I was reading an interesting article the other day where ‘usability guru’ Jakob Nielsen was interviewed. The guy made a sufficient amount of sensible statements (in my opinion) to warrant me wanting to know more about him. A quick Google search led me to his homepage (no comment on the design). One of the links on the News section let me to this article. So there I am nodding along to all the points that make sense when I come to the end and see this:

“If your site is not listed on the first page of search results, you might as well not exist.”

Ouch. Harsher words have ne’er been spoken. Granted, this article was written in 2006 but I find that this is a rather common sentiment among web aficionados today. If you’re not on the first page of Google you’re never going to be found. Some even say that if you’re not the first 5 links on the page you’re just wasting your time. I guess it’s sort of true – I myself don’t go past the first page of results unless I can’t find what I’m looking for and am really desperate. However, I find the all or nothing tone of the statement above very discouraging. Google only lists ten results per page. This means in an ideal and fair world only ten sites will be present on the first page. What happens to all the other sites? Do they then cease to exist? Is being on the first page of Google really that big of a deal? Those who pay for sponsored ads may say yes but I beg to differ – and someone else agrees with me (yay!). Looking at my Google Analytics stats for Wai Designs, I see that 49% of traffic to my site is direct i.e. by people typing www.wai-designs.net directly into their browsers. About 46% is from referring sites and 5% comes from Google. Now, I’ve never been great at statistics but if I were to look at how to increase traffic to my site then looking to making first page of Google would be a waste of time and effort. AKA barking up the wrong tree.

Another thing I disagree with is the simplistic brush with which all Google users have been painted. I have never ever made a purchase or hired a service based simply on a Google search. It’s either been from a direct referral or an advert. And I’m positive that there are many others like me. This gives me hope. I don’t have to be on the first page of Google to drum up good business. I just have to provide excellent service, network like my life depended on it and talk about Wai Designs to anyone that’ll listen. Now I’m off to my Facebook page for the hundredth time today to see how many new fans have joined in the 3 minutes since I last checked.