Just very recently, the number of .au Australian domain names registered hit 2 million. This is an important milestone demonstrating the fact the Australian businesses are now beginning to take the online space seriously. Despite this, a recent study by MYOB found that 65 percent of Australian businesses still don't have a website! For me, working all day every day assisting business with their online strategy (and ensuring prospective customers who are searching on Google can easily find the given business when searching for their products/services), I often have to remind myself of this fact, which I find a little hard to believe given the amount of time the average Australian spends online. An interesting figure to consider is the year-on-year growth in search volumes on Google. The number of searches being run each year increases by 26%, which is very significant, highlighting just how quickly the online space is still growing, and consumers use of the web to make purchase based decisions.

The market is changing and business owners now need to act and ensure they are not left behind:

1. Your business needs to have a website that not only provides details on the products and service provided, company info, contact details and so forth, but to connect with and ENGAGE prospective customers, presenting them with compelling reasons to choose your business over a competitor (a lot of this happens subconsciously via your websites layout, look and feel, depth of information provided etc).

2. It's nice to have a website that EXISTING customers can refer back to and lookup your details, but equally important, is reaching NEW and prospective customers who are searching on Google for all your product and service based keywords, and who are not yet familiar with your brand or may just be looking at the options they have. Where a comprehensive Google AdWords Advertising strategy really becomes powerful is in tracking which keywords are delivering top results, and which keywords are non performing, and optimising accordingly to ensure highest return-on-investment (ROI). Some of the metrics used to measure keyword performance include time on site, pages viewed, bounce rate and conversions (online enquiries, callback requests, online orders etc).

As more and more business register domains, build new websites and advertise on Google with AdWords, it's important you don't get left behind. Need some help gaining business through Google, or not sure if your current campaign is delivering highest possible ROI? What are you waiting for? Make contact with us today.

Joel Kingston

Director - Mr Search