How To Start Getting New Business From Google By Tomorrow

Getting to the top of the free or natural listings (on the left hand side) of search engines takes time and know-how but there is a much quicker, simpler way to start getting new business from Google – advertise!

Here are 4 Good Reasons Why You Should Advertise with Google Adwords;

1. Your ad will appear at the very moment someone is looking for your solution to their problem using the most popular Search Engine of all
2. Your ads can be up and running in just a day
3. You can control how much you spend and pause the ads whenever you like
4. You can quickly learn which search phrases are the best for your business

There are a few things you need to know before you get started:

With search engine advertising (also referred to as paid search and cpc – cost per click advertising) you only pay when someone clicks on your ad.

The ads are at the top, to the right and now at the bottom of a page of listings.  The listings on the left are there naturally ie because Google has decided that those web pages are completely relevant to the searched for phrase, you don’t pay when someone clicks on one of these natural listings, you get there by search engine optimising your website for them.

You decide how much you want to bid for each keyphrase and this determines where on the page your ad appears.  If you’re the highest bidder you’ll appear at the top of the listings.  If your bid is too low it won’t appear on page one at all.  Depending on your market and the results of your keyphrase research you may want to start bidding £1/click and then adjust it depending on where your ad appears.

Your ads will appear at precisely the moment someone is looking for a solution to a problem you can solve.  They will be timely and relevant and with a strong, compelling offer and a website that converts those new visitors to buyers Google Adwords offers businesses a controllable and affordable way to find new clients.

Get the most from your campaign and spend your advertising budget wisely by following these 8 Budget Maximising Tips.

1.        Do your keyword research first.

Spend some quality time deciding which search terms or Most Wanted Keywords you would like your website to appear for.  Read my post How To Help Google Find You for more details on how to do this research.

2.        Add Google Analytics to your website

When your campaign is up and running, you’ll want to know where your new visitors went in your site and how long they stayed etc.  Google’s analytics programme will help you learn all about your visitors and how to improve your site and the campaign.

3.       Optimise your landing pages

You don’t want your ads to just click through to your generic home page.  You want them to go to a page that includes an offer or information that is specific to the keyphrase you are targeting.  So create some new pages that are very focused and which ideally also include a free report/voucher/offer/article which visitors must sign up for.  This way you not only get a new visitor but also an email address so that you can continue the conversation with them.  Creating specific landing pages also improves your ad ‘Quality Scores’ which can reduce your bid price.

4.        Limit your daily spend

When you’re starting out with Google adwords it’s wise to limit your daily spend to just a few pounds a day.  I generally begin with a maximum of £5 a day and then see how that goes depending on how much the clicks are costing.  This means you don’t risk spending too much money on keyphrases which may not generate any business for you.  Once you are convinced that you are seeing a good return on your investment then you can increase your daily budget.

5.        Only bid on exact keyphrases

To begin with only target exact keyphrases [they’ll be listed in square brackets if they’re exact] rather than broad matches.  This means that you’ll only pay if someone actually typed in that precise phrase rather than a phrase that included those words.  You can open it out later once you have a good idea of how your campaign is running.

6.        Limit your location

If your business is very local then only advertise in the areas you serve.  You don’t want to pay for an ad that’s been clicked on in Hull if you only offer Garden Maintenance in Surrey. You can limit your advertising spread by town or country, just bear in mind that the smaller the area, the fewer the number of clicks you’ll get.

7.        Make your ads very specific

If your product is a luxury item, make that clear in your ad, you don’t want to pay for a click from someone looking for a cheap or DIY product.  If you have a special offer on include it and it’s price in the ad.  Remember you’ll pay for this click even if someone immediately leaves so you want to cut out as many wasted clicks as possible.  Test two or three different ads at a time.  Delete the ones that don’t generate clicks and add new ones which improve on the ads that are working.

8.        Monitor your campaign closely.

Once you start your ad campaign running, keep a close eye on it.  If you find you’re not getting enough clicks you’ll need to tweak your ads.  If you’re getting lots of clicks but for less relevant phrases you’ll want to reduce your bid price or remove those phrases all together.  For the first week or two you’ll be checking your progress every day making sure you’re only paying for the clicks you want.  This is the beauty of online advertising.  You can pause the campaign, increase or reduce your daily budget and edit your ads whenever you want – you are in control.

With those tips in mind you can run a Google adwords campaign that will start bringing new visitors to your website quickly.  It will cost you in advertising budget (unless you have one of those handy Google vouchers) but the education you’ll also get will be enormous.

You’ll find out which ads and offers work best, you’ll discover if your site and promotions convert browsers into buyers or not.  Most importantly you’ll learn which keyphrases convert into new business and are worth your time and effort search engine optimising your website for.

So why not fast forward your marketing this week and get your site listed on Google?

Marketing Goal for the Week  

Follow Google’s easy instructions here www.google.co.uk/AdWords and my 8 tips and get your advertising campaign up and running this week.  Depending on your business, it’s likely to be much cheaper and more effective than advertising in any other medium.

Goal Complete!

Three New Year Resolutions

2012 is here and it’s time to decide which marketing activities you should be focusing on this year – a task that can often feel overwhelming!

Your website should form a major part of your marketing plan so to help narrow things down I have three New Year resolutions for you.  Focus on these and you’ll help your website to actively bring you new business opportunities over the next 12 months.  You’ll notice your site will attract more visitors and convert more of your browsers to buyers.

A good website has the potential to act as a full time sales person for your business and the best thing is it doesn’t take tea breaks or holidays!

But the only way you’ll help it reach its full potential is by investing some time and energy.  So here are three areas of your website for you to focus on during 2012.

Resolution 1

Commit to keeping your site updated with fresh, new content regularly.

If you don’t have an easy to use Content Management System consider investing in one this year.  The thought of editing your own site fills some with panic but a good CMS is not overly complicated to use.  In fact the e-Vis CMS is designed to allow you to  edit the text and images on a page in much the same way as you would a word document.

If you really can’t face the thought of doing it yourself then agree a fee or retainer with your web developer and ask them to make the updates for you whenever you send them a new article or offer.

Another option would be to start a blog using www.wordpress.com.  This isn’t as effective as having a blog integrated into your main website but for that design and development fees will apply.  If you fancy just getting started then follow wordpress.com’s simple instructions and you can build a blog which can be easily updated with new articles and tips.  Link to it from your main site and add a link from your blog to your main site too and you can make sure that they interact with and support each other.

Google loves sites which are regularly updated with fresh content and sends its spiders more frequently when it knows it will find something new each time.  Interesting updates keep your prospects and customers engaged too.

Resolution 2

Regularly build links to your site from other sites.

This means finding other related websites, directories, blogs and social media hubs and adding your website address to their pages.  Sometimes you’ll have to pay for the listing in a directory or add a reciprocal link to your own site in exchange for a link from theirs.

You can also get inbound links by writing helpful comments on other people’s blog posts, by speaking with clients, colleagues and friends about giving each other reciprocal links on your sites or by writing articles and posting them on social media bookmarking sites such as Digg and Squidoo and article directories.

Without lots of links to your site from others you will find it very difficult to get your site a free listing on the first page of a search engine’s results so include link building in your monthly marketing plan.

Resolution 3

Use your Most Wanted Keywords and phrases in your site.

Hopefully as a result of reading this blog you will have already done your keyword research using the Google Keyword Selection Tool so you know what your Most Wanted Keywords are 🙂

If not, please spend some time in January finding out exactly which words and phrases potential customers are using in search engines to find businesses like yours.

Without knowing your Most Wanted Keywords or phrases – ie those with the most searches and the least competition – it will be very hard to make sure your site is relevant enough for Google to give you a free listing on page 1.

A good quality website can represent a hefty investment for a small business so make sure that you put that investment to good use and make it work really hard for you next year.

With a little bit of consistent marketing we can make 2012 our most profitable year yet!  I look forward to helping you get the most out of your website and marketing budget.

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous 2012!

Best wishes, Anneve x

Anneve runs e-Vis Web Design Surrey a Marketing & Web Consultancy dedicated to helping small businesses promote themselves online.