Wouldn’t it be great if you could guarantee that your website would appear on the first page of Google’s search results, under any keyword, without undertaking any Search Engine Optimisation? Wouldn’t it also be great if you could dynamically update the text and images within those search results using TSV, XML and RSS feeds?
Well, it’s possible; say hello to ‘Google Subscribed Links’, an extremely powerful service that allows you to control content within the first page of Google’s (sort of) natural search results.
So what’s the catch? There always is one right, let’s face it.
Well, the catch is that to see your search results in Google, the user has to first click a button on your website. Oh,…. and they also have to be logged-in to their Google account at the same time, hm. But don’t let that get you down. The simple fact remains; this service has serious applications, and with a little foresight now, Subscribed Links may have the potential to bear fruit for you in the future.
So before you begin to subliminally demote Subscribed Links in your list of projects for 2009, it might be worth taking a few seconds to think through the implications.
Firstly, lets deal with the negatives. Personally, I wouldn’t get too hung-up over the fact that the user needs to be logged into Google to subscribe to your service. We should remember that it’s predicted Google Mail will overtake Yahoo! Mail by 2010 (and who would doubt it), meaning a significant percentage of your potential subscribers will soon have an existing Google account when they reach your webpage. We should also remember that Google are very clever in keeping their members logged-in to their account, even when the client PC is left idle or in hibernation.
So what should we do? We could either wait until Google has a large enough share of the web mail market before we act, or, investigate it now so that we have plenty of time to examine where the service can be applied to our online existence in the future.
Well, that’s up to you. All I would say is that if you manage to define a compelling case for your website visitors to sign up to your Subscribed Links, then the service has the potential to be a real winner.
OK, so, to demonstrate how life changing Subscribed Links can be, lets look at Make It Rain’s service as an example.
So, imagine this; your browsing the web one day, looking for a website that allows you to keep up to date with the latest innovations and developments within the Internet Marketing industry. That’s when you stumble upon make-it-rain.co.uk, a website that’s packed full of interesting commentary on the Internet Universe. You think to yourself: “This website’s fantastic, wouldn’t it be useful if the latest articles from make-it-rain.co.uk would appear in Google’s search results, each time that I enter ‘Internet Marketing’, ‘SEM’, ‘SEO’ (or one of the service’s 97 other keywords) into Google Search.”
You then see this button on the site that allows you to do just that.

Go on, be brave, click the button!

All you need to do it confirm, and that’s it; you’re subscribed! So now every time you enter one of our 100 keywords into Google Search you will see make-it-rain.co.uk in the forth slot. How good is that?

So, how does it work from our end (or your end potentially)? Well, it’s very straightforward to set up, as you would expect from a Google service.
You simply need to define your search terms, the contents of your listing (or advert whichever way you want to look at it), and the URL (it feels a lot like creating an AdWords advert I must say).

You then need to add the button to your website (the code of which is generated for you of course). And that’s it, you’re ready to start thinking about how to convert your visitors into Subscribed Linkers.
If you decide to incorporate Subscribed Links into your online business strategy, let me know, and I review it in my subsequent ‘Subscribed Links’ blog.
Can’t wait.