Are You Sending Customers to Your Competitors?

Your immediate reaction to that question is probably:

"Absolutely not. Why would I do that?"

Of course you're not doing it deliberately.

But there's an area of marketing where businesses unintentionally send potential customers straight to their competitors every day.

Google.

Think about what makes someone search Google for a product or service.

They're looking for something.

Perhaps they're researching.

Perhaps they're comparing companies.

Or perhaps they're ready to buy.

Either way, they've done something marketers spend a great deal of money trying to make happen:

They're Looking for You

That's what makes search so interesting.

Most advertising works the other way around.

• You buy an advertisement.
• Send direct mail.
• Post on Facebook.
• Run a promotion.

You're trying to find people who might be interested in what you sell.

Imagine someone sitting a few miles from your business right now and typing the exact product or service you offer into Google.

That's a pretty good prospect.

So here's the question:

Do they find you?

Search for Your Own Business

Try something simple.

Don't search for your company name.

Of course someone who already knows your name may be able to find you.

Instead, search the way a potential customer might.

• If you're a plumber, search for the service.
• If you're a restaurant, search for the type of food or dining experience.
• If you're an accountant, search for the problem a prospective client needs solved.

Now look at the results.

Where are you?

And perhaps more importantly:

Who appears instead?

Your Competitor Doesn't Necessarily Have to Be Better

This is where businesses sometimes make a costly assumption.

You may genuinely offer:

• Better service.
• Better prices.
• More experience.
• A better product.
• A better guarantee.
• Friendlier people.

But none of those advantages matter very much to the potential customer who never finds you.

If your competitor appears prominently when someone searches and you don't, the customer may never get far enough to compare you.

One Position Can Matter

Years ago, Google search results were much simpler.

Businesses obsessed over whether they appeared on page one or page two.

Search results don't look quite like that anymore. Depending on what you're searching for, you might see advertisements, maps, images, videos, reviews, AI-generated information and traditional website listings.

But the underlying principle hasn't changed.

Visibility matters.

If a competitor consistently appears where potential customers are looking and your business doesn't, they're being given opportunities that could have been yours.

Think about two businesses competing for the same customer.

One is highly visible.

The other is difficult to find.

Which one gets considered first?

Your Website May Not Be the Only Problem

Poor search visibility doesn't automatically mean you need a completely new website.

There could be many reasons.

• Perhaps Google doesn't clearly understand what services you provide.
• Perhaps your website doesn't contain enough useful information.
• Maybe important pages haven't been updated for years.
• Your competitors may have stronger local visibility.
• They may have better content.
• They may have more reviews.
• Or perhaps nobody has ever really looked at your website from a search perspective.

That's why simply saying "We have a website" isn't enough.

Don't Just Search for Yourself Once

There's another trap.

You search Google for your own business, see yourself somewhere in the results and think:

"We're fine."

Not necessarily.

Your customers may use completely different words.

A business might describe something one way while customers search for it another way entirely.

That's why search visibility should be looked at from the customer's perspective.

• What would they type?
• What questions would they ask?
• What problem are they trying to solve?

And what do they see when they search?

The Customer Has to Go Somewhere

This is the part I think businesses sometimes overlook.

A person searches because they want something.

If they don't find you, they don't simply turn off the computer and forget about it.

They keep looking.

And eventually they find somebody.

• Perhaps the business immediately above yours.
• Perhaps somebody appearing in the map results.
• Perhaps a company with a useful article answering exactly the question they asked.
• Perhaps your direct competitor.

You didn't deliberately send the customer there.

But the result is much the same.

Try This Today

Put yourself in your customer's shoes.

Search Google for three or four of the products, services or problems that should logically lead someone to your business.

Don't use your company name.

Then ask:

• Do I appear?
• Where do I appear?
• Which competitors appear?
• What are they doing that I'm not?

You may discover that your biggest online problem isn't that people aren't searching for what you sell.

…And that's my Two Pence Worth.