How to Generate More Sales Without Paying Google!

By Bassem Ghali

Bassem Ghali is a 2-time winner of the Canadian Entrepreneur of the Year award and a digital marketing strategist with over 20 years of experience working with companies such as Canadian Tire, Vistaprint, Remax Canada, Alpha Laps, Xplornet, and Toronto Star.

It surprises most small business owners to learn just how easy it really is to break away from the competition when it comes to ranking on Google.

You may assume that you’re all vying for the same keywords, and you’ll have to invest a lot of money in order to rank higher than the rest…but more often than not, you can greatly improve your rankings and fly past your competition with a few simple tactics.

You may be wondering – if these tips are so simple and cost effective, why doesn’t everybody do them?

Well… there are many misconceptions when it comes to what’s important in getting SEO results.

Misconception #1: Everyone is prioritizing search. The truth is that many small business owners are going after other tactics instead, like social media.

Misconception #2: Investing in search requires way too much money. Sure, you could spend substantial money across SEO and SEM, but you don’t have to. A little goes a long way, when you’re focusing on leveraging common sense and data to rank for smart keywords and optimize your pages.

Misconception #3: Search requires a huge time investment. Setting up an SEO strategy does take some time, but it’s something that can be easily outsourced to an agency partner, like Green Lotus. Once you have a strategy in place, it only takes a small amount of maintenance to maintain your traction. View Green Lotus SEO Services !

Want to Learn How to Dominate the First Page of Google?

So, really, how important is it to invest in search?

Search is truly one of the smartest and easiest ways to attract new customers. Why? Well 89% of prospective customers looking for a new product or service will turn to search for information. So, while social media and local listings are also great ways to promote your business, search is arguably one of the most effective.

The most important factors in driving search traffic:

Local Intent: Searches are more targeted and address customer intent better when they include location optimization.

First page rankings on Google: First page results include a combination of formats, divided into two key buckets – paid and unpaid (organic) results.

Paid results also known as SEM (search engine marketing): This is considered advertising and will appear at the very top of the page. This operates as a pay-per-click model, meaning that as an advertiser, you will only play for the click-throughs you receive. You won’t be charged for simply showing up in page results. In this form of advertising, you have the ability to create campaigns around keywords and determine a daily cap that you want to spend for each campaign. View Green Lotus PPC Management Services!

Organic results also known as SEO (search engine optimization): major search engines like Google and Bing deliver 6 types of universal search results:

Regular information links
Image results
Places
Maps
Videos
News
Shopping

By developing and optimizing content that supports all of these search result-types, you can improve your chances of ranking and potentially dominate the entire first page of results.

Additionally, using SEM and SEO tactics in tandem is a fantastic way to cover your bases and appear incredibly relevant to the prospective consumer because you’re showing up in a variety of results.

SEO versus SEM: How do you boost your traffic right away?

Typically, a long-term SEO strategy is executed over several months. You won’t begin to see real traction until at least the 3-6 month mark, but you’ll be sowing the seeds for future results that don’t need to be watered daily.

In contrast, paid search guarantees you’ll be seeing traffic right away, but only as long as you continue to invest. The moment you stop paying to be seen, you’ll lose your visibility, if you haven’t also been investing in SEO.

There are many misconceptions about investing in SEM with Google, but here’s the truth – paid search does not impact your organic search results on Google.

If you’re trying to save money, like many small business owners are, remember this tip:

Invest in paid search during the high season when there is an influx of sales to be had. Don’t spend money flatly across the entire year, or you’ll just be throwing it away.

Social media and your ranking: another misconception!

Let’s talk about social media as a tactic. Is it incredibly valuable to you for viability and relevance as a small or medium business owner, YES!

Do more social posts impact your search ranking? NO!

In fact, Matt Cutts, former Chief Engineer of the Google Algorithm has confirmed that while Google treats Facebook and Twitter posts like any other web page in the search results listing, social media does not contribute to your organic ranking.

Sure, social media plays a huge role in attracting a new client base and nurturing leads on your pages with engaging content and prompts to download whitepapers and eBooks. But as a sales channel, improving your search ranking by investing in SEO and targeted SEM campaigns goes a lot further!

Want to Learn How to Dominate the First Page of Google?

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