OctoHub helps businesses understand Google and get more customers so, it was only right that their first webinar held on Tuesday, July 13th at 10:30 PT was titled: Understanding Google and Getting More Customers.
Three members of the OctoHub team were presenting including Chief Revenue Officer Jeanne Cummings, CEO Scott Sanderson, and the head of customer support Christina Ryan.
Jeanne started the webinar with a blunt statement that sets the tone for the entire presentation and discussion:
- You need more customers
- You need more customers from Google
- You need to know how Google decides to give you more customers
They then walked through the agenda:
- Importance of Google and how it ranks your business
- Successful Ads
- Machines vs. People
- Summarize
1. Importance of Google
This section of the webinar was about the difference between browsers and buyers. Browsers are people/customers you reach on Facebook and other awareness-focused sites; buyers are customers actively looking for a product on searching platforms like Google. This is described in a previous OctoHub blog written by the incredibly handsome intern that is totally not writing this one as well (see full article here). OctoHub wanted to start with the importance of Google because it’s the place to be as a small business (based on the fact that people who are actively searching will convert higher), but it’s complex which is what they touch on next.
The best real estate goes to the ads at both the top of the search page and at the top of the maps section. Next is the local stack which is a Google directory called Google My Business listings, then sometimes Google products like answers and finally Organic web pages from websites. If you are not on the first page you are essentially invisible, so what can you do about it? –> This was a direct quote from the webinar (and it sounds a little overwhelming to me.)
Let’s simplify it: essentially Google ranks your business in two ways:
- Paid ads
- Organic
The way you increase your organic ranking comes down to the accuracy of information across all sites, reviews, updates, the format of data on the websites etc. This can be a lot to manage especially since Google might start prioritizing something different every few months. (For example: because of Covid Google started looking at reviews in a bigger way so they could prove you were a real business that was open during this strange time.)
Long story short: Google is complicated but extremely important and OctoHub is painfully aware of this fact.
2. Successful ads
Google ads are complicated and important, sound familiar? At this point in the webinar, the team describes the challenges of picking keywords, finding word combinations, “bidding” and not burning through a budget. If done properly Google ads are extremely valuable. They then mention that by using a long-tail keywords strategy Google Ads can become cheaper and more effective. But let me emphasize this again: it’s hard to figure it out on your own… that’s why we have webinars, write blogs and made this software so that we can help make it simple.
The second section is what’s called the “local stack”. This comes, not from the data about your business found on your website, rather from an entirely separate place called your “Google My Business listing”. GMB is Google’s directory of local businesses and once again you will see the top spots reserved for advertisers called Local Ads.
3. Machines vs People
At this point of the Webinar, I thought we were going to go over the Terminator movies and how to survive the very real possibility of Skynet, but we got something even better.
Dealing with Google as a small business there are only a few options:
- Hire an agency
- Figure it out yourself
- Don’t do it at all
- Software
Agencies are expensive (especially if you’re a small business), if you’ve been reading this blog at all you know it’s complicated and important, but software offers a unique opportunity. OctoHub is a big advocate for its software solution because it can save time and money, which we know are both extremely vital to you and your business.
Let’s summarize this article (in all honesty this was supposed to be a summary of the webinar, but a summary of a summary never hurt anybody)
- If you’re not on page 1, you’re invisible
- Google is: important, complicated and everchanging
- You can be found by paid ads and organic search (which are important, complicated and everchanging)
- It’s a lot of work and software (specifically OctoHub, *quick plug*) presents a solution to make it manageable
- And not once were The Terminator movies mentioned but there is always next time
Sign up for your free digital presence audit report today (a fancy way of saying: see if your business is able to be found online in every relevant area) at www.getoctohub.com
Thanks for reading and stay tuned to more webinars in the future!
Author: Jack Lavorato
Jack is a summer intern at OctoHub, starting at the Ivey Business School at Western University in the fall. In his free time, Jack enjoys playing Golf, Basketball and writing a blog of his own where his comedy really shines. Jack also feels weird about writing in the third person and pretending someone else is writing this “about the author”. He hopes people think the “comedy really shines” line was written by a third party.
