Yes! Google killed the yellow pages.
My how things have changed. Some things for the better and some for the worse.
The other day I was having a conversation with a small business owner who was struggling to stay alive. I asked him what the problem was. He said he was having a hard time to get new clients in the door. Do you have a website I asked? Yea, but it doesn’t get me any traffic.
Here’s the problem!
Today things change rapidly and if you don’t change with it, you get swallowed up by someone who does adapt. If you’re of the old mindset and you were use to the Yellow Pages for advertising, (for small businesses) it was pretty much a level playing field. You see, if you needed to look for a plumber, you would open up the yellow pages and ALL the plumbers were listed together side by side and the only way you could differentiate yourself was by having a bigger ad. But, ALL the plumbers were there to see.
In comes the internet and Google.
Today lots of businesses have websites, (I’m surprised at the percentage who still don’t) However, if your website doesn’t appear on the first page of Google, You are pretty much screwed. How many people go to page 2, when searching for a business to call? The actual number according to research is only 5.59% of search queries ever get to be seen on page 2 & 3.
Let’s take a closer look.
Some people think that page 1 has lots of results. Wrong. If you look closely a properly done website could have multiple listings on the 1st page. A business may have their Google maps listing, maybe a review site and a few citations listings along with their organic listing, not to mention if they do a little of adwords marketing they can occupy another slot on the 1st page. All of this can push out a lot of competition.
Why the Internet is changing business?
Today the majority of product driven and even service driven businesses can be marketed right over the internet, thus eliminating the overhead of small local businesses that are brick and mortar.
Let’s say you are a small power equipment company. You sell and service maybe snow blowers, lawn mowers, weed wackers and small engines. You have a large building to stock your items for sale, a staff for a service department and general repairs along with the warranty work needed for some of the new items you sell. This all ads up to overhead expenses. But you are a local business providing for your community and employing people.
However on the other hand, a person who knows how to operate with a virtual business by way of the internet just sells the product or service. He can sell the same lawn mower, weed wacker and small engine for a smaller profit but sells to the world, not just the local community folks. They make their money on volume and low overhead. They don’t have to do warranty work or staff the brick and mortar or pay the service people.
Change is inevitable.
I’m not saying I agree with it all. I don’t profess to have the answers. I do know if anyone is to survive in this day and age you need to change. If you are not willing to change, you could go by way of the dinosaurs.
Maybe not the most pleasant article to read. But, it’s life today. So always be on guard and constantly keep learning and keep looking for ways that you can be of service to others.
Again, Thanks for the read.
If you need to contact me, I’m here.