Search Engine Optimization

People’s Reloveution.

Spending quite some time on the internet, you’ve probably heard about Dr. Ron Paul. No matter what industry, blog or forum, SEO, marketing, electronics, entertainment - this name surfaces everywhere and is becoming hard to ignore. It seems that every prominent blog has mentioned him, or at the very least wrote a recap on presidential candidates for 2008 election. It is time to bring it to SEO Expert Blog and look at Dr. Paul from the perspective we all understand – search.

Before we get into why, lets look at leading candidates in terms of their search presence. For this purpose, I’ve picked five names, which I believe have the biggest chance of being elected.

• Barack Obama
• John McCain
• Hillary Clinton
• Rudy Giuliani
• Ron Paul

Lets Examine candidates by search results from the big 3.

Google

Yahoo

Live

Dr. Paul is clear leader, while Hilary steadily follows him in second place. McCain is last on Google, however he charges onto the third spot on Yahoo and Live. Giuliani and Obama seem to be at the bottom.

What does Alexa have to say about Presidential candidates?

Five Official websites were compared, over the period of six month.

www.ronpaul2008.com
www.hillaryclinton.com
www.barackobama.com
www.johnmccain.com
www.joinrudy2008.com

(graph had to be cut to 400px in order to fit, Jun and July is left out, where Hilary has a spike similar to that of Ron Paul – blue)

Ron Paul is leading the pack by a notable margin, while Obama and Hilary dominate other candidates. A large spike in November for Ron Paul seems to closely correspond to November 5th, when Dr. Paul raised 4.5$ Million in one day. As supporters coined it – money bomb.

What do keyword research tools say about presidential candidates?

Word Tracker

Dr. Paul is leading the curve on Word Tracker by at least double the amount of searches over his opponents. Hillary and Obama follow him, just as on Google search count.

Keyword Discovery.

Keyword discovery makes Senator Obama number one, followed very closely by Hillary. Other candidates crawl far behind them.

Nichebot Classic.

Nichebot classic lined up candidates in same manner as Google and Word Tracker, with Paul leading the pack by at least double the amount of searches.

Is internet an indicator?

There are 300 million people living in the States, with over 200 million internet users. Do they represent the majority? Dr. Paul is a clear leader, if it does. Is this an army of dedicated supporters, digging and spammining every political forum available?

Does raising 4.5 millions in one day have true political impact?

December 16th Promises to raise ten millions and set another world record. People are buying Dr. Paul personal blimp, and most surprisingly, all of this goes without any input from the candidate himself. They do it, but why?

I guess this excerpt answers the question, and as SEO BlackHat put it: “It got me thinking.”

“The eye-popping reality of the situation is this. No longer can it be said that Ron Paul is running for President. Amazingly enough, his candidacy has been hijacked, and it appears now that the people are running for President. . . through Ron Paul! That’s the true revolution about which your neighbors are speaking.”

What do you think online buyers are mostly looking for? A good customer service? An interesting return policy? A fast delivery? All these answers are true, but the priority for most people is the prices.

According to a recent survey carried by the Guidance company, prices and free delivery are the two major factors people take in consideration before buying something online.

Here are the major survey highlights:

• 43 % of buyers said they look at the prices first
• 18% look at free delivery and promotions
• 8% look at discount vouchers
• 7% look at recommendations
• 4 % like being able to navigate easily through the website
• 2% look at the return policy

So if you have an online store, you should prioritize these elements and make sure that your website is user friendly.