You’ve seen why your local business  simply must have a website to stay competitive in today’s digital, online world.  And now you also know that simply putting up a website isn’t enough; your company’s website has got to show up very high in Google’s search results, or you’re just spinning your wheels and throwing money down the drain. So how do you get a website that’s going to rank high in Google?

Well, there are countless people you could contact in your town to build you a website.  You can even go on the INTERNET and find thousands more all over America who would gladly perform web design services for you.  Some will charge you several hundred dollars, at a minimum,  while many will want several thousand to create and put up your site.  But, and this is the important part, not one out of a hundred of them will know anything about building you a website that gets you into Google’s top rankings.

See, web designers, especially the ones who aren’t working for huge companies, have learned (or taught themselves) to make websites that look good.  And many of them are very good at it, and they can build you an awesome looking website with all the latest bells and whistles.  You’ll be impressed, and when you show it to your friends, they’ll be even more impressed.  No doubt about it, you’ll have one really, really cool website.

And you won’t get any customers because you won’t place high in Google’s search results.

And that’s all there is to it.  I’m simply telling you how it is.

Why?  Because Google doesn’t rank sites by how snazzy they are.  Google doesn’t care which site has the coolest rotating jpegs, the most innovative use of audio files, the most creative use of Flash software, or the prettiest pictures.  Or any of that stuff that “professional” web designers like to show off with and charge you big bucks for.  In fact, not only does that stuff not help your ranking in Google, much of it can have an extremely negative effect on your ranking.  It’s the last thing you want to do if you’re looking for customers for your local business on the INTERNET

So what does Google look for?  Websites that Google’s software judges to be highly relevant to the search term.  When people search for “Chicago antique store” Google wants to show them information they’ll find useful.  They’ll direct them to sites that Google’s software thinks are the best matches for “Chicago antique store”, not the ones with the cutest animated cartoons.

And there are ways of building a website that Google likes.  Likes a lot.  It’s called “optimizing”.  When we build your website, we optimize both the underlying code, and the contents of the website to rank high in Google’s search results.  Very high.  And guess what?  The higher up your website is in Google’s ranking, the easier it to stay there, because more people will be clicking on your site.  And that will tell Google’s “spiders” that your site is even more relevant.  When we build you a Top Ranked Website, you go right to the top, and you stay there.

And there’s even better news.  Most web designers are going to want several thousand dollars to build you a website.  But that’s not necessary at all.  For $795, you’ll get a really nice looking website that ranks high in Google and pulls in leads and customers  There’s no need to spend five grand or more on a website that blows people away with its design.  That’s not what a local business website is for, anyway..  It’s to get you more customers so you can make more money.

Contact us today, and in just a few short weeks you can have a nice looking website that’s top ranked by Google, and that is going to give you more visibility, more customers and brings you tons of leads and customers.

Visit www.bookyourselfsolid.co.uk to increase your visibility, get more customers and make more money.

No, it’s not quite that simple. (But it’s not hard, either – just keep reading.)  See, having a website isn’t going to help your business at all if it doesn’t show up extremely high in Google’s search results.  Anytime a person searches for something on Google, Google will return a page with the top ten websites they consider most relevant to the search term.  On the page will be a link to the next page of the second ten most relevant sites, and the third page, and the fourth, etc.

For most searches, Google will find hundreds, if not thousands of websites that have something to do with that term.  If you’re writing a research paper, or a master’s thesis, that’s great; you can keep digging through all of the links to find those hidden gems.

But guess what?  The average person who’s looking for a carpet cleaner in Kalamazoo, or a wedding photographer in Boise, isn’t going to dig through pages and pages of Google’s search results.  In fact, the vast majority of them aren’t even going to click through to page 2.  There have been many studies of this very thing, and they all show the same result – most people don’t even look at the search results past the first page.

Furthermore, when someone does a Google search for a local business, if your website isn’t on that first page of results, the odds are very high that they’re NOT going to click on your website to see what you have to offer.

Of course, this is nothing new – if you can find your Yellow Pages, look up companies under things like carpet cleaning, locksmith, plumber, etc., and see how many of them have names like ABC Plumbing, AAA Locksmith, AAAAAAA Carpet Cleaning.  Why would a company choose a horrible name like that?  Because the Yellow Pages list companies in alphabetical order, and it’s simply a fact that most people tend to call the companies who are listed at the top.   And that’s still how it is today – you need to be at the top of Google’s search results (but, thankfully, Google doesn’t care about alphabetical order) or you’re going to be ignored.

So, not only do you need a website, you MUST have a website that ranks high in Google if you’re going to dominate your competition.  Otherwise, you’re just wasting any money you spend on getting a website put up.  How do get your website ranked high in Google?  Read the final part of our three part series to find out or visit www.bookyourselfsolid.co.uk

Do you own a local business?  If you do, then your business absolutely must have a website if you’re hoping to remain competitive in your marketplace.  Many business owners don’t realize this.  They think, “sure, if you’re doing business online like Amazon or eBay then obviously you need a website.  But I’m not selling my products or services online, just locally, so I don’t have any need for a website.”  That sounds sensible at first glance, but they couldn’t be more wrong.

Because times have changed, and the way people get information has changed, too.  Radically.  Ten years ago, a local company could get by without a website.  Back then, the Internet was new, and not every family had a computer hooked up to the worldwide web.  And, for many of those people who were online, the Internet was sort of exotic – it was something of a hobby.  They would spend their online time in chat rooms talking to new friends all over the world, or looking for Beanie Babies on eBay, or downloading the latest cool game.

But somewhere along the way, three things happened –

1.High Speed Internet Access got cheaper, and replaced dial up for the majority of users.
2.Almost every home in America is now connected to the Internet.
3.Google became THE dominant search engine

What does a High Speed Internet connection have to do with anything?  A lot.  Ten years ago, most people had dial up connections over a standard phone line.  That meant that most of the time they weren’t hooked up to the Internet, and connecting usually took several minutes. And surfing was slow.

In other words, if they needed to look up the phone number of a local company, it was much easier and faster to just grab the Yellow Pages.  Besides, back then, few local companies had their own website.  But these days, in most homes, there are several computers hooked up to the Internet 24/7, with a high speed DSL connection.  Tens of millions of people in America spend several hours a day in front of their computer, using the Internet   Almost every home in America is now online, and the vast majority of them are using high speed Internet connections.  That’s the first two radical changes.

So what does Google have to do with anything?  Well, in a word, everything.  Ten years ago, there were lots of search engines – Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, Netscape, AOL, and scores of others.  And there still are dozens of search engines.  But hardly anyone uses them.

Google came along around 1999, and they just completely took over the search engine business, practically overnight, because they were so much better than the others.  Probably 85-90 percent of all searches these days are Google searches.  And Google lists everything, including local businesses.

Are you starting to see the big picture?  Ten years ago, most people still weren’t on the Internet, and now they are.  And today, instead of being an expensive, slow moving toy, the Internet has become an integral part of their lives.  Now, with a click of their mouse and a few keystrokes, they can find any information they need in about 5 seconds.   Why get up, hunt down the Yellow Pages, dig through its hundreds of pages until they find “muffler shop”, when they can just type in “their city muffler shop” and have all the information they need without leaving their chair?

Well, most people won’t leave their chair.  They’ll just go to Google.  Which means that the Yellow Pages are yesterday’s news, and if you don’t have a website for your business online, you are missing out on huge numbers of leads and customers.

Any local business that doesn’t have a website has got two choices – get a website, and get one soon, or plan to eventually go out of business. It’s just that simple.  What’s next?  Check out part two of our report or visit www.bookyourselfsolid.co.uk!