--- title: What are the search terms your buyers use to find products and services like yours? Where does your company rank on Google for those terms? image: https://www.davidmeermanscott.com/hs-fs/file-1074686919-jpg/blog-files/hubspot.jpg --- [Skip to main content](https://www.davidmeermanscott.com/blog/2008/01/what-are-the-se.html#maincontent) [ «  View All Posts ](https://www.davidmeermanscott.com/blog) # What are the search terms your buyers use to find products and services like yours? Where does your company rank on Google for those terms? January 7th, 2008 1 min read By [David Meerman Scott](https://www.davidmeermanscott.com/blog/author/david-meerman-scott) ![](https://www.davidmeermanscott.com/hs-fs/file-1074686919-jpg/blog-files/hubspot.jpg?width=100&height=42&name=hubspot.jpg) [![Hubspot](https://www.davidmeermanscott.com/hs-fs/file-1074686919-jpg/blog-files/hubspot.jpg?width=100&height=42&name=hubspot.jpg "Hubspot")](http://freshspot.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/2008/01/07/hubspot.jpg) Three months ago, [Mike Volpe at HubSpot blogged about his experience speaking with a friend at EMC](http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/2329/EMC-is-a-Laggard-Playing-by-the-Old-Rules-of-Marketing.aspx), a huge company (roughly ten billion US $ revenue). Mike and the EMC person discussed the most important search terms for EMC and came up with two critical ones "data storage" and "information infrastructure." They then Googled those terms. Remarkably, EMC was nowhere near the top of the search heap for the phrases. Mike came to the obvious conclusion: "EMC is a Laggard Playing by the Old Rules of Marketing." I thought that was an amazing thing. Here is a company that spends well over one billion US dollars on sales and marketing and they are nowhere near the front page on Google for two of the most important phrases in their industry. As Mike at HubSpot said: "This is like opening the Yellow Pages in 1990 and looking under 'car rental' and not seeing an ad for Hertz!" Last week I Googled those phrases again, wondering if they EMC had implemented any Web marketing programs to boost their results in the past three months: [Google search for "data storage"](http://www.google.com/search?q=data+storage) [Google search for "information infrastructure"](http://www.google.com/search?q=information+infrastructure) [![Logo_where_info_lives](https://www.davidmeermanscott.com/hs-fs/file-1074686934-jpg/blog-files/logo_where_info_lives.jpg?width=100&height=43&name=logo_where_info_lives.jpg "Logo_where_info_lives")](http://freshspot.typepad.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/2008/01/07/logo_where_info_lives.jpg) At the time I checked, EMC was ranked number 115 in the Google search results for "data storage" and number 76 for "information infrastructure." **Not so great for a company whose tagline is "where information lives."** [EMC](http://www.emc.com/?fromGlobalSiteSelect=true) is not doing a good job at helping buyers find them via search engines. How about your company? You should be able to answer these questions: Do you know the most important search terms that people are using to find products and services like the ones you sell? Where do you appear in the results? If you aren’t satisfied with your results, what great content can you create (a blog or an ebook or some news releases) to help boost your ranking? Disclosure: I am a member of the [HubSpot](https://www.hubspot.com/) board of advisors. [ David Meerman Scott ](https://www.davidmeermanscott.com/blog/author/david-meerman-scott) David Meerman Scott is a business growth strategist, advisor to clever entrepreneurs who are building emerging companies, and the international bestselling author of a dozen books published in 30 languages. David’s high-energy keynote presentations, masterclasses, and virtual events educate, energize, and inspire. 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