Let’s evaluate a simple search to see how a website can be found. We want to buy a "Bird House made by Fred Smith". That is pretty specific and should be easy to find, right? Not necessarily.

We search google for "Bird Houses" and get over 3 million results. None of the 400 shown are for Fred Smith. The results range from homes built on bird street to sites about birds and a few sites that sell bird houses.

So we narrow the search to "Bird Houses by Fred Smith", you are already thinking that no one will know to search for Fred Smith. And your right, but to make it worse, the search yields 120,000 results.

How can this happen unless there are 120,000 Fred Smiths selling bird houses? And why isn't Fred’s website #1.

The search is looking for websites that have all the words in your search Bird Houses By Fred Smith.

The results include many sites such as the following:
Books about Birds and Birdwatching
... Big Book of Bird Houses & Bird Feeders by Thom ... of the Mid-Atlantic (Smithsonian
Handbooks) by Fred J. Alsop III; ... Therapy and Training for Your Pet Bird by Larry

The keywords that were searched for are in bold. You can see this text clearly matches all the words we searched for but this website is more relevant in the world of bird houses than Fred’s backyard workshop. And there are more than 400 others that are also more relevant. This makes finding Fred’s website almost impossible unless we search for something more specific such as his phone number or actual URL.

It does not appear that we will find the site we want even though we are very specific.

Just think of it like this. Take one page and put your name on it. Then stack in a pile of 4 billion pages, a stack that will reach beyond the moon. Now what is the chance of finding your page in that stack?

I have been told by customers that if they list their business in the phone book they will get calls when someone looks up their type of service. That is true, but imagine a phone book that is 500 miles long and the section for your business is 1 mile long. The odds of the person reading that book and finding your phone number are slim.

You have to remember that the internet is made up of every business in the world. When you build a bookstore on a city block, people will walk by and stop in, but online they have millions of doors to choose from, why choose yours? Just as in the storefront scenario you can dress up the window, put up sale signs and so on. The internet is no different. Use good business sense, advertise and build your business, don't look for the business to build itself.

If someone has specific enough info they can find your website, but you can't expect the flood gates to open when you open the website. It takes time, patience and lots of luck. Follow the tips we have given you and you will improve the traffic you get. But if you are counting on search traffic, you could grow old waiting.