Are You In Digital Denial?
You’ve worked hard to build your business and you love what you do. Every day is a new opportunity to meet new customers and transform their lives. You’ve spent a lot of time getting to this point, and you’re very proud of what you’ve accomplished.
Then one day you do a Google search for your business category. And…you’re not there. But a ton of other businesses are, some you haven’t even heard of. Oh, and there’s even one started by a former employee! Worst of all, your archrival is the top hit.
You kind of freak out.
If this is you, you’re in digital denial. But fear not: It’s not fatal, and it’s not your fault. You were building your business and you thought that having a website was enough.
It isn’t.
Did you know that 60%-80% of buying decisions start on Google? And for business- to-business clients, 60% of the buying decision is made before a vendor conversation ever happens! How can your business stay relevant in the face of all this competition?
It’s simple.
You have to work smarter and be where a buyer is specifically looking for what you specifically sell.
For example, let’s say that you own an interior design firm. Now, there are lots of interior designers in your market area. It’s a very competitive field. In NYC there are an average of 11,664 searches per year for “interior designer in nyc.” Wouldn’t you would love to have even a tiny percentage of those searchers land on your website?
But get this, there are almost 28 million potential results for that search. It’s daunting:
The truth is that very few actual buyers search in such a broad way. When customers are ready to buy, they are not deciding if they want to hire an interior designer. They are deciding which one they are going to hire.
This is where you need to get specific.
Say one of your strong capabilities is designing apartment interiors for single professional men. There are far fewer searches for “Interior designers in nyc for men” (only 1,080/yr.), but the people performing that search WANT SOMETHING very specific. For example look what happens when I perform a search for “interior designer in nyc for bachel0r pads.” The number of pages is drastically reduced. And, keep in mind that only a handful of those pages are going to be chosen by Google as a good result for the search.
Every business has niches and this strategy forces you to identify yours. When you speak directly to your target clients, your business is competing smart and the results are going to reflect that.
One way to make this happen is to add pages of content to your website that are optimized for very specific searches (keyword phrases). This is why so many business website have blogs. Businesses that blog have 434% more pages indexed by Google…that means that they have 434% more chances to be visible when their ideal clients are searching for what they do or sell.
And, businesses that incorporate keyword research into their marketing plan have a huge advantage over their competition.
So, savvy business owner, if you’ve been in digital denial and you’re afraid of losing your edge, don’t despair. Get a pro to help you with your keyword strategy so you can start using your website (and your blog, if you have one) more effectively. Your company’s future may depend on it.
I offer an online course called Blog School. Blog School students learn how to identify their ideal clients or customers, research how they are actually searching on the web, and then create website content that will attract them and supply qualified leads from the web. I’ve seen amazing transformations in the students who take this course! Visit the Blog School page to get more information and see student testimonials. Link here: http://bit.ly/blogschool
