Because of my background designing websites, small business owners and marketers often ask me about search engine optimization (SEO). How can I get my website to show up higher in Google rankings? How much money should I expect to spend on SEO? Why isn’t my website showing up in search engines at all?
Disclaimer: I am not an SEO expert (nor do I want to be one). However I have practical experience with how search engine rankings relate to your brand.
First, a little background. The best explanation I have heard about how search engines work was from a FreshBooks podcast several years ago, where Jennifer Laycock explained that search engines are like Pinocchio: just like Pinocchio wants to be a real boy, search engines want to be a real person. So search engines index web pages by trying to figure out what a real person might be seeing on the page, and they view incoming links as an indicator that the page is important.
The first thing I recommend to any organization is to hire a web designer who understands how search engines work. At the very least, good web designers should include unique browser page titles and meta tags, and they should appropriately incorporate h1/h2 headline tags in your web pages. Combined with a few quality incoming links, you should be on your way to decent search engine rankings for your company name.
The next thing I recommend is don’t rely on Google, Yahoo! or Microsoft Live Search to bring you tons of new business. Search engines are simply another marketing tool, just like direct mail, print ads, yellow pages,radio spots, banner ads, etc. Search engines mean nothing to your brand if your business is not built around a great product and excellent customer service. Even the most successful online companies thrive by providing great service to customers that gets people talking on social networks and by receiving compelling reviews from authoritative people (the online versions of word-of-mouth marketing and referrals). Sure, it’s nice to show up in search results, but rather than have your company come up first when someone Googles something generic like “aluminum siding,” the mark of successful branding is when people are simply Googling for “ABC Aluminum Siding Company.”
I’ll give you an example: do a Google search for cola. Coca-Cola shows up third, and Pepsi is not even on the first page. Do a search for soft drink and the results are even worse for these two companies. That’s because they’re not relying on generic search engine traffic, they are relying on people searching for their brand.
Most companies shouldn’t focus much, if any, of their marketing dollars on high rankings in generic search engine results. It’s much more effective to build a brand by providing outstanding customer service that leads to legitimate referrals. That way, if people are looking for a siding company, their decision has already been made as to which company to use, they just need to Google your company’s name to get your phone number.
Even SEO expert Aaron Wall says that “if you’re buying clicks, or targeting SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages), you’re wasting a valuable opportunity if people visit your site and forget you the moment they click away.”
For most small businesses, the true key to successful SEO is to build your brand through quality service and word-of-mouth marketing, and let the search engines deliver web traffic and telephone calls from customers who have already made up their minds to purchase your product.
If you’d like to learn more about SEO and your brand, check out my brand workshops or brand consulting services.
Photo credit: Danard Vincente via Flickr.
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