What good is a website if you do not have viewers? We offer many e-marketing solutions and each client has a different set of needs. Knowing this we typically start any e-marketing program with a competitive analysis which clues us in on what your competitors are doing to market themselves online, and tells us potentially how many people could be searching for your products or services online.

The following screenshot is an example of a Google search results page. Google a service or product you offer, and see if your website shows up! This is where approx 80% of your potential traffic will come from, and if you are not visible here, you are missing the boat.

1) Type in a search term which describes a service or product you offer. In our case, we used “search engine optimization rochester” since we are discussing this very service, and we are in the Rochester, NY area.

2) Take a look at the amount of results that appear for the search term. In this case there are over 4 million other sites that use this term, so we know there is quite a bit of competition.

3) Make sure to tick the “Hide Personal Results” button. Google remembers what you have searched for in the past, and if you have gone to your site through Google before, it will place it in the results for you – however, this is not the result the rest of the world sees when searching for you.

4) The results in these areas are PPC (Pay Per Click) results from Ad-Words campaigns. These campaigns can be costly, and the click rate is typically not as good as an “Organic” listing.

5) This is the top of the “Organic” listings section. The sites listed here are in Google’s opinion “most relevant” to the search being performed. Notice our site shows up #1 for the very service we are discussing here ;-)