3 (very) easy steps to discover if you are being found by customers online
Don’t know your SEO from your SERPs? Bamboozled by all the web jargon? Here is a simple, no-nonsense, plain English 3 step guide of figuring out if your company is being found on the internet by your customers. Firstly decide on what search engine you want to be found on, the main ones are Bing, Yahoo and Google.
On second thoughts, scrap that.
Most people use Google, so if they can’t find you there they can’t find you, period.
First you should clear the cache on your web browser. Web browsers like Google have an uncanny ability to ‘remember’ what websites you have visited before and influence your results.
As you’ve probably visited your own site numerous times before Google might think it is being helpful by making it appear further up on the results for you, giving you the false impression that your website is being found just as easily by others.
In most browsers there is normally a fairly visible option in the tools or settings menu to clear ‘history’. A quick way of clearing the cache without having to mess about is by pressing ctrl+shift+del before you start with the searches.
Step 1 – OK, so let’s start with your company name. Let’s say you sell luxury cars in Marbella and your company is called ‘Prime Cars Marbella’.
Type it in the box and press search. If you’re on the first page then great. If you’re on page 2 or three not so great. If you’re further back, forget it, your online presence sucks, you’ll see why below.
For the purpose of this exercise let’s say ‘Prime Cars Marbella’ IS on the first page. Well done. Someone that has already heard about you and is actually looking for you has found you.
Step 2 – Now let’s talk about potential customers who have not heard about you or your company.
Write down on a piece of paper three search terms (three or four words) you would like your company to pop up on the search results when the potential customer types them into Google.
The obvious ones might be ‘luxury car sales Marbella’ (who searches for ‘prime cars’?) or ‘prestige cars sales Marbella’ or ‘luxury car dealership Marbella’
Step 3 – The moment of truth. Types these terms into Google.
If your website appears as the first result on the first page then excellent!
And if due to all the various social media accounts and blogs you’ve set up you are in the first 5 results, even better (for you, not your competitors).
If you’re not on page 1 of Google you’ve lost 75% of potential customers, as research shows only 25% of users scroll past the first page of search results (and only 8% go past the first three pages!).
So is all hope lost?
Not at all, there is much that can be done to move you up the search results.
Look for established companies (staff, offices, track record) such as Voodoo Internet Marketing specialising in what is called Search Engine Optimization, or SEO.
You can also increase your company’s online presence (we call it ‘web footprint’) via Social Media Marketing to make you more visible to anyone searching those ‘key terms’.
And if you need immediate results, you can always pay Google to appear at the top of the search results. This is normally referred to as AdWords or Pay Per Click/PPC.
With almost a decade’s worth of experience, here at Voodoo Internet Marketing we can do all of the above, properly, so let us help your company be found online.
At Voodoo Internet Marketing we’re all native English speakers, but as we’re based on the Costa del Sol you get London service and expertise without the London rates.
Email info@voodoointernetmarketing.com or call (+34) 952 054 430 or at least click on the little star thingy below to say you liked this article!
Don’t forget: if Google can’t find you, neither can your customers
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