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Can Potential Customers Find Your Website When Googling Your Services?

Can Potential Customers Find Your Website When Googling Your Services?

Ask yourself, when you’re looking for a product, service, event or place, how do you find it? I’ll tell you — You pull out your futuristic smartphone and search Google for it.

As statistics show, more than 80% of consumers will do online research before making a purchase or taking action. Additionally, 75% of search users find what they’re looking for on the first page. Needless to say, if you’re a small business trying to get found, being on page one of Google is imperative.

Get Found on Google With Search Engine Marketing

In an eggshell, search engine marketing is about having your website show up on the first page of search results when your expertise is called upon. As previously mentioned, search users rarely stroll beyond it. While there are other ways for potential customers to find your website, search engine visitors are far more likely to convert into dollars.

Additionally, there’s a huge number of potential customers searching online for your products or services every month. If they’re not able to find your business when searching, you’ll continue to lose these interested prospects to your competitors.

There are a few ways to have your business listed on the first page of Google. You could either pay for it or have your website optimized for higher organic listings. Here’s the skinny on each section of Google’s first page of results.

Sponsored Listings

Pay Per Click Advertising

You can pay for a first-page position using pay per click (PPC) advertising programs provided by Google Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing, and a few others. They enable you to display ads in the sponsored results section of each search engine’s results page. Then, you pay a fee — based on how competitive your chosen keyword is — whenever a viewer clicks through from your ad to your website.

If you’re looking to generate leads immediately, this is a great option. However, it can be pricey, depending on the cost per click (CPC) of your targeted keywords or search terms that you’d like for your business to show up for.

Google Maps

Google My Business (GMB) Optimization

Google My Business helps business owners share information about their business, services, and geographic locations on various Google properties. It allows customers to quickly get the information they need, whether it be driving directions, hours of operation or a phone number they can click to call. For most businesses, occupying one of these first page positions leads to a tremendous amount of leads and consequently more sales.

Generally, Google My Business optimization is a part of the local SEO process.

Organic Listings

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Lastly, and surely the most cost-effective, you can achieve first page rankings by acquiring one of the top 10 organic search results listings — the listings displayed below Google Maps results. This is done via a process called search engine optimization.

SEO uses a wide range of techniques (technical, editorial, analytical) to improve the position or rank of a website in the organic listings of search engines like Google, Yahoo! and Bing. While it takes time to reach the top of the organic results, SEO generally proves to be well worth the investment.

First Page Listings Breakdown

See the different first-page placements

If you’re interested in making it possible for potential customers to find your business on search engines or have questions about SEM, feel free to give us a shout.