“Where’s the best place to hide a dead body? On page 3 of Google’s search results.” – Lori Randall Stradtman, author of Online Reputation Management For Dummies.
More than 3.2 billion people are online today. People go online to find further information. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) assists your church in growing its online presence and attracting quality visitors, so the right prospects can find the contact they need.
First five search results on Google get 70 percent of all clicks. The purpose of SEO is to rank your church website on Google and other search engines. SEO generates traffic from the free and organic search results on the search engines. The point is to make it easier for people to find you.
As a church leader, you need to make sure your church is present online. Google dominates the search market, while Microsoft owns Bing and sets it as the default engine and default setting for many people. Are you the first choice on search engines?
In February 2021, Google had a global search market share of 92.05 percent. Search engine result pages (SERPs) on major search engines seem to get more complicated. Most experts estimate that Google adjusts its search algorithm around 500 to 600 times each year. In 2018, they reported 3,234 updates and are constantly refining what they find, rank, and answers queries. Google began making significant updates to its search algorithm with the code name Panda (named after a Google engineer, Navneet Panda).
Small changes to church website can make them more visible in search engine results. The single biggest reason the search engines don’t index your sites is because they don’t know they exist. Church website needs to be indexed better.
The foundation of SEO is trust. If you are not showing up at the top of search results, you are missing out on opportunities. 81 percent of consumers search online before buying. 84 percent of clicks are organic rather than paid. 99 percent of people never search on page 2. 75 percent of searches click on top three organic listings.
SEO puts you on page 1. SEO gives you the opportunity to be seen by people looking for the products and services you provide. Check the “Marketplace” (USA or Canada) on my website to find SEO services that are available through Ask Amitabh.