Google change the ad process…again. Now the loser is organic search…everyone is trying to get more out of the paid ads that generate massive revenues for Google. The battlefield of search just keeps getting tougher and tougher for companies…unless you pay for it…and unless you are willing to accept low returns. There’s another answer…
What if your name (personal or company) was what people typed into the search bar…do you care how high you rank on the page? You shouldn’t…because Google will list you at the top when someone types in your name. This is 100% accurate and gives you the top billing on the page. So the goal should not be to try and trick the SEO geniuses at Google all the time, it should be to get people typing in your name all the time. If this happened, you wouldn’t need SEO or all kinds of magic to try and get to the top of the coveted Google search page…you would always be there.
What if you could get your network of friends, colleagues, and yes, customers, to do the talking for you and avoid this entire SEO search mess altogether? Why allow someone else to manipulate what they can see and how they can get to you…someone you don’t know or trust? Why put the control of your visibility in other people’s hands? You don’t have to if you approach it from a different angle…it’s still in your control!!
As with anything, the only time you lose control is when you allow someone else to be in control. When you rely on search, you are putting it in the hands of Google and an SEO expert to figure this out for you and hopefully get the results you want. Once in a while it works…but not without a great deal of time, effort, and of course, money. And the majority of time it leads to frustration and less than desired results. There is another answer…it’s called Brand Recognition and Word-of-Mouth.
It starts with you…control starts with you…it’s yours to manage…if you want. And contrary to all the blogs and articles, you do have a choice as to how you want people to find you. We have just been duped into thinking this is the best (and possibly only) way to go about it…it isn’t. You don’t have to give your control away to get the results you want. You just need to change the way you think about it.
Think about your customers. Who are they, what do they want? Do you even know? If you don’t, find out. And we’re not talking about the products and services they want to buy from you…we are talking about the EXPERIENCE they want to have when they interact with you. We are talking about how you make them “feel” when they interact and buy from you. This is ALWAYS IN YOUR CONTROL.
People search for products and services for one reason…they view them as a commodity. They are looking for a list of choices and then will decide which one(s) they will investigate. And when it comes to what they investigate, typically they are looking for the best price, delivery, terms, options, and anything else associated with the product or service. They typically don’t go to Google to shop for the best “experience” they can get. This isn’t what Google offers…they offer selection of features, functions, and possibly benefits…but rarely experience.
This is what your personal network is for…what your customers are looking for from their personal/professional networks. When someone wants to know how others “feel” when they interact with your organization, they don’t think search engines will give them this answer. They think their “trusted network” of friends and colleagues are the best resource. Why? Because they have experienced it and can speak from authority…they have experienced the experience.
This is what Google and all other search engines hate and don’t want. They don’t want you to go to your network and bypass their search engine…this doesn’t make the a dime…this means you won’t click on the ads they have posted everywhere that someone is paying for. This means they become irrelevant in this particular area. And, unfortunately for them, this is the one area most people are wanting to know more about…more and more every day. It’s easy to find the best deal on the internet…not so easy to find the best experience…unless you go to those who have had one and are trusted.
The job of your trusted network is to tell others how awesome you are (assuming you’re awesome) to deal with…the experience you give to your customers. This is what they share…this is what delivers trust…this is what delivers the best results for you and your organization. This is where your customers tell your future customers, “They are awesome to deal with and the experience is incredible…this is where you should buy.” When they say this to others, YOU ARE IN CONTROL! And you don’t need anything from Google (or any search engine) except to help them find your website. You don’t need ads, you don’t need rankings, you don’t need to spend lots of money on low results. You win…you are top of mind and you are now trusted.
And what makes this even more important is that people know people like themselves. So if you are targeting a specific persona and type of customer and giving them an awesome experience, they know other potential customers…just like them. So it’s like fishing for salmon…if you use salmon bait you have a much better chance of catching more salmon than a host of other fish you don’t want. Just buy lots of salmon bait and stick to fishing for salmon…delivering an incredibly awesome experience to the customer segment you “want” not the world. And they will tell other ideal customers about you. Stay the course and keep fishing for salmon…throw the rest back.
So the next time someone says we need to spend lots of resources and money on improving your search rankings, tell them you are going to spend these resources and funds on getting your most trusted network (customers) to tell more people about you and drive them to your site…with trust. Now you are in control of your results. Now you are in control of what matters…being found by the “right people” for the “right reasons.”
