Having a Search-First Mindset in Business
Now that everything is online, it will benefit you greatly to build a stronger digital presence for your business. But what strategy can you adopt to direct more people to your site? Should you focus on paid ads, have a presence on all the different platforms, or employ other strategies?
According to experts, it will do you well to consider a search-first mindset.
What is a Search First Mindset?
Did you know that more people nowadays use search engines – particularly Google – for just about any question they have? In fact, Google is the preferred search engine, holding almost 92% of the market share, with over 8.5 billion searches per day.
The search-first mindset pertains to the thought that people will search about the product first before making any decisions. Thus, as a business owner, you want to make sure that when potential customer uses Google, they will see your product or service right away. In other words, your website needs to be on the first page of Google results, preferably at the top of the search.
The Advantages of a Search-First Mindset
What are the benefits of switching to the search-first mindset? How can it help bring more customers to your website?
1. Search engines are the people’s go-to for their questions
If you want more customers to find your business, SEO is your friend. In fact, in a recent study, 89% of marketing leaders believe that organic search (not paid) drives more revenue down the line.
And it’s not surprising. As mentioned earlier, people use Google for just about anything, especially for products they want to buy. So, adopting the search-first mindset helps your website become more visible, and your products more available.
2. People are steering clear from paid advertising for privacy reasons
While experts don’t want business owners to abandon paid channels altogether, they also highlight the concerns over privacy.
People nowadays are less willing to provide any personal details, not just for fear of identity theft or breach of financial security, but also because of behavioral tracking. More online users are now wary of websites or apps that track their activities online—from the games, they play to the posts they like, to the communities they join, etc.
With these data, they can profile users and push ads that are specifically targeted toward them. This may seem creepy or intrusive to some people, so they are likely to refrain from sharing too much information online or provide inaccurate information.
With the search-first mindset, you won’t need to focus all your efforts on pushing paid ads to your target customers. You can beef up your pull strategy and concentrate on strengthening the unique selling proposition of your products or service that motivates consumers to use them.
3. Compared to paid campaigns, the results last
Another advantage of switching to the search-first mindset is that you are more likely to achieve longer-lasting results.
Paid advertisements are not only limited to the number of audiences they can steer towards your business. The ads also only run for a certain period.
In other words, you might have a burst of traffic on the days your ads are running, but they may stop the moment your campaign ends.
SEO, on the other hand, gives you typically more lasting results. If your website is optimized, you can rank and be more visible to the audience who can later become clients or customers. And the more people that visit your site, the more likely it is for search engines to recognize your site as a relevant, authoritative page.
Your Product or Service Matters
Above all else, remember that the quality of your product or service matters. When the product is good, even word of mouth will help catapult your business online. Of course, let’s not forget that the content of your website should also be well crafted and well presented.
It pays to be mindful and consider the search-first mindset when building your digital presence. This means building a presentable, user-friendly website, providing quality content, optimizing your pages, and employing strong SEO strategies. But utilizing paid channels like ads still matters, especially if you want to edge out your competitors more effectively and efficiently. In the end, it’s also about how well you balance your digital marketing strategies.