Why Is My Business Not Showing Up on Google?

If you’re like many business owners looking to find more clients, you may have asked yourself “why is my business not showing up on Google?” You know there are customers searching for the products and services your company provides. You know they’re using search engines like Google, Bing, and Duck Duck Go to find these resources on their laptops and mobile devices. You may not know the ins and outs of how these search engines connect your business with potential customers.

What is SEO Search Engine Optimization?

All types of businesses can benefit from Search Engine Optimization (SEO).  Entrepreneurs launching new businesses can let people know what products and services they provide. They can get the word out.  Businesses trying to grow may benefit from expanding beyond their current customer base to acquire additional prospects in new markets.

Search engines do their best to provide answers to the questions people ask. They help deliver solutions to problems and link people to companies that can help provide the information, products, and services they’re looking for.  Search engine technology presents a huge opportunity to get a business in front of the right people, it just needs to be optimized to do so.

How Do I List My Business on Google?

For businesses that don’t have a website, that’s the first step.  A website will allow people to find information about your company online. It will also enable the search engines to find information about your company online.  Search engines continually “crawl” the internet looking for information.  When they find it, they organize it into a giant database that indexes your information so it can be recommended to someone that performs a related search.

Just having a website online doesn’t mean it will show up on the search engines.  There’s a lot more to it.  All the text, graphics, and photos you include on your web pages help the search engine know how to correctly index and categorize your information in their databases.   They also reference information contained in page titles, headings, tags, and other data found within the construction of your web pages for indexing, so having all of this optimized is imperative to getting included in the online search query results.

Match Up with Actual Searches

It’s important to note that your website content must align with the actual search queries people enter online.  For example, if you’re strongly indexed in the search engine for “brisket catering” but no one ever searches for that term because everyone types “Texas BBQ caterers”, you’ll never show up.  You need to do some research on what people search for and generate information that aligns with the actual search terms people use.

Search term (or keyword) research can also reveal the volume of searches, how much competition you can expect for a search term, and other data that can help inform your choice of what content to create. 

SEO Continues Far Beyond Website Content

There are a multitude of other factors used by the search engines to rank your site including:

• How fast do your web pages load?
• How many words are included on your web pages?
• Do your pages include internal and external links?
• Is your site optimized for mobile devices?
• Is your site optimized for accessibility?
• What other websites link to your site?
• How long do online visitors remain on your site and how many pages do they visit?

Search Optimization Companies

As you can see, Search Engine Optimization is a very powerful marketing technique.  When used correctly, SEO can help your business succeed.  It’s complicated and takes time and an ongoing commitment to get it right. 

SwanRosney Marketing helps companies of all types with Search Engine Optimization.  We are certified in Digital Marketing and Search Marketing from the American Marketing Association and Digital Marketing Institute.

If you find yourself asking “Why is my business not showing up on Google?” or “How Do I List My Business on Google?”, give us a call at 832-945-0500.

For more tips on how to successfully market your business, see our News Blog.

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Many people don’t fully understand the importance of planning ahead. They progress through a series of steps in a sequential manner and when all the steps are done, the project is done. Often, they realize at some point along the way that there isn’t enough time to get it done. Then they either miss the original deadline, throw money at the problem, or cut corners and compromise quality to deliver on time.

Some deadlines like the start of the tradeshow or the date when a publisher prints and mails a trade magazine are beyond our control. These deadlines cannot be extended. So, our only choices are to cut corners or throw money at the problem. The first corners cut are typically those that assure the highest quality work, like additional proofreading and fact-checking. Throwing money at the problem can involve getting additional resources involved and paying exorbitant rush charges for shipping, printing, and so on.

Careful and responsible project management can help marketers achieve a high-quality result while meeting deadlines and budget requirements. A simple system of timing requirements, communicated to everyone involved, makes a world of difference. Having a good grasp on this gives project managers control over the process and a high confidence level in the results.

The first step in managing a project responsibly is to list all the steps involved. Think the project through from the end result. If the end result is 25,000 printed brochures in the literature fulfillment center ready to be shipped, then start with that and work backwards. The brochures need to be shipped from the printer to the fulfillment center. Before that they are printed. Before that, they are approved to print after being reviewed by those with the authority to approve the final. These final steps happen after stakeholders review the second draft, first draft, etc. And ultimately it all starts with someone kicking off the project in some form: calling the agency in for a meeting, preparing a strategy brief, or having some other type of initiation activity. You can get as granular or broad as you’re comfortable with and add as much detail as needed to manage the project and the project team towards a high-quality result.

Try to keep the time frame of reference consistent through the steps. That is, if you have an end date for “review first draft” that naturally includes providing comments on that draft. You don’t need to list a step for “provide comments.” If you think this level of instruction will be helpful to your team, combine that step into “Review first draft and provide comments.”

Once you have all the steps lined up, apply your best guess to how long each takes. Later, you’ll be able to adjust for actual practice as you track and analyze the results from individual projects. Build in a reasonable amount of time for each step, keeping in mind that people are unavailable sometimes and everyone is always busy. Once you have all the steps and the time it takes for each, add it up and you have the time it will take to complete that project, or that type of project.

If you typically rely on your experience in managing projects to estimate project timing requirements, you might find your estimates or rules of thumb need to be adjusted to allow more time. You might discover through this process that you need more time to do a good job.

Also, keep it as simple as possible. Have a few “generic templates” that all follow some standard project workflow or sequence. Then apply the templates to a wide variety of projects as needed. This helps when communicating the system to your stakeholders. If you can simplify it to just one or a few generic workflow tools and use them each time, it would be even better. Add or remove steps if you find the planning documents to be too complicated or too simple for your project team.

How does this system help in practicing marketing and marketing communications on a daily basis?

Many project stakeholders don’t believe the time involved in completing a marketing project the right way. Why should they? They don’t live it day to day. They have other things on their minds. They may think the timing requirements are overestimated and that extra time is built-in to make the project manager’s jobs easier. They push or ignore timelines and deadlines and don’t take them seriously.

In this case it helps to explain each step involved, what’s going to be done, and when. If your timeline for the development of a new ad is going to take 10 weeks, and you now only have 7 weeks, you can go through the individual steps with your team and adjust.  For example, you may need a faster turn-around of draft reviews, or you might need to reduce the number of reviewers.

Keep production windows and required start dates in front of everyone and top-of-mind. Make sure they know the timing requirements for each type of project. Remind them frequently in a way that keeps everyone thinking far enough out into the future. For example, if you know a new product introduction is on the horizon, but a launch date has not been identified, make sure they know how long it will take to prepare. If it’s June, and you require two months to prepare for a launch, make sure they don’t expect a July product launch.

The written agreement also gives you a tool to manage stakeholders. When your team is considering a new project and they want you to identify the date you can have it done, you have a useful tool to quickly give them an answer that you can back up.

Use the system to track projects. List the timing and dates and then monitor progress. Mark down the planned dates and the dates it actually happened. You can use it later to evaluate the project. (You might need to explain why the original deadline was missed). You can also evaluate a number of projects and adjust your system accordingly once you have some data. If you have the tracking dates from a number of projects, and they all show that it took consistently 10 business days to review the first draft, you’ll have more credibility when you build 10 business days for first draft review into the schedule.

The name of the game is having a clear grasp on exactly what it takes, and how long it takes, to complete a project. Then, you can better manage your team towards a good quality result.

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As discussed in Part 1 of this series, original content relevant to your business, products, and service offerings helps to drive online traffic for your business and generate valuable leads.  Connecting with someone that’s potentially going to do business with your company based on their search engine queries and other online behavior starts a meaningful conversation. You have what they’re looking for and just need to discuss their needs further and see if there’s a match.

As we implement content strategies to connect with potential customers online, we also have to consider the changing landscape of the digital marketing world.  There used to be two primary ways to capture online traffic.  One was by publishing quality online content that the search engine algorithms ranked as valuable. This is called organic search or search engine optimization and would affect the presentation of search engine results presented when someone performed an online search. 

The other way was to direct online traffic to your offerings by paying for advertising. Paid advertising would be presented in front of organic search results when searches commenced.  This is called pay-per-click advertising.

Quality Online Content is More Important Than Ever

The lines between these two digital marketing mechanisms is blurring as more intent, or integrity really, is being built into the way the paid advertising systems function.  The PPC algorithms now prioritize ads based on the alignment with user intent.  The search engines now evaluate and rank your content against available alternatives, prioritize your appearance based on this analysis, and even adjust how much you pay for your ads based on their opinion of your alignment with the ultimate intent of the online audience doing the searching.

They consider how well the content you have online aligns with your ad copy and keywords and how users interact with your online content. They measure how long visitors spend on your site, do they bounce off your site quickly and at a high rate, how many pages do they view, do they ultimately purchase from you or fill out your web forms, etc.  It really comes down to whether they believe you have actual, valuable information that will meet the intent of the online audience.

How To Start Creating Quality Marketing Content

If your company has existing customers, case studies are great way to develop content. Make sure to describe how your products and services are being used by your customers and especially any unique and interesting applications.  It’s not necessary to use your actual customer names either.  Write the case study in a descriptive way that tells the story without using any names.  The names don’t typically help your content marketing results anyway. 

Another approach is to provide an in-depth look into the technology behind your products and services. A detailed description of how the technology behind your products and services works is a great way to weave in your targeted keywords.  For example, a dry cleaner can describe how the chemicals involved in their process are created, used, or transported. Or they can publish a description about how their particular operational processes protect the environment.

A behind-the scenes peek inside your company operations is another approach to generating content. Show some photos of your unique manufacturing process or other core competency. For example, a equipment rental company can describe the maintenance procedures or training programs that keep their equipment performing at an advantageous level at all times for the customer.

Content Marketing Planning & Execution

If you find you need help creating and implementing a content marketing strategy for your business, SwanRosney Marketing has the experience and skills that will get you excellent results.  We can create a comprehensive content marketing plan with detailed schedules and the marketing assets as well.  We can also assist with any individual aspect of your content market program as needed.  The first step is to Contact Us and let us know a little bit about your business.

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With so much marketing activities centered around online delivery of information, marketers have been using the term “content in marketing” for a while now.  And naturally, many people are asking “what is content marketing?” “how does this apply to my business?” and “what results can I expect from improved content in marketing?”

What Is Content In Marketing?

Simply put, Content Marketing identifies the key information that’s required to move a prospect through the journey of becoming a customer.  It starts with a clear definition of the intended customer (frequently called a Buyer Persona or Avatar). Then an analysis of the information that moves the customer along the sales process and an application of some content marketing secrets forms a plan of action.

Buyer Persona Examples

To get a good foundation for a Content Marketing plan, the Buyer Persona should include as much relevant information about your intended customer as possible. Market segmentation can help you gain some clarity and focus. (See our Blog Post for more about Market Segmentation.) Including details such as demographic, behavioral, and psychographic information about a buyer helps fine-tune your market intelligence. 

For example, it may help a company that provides pool cleaning services to know who typically buys these types of services- average age, gender, marital status, average income, etc.

Another example would be a contract engineering company that needs to know who typically purchases engineering services- job title, company size, location, and prior purchasing behavior. Do they buy services through a bid/proposal process and how does that work?

Marketing Insights That Feed A Content Marketing Plan

Many resources are available to help identify the information that’s important to your customers. You can look at the social media and websites your customers use and analysis tools like Sparktoro help point you in the right direction. Then you can review those sites for content patterns and trends. Professional associations can provide similar insight into popular topics.

If you’re in the position to analyze prior customer behavior, you can chart out what it took to get them from awareness to conversion. That is, what information was provided in what order to close a sale?

A close look at your competitors may reveal content that customers value that you’re not providing.  What content works well for your competitors? Review their social media pages, website, and even email if you can get on their lists. Take note of any new social media platforms they’re using online. Setting up Google Alerts for your competitors is another good way to get timely information.

Finally, keyword research can validate that the topics you’ve identified are actually interesting and being searched for online. Keyword research won’t tell you who is searching for the information, only how popular the topic is, or isn’t.

Content Marketing Ideas

Mapping the information required to move a customer along the Buyer Journey will show which content is needed and in what order. Creative digital marketing content ideas then expand this thinking to define how and where you’re going to present it. Can you move leads thru the funnel with an email drip campaign? Do you have a sales team that might need case studies to help them close a sale? Can you use social media ads to drive brand awareness?

The sales funnel is a helpful model for thinking critically and capturing the insights in document form.

Once you’ve mapped content to the sales funnel, you can prioritize the development of new content based on any gaps.  The additional content required can go on a plan that outlines what’s needed and in what order it will be created. 

Content Marketing Secrets

The best formats to drive Awareness are advertising channels that reach potential customers that do not yet know about your company. Customers in the interest and consideration stages can be informed with additional information on your website, social media pages, and lead nurture programs.

Many businesses provide a Conversion mechanism right on their website or social media page.  Other companies may make sales by inbound phone calls or even at cash registers in a physical location. 

Finally, some of the most cost-effective marketing activities are aimed at customers who have already purchased. After all, it’s far more effective to sell to prior customers than find new customers.  A steady email marketing program is a great way to stay top-of-mind with prior customers and get referrals from their networks.

Content Marketing Agencies

You can certainly go it alone or you can certainly hire an agency to create and implement a content marketing plan for you.  If you decide you need some help creating and implementing a content marketing strategy for your business, SwanRosney Marketing has the experience and skills that will get you excellent results.  We can create an entire content marketing plan and all the marketing assets required, or we can jump in and assist with any aspect of your content market program.  The first step is to Contact Us and let us know how we can help.

Part 2 of our series on Content In Marketing will cover creative ways to develop content to use in your content marketing program.

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Websites built with Adobe Dreamweaver utilize HTML pages to present information online.

WordPress and Content Management Systems

WordPress websites combine overall design themes and an underlying Content Management System to build websites that are easier to update have greater compatibility with online search engines.

Being online today also requires compatibility with the mobile devices that are being used more and more to access online content. Websites built with WordPress have great compatibility with mobile devices.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Driving online traffic to a website can be accomplished in a number of ways. Publishing the company website address in all company correspondence such as business cards, stationery, marketing brochures, email messages, and direct mail is a good start.  Search Engine Optimization (SEO) involves generating and publishing content directed at persuading search engines to like your website and then ranking you highly when someone searches for keywords related to your business.

For Allways Home Care and Sep-Pro Systems, Inc., detailed keyword analyses was used to identify words that related to the business and also produced good search results.

These keywords were included in web page metadata and page content. Plus, new text and rich media (photos, video) supporting these keywords was created and added to the website on a frequent and consistent basis.

These SEO techniques and others, such as obtaining external links to your website from other sites like YouTube, produce good results, but it does take some time to see the results.

Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising

Online advertising like the following Google Ads, based on the same keyword strategies, can generate much faster results while waiting for the longer-term SEO results to take hold.

Banner Advertising

Online Banner Advertising can also be used to drive traffic to your website directly from other websites like industry publications, trade websites, and trade show websites.

Measuring Results

Google Analytics and Google Ad results are a couple of ways to track program success and inform program adjustments going forward.

If you’d like more information about using online strategies, like these, to drive website traffic and lead conversion for your business, Let’s Talk

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