What are the different ways that Google Search Results show up?
It recently came to my awareness that one should never assume that everyone knows the answer to this. And there is an importance in this differentiation, so you understand better what you can expect when you hire someone to help you with SEO.
We partner with Tom, our amazing SEO specialist, and together have a fantastic SEO Internet Marketing Starter Kit. Within this we get our clients setup on Google Adwords, if our clients choose the option for Google Ads, keyword research and the setup of “Google My Business”.
When you search for something on Google, the result is a page of links and they can look different. You can see the difference by how they look:
There are 3 types of search results
- “Paid” or “sponsored” – this is what we do with Google PPC/Google Ad Words. These say “Ad” right next to them.
- “Natural” or “organic” These come up under the ads – and because they don’t say “Ad” some visitors might be more inclined to click on these because they know they were earned and not paid for.
- Google My Business – those are the results that show up with a map, pictures and star ratings on them.
How quickly can you get to the top?
1. “Paid” or “sponsored” – we can get this setup and your site being found for your chosen phrases in the first couple of weeks. However, how long you stay up there depends on your budget. Google takes money each time someone clicks on your link. If you have a £100 budget for Google, and the clicks for your phrase cost £1 a click, you will stay on the top of page one until you get 100 clicks. If the phrase costs £10 a click, you will lose your spot sooner.
2. “Natural” or “organic” – the effort for this would mean addition of new pages around your chosen phrases, and amending the text on existing pages to be more relevant to your search phrases. It will take between 15 days to 12 months to be on page one. However, it DOES depend on how popular the keyword is, and who else is out there.
3. Google My Business – this can be setup and start showing up with location searches within 15 days to 12 months.
The more specific and niche you are, the less competition you have
So the cost for PayPerClick will be higher if you go for generic search phrases. For example, “Accountants in London” is more generic. The cost will be less if you go more specific terms like “Tax specialist accountant in Putney”.
For Natural Listings (where you show up on page one of Google/other search engines, without paying), you have to have a website that’s SUPER optimised for the keywords you’re looking to be found for.
If you want to be found for “Tax specialist accountant in Putney” then creating a page around that topic ONLY will mean that page is more likely to come up in the search results, and will also be more likely to match what people are looking for.
There might be stronger sites out there already
If a competitor has a website that is more established, with more popular sites linking to them, and with more relevant pages, they will be above you in the listings and to rise above them you need to do more changes on your site.
For example, Patriots Security Guards London, who works with our SEO partner, Tom compete with well-established websites who have been well ranked for over 5 years, making it very difficult to reach page 1 for competitive London wide keywords. This has meant the site has had to focus on their less competitive local area keywords to start sending them more visitors in the short term, via the Google my Business and organic listings.
So where to begin?
We recommend doing a cleanup on your site first to get it ready for real traffic. At the same time we would be setting up Google Adwords, aand an Adwords account.
After 30 days or running this, we can let you know which of the phrases we tried had the best results, and you can see what volume of enquiries came from your first cautious campaign.
Our SEO Starter Kit is extremely effective and we’ve deliberately made it a cost suitable for startups. Be sure to get in touch to ask for our PDF about this service!
Special offer
Our SEO partner, Tom, is offering you a 4-month Google Ads test special offer. The management of this would be from £350+VAT a month.
He will manage your ad spend. This is the amount that Google will charge you when users click on your ads. The more competitive your industry and keywords, the higher the cost per click (CPC) may be.
The goal is to maximise the impact of your ads within the allocated budget for what is on offer on your site.
During this period, Tom will be in charge of professional oversight, driving traffic and improving conversions.
Within this offer he will:
- Create, manage and optimise campaigns
- Measure success based on specific defined goals (e.g., average cost per click, conversions)
- Track metrics in the campaign report.
Just message us with the words “Google Ads Offer” in the subject and we’ll set it up!
