What? You thought that the search engines were simply
there to help people find the products, information or
services that they were looking for? You are wrong.

Search engines are a business just like everything else.
Some are even listed on the stock exchanges and their
stock is bought and sold. The object of search engines is
to make money by helping people find the products,
information and services they are looking for.

They SELL advertising to businesses that want to sell
these products, information and services to people who
are looking for them to buy.

The key word here is ‘sell’. Now when a person types key
words into the search box of a search engine and hits
search, the search results that are displayed on the
first page are mostly paid or sponsored advertisements.

Look carefully next time you do a search. At the top of
the page and on the right side of the page you will see
what are apparently bought advertisements.

They say ‘sponsored links’. The top of the page ads are
the ones that cost the most….the ones on the right
side cost slightly less.

The top few results are most often directly related to
those paid advertisements on the top and right side of the
page. Of course, search results are bought and paid
for.

That really shouldn’t come as a big surprise. What is that
saying? “It’s a material world!” and just like always,
money does talk.

Website owners buy AdWord advertisements and then the
search engine spiders determine at what number
those advertisements are seen in the results.

That’s why SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is so important
and why it is the battle cry of all Internet entrepreneurs.