In a competitive market for business it is not uncommon for your competition to be trying to steal your customers or undercut your pricing and make their way into your space. The current business battle isn’t just fought on the streets, it’s being fought directly on the first pages of Google.
Every day thousands of your potential customers type in specific queries or services into the search bar. If your business is in the top positions while your competitors sit on the third or second page it creates a digital barrier in the market you are in. This is a straightforward and detailed explanation of how higher search rankings prevent the competition from winning your customers.
The design of the Google search results page will determine the amount of visitors the business will be able to attract. A lot of people believe that getting on the first page suffices to make it through. However, the drop-off in clicks between position one to position ten is huge.
According to data from global search engines, the first organic rank is able to capture more than 30 percent of all clicks. At the point that a person scrolls to the tenth spot towards the end of the page the number of clicks drops to a mere 2 percent. If your website is on the top of the list and you’re getting the bulk of your audience before they even have the chance to read the name of your competition. By capturing those leads early it strips your competition of leads they require to thrive and grow.
If consumers are searching for a service on the internet and are looking for a service, they use Google as a trusted adviser. In the event that a particular search engine ranks your business at the highest of the results, they automatically see your business as a market top-performing, most trustworthy option, and the most reputable choice in your area.
However when a competitor has relied on paying for Google Ads that display a prominent “Sponsored” tag to sit right next to you, customers may be skeptical. They realize that the competitor has paid for their presence and your company was able to earn the top spot by demonstrating real authority. This huge psychological advantage means that even if your competitor reduces their prices or has loud marketing campaigns, people will still prefer your company because of your reputation. Your appearance is more secure and professional.
The ideal time to present your services to a potential customer is when they recognize there is a problem and are ready to pay for a solution to it. This time frame is referred to as high buyer intention.
If your site is ranked high for certain transactional keywords, such as “emergency plumber near me” or “best digital marketing service”–you are right in the middle of the journey of a buyer. Your rival could be spending millions on billboards that are massive and television ads or even Instagram ads, all in an effort to increase brand recognition. But, if you have control over the results of a search when a user is using their credit card, and is searching for a solution immediately you can stop the customer in the right moment and render your competitors’ expensive advertising campaigns useless.
If you are the leader in organic results for your business’s most important keywords, you cause an immense financial challenge for your competitors. Since they are unable to beat you with natural SEO techniques, their sole chance for staying noticeable is to purchase their ways to be at the top of the list using the paid Google Ads PPC (Pay-Per-Click) methods.
Paid advertisements stop delivering results the moment a company stops paying for them, including any social media ad spent. However, organic SEO is an asset that continues to grow in value over time. The longer your website holds top positions in search results, the harder it becomes for competitors to outrank you and take your place.
Since your pages rank at number one and two, they continue to receive more user clicks, longer reading time, and valuable backlinks from other websites. Google recognizes this consistent positive behaviour and pushes your site even higher in the rankings. With support from a Social media marketing agency, this results in a digital monopoly where your brand becomes strongly associated with the service. Any new competitor entering the market must invest years of effort and significant budgets to compete with the strong digital foundation you have built.
The higher rankings for search engines are not only related to vanity measures or traffic statistics; they’re an aggressive defense shield for your company. When you secure the top positions on Google you will be able to capture the largest portion of traffic that is ready to buy, create an unprecedented level of public trust to your customers, stop them in the middle of their buying process, and pressure your competitors into costly, unsustainable advertising. Make a significant investment in your SEO strategy now, take advantage of the high ground of your business, and protect your customer base prior to your competitors having the chance to take their customers away.