Understand the 4 ways customers search for businesses online and you will understand what you need to dominate on the first page of Google.
When you search for a service based business online and particularly through Google there are 4 ways you will typically then go on to then contact them.
The most common ways are the Ads, at the top and the bottom of the page respectively and not always. Next in line, Google have started showing a "Find results on" section, this offers a range of websites that also offer results that match your search, typically directories like Yell.com, Gumtree etc Great if you want to go through to just results of businesses in the area with additional information like opening times, services and more importantly, reviews, but we will get in to them shortly. Then there is the "Google Local Pack" or the maps as they are often referred to. This is Google offering a set of local results driven by "Google my business" listings. These can be great as they too offer just the information some need to make contact.
Then there is the holy grail of the first page, the organic listings. Really only the first page of organic results get a look in as not many will make it to the second or third page, some do, but by comparison, it is normally a small proportion. They click on an organic result which will take them through to a website, in some cases it will be an individual company, other times it can be other sites like directories that offer further results.
So this is the 4 main ways that customers get through to a business on the first page.
Now you understand this, how can you dominate these results and why would you want to?
Well according to Hubspot, 75% of users never scroll past the first page of search results. This looks like it was from 2014 but if it were my guess, peoples attention spans have only reduced and so that would lead me to believe that stat would of only increased.
Put that into perspective, out of 10,000 searches for a search term, 7500 of them would never make it past the first page. When you also consider that more action happens higher up the page too, this makes being on the first page and near the top seem all more attractive.
So now we know that all the effort of getting your business on the first page might just be worth it (Search volume and intent dependent), now we can look at how you dominate that first page and get your fair share of that traffic.
First thing to consider is that the results are broken up into paid and organic.
Paid includes the ads which are at the top and the bottom of the page respectively and when advertisers are bidding this is based on what you pay as well as the quality score of the ad. Organic is anything unpaid where it solely relies on the user experience and relevance to rank. There are results within the organics that are also paid, these include things like directories where you pay for prominence in the results they offer to get more chance of being found, trusted and chosen, as these often use things like reviews to help the user make a decision on who to contact.
Paid Ads or PPC (Pay per click)
Paid can be a quick way to that first page and can be a sound strategy for generating new business. You need to consider two things with the ads. You want a professionally built and run campaign to really get the most but also need to weigh up the costs. A badly managed campaign can waste lots of money in irrelevant clicks and PPC stands for Pay per Click, so you do not want to be wasting clicks. The other consideration is your website. You need to have a website that converts well.
Consider this, you pay for 1000 people to click on your website, your website currently only converts at 1%, that is 10 enquiries from those thousand clicks. Let's say you convert 50% of your enquiries, we that is 5 new customers. Fo this example, each customer is worth £1000 and you paid £2000 for the thousand people at £2 per click. £5k return from £2k spend. Not a bad return I hear you say. Well let's imagine your website was even just 1% better at converting traffic into enquiries. That means you would of generated 10 new customers from the same 1000 visitors. So £10k return from the same £2k spend... Makes a huge difference. Also, a better website could influence how much you pay per click but that's for another blog post.
So that is the ads, so much to know and learn but a very powerful method of marketing.
The "Find results on" Section
Organically ranked in Google as a section that shows often for service based searches but no guarantee this section will show for every search. Paid in some cases where the results offered have paid options to show more prominently than your competitors.
For this example I am going to couple up with the directories that show up in the organic results too. The reason being is that the directories can be a great way of indirectly getting on the first page of Google. As these directories normally spend a lot of their time and effort in ranking just like you want to. You will normally pay for a position on the directory to be more visible and make it work but can be worth it. Most people visiting a directory would be pretty keen to make contact because they wouldn't want to just browse them, but check with the individual sites on their average stats.
Google Maps or "Local Pack"
To be here you need to have a Google My Business listing. Google shows 3 businesses typically with the option to see more but you want to be in the top 3. This is free and you can do this yourself without too much trouble. If you are not sure on how or what good looks like, feel free to drop me a message and I would be happy to point you in the right direction. Few things you can consider is content, fill out as much as you can so it is full of good content. Then get some reviews! Lots of good quality reviews, lots and often. If you get into that top 3, you want to make sure the customer chooses your business over the competition. Reviews could be the difference between ok results and dominating!
Organic results on Google
Finally the organics, this is a slow game but with great results if done right. Organic results is where most of the action takes place on the first page. To get here, this also relies on having a great website. Something I will write about in another blog post but essentially, the website is made up of more that what meets the eye, a lot of the behind the scenes and effort into the content can determine how well you rank in Google. Also factors like the competition and whether other sites link to you in a positive way. All of this consideration and the process is called SEO, short for Search Engine Optimisation. Good SEO can see you climb the ranks of the search and once you are up there and dominating, you will want to keep it up there, but marketing never really ends and it requires on going work to keep your marketing current and working well for your business.
To conclude, to really dominate the first page of Google, you want to cover as many of the 4 ways a customer would find a business as possible, if you achieve this and cover the keywords and areas you wish to dominate, providing the search volumes are there, this could be one way to really dominate your local market online.
Ads, Directories, Maps and Organics, add in some great reviews across multiple platforms and a bit of brand awareness and you will be the go to company in your area.
For a more visual look into the first page, check out this video of me explaining the first page of Google.
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