Why are search rankings so important?
Getting found on page 1 is kinda important if you want to get visitors to your website…
Having spoken to hundreds of small business owners – I learned a long time ago that there’s a huge misunderstanding about search rankings and getting found online.
Many people automatically assume that their customers are searching for them by name – well a large proportion of business owners anyway.
They’re not.
Let’s assume for a minute that you trade as Shane’s Plumbing Service. Lots of your existing customers know you and they’ll have your number in their phone. Many will have your number saved as Plumber Shane, or Shane Plumber. When they need a plumber, they may search their phone contact list for plumber more often than they’ll search for Shane.
Now, what about people who have never dealt with you before They’re just gonna search for “plumber in Whitecross”, or” emergency plumber”, or “plumber near me” – or something like that. They’re not gonna search for Shane’s plumbing service anyway…
So with that in mind – you’re now competing with every other plumber near you.
No pressure!
Suddenly search rankings are important!
The first pace you’ll want to appear is in the Maps section. There are only 3 places in Maps. No. 1 gets more clicks than the other 2 combined.
After Maps there are the Adwords links. These are paid positions. In many local searches outside the cities, there’s not any local competition. You may well have national competitors (big franchises or national companies), bit Bill the plumber from down the road is unlikely to be using Adwords (that’s his loss!)
A really smart business owner will be using adwords for exact match searches – such as Plumber in Whitecross, or Emergency plumber in Whitecross, etc.
Why?
Because when you have your town or area in the search phrase, you can be pretty darned sure that you’re only gonna get found by people who really, really want your services. An exact match like this is not gonna get searched accidentally!
What other search rankings are there?
I’ve left the big one to last!
In the organic search rankings on page 1, there are 10 spots.
Even though there are 10 – you’d really want to be found in the top 5 – and ideally in the top 3.
Why? Because most searches are done on a mobile phone – and the top 5 results are seen if there are no adwords and no Maps listings. It’s aprox 70% of the clicks that g to the top 3 results when there are no Adwords or Maps listings – and 60% to the number 1 spot!
Are you on the top of page 2 in the search rankings? Congrats! Less than 5% of the clicks go to page 2 – so if you’re at the top of page 2 – you will double your business quickly by getting to page 1!
Search engine optimisation is the magic ingredient, that when added to any website – gets it found on page 1.
Listen. This is not something that most business owners will learn overnight. It’s something that’s a profession all in itself. A science really. Google keeps moving the goal posts – so it’s one profession that there really is an absolute need to stay on top of the changes.
I do that! In a big way.
I love SEO – and marketing in general. This is my hobby, my past-time as well as my profession.
If you’d like to know how you can get your business to page 1, get in touch. Contact me – even if it’s only for a bit of advice on what you’ll need to do. I’m a marketing geek – and I love chatting with people who want to get better at marketing their businesses.
I’m a SEO consultant in Newry. I help business owners get found on page 1 of the google search results – fast and without wasting money on advertising that doesn’t work.
Email me at Adrian@Leading-Results.com