Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

People searching on the internet for a local business is growing in popularity. I think you'd be very surprised by the number people who are going to their computer searching for local businesses on the Internet. Google has said about 73% of all searches now on the search engine are people looking for a local business. If you think about it, a businesses change quite often. They come and they go. They go out of business. They move to another location. So how does a local person keep up?

In the past, if you're like most people, you would've probably picked up the Yellow Pages. That was really the only way the new businesses were found in any local town. But the Yellow Pages are out of date at least a year. Plus you don't know if the business is really still there. So what you do? There is a rumour that the Yellow Pages will replace the book with a CD that you put in your computer. So what does that mean to you?

Think about it. When you're in a small town, and unless the customer has already been to your place of business, how do they know where you are. They don't know if you've moved. They might know approximately where you are but how do they find you.

When I was in the sign business many years ago, in the training session we went through, the trainers made it clear to make sure we explain to the business owner that their sign must be visible from a least a mile down the road. Why is this? Because if the local customer is driving around town looking and searching for a business like yours the sign needs to be in their line of sight or that customer will pass you by. You lose another customer. Had you ever noticed that when they put up a new McDonald's location the first in the goes up is the big sign. McDonald's knows that there are customers driving around and they want them to be aware that a new McDonald's was coming soon. Even before the buildings put up, the sign is there. Big yellow arches.

And now it's so easy for people who have computers. They don't have to get in their car. They don't have to fight traffic. They don't have to try to find you. Now they just turn to the Internet. Will they find you? What if you don't show up on Google's first page or maybe the second page. People rarely go past the second page. Say you go to Google and search right now and type in a product that you sell or the type of business you are in? Are you there? Probably not. In fact if you look at the number of pages in the top left-hand corner you're probably see hundreds of thousands maybe millions of web pages to choose from. How confusing is that for the customer?

Well things have changed. If you are a business owner you need to be on the front page of Google. Here is an example. Let's go to the Google external keyword tool and do an experiment. This tool is VERY helpful. You can access it by going to Google Search and typing in Google Keyword External. This is the tool that you can use to find out how many people type in a certain keyword or keyword phrase. For this example I am going to use the small city of Peterborough, Ontario. The population there is about 75,000 in the winter to about 100,000 or so in the summer (by comparison, the population of Toronto is around 3 million).

I am going to determine how many people in this area are using their computers to find a local pizza restaurant, so I will enter a search for: "Pizza in Peterborough" You could also put the city first and then the product afterward. For example "Peterborough Pizza". It doesn't really matter because Google will figure it out. The Google keyword tool will provide results based on the last month. According to Google, last month 5,400 searched for "pizza peterborough" on Google. That is almost 180 people a day, and this is a small city! Pretty wild eh?

Are you starting to see the potential here?

Try it out yourself. Go to the Google keyword tool and type in a product or business and add the city name to it. You can also do it for cities that are around your location. And the best part is you could walk into your local pizza restaurant armed with all this information and show them proof that there's local people in the area searching for them. But of course they can't find them if they're not on the first page of Google. Actually get on their computer and show it to them in real time.

Here is a script of what I like to say when approaching businesses:

"Hello Mr. Business Owner. As you probably already know, less and less people are using the phone book to find local businesses. They are turning to the internet to find a local business. People looking for a pizza restaurant are now turning to the Internet to find a local pizza place. If I can have 10 minutes of your time I can show you how Google is actually keeping track of what people search for? I have access to this information and can show you how to do it to. Let me give you an example.

According to Google, just last month 5,400 people used their computers to find a local pizza restaurant in Peterborough, Ontario by typing in "pizza peterborough". That is almost 180 people a day! I wanted to bring this up to you because I noticed that your website is not currently ranking on the first page for this important keyword phrase. You are missing out on all this potential business. Mr. Business Owner, it is like these people are knocking on your door and you aren't there to answer!" Do you have 10 minutes tomorrow at 9AM?"

I have found this approach to be VERY effective. This is a very effective approach to want to get in front of business owners and show them exactly what I've been showing you. Then you can offer them SEO services but better explain it to them in the way of getting more customers in their door or money in their pocket. Most businesses don't know what SEO means.