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Why Your Business Must Be on the First Page of Google

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Are you spending more money on your Yellow Pages ads than Internet marketing?  Why?  Do more of your customers use the yellow pages than the Internet?

If you're in any high-tech industry, this is old news to you. But, if you're selling consumer products to a local market and still think that the two-color, half-page ad you are running in your local yellow pages directory is a justifiably better marketing spend than spending a little bit of money on your Internet presence, you may want to reconsider.

Pretend it's 7:42 p.m. on a Wednesday and your heat just stopped working (its cold today in Boston).  You pull up Google to search for "heating repair, city". Two seconds later, you get a list of company names, addresses, phone numbers, maps, and website URLs. Just like that, you've instantly found what you wanted, without even thinking about where you keep the yellow pages.

Do you even have a yellow pages in your home or office?

This is a common scenario used to establish how integral search engines has become in our daily lives.  But what about the online versions of yellow pages?  Here is some other evidence for you. In a September 2007 article written by Chris Smith for Search Engine Land, the trends he sites clearly show a decline in Internet Yellow Pages usage while search engine traffic continues to soar.

Chris writes, "It's my opinion that Google's (and other top search engine) innovations in local search combined with increasing inclusion of business listing data in the search engine results pages ("SERPs") is causing users' behavior to change. Users are finding more and more the information they're seeking directly in SERPs, negating the need to find Internet Yellow Pages."

To many marketers serving a local-area target market, search engine optimization and pay-per-click marketing can be scary, expensive territory. The great thing with all the different ways to get started in search engine marketing is that you can start simple and low cost and work your way up from there.  For search engine optimization you can use the free SEO tool Website Grader, and for Google Adwords you can set your ads to only show up in a local area and pick a daily limit to your spending to manage your budget.  Before you get started, just make sure you understand the difference between paid and organic search.  Finally, you should also read this article about Free Google Advertising- it is a must for any local business.

In this new world of marketing, outbound marketing strategies just don't hold up when compared to inbound marketing practices - things like SEO, PPC, and becoming an active participant in the blogosphere and social media.  The better you become at working all facets of inbound marketing, the more likely you are to show up on the first page of Google.

Posted by Mike Volpe on Wed, Jan 16, 2008 @ 11:26 AM

COMMENTS

I think this is a very generation thing.
My parents say " look it up in the phone book"
My generation says " look it up online" " Google search it"
Subtext: It is the way of the future

posted on Thursday, January 17, 2008 at 11:26 AM by Lizzy


I totally agree with everything mentioned above. The only problem I see is that a lot of industries, let's use garages for an example, don't have websites at all. Let alone means to SEO them, even if they did. That's probably the only thing I've used the paper yellow pages for in the past 5 years.

posted on Thursday, January 17, 2008 at 12:22 PM by Andy


Andy - I actually think that even a garage should have a simple website with the basics of SEO in place. Imagine in Boston for instance, you are cmoing in from the suburbs and need a place to park near the symphony - if you had a website that was on the first page of Google for "Boston Symphony Parking" and the website had a map with maybe a coupon to print out, that could be powerful! I use Google all the time to search for restaurants, parking, cafes, bars, barbers and more.

posted on Thursday, January 17, 2008 at 1:51 PM by


Mike - I totally agree that every business should have a website. I use Google for everything I ever need to look up as well. I just findd certain industries are a little behind in their web presence. That gives me an idea to make some extra cash... :)

posted on Thursday, January 17, 2008 at 3:53 PM by Andy


I have several of my websites on Google first page and it does bring me a lot of business.
People see you as an authoriry. (I even have a site on the first page for 'affiliate marketing')

posted on Tuesday, January 22, 2008 at 5:11 AM by Franck Silvestre


Though I am a big believer in local search (obviously) this is a bit of an over simplification.
Both media are used... A LOT.
If you are thinking about a local search for say... Pizza. One medium may replace the other. But think about a purchase where the buying cycle is loooong... like Kitchen cabinets. A person is likely to use both in the never ending quest for more info.
So, then where do you look when you want a pizza? A. Val-Pak (smart-alek)

posted on Tuesday, January 22, 2008 at 8:45 PM by Local Hound


While I agree that every business should have a website, it is also true that unless there is effort put into SEO, it is a waste of time and money because nobody will find it.

posted on Wednesday, January 23, 2008 at 9:42 AM by jeff


Having a website is pretty much a given for any business these days. They are simple and cheap enough to set up for most people's needs.
I have to disagree with the title of this post however. While you should have a website, you don't need to be on page1 of google. There are so many other sources of traffic and reasons to have a website that don't involve search that really the title is kind of silly. This is one of the key things I've learned while reading James Brausch's blog.
A local dog groomer may not get any searches in google for 2 years (I mean who really searches for "dog groomer in podunk missouri" town of 255 people? They all know the dog groomer. But if they have a blog, they hand out a business card and customers can go there to see store hours, holidays, specials, anouncements etc.
Search isn't the only reason to have a site.
Cheers,
Eric

posted on Thursday, January 24, 2008 at 12:38 AM by Eric


I think the importance of appearing on page 1 of google is dependent on the industry. If you are a source of information being on the first page shows your authority. however other search engines can be sources of traffic, so can web 2.0 sites

posted on Monday, February 04, 2008 at 6:18 AM by Charles Degraft-Johnson


Just a comment to the author - your article should match your headline. You did not say why the business should be on the FIRST page of Google. I was hoping for some stats as to how many people only look at the first page when they search and don't click "next page."

posted on Thursday, February 07, 2008 at 3:41 PM by Lianne


Lianne - By my experience about 99% of all clicks are on the first page. I have seen people on the top of the second page of results and get no traffic for a relatively popular term.
Here is a related article:
http://blog.hubspot.com/tabid/6307/bid/1985/Stopping-The-Google-Adwords-Morphine-Drip-How-We-Saved-183-Last-Week.aspx

posted on Thursday, February 07, 2008 at 6:20 PM by


Great posting. So agree that the smart way to advertise is online. I used traditional YP directories for 17-years, until they forgot to run my contracted ad. First big mess, than I stared using other online solutions. No more YP advertising for my ScanMyPhotos.com biz.
We are profiling our experience for other entrepreneurs to learn from at
http://www.blog.YellowDinosaur.net

posted on Wednesday, March 26, 2008 at 10:02 PM by Mitch


Great Info. Also, with a google seach on must cell phones it is just easier then the phone book or even 1411.

posted on Wednesday, May 07, 2008 at 10:26 AM by GreatDomainRace.com


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