Having potential customers find your fantastic website from a Google Search is one of various great ways to grow your customer base. It might not be as exciting or interactive with your customers compared to social media marketing, but it does have some unique benefits.
The main benefit is that if someone searches for your services and visits your website, they are most likely to be a potential customer. The customer is searching with an intent, either to research your products and services or to make an immediate purchase.
So, how do you get your business found by potential customers on Google?
There are 3 main ways that your website can be discovered through Google Search: Using Google Ads, by optimising your website for Google Search results and with a Google My Business profile.
We will go through these in a bit more detail shortly, but first, let’s be clear on the importance of keywords.
Keywords (also known as key phrases) are words that you want your business and your website to be found for.
A telecoms company might want to be found for keywords such as fibre optics, 5G or internet telephony while a beauty company might want to focus on keywords such as skincare, face cream and moisturiser.
If you focus on the wrong keywords in your marketing campaigns then your marketing efforts to get found on Google and other search engines will be ineffective.
Let’s now look at the main ways to get found on Google:
Google Ads
Using Google Ads, you can immediately appear at the top of search results for potential customers – and because Ads is how Google makes money, Google Ads usually always appear at the top where they are more visible.
Google Ads does cost money and, as soon as you stop running your campaign, you will no longer appear at the top of search results.
Google only charges you for your ads based on Pay-Per-Click (or PPC for short). This means that you only pay when someone takes action by clicking on your advert – either to visit your website or to call you.
The fees you pay are based on a bidding process which Google doesn’t reveal too much information about. Effectively, if you are prepared to pay £1.50 per click and your competitor sets a bid price that’s lower then your advert will appear in search results.
Google doesn’t reveal the results of every bid. You only know if your ad has been shown and clicked on.
The mechanics behind how this works is more complex than that, but setting the right budget and bidding strategy is critical to an effective marketing campaign.
It doesn’t matter how many people see your advert, you don’t pay anything until they interact with your advert.
Optimising your website (SEO)
Optimising your website so that it appears in organic search results is another way to get found by customers. This practice is referred to as Search Engine Optimisation (or SEO for short) and it allows you to appear in organic results without having to pay for adverts.
SEO is a complex area and there’s no guarantee that Google will rank and position your website high enough for the right keywords but, get it right, and you can benefit enormously over the long-term without having to pay for a Google Ads campaign on a daily or weekly basis.
An aspect that many businesses overlook with SEO is that it’s an ongoing activity. Just because a website appears at the top of page one of search results, doesn’t mean it will stay there.
SEO requires a well-thought-out content strategy that involves professional website design and regularly updated great content.
At Kamreno, we work with businesses to ensure that their website has the right keywords and content. We will ensure that the content headings, links and even website coding has the keywords included.
Get in touch to find out more about how we can help you have a great looking website that’s optimised for organic search results.
Google My Business (GMB)
Google My Business is focused on local businesses. If you provide local services then your Google My Business profile can appear on Google Maps as well as in search results.
To see this in action, go to Google and simply type in restaurants or cafes. You should then see a thumbnail of a map with a list of cafes or restaurants near you (if you don’t see this, it might be due to privacy settings and if you are allowing Google to access information on your location).
A great benefit of having a Google My Business profile is that your business can appear above organic (SEO) search results without having to spend money or too much time.
There are, however, major limitations. Besides it only being for local businesses with a physical presence, it’s only effective for people searching nearby.
If you are a cleaning company in Manchester, you won’t appear in search results for someone based in London. In fact – for many businesses such as restaurants, results are limited for someone who is only 20 or 30 miles away!
Another limitation is it can be hard to appear above other GMB profiles in search results if there are a lot of similar businesses near you. Google typically provides only 3 Google My Business profiles in the search results and you have to click on “More Places” to see a full list.
Focus on great website design!
Activities such as SEO require having the right keywords on the right pages of your website and, over the years, we have seen many businesses try to optimise their website by cramming in keywords that ultimately make their website unprofessional and difficult to read.
Whether you use the above tactics to get found by your customer, or another tactic, always make sure that your website is focused on the customer, and on driving them to take the right action.
After all, there’s no point in having lots of potential customers visit your website if it’s badly designed and puts them off wanting to contact you!
How are you finding customers for your business?
At Kamreno, we provide strategic and online marketing support to help brands grow. Get in touch today if you would like to find out more about generating more business.
