When was the last time you made a decision to buy something significant without doing some investigation first? When did you last buy a ‘big thing’ without looking at the options or comparing the price? Before the internet this ‘research’ was done on the high street or maybe over the phone with a copy of the Yellow Pages to guide you. While I bet few people are calling bookshops asking for Fly Fishing by J R Hartley, it is searched for more than 200 times a month online. Just like people looking for fictional fishing books the first place you probably do your ‘research’ now is Google. You go there to type in either the name of the business/product you’re looking for, or if you haven’t yet chosen, the type of thing that you want. You are not alone. These two methods of search are the most common; they are sometimes referred to as known search or generic search. For example, if you want shoes you might search for ‘Big Dave’s Shoe Shop’ or ‘Shoe shops near me’. You either know Big Dave and want his shoes or you don’t know Big Dave but still want shoes. Both of these searches are crucial to Big Dave because he just wants to sell shoes. This kind of activity means a business needs a website and that website needs to be optimised to show up on a search engine… Search Engine Optimisation. If you already spend money on newspaper ads, radio ads, outdoor advertising and aren’t seeing that convert into customers then the first thing to look at is what happens when someone hears your ad on the radio… I bet they Google you. If they do, what do they see? SEO isn’t optional anymore – especially if most of your marketing is done offline. If you want people who see your offline advertising to reach your business you need SEO. If this has piqued your interest, and you want to know more, go and have a read of how we get SEO to drive results for small business on our website.