Did you know that there are two different ways to show up on the first page of Google?
People frequently ask me how they can get their business found on Google, and the answer is that there are two different ways.
1) You can do search engine optimization to get your website to show up in the normal search results on Google.
2) You can run an advertisement on Google and show up at the top immediately.
Now let’s talk more about those options…
Search Engine Optimization
When your potential customer is searching, Google uses a complex formula to determine whether or not your website is included in the search results and where it ranks.
In future articles, we’ll talk more about how this works, but basically Google looks at how your website is setup and how popular your website is (in terms of how many other websites link to yours, how many visitors your website gets, and how much your website and business are talked about on social media sites like Facebook).
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving your website and doing online public relations to make it more popular— in order to show up higher on Google.
The advantage of doing SEO and showing up in the normal search results is that you don’t have to pay anything to Google.
The disadvantage is that it sometimes takes a long time to show up on the first page, and it can be an unpredictable process because Google is always changing their formula.
Google Advertising
With Google’s advertising program, which is called Google Adwords, you can show up on the first page immediately.
Paid search results show up either above the normal search results or on the right side of the page, and they are either highlighted in yellow or have a yellow “Ad” icon to identify them as advertising.
With Google ads, you write your ad, you choose what keywords you want to show up for, what geographic area you want to show up in, and you only pay when people actually click on your ad.
The advantage of running ads on Google is that you can show up on the first page immediately, and you can easily run ads for as many keywords and geographic areas as you want.
The disadvantage is, obviously, that you need to pay Google.
Which Option Makes More Sense for My Business?
In many cases, the best strategy is to do both.
With Google ads, you can be on the first page and be getting phone calls within few days, and then you can do SEO as a longer-term strategy.
However, there are some cases and some industries where one makes more sense than the other.