Philip W. Schiller

Mr. Philip W. Schiller,

I would very much like to talk to you about some ideas we have at USWeb to help Apple Computers gain visibility on search engines.

Most search engine optimization firms never really consider pitching Apple, mainly because your site has such power in search engines, you can rank for whatever you like. But, as a devout Mac user, I have noticed some areas where you could really reach users who are primed for switching.

One simple example is Mp3. I know iPod is much more than an Mp3 player, and I am well aware of the benefits of AAC. But, the remaining people who still refer to digital music devices as Mp3 players don’t know the difference. Apple does not rank for Mp3. The site does rank on the first page for Mp3 player, which is a strong testament to the power of the Apple.com site. If you were to create a page that speaks to Mp3 technology and educates users to the benefits of the iPod, we could easily make this page rank. By the way, Napster, Musicmatch and Mp3.com are ranking for this term. So, users are not getting the full story.

Another example of where Apple could leverage some serious power in search engines is when people are searching for solutions. One of the main areas that made me switch a few years back are virus and spyware issues. I feel pretty invincible on Safari. If you made a page that spoke to these subjects, we could easily get that page ranked for terms related to virus and spyware. If a user is searching for solutions to keep themselves safe on the Web, what a great time to educate them to the benefits of a Mac.

Another example is terms for solutions that Apple software provides. Apple does not have much visibility for any business software terms, with one strong exception. Filemaker.com ranks #1 in Google for database software. It’s clear from the title tag that someone put the effort into that, and that’s a great idea.

My final example is for iTunes. The iTunes carries over 200,000 songs now. That is a lot of content. We can port that content over to the Web and make sure the Website ranks for those artist. Imagine the amount of people typing in these artist names. Over 750,000 searches last month for "Madonna" alone. "Harry Potter" was searched for over 2,000,000 times. This would be a great time to let those people know that what they are looking for can be purchased through iTunes.

I would really love to speak to you further about some ideas we have to help Apple gain visibility. I'm certain that if you have read this, you have thought of a couple ideas yourself. The fact that you can easily get in the path of people searching for information and solutions is amazing when you start to think about. Please contact me when you have time so I can share more about how we can help.

Sincerely,

Ed Shull

Chief Executive Officer

USWeb

ed@usweb.com

(949)330-6652