’t pay AND you keep the live feature which will continue to attract Google traffic for your business anyway. Win, win!

Call Sam on 07859 007 060 now!

(Promotion limited to 4 per month)

Now, for many people this will sound obvious. If, however, you’ve ever heard yourself say ‘I’m #1 on Google for my company name’ or if you know someone who has, then you – and they – are still missing the point and the following might be useful.

The Google marketing challenge is quite simple. People have problems and needs and they go to the internet and Google for solutions to their problems.

The tricky part is that they talk about their problems in their own terms, from their own perspective, not yours. This means that while you might know that professional ‘change facilitation’ will help their staff team adjust to the recent American corporate takeover, they don’t. This means that so long as your blog is full of references to ‘change facilitation’ you aren’t going to get in front of them.

Why? Because they’re in their offices typing something else.

The Google keyword challenge is all about discovering (through experience, intuition and primary and secondary research) what those people are actually typing. You have to find out how they express that problem, that ‘pain’ for which – ideally – you are the perfect solution.

So remember, getting your own name or company name at #1 in Google means absolutely nothing. Google is great at picking out very particular strings of words and letters. Doing a Google search on “Google is great at picking out very particular strings of words and letters” will return this blog at #1.

What does that mean? Just that Google has found that string in this blog. From a computing and marketing standpoint, it’s totally unremarkable. Your name or company name is just a sequence of letters that Google can find easily.

That’s great if your potential American take-over customer somehow happens to type in your exact company name. But the reality is that isn’t going to happen because if it did, it means they already know about you so you don’t need to the web to market yourself. No, the reality is that they’re going to sit down and type something like:

“how to manage a staff team unhappy about corporate takeover”

Which means you need to be writing the keywords “manage” “unhappy” “staff” and “takeover” into your posts.

This result embodies an interesting contradiction. On the one hand, search engine optimisation knows no geographical boundaries so well done starjox or i-do-SEO of South Carolina for demonstrating you’re right up there for business blogging.

On the other hand, when geography is clearly a part of the search term it begs the question whether this result is relevant or not.

“Of course it is” the SEO co. might say “Our company is a perfectly good solution for a person looking for a business blog designer in Devon. This is the internet remember.”

Is that really the case?

And if it is, then it’s a clear sign that the supplier / advertiser – not the consumer – defines ‘relevance’ in the Googlesphere. Not at all surprising, but worrying nonetheless.