Listing on Google search

[rich12]

What's more important from a business appearance POV, appearing right at the top in the 'ad' section or appearing top on the natural searches??

We're just trying to make sure we are getting as much traffic to the sight as possible.
Currently we're pretty much first or second for the latter but do not appear at all in the 'ad' section.

What's everyones opinions? Are you more likely to click on an ad right at the top of the page than one of the normal ones?

[Oceanic]

You are talking about brand search, what people might type in if they already know your company name or a close match of it.

I'd always recommend running a PPC campaign for this if you are a well-known brand (this can be local), otherwise, the traffic can be bought buy one of your competitors quite cheaply.

I'd also make sure your local SEO etc is all in touch.

[rich12]

Yeh sorry, not searching for the company name as such.
Just for an example,
The company does car hire.
So if you were to search (insert car make) hire or (insert car marque) hire... That's what I mean.

A company that caters for people all over the world but 95% of business is from the UK.

[M32Guy]

Personally I tend to go for the natural results. A lot of ads at the top aren't quite what your looking for

[jammy-git]

It used to be 30% would go through the ads, but that was a while ago and I imagine it's now larger with the changes Google have brought in.

[DSLiverpool]

Op before you look at getting more traffic do you know what your conversion rate is?
At the end of the day you want more business, my first sanity check would be to asses for every 100 people who land on the site then how many interact with you.

[anonymous-user]

DSLiverpool said:

Op before you look at getting more traffic do you know what your conversion rate is?
At the end of the day you want more business, my first sanity check would be to asses for every 100 people who land on the site then how many interact with you.

Also consider that may change depending on where in the search you appear.

For example, if you're the top ad, you might get first dibs at much of the traffic, including that with high purchase intent. If you're 4th, you might pick up a proportion of those who've already looked at the top two or three and bounced off. You end up paying for a click where the punter is of low quality/intent.

We generate about 200 enquiries a day in a £10 per click market, so we've a fair bit of data to work on and incentive to not waste budget.

If you are prominent on the ads, top on organic and not a known consumer brand, the ads in my experience (financial services) will get 96 odd % of the clicks first, meaning SEO for us is of limited value, other than longer term brand building.

[rich12]

In the last 7 days (as of yesterday) we have circa 1700 views from google and about 30 enquiries from that.

It's just that when we launched our new site at the beginning of July, you can see a massive drop in views compared to our old website.

[jammy-git]

I've seen this quite a few times with established websites. Organisations aren't aware of how their website visitors interact with their website, change to some modern looking all-singing fancy website and website and/or conversion rate drops through the floor.

Firstly, people don't like change; if you drift too far from your brand concept (whether you'd intentionally made one or not) then your customers won't identify with you.

Secondly, if you didn't know what made your old website work, then you won't know whether you're making it better or worse with the new website, even if it doesn't look better or more modern - why do you think websites like Google, Amazon, eBay and Facebook only change very slowly and incrementally?

[rich12]

I 100% agree with that.

Our old site was outdated and had very little content compared to the new one but it worked.

We've still got a lot to do to it to make it load faster etc but currently we're wanting to push the traffic on to the site which isn't happening at the moment.

[DSLiverpool]

I would get an audit on the site done (not by the original developer) ask Jammy nicely for a PH rate ;o) you will then know if anything is technically amiss and move on from that position. Without knowing what it is or being clued up I would say 30 / 1700 is a bit low.

[jammy-git]

I agree with the 1700 being a bit low, but then that depends if that 1700 is page views, user sessions or individual users?

[MrSparks]

We rank number 1 (and sometimes also 2 and 3) for some key search terms.

However we still run ads on those search terms and they are still profitable campaigns.

That says to me that a significant number of people WILL click the add. You not being there is just throwing away potential sales.

[rich12]

Jammy, just to be clear, is this what you do?
I've just looked at your profile and you have a website for TVR's.

[jammy-git]

I'm a web developer by trade, that TVR website is just an (old) hobby website. Happy to look at your website from a technical point of view.

I do know the basics of SEO and SEM, but in all honesty if you want someone to run campaigns or advise you on campaigns then there are far better people than I (DSLiverpool for one).

[mikebradford]

Can i hijack this thread for some advice

I have a website that currently doesn't rank on the first page of google.
This is based on a search term for my profession, and the small town i live in.

When i put "profession" "town" into google it list the appropriate results.

The person that lists at the top i know personally, and im aware that he doesn't pay for any form of advertising.
Google also shows a map, with 3 competitors shown on it.
If i click on this it enlarges and shows a variety of businesses, Including listing them on the left-hand side.
On this i am listed, but in 8th place.

Are there changes i can make to my website or google account? that would help me rank nearer the top.

Any advice would be appreciated.
I didn't want to list my website as i thought it may be against the rules.

[DSLiverpool]

mikebradford said:

Can i hijack this thread for some advice

I have a website that currently doesn't rank on the first page of google.
This is based on a search term for my profession, and the small town i live in.

When i put "profession" "town" into google it list the appropriate results.

The person that lists at the top i know personally, and im aware that he doesn't pay for any form of advertising.
Google also shows a map, with 3 competitors shown on it.
If i click on this it enlarges and shows a variety of businesses, Including listing them on the left-hand side.
On this i am listed, but in 8th place.

Are there changes i can make to my website or google account? that would help me rank nearer the top.

Any advice would be appreciated.
I didn't want to list my website as i thought it may be against the rules.

Have you set up Google Business ?

[mikebradford]

DSLiverpool said:

Have you set up Google Business ?

Yes.
My business shows on the map when you go fully into it. And I'm listed 8th on the left hand listing of similar businesses

[DSLiverpool]

Put more detail in your google business title - not too much but a keyword at least

[Evolved]

In out of interest. Will pick it up tomorrow.