When I talk to people about SEO and page rank, so often it seems like a game of cat and mouse, with article marketers and content writers desperately trying to outsmart the search engines. The problem I have with this is that any good article marketing strategy shouldn't be trying to fight against an algorithm that is only designed to aid users in their search for information; what you should be concentrating on is being useful to readers, and building a relationship with them.

My aim within this article is to demonstrate to you that Google must not be the only focus of your website marketing or article submission efforts.

Contrary to many people's thinking, the success of a website marketing campaign with the search engines is not about focusing on them alone, for the following reasons:

* Google is not your audience - they don't "read" your articles, they just parse them for key terms

* It is impossible to build a relationship with a search engine

* Search engines aren't interested in you, your product, or becoming your customer - and they never will be

* A search engine will never recommend you to a friend because of a great service

* A search engine will never give you any of its hard-earned cash - the bottom line in marketing

I'm not saying "ignore the search engines"; far from it. You should make your website easy for search engines to parse and index, in order to get a better page rank. However, you shouldn't see them either as your adversaries or your target market. Make your website easy for a search engine to understand, but interesting for a human to browse through.

A Search Engine Is Your Agent

Agents, in all professions, are there to promote something you want to sell to the kind of people that are interested in buying. An actor's agent will big them up to producers and directors; an estate agent will tell prospective buyers all about the property you're trying to sell; and similarly, Google is there to direct people towards websites that they will find useful.

If you've ever been to see a house that looked far nicer in the brochures, you'll know that agents can only work with what they're given, and that disappointment is far more damning than a modest initial review. Say you go to see a house that looks stunning in the brochures, offering a swimming pool,16 bedrooms and a mature garden, but when you arrive, you find a 2-bed semi-detached house complete with a puddle on the driveway and a dead tree in the back yard. So much for luxury! However, for someone looking for a first-time buy, the house would be perfect. The problem isn't with the house: it's with the marketing. Because you were misled, you feel let down and cheated. Instead of bringing people that would actually be interested to see the house, you've duped uninterested parties into viewing something they're ultimately disappointed by - leading to no sales, and a lot of anger.

So why would you do that with your website?

Don't try to cheat Google into thinking your website offers something it doesn't. Instead of tagging everything you do with popular keywords, think of tags that actually relate to the content of your website, and use them sparingly. More traffic isn't necessarily better if no-one is staying around to see what your website has to offer, so don't try cheap tricks to improve your search ratings - it will only backfire.

So instead of trying to mislead Google into directing everyone to your website, try to focus on providing the best possible experience for your human visitors. In pitching your website to your audience, rather than your "agent", your rankings will naturally start to get better.

In the end Google wants a really simple thing: Well produced web pages including high quality, helpful information. A more simple concept would be harder to find. If your aim is to satisfy Google, you must start with one thought: what is it that is really going to please the people visiting my website and reading my articles?

Look after your audience Feature Articles, and your "agent" will look after themselves!