Why Your Business Needs Google

How Google serves as the librarian to 15+ billion pages of internet, how people use Google, and how to get more leads and sales from your website.

The internet is big.

virtual librarian google Why Your Business Needs Google

How Google serves as a virtual librarian to 15+ billion webpages.

As of 2011, there are conservatively 15 billion web pages on the internet. But that’s a hard number to grasp.

Think of it this way: if each of those pages were a piece of printer paper and stacked neatly on top of each other, that pile would be 9,464 miles high – that’s over 44 times the distance between earth and the International Space Station.

That’s a lot of internet.

So how in the world does anyone find anything on those 15 billion web pages? Google.

Google and other search engines like Bing, Yahoo, and Ask serve as virtual librarians to all that online information. Need a hotel room in Kalamazoo, Michigan – Google it. How about a riding toy for your kid – Google it. Nearly any information you need is available with a few keystrokes.

People get that.

It’s why Google processes over 400 million searches per day. That’s 400 million questions your customers and prospects are asking Google every day. And it’s why your business must be there when customers start asking about you.

How Do Placements Work on Google?

For instance, if you handle the marketing for a hotel in Dallas, Texas – doesn’t it make sense for your hotel website to show up in Google when prospects are planning a trip to Dallas?

Absolutely.

dallas hotel search 500x261 Why Your Business Needs Google

If you're marketing hotels in Dallas, Texas - you need Google!

Or what if you’re a real estate broker in Philadelphia? Would it make sense for prospects to visit your website if they were searching for “new homes in Philadelphia”? Yes. You want to be there when prospects are searching for what you’re selling.

If you sell something or want more leads, you probably need Google. Growing businesses need highly targeted traffic that Google and other search engines send to websites. People don’t look in the yellow pages or read billboards anymore. They go online. There is a reason people say “Google killed the Yellow Pages”.

Google is where you find more leads and sales.

There are two ways to get your business’ website into Google: paid and organic. Each method has its own set of strategies to get prospects to your website.

Let’s tackle each one separately.

Paid Placements: Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising

The paid method, also called pay per click advertising or PPC, allows your business placement for virtually any search you want to show up for – so long as you’re willing to pay for the click.

For instance, if you sell weight loss products and you want to show for someone searching for “diet shakes” on Google, you can do that. When you advertise on Google, some percentage of those “diet shakes” searchers will click on your ad and land on your website and ouila! – you have a targeted visitor on your website shopping for diet ice cream.

diet shakes search 500x248 Why Your Business Needs Google

PPC Advertising: How to get placement on Google - fast!

The benefit of paid placements is the ability to get visitors to your website quickly. Simply open an account with Google AdWords, add some keywords to your account, write an ad for your ad group, and watch the traffic come to your site. It’s a great way to have interested visitors come to your site – fast.

The drawback to this method is each click costs. Clicks can range from $0.01 to over $100 per click. However, most clicks can be had from $0.50 to a few bucks depending on the market. But done right, you can really make this method work for your business…and get more leads and sales.

Organic Placements: Natural Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

The second method for getting Google traffic is organic or natural placement – placements and clicks you don’t pay for. Search marketers often call this search engine optimization or SEO. This method for search traffic is not as fast as PPC, but the long-term benefits of organic may outweigh PPC advertising.

The major benefit behind organic/SEO placements is getting free targeted traffic on your site every time your website shows up in the organic listings of Google – and someone clicks on the listing.

For instance, if someone searches for “conference rooms near Reagan national airport”, any site showing in the organic search engine results (SERPs) that someone clicks on will get a free website visitor – without having to pay for the click.

reagan national airport search 500x322 Why Your Business Needs Google

SEO Results: Your Washington-area hotel should show for this 'conference room' search!

The drawbacks for SEO may not be so obvious. Sure, it’s great getting free, relevant traffic to your website. The problem is that many sites, especially businesses, want that same traffic. As a result, SEO has become highly competitive requiring many hours of research and implementation. But it’s still an excellent way to capture interested web visitors.

More importantly, good SEO should turn into leads or sales on your website.

How to Get Organic and Paid Placements on Google

Since organic and paid Google placements have become so competitive, businesses need focused attention to get the best results on the search engines.

There are a few ways to do that:

1) Do It Yourself

This can be a great way to start your Google marketing efforts. By learning and managing the process yourself, you’ll get an understanding of how the search engines work and what you need to do to get paid and organic traffic.

There are many conferences available to learn about search marketing, not to mention all the free resources online. However, when your site becomes successful, it may be time to take your site to the next level with expert help.

2) Hire an Online Marketer

If you have the budget and can justify the ramp-up time for a new employee, hiring an online marketer to handle your SEO and PPC is a great way to go. There’s nothing like having in-house expertise at the ready.

If you have the background in PPC and SEO, you can help guide your employee to high-value efforts and grow your presence and traffic on Google.

3) Hire a Consultant or Agency

The problem with hiring an employee is expense. Experienced online marketers can cost $60K – $100K per year (or more). That’s why hiring an experienced search marketing consultant or agency can be a great middle-of-the-road solution to not doing it yourself OR not hiring an employee.

You oftentimes get more experience at a fraction of the cost of a full-time employee. Plus, you get the benefit of having top-notch online marketers at your fingertips whenever you need the latest industry best-practices applied to your website.

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If you need help navigating prospects on Google through those 15 billion pages of internet to your website, we can help. We offer solid PPC management or SEO management for your online business. We’ve been doing online marketing since 2004 and can help grow your organic or paid search traffic results on Google quickly, professionally, and affordably.