The secret to writing great blogs

And they rely on search engines to point them to the information.

Just like you compete with other businesses, so do search engines. Their competitive edge is to give searchers the best answer, so they’ll keep using them. That’s how Google got famous – they started out by giving researchers more accurate answers than other search engines.

If someone types in a question: “What does a buyer’s agent do?” a search engine will check its database for the right keywords, try to find the answer and display that at the top of the page. But it doesn’t want just any answer – it wants the best answer, because that’s the search engine’s competitive edge. Thereafter, the search engine will list pages of websites that have also answered the question well.

In this case, a buyer’s agent wanting their website to rank on or near page one would need a great answer to that question. And probably a great answer to many other questions about buyer’s agents too, so the search engine recognises them as an expert on buyer’s agents.

Questions and answers are just one part of the equation; search engines also consider other factors. But they’re a good starting point.