What are the different ways that Google Search Results show up?
It recently came to my awareness that one should never assume that everyone knows the answer to this. And there is an importance in this differentiation, so you understand better what you can expect when you hire someone to help you with SEO.
We partner with Tom, our amazing SEO specialist, and together have a fantastic SEO Internet Marketing Starter Kit. Within this we get our clients setup on Google Adwords, using Google’s free vouchers for Google Ads, keyword research and the setup of “Google My Business”.
When you search for something on Google, the result is a page of links and they can look different. You can see the difference by how they look:

There are 3 types of search results

1. “Paid” or “sponsored” – this is what we do with Google PPC/Google Ad Words. These say “Ad” right next to them.
2. “Natural” or “organic” These come up under the ads – and because they don’t say “Ad” some visitors might be more inclined to click on these because they know they were earned and not paid for.
3. Google My Business – those are the results that show up with a map, pictures and star ratings on them.

How quickly can you get to the top?

1. “Paid” or “sponsored” – we can get this setup and your site being found for your chosen phrases in the first couple of weeks. However, how long you stay up there depends on your budget – Google takes money each time someone clicks on your link. If you have a £100 budget for Google, and the clicks for your phrase cost £1 a click, you will stay on the top of page one until you get 100 clicks. If the phrase costs £10 a click, you will lose your spot sooner.
2. “Natural” or “organic” – with the addition of new pages around your chosen phrases and amending the text on existing pages to be more relevant to your search phrases, it will take 15 days to 12 months to be on page one – but it DOES depend on how popular the keyword is, and who else is out there.
3. Google My Business – this can be setup and start showing up with location searches within 15 days to 12 months.

The more specific and niche you are, the less competition you have

So the cost for PayPerClick will be higher if you go for generic search phrases, like “Accountants in London” and less high if you go more specific like “Tax specialist accountant in Putney”
For Natural Listings (where you show up on page one of Google/other search engines, without paying), you have to have a website that’s SUPER optimised for the keywords you’re looking to be found for. If you want to be found for “Tax specialist accountant in Putney” then creating a page around that topic ONLY will mean that page is more likely to come up in the search results, and will also be more likely to match what people are looking for.

There might be stronger sites out there already

If a competitor has a website that is more established, with more popular sites linking to them, and with more relevant pages, they will be above you in the listings and to rise above them you need to do more changes on your site.

For example, Patriots Security Guards London, who works with our SEO partner, Tom compete with well-established websites who have been well ranked for over 5 years, making it very difficult to reach page 1 for competitive London wide keywords. This has meant the site has had to focus on their less competitive local area keywords to start sending them more visitors in the short term, via the Google my Business and organic listings.

So where to begin?

We recommend doing a cleanup on your site first to get it ready for real traffic, while at the same time setting up Google Adwords and setting you up with an adwords account. After 30 days or running this, we can let you know which of the phrases we tried had the best results, and you can see what volume of enquiries came from your first cautious campaign. Our SEO internet marketing starter kit is extremely effective and we’ve deliberately made it a cost suitable for startups. Be sure to get in touch to ask for our PDF about this service!