There is a convergence of two online search trends that demands that your business marketing strategy adapts to it or risk becoming as obsolete as pagers and pay phones. For one, Google is attempting to improve the user experience by placing more emphasis on delivering more personalized and localized search results. Secondly, consumers are increasingly relying on search engines rather than newspapers and Yellow Pages to find local products and services. Google has responded to this in a major way by reserving coveted Page One search space for their Google Places local business listings section. Consumers no longer have to enter cities or towns into their search phrases to locate local businesses. Combine these two trends with the avalanche of social media activity via Twitter and Facebook by consumers and the sheer marketing power of the internet becomes obvious. So, the good news is that this opens up more marketing opportunities to make your Main Street brick-and-mortar business more visible online.
One of the most traditional online marketing methods has been positioning your website in the Paid Section on page one of Google via Pay-Per-Click ad campaigns. In a recent survey 85% of people said they tend to ignore sponsored listings. That means for every 100 people doing a search on Google (and other search engines), 85 of them are going to ignore your ad no matter what it says or how much you paid for it. Furthermore, it can easily cost you thousands of dollars in ad campaign tests to determine which keywords are actually profitable.
Many business owners don’t realize that it’s possible to get ranked on the top of the Page One in the coveted Natural Search section through performing some Search Engine Optimization (SEO) work on their site. In this way, through an investment in this SEO work, your site appears on Page One
