Insights
How customers actually search for a business like yours
Nobody types your company name until they already know you exist. Understanding the searches that happen before that is most of search marketing.
The three searches
Almost every customer arrives through one of three doors. The problem search, where they describe what's wrong, water heater leaking, slow website, need a wedding venue. The comparison search, where they've got candidates and want tiebreakers, reviews, photos, prices, distance. And the name search, where they heard about you somewhere and want the front door.
Each door rewards different work, and most businesses only tend one of them.
Winning the problem search
The problem search is won with pages that answer the problem. Not a services list, an answer. A page that explains what a failing water heater sounds like, what the fix costs, and when to call gets found by the person hearing that exact noise at 6am.
This is where most of the durable search value lives, because a good answer keeps working for years. It's also the door your competitors most often leave unattended.
Winning the comparison
By the comparison stage the searcher is on Google Maps, a review site, or a marketplace, and your website is only half the fight. Review count and recency, photos that look like a real business, accurate hours, and a listing that responds to questions decide this round.
If you sell products, the same logic applies inside the marketplaces. A product listing is a search result before it's a page. The photo, the first line of the title, and the reviews do the persuading before anyone clicks.
Not losing the name search
The name search should be unloseable, and it's embarrassing how often it isn't. Old addresses on stale listings, a competitor's ad sitting on your name, a site that loads slowly enough to send them back to the results page.
This door is cheap to defend. Claim the listings, keep them current, and make sure the site that answers is fast enough to feel like the business they heard good things about.