[Do you like this? Please subscribe to my YouTube Channel and then share it for me!]
Video Summary
Did you know there have been 3 ages of internet visibility for businesses? You know, it’s kind of like the stone age, iron age, and industrial age. Y, K, and P are the first letters of these ages. However, most of the businesses are in the wrong age! And that means most businesses are focused on the wrong things.
What happens to those businesses? Well, they won’t survive! You have to adapt to the age we’re in or you go extinct! And you don’t want to be stuck in the Dark Ages of the internet. There’s no visibility for you there.
Want to know what the 3 ages of internet visibility are? Watch this video to find out.
Video Transcript
Did you know there have been 3 distinct “ages” of business visibility on the internet? What do I even mean by that?
You know, it’s kind of like the stone age, iron age, and industrial age. But I’m going to tease you a little bit and call them the Age of Y___, the Age of K___, and the Age of P___. Y, K, and P are the first letters of these ages. I will give you each word as we go along, so pay attention!
The scary thing is that most businesses are in the wrong age! It’s true that most businesses have moved beyond the Age of Y, but they’re still acting as if we’re still in the Age of K even though we are now well into the Age of P. That means most businesses are focused on the wrong things.
To go back to the ages of human history, this would be like saying most businesses have moved beyond the stone age and are attempting to take part in the iron age even when humanity has reached the industrial age. Or it’s like saying most businesses have moved beyond selling VHS tapes, but they are still trying to sell DVDs, even though streaming is now available.
What happens to those businesses? They won’t survive! You have to adapt to the age we’re in or you go extinct! And you don’t want to be stuck in the Dark Ages of the internet. There’s no visibility for you there.
So, let’s take a look at these 3 online ages which are all parts of the information age…
Ages Of Internet Visibility — Age of Y
First, what is the Age of Y? Well, Y stands for Yellow Pages. Do you even remember the yellow pages?
When the first organizers of online information got started, they used the model they and their audience were already familiar with, directories set up like the yellow pages in a phone book. Those were alphabetical categories with businesses listed in alphabetical order.
This meant that when searching for something, the advantage went to businesses based on the spelling of their names… In other words, if you searched for plumbers, a list would show up in this order…
- Al’s Plumbing Company
— Best Plumbing Company
— Chicago Plumbing Company
A before B before C. The results were alphabetical. There were many online directories, some of them were quite popular, but when Yahoo came along in 1994, they took over and dominated the online directories.
If you wanted visibility, if you wanted your business to show up in a search, you needed to be listed with Yahoo, but your rank depended on where your business fit alphabetically among your competitors. But we’re beyond the Age of Yellow Pages now. And most businesses know that and they’re trying to be a part of the Age of K (even though we’re beyond that too)!
Do you have a guess as to what K might stand for? Before I tell you what K is, let’s go back to your site visibility…
Site Visibility
If you have a custom website, think back to when you started the web development project. Was your primary goal to get the site showing up in the search results? Most likely that was not it. For many businesses, their primary goal is to have a website that nicely represents their business online. You want a website that gives you credibility when visitors arrive there.
But since credibility — or the showcasing of your business — is the primary goal, visibility gets lost. And it’s even worse if you don’t have a custom website. If you have some type of cookie-cutter site, like those often provided to franchise owners or independent agents of a larger company, the odds are really against you.
Because here’s a problem I see far too often… When you have a templated site, the best-case scenario is that your site looks like dozens, or even hundreds, of other websites. It blends in, and Google cannot distinguish it from others. There is no reason to rank your site ahead of any other site.
That’s not even the whole story. It gets even uglier… In some cases, the provider of the site does not want your site to compete with their site. And that means the site they give you is specifically designed so it will never show up in the search results!
Regardless of how you got your site, whether it’s custom or a template, if it was not designed for visibility, no one will find your website because it doesn’t show up high enough in the search results. And therefore, the credibility you want, and the business boost you thought you would get, goes to waste unless you are out networking, meeting with people, and giving them your business card with your website address on it.
Of course, you can choose to spend big bucks advertising your site so that people can learn about it. But is that the best use of your money?
Does any of this sound familiar? This is basically the same place businesses were at in the late 1990s when Google came along. Google was launched in 1998, and they did not use a directory to present information. They had a whole new approach, a new idea…
And though they weren’t the first, Google was instrumental in ushering in the Age of K! What is K? K stands for Keywords.
Ages Of Internet Visibility — Age of K
When the Age of Keywords arrived, everything was about keywords. What are the important key phrases that people would search for? Get those into the pages of your website and you could quickly move to the top! In other words, a sample list of plumbers would show up in different orders depending on the search…
For example, a search for “best plumbing company in Chicago” could give this order:
- Best Plumbing Company
— Chicago Plumbing Company
— Al’s Plumbing Company
That’s an order of B, C, and A. The results aren’t alphabetical anymore. They are shown relative to the search that was performed.
The problem is that web developers and search professionals abused keywords. It was really easy to rank websites for any topic you wanted simply by manipulating certain elements of a website and the links from other websites. But Google wanted to become the number 1 search engine in the world. And they knew that to do that, they needed to have the best, most accurate, search results anywhere…
They had to keep improving their algorithms to eliminate fraud and manipulation to ensure that whenever anyone does a search, they get results that meet their needs.
Yahoo and Google
By doing this, Google became the top search engine. Currently (as of August 2022) Google has more than 91% of the global search engine market share. Yahoo, which was king during the Age of Yellow Pages, is down to 1.33%, that’s 4th place slightly behind Yandex.
As the complexity increased, search engine optimization companies had to step in to help businesses adapt to the changing search landscape. Unfortunately, these companies could use that complexity to withdraw large sums of money from businesses that didn’t know simpler and less costly methods were available.
Most businesses are still stuck in the Age of Keywords! And don’t get me wrong, keywords are still important, but for most small businesses, businesses that serve a local market, keywords are not the most important thing anymore. There is something better because we’re moving into the Age of P!
From the Age of Yellow Pages to the Age of Keywords, the leaders all but disappeared. That’s what happens when ages change… And that’s why this is so important. You could have the best business, like Yahoo did, but the age is changing again, and you could be left behind. Or you can use the shift to your advantage to get ahead of more dominant businesses.
I’m not quite ready to tell you what P stands for yet, but it’s coming soon so keep watching…
In order to get new clients who are searching for your business online, it is not good enough to simply show up on the first page of the search results anymore. What’s better than the first page of the search results? I’ll give you a clue. I call it the Money Zone!
The Money Zone
It’s the block of only 3 businesses that show up at the top of the search results with their business pinned on a map. I call this the Money Zone because it’s so prominent, and it includes your business phone number, your location, a link to your website, your business hours, directions to your address, and very importantly, reviews.
As you know, people are online and searching for providers who can solve their problems, whether that means they are hungry and looking for pizza, they need legal help, or they want a plumber to fix their leaking water heater…
When these searchers go to Google, they are looking for quick results. And that means the businesses featured in the Money Zone are the most likely to win new customers. And these days, I would argue that to compete online, a business must appear in the Money Zone…
This is the best part of the search results for your business to appear! So you definitely want your business in the Money Zone!
So how does Google know which businesses it should feature in the Money Zone?
It turns out that if you serve a local market, in a specific geography, the best thing you can do is build a solid reputation with Google reviews… Google says that “high-quality, positive reviews from your customers will improve your business’s visibility…” And they go on to say, these reviews will “…increase the likelihood that a potential customer will visit your location.”
In other words, if you have the best Google reviews, then Google gives you a top spot more frequently and across a wider geographic area, meaning more searching prospects find your business! Why are reviews so important? It’s because we’re in the Age of P. Do you know what P stands for yet? This is your last chance to guess.
P stands for Proof. This is the Age of Proof!
Ages Of Internet Visibility — Age of P
People don’t want to use a business simply because Google shows it, simply because it’s in the search results. They want to use a business that truly meets their needs. And people can determine whether a business meets their needs by reading real reviews with real proof of performance!
That means if you don’t have enough reviews or you don’t have good reviews, you are losing customers!
The Age of Proof is not dominated by keyword-based search results. The Age of Proof requires effectively setting up and using your Business Profile on Google to the full extent and then going through the process to consistently get new reviews. By doing this, you enter your business into the Age of Proof…
Your business must show up in the Money Zone and use reviews to differentiate your business from your competition! The problem is… You need to get high quality reviews, get many reviews, and get new reviews consistently. Failure on any one of these points keeps your business vulnerable and limits your effectiveness in the Age of Proof.
And most businesses go about getting reviews all wrong. Either they ignore the process entirely which gives the advantage over to their competition, or they have a cumbersome process that they don’t want to do, and their clients don’t want them to do.
If neither you nor your clients are comfortable with your review process, then you’re going to quit doing it. And the moment you quit; your reviews get old.
Get Your Business Into The Age of Proof
I would like to show you a different and easier way to handle reviews. Get your business out of the Age of Keywords and into the Age of Proof. Doing this can save you a ton of money on search engine optimization. It can save you money on ads. And so you save money while greatly improving your revenue.
According to research by BrightLocal, “Businesses with more than 83 reviews earn 54% more annual revenue than businesses with fewer reviews.” And they go on to say, “businesses with more than 200 reviews earn twice as much in revenue compared to the average business.”
With the right process, there is great opportunity for your business to take the lead in your market. And I would love to show you how.
Join me on an upcoming webinar and I will reveal 3 secrets to help you gain the advantage over your competitors so you can be the business everyone turns to. You can be the business earning double the revenue of the others.
Go to upatdawn.biz/webinar to register. Make a note of that address or click the link here. I will show you everything you need to know, and there’s time for Q&A at the end. You’ll be able to take the best steps for your business.
Your business deserves to be seen online, and I will help you get there. Register now while you’re thinking about it!
Thanks for watching and have a great day!
