Congratulations, you have a website – some level of digital presence, internet existence, an online address! Now the trick is making sure your potential customers can find you there.
This is what search engine optimization (SEO) is all about. Prospective leads are searching for your business right now, so think about the journey they’re taking and follow it yourself to see what they see.
First, where are people looking for businesses?
Google, plain and simple. Yes, other search engines have claimed some level of website traffic, but none of them have their company name used as a verb in daily household conversations. The latest stats show Google as claiming 92% of the search traffic, Bing following with 3%, and nothing else even gets 2%. Beyond a generic web search, consumers will use some specific online tools to find businesses as well, like Yelp, TripAdvisor, Angi, or specific social media communities. However, the overwhelming majority of searching will always begin – and usually end – on Google.
This raises the next question, what are people searching for?
A handful of your potential customers may know your business name already. They’re going to find you pretty easily. Most of your prospects – especially the ones you really want to be reaching – have never heard of you. They don’t know to search for your company name. They’re going to search for the service or product you provide and either “near me” or their city name. More than 82% of online shoppers do these location-specific searches. For example:
“toilet repair near me”
“dentist nyc”
“toyota dealership murietta”
“sporting stores houston”
So go ahead and do some Google searches with this in mind. Plug in one of the main services or products you provide and an area you primarily serve. Act like your potential customers would, and scroll past the sponsored ads at the top of the search results (94% of people skip these). Is your website in the top 3 links listed after those ads? These are the ones that get 80-90% of the online traffic from search results. How about if you search for another nearby city? Or another one of your main services or products?
If you don’t have a web page ranking at the top of these keyword searches, you’re invisible to potential customers – they’re going to your competitors. Site Blooms can fix that, quickly, and we guarantee our work. But every day it stays broken, every day Google rewards someone else’s website over yours, that’s another day you’re losing clicks and customers.
Schedule a free consultation with Site Blooms today, and let’s discuss how we can make it easier for customers to find you online.