Super Bowl XLIV was the most watched television show in history. 106.1 million people tuned in to see the Saints beat the Colts for the Lombardi Trophy.

We saw Google run their first ever TV ad. And we saw Danica Patrick and GoDaddy run their umpteenth awful “hot chicks unrated on our website” ad.

But, curiously, no companies used this opportunity of hundreds of millions of eyeballs to grow their SEO.

In 2007, Pontiac, encouraged users to ‘Google Pontiac’ instead of simply going to Pontiac.com.

If a company owns the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) this strategy is brilliant. Google uses preferential results now to show ads, so if you Google a keyword and click a link…that link will be more relevant to you next time you search. Pontiac would rank higher in search results for people that Googled Pontiac, clicked the link, and later searched for cars.

Successful advertising will push your target audience to take action. If they’re not going to buy a car right now, why not use the opportunity to increase the likelihood of a future purchase?

Read a more detailed account of this personalized search optimization at SEOmoz.org.

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WebsiteGrader and Woorank are awesome tools that can help you understand how your website stacks up against others. I use them both to show clients how they can optimize the marketing effectiveness of their websites.

Simply input your web address and let the two systems generate a grade that tells you how you rank on a scale of 1 – 100. You’ll also get a list of recommendations to make your site better. Some are technical and some are not. Even if you know nothing about HTML, DNS or SEO this report will help you understand what a good web development company can do to increase your online effectiveness.

I’ve added the WebsiteGrader badge for JaysonManship.com to the right sidebar. It started at 68. My goal is to get it over 80 by the end of February.

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