If you’re not in Google – you don’t exist.
What’s the point of building a website anyway if no one is able to find it? Lately we’ve talked about banner advertising and educated you on how to get more bang for your buck. Well this time you’re going to learn why visitors from Google are a hundred times more valuable than those brought by banners.
Place Your Lemonade Stand Where People Are Thirsty
If you were to pick one single advantage for your “Lemonade Business” what would it be? The best taste? The cheapest price? Maybe a well known brand? I’d definitely pick a crowd of people who are really thirsty! Unfortunately that’s not possible in “real life”.
But not on the Internet.
Google is a magical place where people shamelessly share all of their intentions.
- When you want ice cream to be delivered right to your doorstep – you search for “ice cream delivery in Dallas“.
- When you need to book a hotel in Barcelona – you search for “hotel booking Barcelona“.
- When you need to know how much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood – you obviously search for “how much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood” (no kidding, people search for that stuff)
Since you’re reading this post you might understand that there are tons of people on Google “thirsty” for what you have to offer. That is totally different to banner advertising where random people see your banner and you can’t tell if they are “thirsty” or not.
So the question is – “How to get yourself in front of your audience on Google?”
To Pay, Or Not To Pay: Not A Question
By looking at the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) you can tell that there are only two ways of getting your business there: “natural search results” and “paid listing”.
“Natural search results” are considered to be free as you don’t have to pay Google to get there, while with “paid listing” you pay Google a certain sum each time someone clicks your link.
But lets take a closer look…
Natural Search Results
Google uses a sophisticated algorithm to rank web pages depending on the keyword being searched. The process of optimizing your website in accordance to this algorithm is called SEO – Search Engine Optimization. Do it right and you will rank higher.
In fact SEO is plain simple but it takes a lot of time and effort to get to the front page of Google and that is why most people prefer to pay some SEO agency to do it for them. So it looks like “natural search results” are not really free.
Paid Listing
Now this one sounds easy, but it’s not! The whole system reminds of an auction where you bid the highest price you’re able to pay when someone clicks your listing. But the trick is – you can’t see what other bids are. Confusing? Totally!
Many people will blindly burn $100-$500 in Google Adwords just to become convinced it’s ineffective, which is not true. We really don’t want you to get into this trap as well so please do a thorough research on SEM (Search Engine Marketing) and learn the Google Adwords system before spending any money on it.
What Next?
This article is the very top of the iceberg by the name “SEO & SEM“. We know we didn’t share any specifics of getting your site on Google’s page 1, but at least now you have two roads you may take to get some potential customers visit your website.
We’d love to educate you further and help to get your website in front of your customers, but we really need your feedback to move forward. Please contact us and we will build further articles around the topics that bother you most.
