The Power of Being the First Result
The purpose of search engines is to find and return content results that are personalized to the searcher, with the right type of content for that particular search (including images, maps, shopping results, news, and more). According to recent research, a full 78% of all global searches are conducted on Google (96% of all mobile searches), with other services such as Yahoo, Bing, and Baidu averaging only 5-10% market share apiece. Google handles over a TRILLION searches per year! More than half of all global search traffic is now from mobile devices, and search engine results may vary on a mobile device versus on a desktop for the same search (due to space constraints, location-based data, as well as differences in the search algorithm). Today’s consumer has become accustomed to searching online for everything- from driving directions, to school research, to trending news, to product information, to personalized advice queries like “Should I take out a loan?”. Google reports that as much as 75% of smartphone owners turn to search FIRST to address their immediate needs. There may be dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of possible results that could be returned for any given search.
The more popular the search terms, the stiffer the competition to be chosen for one of the coveted “organic” (unpaid) search engine result spots. Studies consistently show that the first page of search results gets at minimum 75% of the total estimated organic clicks, which means searchers are not likely to move beyond the 2nd page of results for any given search. It’s an ongoing competition for quality, recency, and relevance to be in the first ten (or less) results at the top of the search results page. Why should you care? Because people who are searching and broadcasting their intent to find information won’t buy from you if they can’t find your business!
In a cluttered website landscape, SEO efforts are vital to properly index your site and enable content to appear in Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs). Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is primarily about creating fresh and original content that addresses the problems, needs, and wants of your target audience. You may not make page one on every search term on your list, but SEO efforts will guarantee that those who find your site will have a good user experience and find quality content that is relevant to their initial search. To put this in our survival guide terms, the key idea is that you MUST set up trail markers and signal flares through SEO to draw some attention to your presence online. Without those, you’re just gambling that people will stumble across your site amidst a very crowded landscape. As a small business or startup, you need all the assistance you can get to make your site highly visible, valuable, and shareable!
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