Business owners are asking whether they need a website for their business, or if they should disregard having one altogether. They are also wondering if a website is an effective business tool. Websites cost money, and there’s only so much money to go around. Business resources need to be used wisely in today’s economy.
“Customers search for what they need on the Internet. Businesses need to show up in customer searches to be considered for business. Learn how your business website can help your business do better and how it can create business opportunities.”
It is a given now that customers search the Internet first before they go looking anywhere else. I have seen numbers as high as 85% end up regarding this. Needless to say, when customers go to buy something, they have done their research and have found what they’re looking for before they ever by.
The only question that I have for business is this, if customers are searching the Internet for the answer to their problem, what’s your best chance of showing up in a customer search? You do want to be considered as an option in that search. If you don’t show up, the customer will look elsewhere.
These are the new realities of business today. Search matters to the business bottom line. When you show up in your customers search, you have the chance at selling your product or service to them. How do you plan to show up in the customer search?
There are a lot of things that Google can scrape and index into search results. A Facebook page can show up in a Google search. A Google Plus page can show up in a Google search. A blog can show up in the Google search. A YouTube video can show up in the Google search. A website can show up in the Google search. The question here is this, “What will show up better or show up more often in search results?”
My best answer to this question is this…” Whatever you feed Google the most with.” Google is always searching for fresh updated information. Google is always trying to deliver the best search results first time out to the searcher. What has the best chance to influence Google more often?
From what I have seen over the last several years, a WordPress website with a blog has the best chance to show up better, and more often than many other things. Why would I say this? A WordPress website with a blog allows you to customize the information that you are delivering to the web, and it allows you to focus on your keywords that you want to show up in search for.
I ran a six-month experiment a while back where I updated my blog every day to see how much I could influence Google search results for certain keywords. I was able to pretty much dominate the first three pages of Google search results with this tactic. If I can do this, you can do this for your business as well.
As another note, my WordPress website was not the only thing that I was able to get to first page Google on a regular basis either. YouTube videos can get you first page multiple times and they are worth considering in your business marketing efforts.
When it comes to Facebook, Facebook pages are wide open for Google to crawl, but visibility can be limited. Websites tend to have greater visibility than Facebook pages. A Facebook page can still show up first page Google, but I see them less often than other web assets that businesses use.
From my experience, a business website still has a place in your marketing efforts. It can allow you to display a lot of text, pictures and videos all in one spot. If done correctly, it can do very well in a Google search result. But how do I know if it’s effective?
There are several tools to measure how your website is doing on the Internet. One of my favorite tools is Google Analytics. Once you have placed some code or script from Google Analytics onto each of your web pages, you can begin to measure traffic to your website, and what people are looking at when they get there.
Google analytics will show you where people are coming from, what they’re looking at your website, and how long they’re staying there. This can help you determine if your website is effective for business. There are a lot more things that Google Analytics can tell you about your business website, but for now, the one thing that Google Analytics can do for you is to show you how effective your business website is.
So yes, I believe that you do need a business website to show up better in a Google search research. Your website needs to be designed well, along with the keywords that you want to show up to your customer with. It’s the best tool that I have to get first page Google multiple times. I believe it will be your best chance at getting first page Google as well.
Google Analytics can be one of the tools that can indicate how effective your website is. You can change things that need to be improved upon and adapt based on the data and results you get from Google Analytics.
After all, customers are searching for things on the Internet. Showing up for business matters. Not showing up means lost opportunity. Make sure you put your best foot forward. I believe that’s still your website as long as it it done right.
I look forward to delivering this talk at the social media conference and helping businesses understand how to show up better for their customers when they do an Internet search. Here’s to a great day of business for you; and as always, if you like this content, please share it with your friends
