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Marketing Masterclass 5.3

Quick wins from Google that can help boost your business marketing

  • Strong online marketing starts with discoverability: Businesses can improve visibility in Google Search and Maps by claiming and maintaining an accurate Google Business Profile.
  • Search Engine Marketing (SEM) supports faster visibility and control: Paid search advertising can help businesses appear quickly in relevant search results.
  • Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) relevant content helps customers find your website organically: Creating helpful content based on what customers are already searching for can increase the likelihood of appearing in unpaid search results.

Q: Why is Search Engine Marketing (SEM) important for business marketing?

A: SEM refers to the process of paid advertising which gives you the opportunity to show-up at the top of the Search results when someone searches for what you sell. SEM works alongside your SEO strategy and can offer incremental benefits. Firstly, SEM can help you start appearing quickly in relevant searches, whereas SEO can take time to gain traction. Secondly, SEM allows control over which searches you want to show up for, and thirdly, SEM enables you to show up at the top of the Search results - often attracting the greatest share of eyeballs and click traffic.

Before investing in any other form of marketing, you need to do the basics so your business is discoverable online. Awareness won’t be enough if customers can’t find you once they’re ready to engage.

Martin Dowling, Product Marketing Manager at Google suggests three ways to grow your business with marketing: claiming your Google Business Profile, considering Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and developing a content strategy that helps Search Engines understand your website through Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

Here are his top tips to turbocharge your business marketing efforts.

1. Make sure your marketing hygiene is right

“There are over five trillion searches per year on Google globally¹. Each of these searches are the exact moment that customers are looking for products and services that they need. Being found in these ‘high intent’ moments relevant to your business is essential in helping it grow,” says Martin Dowling, Product Marketing Manager at Google.

Getting started is easy, “Claim your Google Business Profile, at no charge, so customers can find you on Google Search and Maps, and make sure your opening hours, phone number and location are all accurate,” says Dowling. “Uploading high quality photos of your venue, and products or services you offer can also help people better understand your business.” Dowling adds that asking customers to leave reviews for your business online is another vital step. “Be responsive and answer the reviews in a professional way,” he says. “People talking about your business online increases your discoverability.” 

2. Consider Search Engine Marketing (SEM) 

This refers to paid activity like Google Ads. “Once you’ve developed your product, have established your business and are now ready to grow - this may be the right time to look into search engine marketing,” says Martin.

With this type of marketing, you only pay when you get a click or a call through to your business, so it can help you get returns on your marketing budget while providing rich data about who is engaging with your business. You’re also able to increase or decrease your spend as you go.  

3. Create SEO relevant content 

You can improve your website’s performance by producing content that customers are already searching for. “By making your content more relevant and helpful for what customers are looking for, your website becomes more likely to appear in Search results,” says Martin.

You can use external SEO services to help you in this area but there are also some free and simple ways to improve your content yourself. Type a few keywords relating to your type of business into the search bar and see what you can learn from the types of websites that are appearing at the top of the results. Review the common questions people already ask you, too. These can help form the basis of your content strategy. 

Congratulations, you’ve completed this lesson!

Next module: 5.4 - Marketing automation that can save time and build consistency

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Things you should know

  • 1Google Internal Data, Jan 2025.,

    https://blog.google/products/ads-commerce/ai-personalization-and-the-future-of-shopping/

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