Know What Your Customers Search For

Are You Found For Your Business Name?

Have you searched Google to see if you come up for your business name? If you do, then that's great! If you don't, then you should be able to easily fix this by submitting your site to a dozen online business directories.

But, unless you spend excessive amounts marketing your brand name like Telstra, just being found under your business name won't do too much. To really get new customers from Google you need to be found for searches other than your name. 

Identify What Your Customers Search For

With a little bit of thought and research, you can quickly uncover what customers search for:

• think of terms that you believe customers would use to find your products, services and type of business
• analyse your specific industry and what your top ranking competitor's target on their website (pay attention to titles and headings of your competitors' web pages)
• append regions, cities and suburbs for where your customers are located (especially if you are a local business)

For example, someone interested in a rainwater tank will likely search for "rainwater tanks". Someone interested in a car service, might search for "car service brisbane". 

Validate Your Search Terms

What you think your customers search for and what they actually search for might be two different things. It is important that you get ranked for terms customers actually search for. Afterall, what is the point of being ranked #1 for a search term if noone is going to find you by it?

You need to verify your list of search terms to ensure people do search for them. Thankfully, Google's Adwords Keyword Planner helps you to check the popularity of search terms, and even discover more that may have been missed.

You want search terms that will attract a lot of visitors. Keep in mind these terms will usually be more competitive and so harder to rank for. Do not focus on just one or two search terms. Adopt a broad approach and your website will benefit earlier.

¹ Google has an active reach to 85.96% of Australians according to Nielsen's Australian Online Landscape Review - July 2013.