Last week we considered search engine rankings—and why it’s so hard to get (and stay) on top. It seems that Web sites run by online lead brokers and national brands dominate the search engine results. You’d simply like to get your own Web site to rank highly for common terms like “replacement windows” and “vinyl siding”, the ones you know homeowners in your territory are searching for.
Those Web sites that do get the high ranks certainly look authoritative. But the frustrating part is that you know that their owners have probably never swung a hammer for a customer in their lives.
So why do Google and Yahoo reward these Web sites with such good rankings? For a number of reasons:
1. The Information is Good.
What do these Web sites have that yours doesn’t have? Content. And lots of it, rich in relevant product and subject-area detail. Most of these Web sites have dozens, or even hundreds, of Web pages. That content is deep, somewhat authoritative and tailored to appeal not only to homeowners…but specifically to Google’s search ranking algorithms. For instance, in the case of replacement windows, they cover all types and brands, features, etc.
In short, the search engines love text-heavy pages loaded with valuable content. These Web sites offer that in spades.
2. Homeowners Want Information, Not Necessarily a Dealer.
In many cases, consumers researching replacement windows on Google want general information on replacement windows. They’re not necessarily ready to take a phone call from dealers who want to make a pitch. Google knows this—having learned from its statistics that searchers often favor Web sites that offer information, rather than sales. Accordingly, Google moves these “information” Web sites up its rankings over Web sites of replacement window dealers who can sell them those products.
3. Home Improvement Lead Providers Are Professional Search Engine Marketers.
Just as you are a talented and dedicated home improvement professional, these online lead brokers are accomplished search engine professionals. They focus primarily on ensuring that their Web sites rank high on the search engines. Unlike you, these brokers need not be concerned with setting sales appointments, hiring installers, quoting projects or ordering from the factory…or keeping demanding homeowners satisfied.
They are concerned with one thing only: getting their Web sites to the top of the search page rankings. To do this, they often dedicate teams of people to the tasks of securing inbound links to their Web sites, adding new pages and new content and constantly tweaking their Web sites to even the smallest changes to Google’s search algorithm. They’re successful at SEO for home improvement terms because that’s all they do, and all they need to focus on.
4. Local Home Improvement Web Sites Serve Only a Small Percentage of Searchers.
Let’s presume you’re a home improvement company in SanFrancisco. A homeowner in Chicago enters the term “replacement windows” into Google. Is your Web site, through which you target a 50-mile radius of San Francisco, going to be relevant to that homeowner in the Windy City? Of course not!
A Chicagoan just isn’t going to have much interest in you and your Web site. And vice versa. In fact, Google knows this. Google monitors the click rates on local Web sites like yours, and know that they just don’t receive the traffic befitting of Web sites with high positions on their search pages.
Web sites targeting a national audience—as do those of the lead brokers—command those higher positions because they appeal to a much broader audience than local home improvement companies do.
So, do local home improvement companies still have an opportunity?
Absolutely. Home improvement recently got some good news from Google in the form of the Vince Update. What is the Vince Update? And who is Vince, anyway? Perhaps most important: what does it mean for home improvement companies like you?
Stay tuned for Part 3 of the series next week.
Homeowner Connections Through Performance Online Advertising
