The new trusted sources for word-of-mouth marketing are Siri, Alexa and Google. Mobile searchers, myself included, regularly ask Siri for her ‘recommendations’ for services and products. Even though Siri never ate at In-And-Out Burger, she will gladly identify it when asked ‘Hey Siri, where’s the best burger place near me?’ Android users ask Google instead. Alexa’s in on the action too. They are all too willing to give you advice on where to eat, buy shoes or get your teeth cleaned. You don’t even have to search any more. The three of them will search for you.
We talk to our mobile devices more and more, and they’re talking back to us – with recommendations. But where does the information they are dispensing come from? You already know the answer – Google, mostly.
Google has facilitated a new dimension to the benefits of high search rank. That dimension is word-of-mouth marketing.
Why Should I Care About Google Search?
Business owners must include activities and actions designed to boost their website’s Google search rank as part of their overall marketing plan. Ignoring this facet of marketing is not unlike hanging a sign on your door that says ‘No New Customers Necessary’.
Sadly, the great majority of business owners do not have an actual marketing plan that includes SEO. To the average business owner, simply having a website ticks the Digital Marketing box on their checklist. Whether the site ranks well or not is chalked up to ‘chance’. The business owner mistakenly thinks that her competitors topping the SERPs are there because they are bigger and better than hers. The truth is that getting to that top spot or top page is the factor that contributed most substantially to their success, not the other way around
Numbers Don’t Lie
No one disputes that Google is intertwined into our lives, but inexplicalbly, business owners often will not spend their marketing dollars to harness the power of Google. Well, here are some statistics that should convince even the most stubborn. Keep in mind that these numbers are from 2019. Imagine what they might be currently!
- There were 62.19 billion visits to Google in 2019.
- Google’s market share of SEARCH is 92.18%.
- Google processes over 3.5 billion searches per day.
- 63% of Google’s US organic search traffic originated from mobile devices.
- 84% of people surveyed use Google over 3 times a day.
- 46% of product searches begin on Google.
- 90% of people surveyed said they would probably click within the first search results page.
- Organic search produced 23 percent of all site visits.
These statistics are almost inconceivable, and should convince every business owner of the importance of integrating SEO and other digital marketing into their budget.
Isn’t SEO Just Hacks and Tricks To Fool the Search Engines?
Like any industry, there are tricksters and hackers that try to game the system to their advantage, but for SEO . SEO experts often get a bad rap of being snake oil salesmen, but fortunately, Google’s AI (artificial intelligence) is getting better at weeding out unethical or even illegal SEO practices.
Today’s ethical SEO company is not trying to trick Google, but working to make their clients’ sites more informational, interactive, authoritative and responsive to their visitors. If a site is pleasing to the visitor, then chances are that Google will rank it higher in the search results.
Find out what’s holding your business back, and what we can do to fix it. Get started by clicking below.
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