It was late on a winter afternoon, and Amos was closing his shop for the day. As he did, he kept thinking how crowded it seemed. He’d been making mailboxes for several years, and the extra corner of his barn had worked well so far. But business had been picking up, and he realized he needed more space.
He shut the door and headed up the hill toward home. By the time he reached the back porch, he’d come up with a plan. He knew of a building (it was just up the road) that had all the space he would need for a shop – and a store. He was sure that if he bought that building and moved his business, he would have room to grow, and he would increase his sales. While I’m at it, he thought, I will also get a website.
Amos knew that every plan came with surprises, but after six months, what surprised him was how smoothly everything had gone. His shop was organized, his store was seeing some visitors, and his website was up and running.
But he had a problem. Despite all he’d done, his sales weren’t really growing. He was sure with all he’d done, especially with getting a website, that he would be full of work by now.
That’s when Amos decided to ask his friend Mike for help. Mike had a job in marketing, and Amos thought he could help him figure out why things seemed stale.
The next week, the friends met for lunch, and Amos discovered what he’d been missing.
Mike told him he wasn’t seeing more sales because people didn’t know about his website. Mike said his website was like his store – opening it was just the beginning. Because Amos understood how stores work, he had taken time to put up signs and run ads in local publications. That’s how people knew about his store.
But he hadn’t realized that his website needed the same kind of attention. Mike told him that simply creating a website wasn’t enough – if he wanted people to find his site, he’d have to do some “promoting” as he had done for his store.
Let’s listen in as Mike tells Amos what needs to happen for his website to become more visible.
“There are two strategies for helping increase discovery and use of your website,” said Mike. He explained that the first is considered “organic” because it involves doing things to help people find a site naturally. The second involves paying for advertising that will help people find your site.
The Organic Strategy: SEO
Mike began by discussing the “organic” way of making a site more visible. He wasn’t sure if Amos had heard the term SEO, so he explained that it stands for Search Engine Optimization.
“Putting it simply,” said Mike, “you’re hoping that an internet search engine like Google will show your company website near the top of the search results when someone searches for “specialty mailboxes.” But, since there are many other mailbox companies, your site might not even make it onto the first page of results.”
Mike continued explaining SEO, saying that there are a number of ways to make it more likely for a search engine to find a site and give it a high ranking.
He then listed some general things that would help increase Amos’ website visibility.
Page speed
Mike said that if a website doesn’t load quickly, Google will not give it a good ranking. He pointed out that if a web page takes longer than 2.5 seconds to load, it probably won’t show up on the first search results page. In fact, a competitor’s site that isn’t as well-designed will often outrank a nice site that is slower.
He explained that Amos could do several things to increase the speed of his site but that they required a technical understanding of how websites work and the ability to tinker with them behind the scenes.
Quality content
“Another important thing,” said Mike, “is having good material on your site and having a well-organized site.” He explained that Google’s software knows about these things and will push poorer sites further down the list. “Google,” he said, “especially dislikes AI content.”
He continued, “While AI (artificial intelligence) has recently made it easy for sites to push out lots of content, that content has usually been inferior quality, and Google has penalized sites for it. In the hands of a skilled copywriter, AI is a useful tool, but if AI is used by itself, the results are noticeable and not good.”
Google Business Profile (GBP)
Something else that Amos learned was that as a business, he had access to Google’s business listing. He found out it was a great (and free) way to increase his online visibility, especially since he served local customers. Mike told him that GBP has so much potential that he encourages people to develop their GBP before they build a website (or to develop them at the same time).
“So, what’s involved with a strong GBP?” Amos asked. Mike told him that there were several keys:
- Making sure that your company profile is filled out completely, listing things such as what you specialize in and your hours of operation.
- Including pictures of your products or recent projects.
- Having a link to your company website. (Your GBP can help people find you, even without having a website, but having a website and linking to it is important if you want your GBP to be ranked high.)
- Keeping up with your profile by adding posts and pictures regularly. (In the past, just having a profile on Google would get you somewhere, but now, if you don’t put some effort into it, Google may not show it.)
Adding profiles on other key sites
“Once your GBP is complete,” Mike explained, “you should also look to create a profile on Microsoft’s Bing Places and Apple Maps. Since you have already gathered the information you need for your GBP, creating profiles on these other locations might only take a few hours. The more places your website’s name appears online, the more Google sees your page as important.”
Other ways to increase SEO
All of these details interested Amos, but he was starting to think this was more than he could keep track of. Yet Mike wasn’t quite done with SEO. He said there was one more way to improve website traction: “Anything you can do to connect with people will help increase your SEO by increasing activity on your website. (The more active a website, the more Google sees it as a credible and important resource.)”
Mike said those activities included sending out mailers and postcards that contain a web address. As he listened, Amos learned he could also send regular emails to people in his contact list, making sure to include things that encourage people to click over to his site. Though he didn’t use Facebook or LinkedIn, he discovered that these sites and other social media are other free ways that help promote website activity.
Paid Search
By now, Amos could see that he had much to do if his website would be noticed. Learning techniques for organic SEO had really opened his eyes. But he could tell that Mike wasn’t done.
As Mike continued, he reminded Amos that he needed a two-pronged approach for website visibility. “It used to be,” he said, “if you were diligent with SEO, you could get ranked in the upper ten listings of the search engine results pages (SERP). In most cases, that was enough to get your site noticed. However, more and more businesses are using paid ads – also known as PPC – which moves them to the top of the list. Now, if you can’t get your site into the top three, you will not get close to the number of website visits you’d like.”
What is PPC?
“I think I understand what paid ads are,” said Amos, “but PPC? What does that mean?”
“Glad you asked,” said Mike. “Take a sip of coffee and sit tight. I’m going to explain what you need to know about PPC.”
Mike explained that in the past, people would pay upfront for space on a billboard or to run ads in a catalog. The downside was you had to pay even if no one saw or paid attention to your ad. Pay-per-click (PPC) ads work differently – you only pay when someone clicks on your ad.
“PPC ads work through an auction system. The basic process is that you create an ad that is tied to specific search terms, and then you set your bid price. When someone searches for a term that matches your chosen keywords, Google will compare your ad with those of others in your industry and decide which ad to show. (This will be based on several elements, like how high you are bidding for the ad, how well-organized your ad is, and how useful your website is.) Once your ad is displayed (near the top of the results page), you have a much better chance that someone will visit your site.”
Starting with PPC
“The basic idea of PPC,” Mike went on, “is that you want to choose search terms that will make Google show your ad only to people looking for your product or service. In the older way of doing things, you would pay for an ad that would be seen by many people, knowing that many of those people were not looking for what you had to offer. When you tie an ad to something people are searching for, you have a much higher chance that those who see and click on your ad will become customers.
“When creating PPC ads, you choose a list of keywords or queries. Google will not show your ad unless someone searches for one of those terms (and you happen to win the “ad bid”). When starting with ads, you need to take an educated guess at which keywords or queries to use.”
PPC Optimization
“Clearly, the more you can match your ad to people likely to buy from you, the more cost-effective your ad spending will be. When you first start, you won’t have enough data to make precise decisions about your ads. But the longer you run ads, the more you will be able to see which search words bring the most traffic and business.
“Thankfully, most ad platforms (Google is the largest) provide a number of filters and adjustments to fine-tune your ads. Here are just a few:
- Geographic location. After you’ve run ads for a while, you will be able to see which states, zip codes, or neighborhoods are generating the most traffic and are converting to the most business. With this information, you can tell the ad platform to show your ads only to people in those high-producing areas.
- Keywords. You will see that certain search terms generate clicks but are not converting. You can then list these terms as “negative keywords,” meaning that your ad will not be shown to anyone who includes these terms. (For example, if you sell high-end cabinets, you do not want your ad to show if someone searches for “cheap cabinets near me.”)
- Demographics. If you know that most of your customers are of a certain age or income bracket, then you can target your ads toward them and hold your ads back from those outside of those brackets.
“The more you run paid ads and study your monthly reports, the more precise you can be with your PPC.”
Conclusion
“Regardless of what you do,” said Mike, “at the very least, you have to do something. Just like your shop and store, you must maintain your website and online presence to get a return on it.”
Google is looking for regular activity. You don’t need constant motion, but you do need regular motion. If you spend thousands of dollars on a website but never add to it or do other things online, there is little chance you will see your investment pay off.
As you budget, you will want to create room for SEO and PPC. Because Google’s algorithm is a moving target, you will benefit from working with people who stay on top of things and can help you make regular adjustments to give you the best chance for online growth.
Amos was glad he’d sat down with Mike. He looked down at the table and realized he’d hardly touched his food. He’d been listening so carefully that he’d almost forgotten to eat. What Mike had told him made perfect sense, but he was feeling overwhelmed.
“Mike,” he said, “I really appreciate everything you’ve told me. But I know how to build mailboxes, not how to manage websites. I have two questions for you. First, Is this something you can help me with? Second, do you have room in your schedule? I think you might have found yourself another client.”
This story of Amos and Mike reflects real-life conversations that Rosewood has had with Anabaptist business owners. While you may specialize in something like roofing or cabinetry, we specialize in marketing, and our team is ready to help your business (and your website!) grow.