Your business needs to do one major thing for it to be considered successful: turn a profit. How do you do that? Well, you’ve got to get customers calling you one way or another — which all boils down to how well you market your business. Inbound vs outbound… there are upsides & downsides to both.

One upside is outbound marketing usually gets you a quicker return, while inbound might take more time & money invested to get going. But on the flip side, inbound marketing is going to be a long term solution for growing your business, while outbound marketing is only going to last a short, fixed amount of time.

Personally, I think inbound is the best type of marketing you can invest in for your business because you get your customers calling you directly and you’re not actively spending your time on making it happen. What’s one of the best inbound marketing methods?

Search Engine Optimization — the process of ranking your business website on Google to allow potential customers to find your business.

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There are hundreds, if not thousands, of pages of search results pulled when we Google something. But, in terms of your business’ growth, does it matter what position you’re ranked in? The short answer… yes, it could cost you thousands of dollars.

But let’s dive in a little further to compare each Search Engine Ranking Position (SERP), and how much money you’re losing by not being ranked at the top.

Background — We’ll Get To How Much Money You’re Losing Here In A Second 😉

The typical SERP is tracked 1 through 100. 1-10 means you’re on page 1 of the search results, and everything else past that is essentially pointless. Why? According to multiple studies from various sources like Moz, between 91-95% of ALL Google searchers never leave page 1.

Being ranked on page 1 of Google is crucial, but so is your positioning on page 1… here’s what I mean:

Just like before, there have also been a variety of studies done on the click through rates — how many folks visit your website —based on the ranking position of 1-10 on page 1 of Google. You can check out a bunch of results here. Here’s the average range of percentages of click through rates that these various case studies show:

  • 1 — 30-34%
  • 2 — 14-18%
  • 3 — 11-15%
  • 4 — 7-11%
  • 5 — 6-8%
  • 6 — 3-6%
  • 7 — 2-4%
  • 8 — 2-4%
  • 9 — 1-3%
  • 10 — 1-3 %

All in all, roughly 91-95% of all Google Searchers don’t leave page 1, so if you’re not on page 1, you’re missing out on the vast majority of searches.

Now let’s break that down into how much money you’re NOT making by NOT being ranked at the top.

According to a study done by Invesp, the business service industry gets an average conversion rate of 20%, and I’ve seen other studies say as high as 40-45%. So anyone that’s in a service based industry — plumbing, roofing, pest control, HVAC, pressure washing, tree services, lawn care, landscaping, real estate, water restoration, car lots, attorney/lawyer, cleaning services, contractors, etc.

Let’s Run Some Numbers

There are many tools — paid and free — you can use to check the search volume of keywords in your area; one of them is the free extension on Google Chrome called Keywords Everywhere.

Here’s a formula that you can use that shows the potential profit based on where your business is ranked on page 1 of Google:

(Total Number of Monthly Searches * SERP Percentages) * Conversion Rate * Average Profit Per Deal = Potential Profit

Let’s go through a few varying industries across the US, and let’s find out how much money a business in that area could be losing out on by not being in the top few spots on Google.

Before we begin, let’s talk about where these numbers are coming from, average pay per job and the variables that come with them.

These search results are NOT including the surrounding cities, unless otherwise stated; they are just in the metro areas — which means the search results could & are likely much higher when you include the suburbs.

We’re trying to stick to the lower to mid range average profit per job. Just know that for any business, one of these calls could result in a massive pay day because of a bigger job, multiple referrals and even repeating clients.

Another thing to note is the conversion rates — some conversion rates are much higher in smaller cities. A plumbing client of mine is in an area of 80,000 people, there are 80-90 searches a month in his area and he gets 50-70 calls during any given month being ranked at the top because the competition just isn’t quite as fierce.

But for example’s sake, we’re going to use a 30% conversion rate for all our examples below.

So these are all things to keep in mind as you read on here… let’s dive right in!!

Tree Services | Tampa, FL | 800 Monthly Searches | $500 Average Job

#7 SERP = (800 * 3%) * 30% * $500 = $3,600/month

#5 SERP = (800 * 7%) * 30% * $500 = $8,400/month

#3 SERP = (800 * 13%) * 30% * $500 = $15,600/month

#1 SERP = (800 * 32%) * 30% * $500 = $38,400/month

Pressure Washing | Fort Lauderdale, FL | 210 Monthly Searches | $150 Average Job

*includes results of Fort Lauderdale, Broward, Coral Springs and Plantation, Florida.

#7 SERP = (210 * 3%) * 30% * $150 = $283.50/month

#5 SERP = (210 * 7%) * 30% * $150 = $661.50/month

#3 SERP = (210 * 13%) * 30% * $150 = $1,228.50/month

#1 SERP = (210 * 32%) * 30% * $150 = $3,024/month

Roofer | Charlottesville, VA | 220 Monthly Searches | $1,000 Average Job

#7 SERP = (220 * 3%) * 30% * $1,000 = $1,980/month

#5 SERP = (220 * 7%) * 30% * $1,000 = $4,620/month

#3 SERP = (220 * 13%) * 30% * $1,000 = $8,580/month

#1 SERP = (220 * 32%) * 30% * $1,000 = $21,120/month

Realtor | Murfreesboro, TN | 320 Monthly Searches | $7,500 Average Listing ($250,000 house @ 3% commission)

#7 SERP = (320 * 3%) * 30% * $7,500 = $21,600/month

#5 SERP = (320 * 7%) * 30% * $7,500 = $50,400/month

#3 SERP = (320 * 13%) * 30% * $7,500 = $93,600/month

#1 SERP = (320 * 32%) * 30% * $7,500 = $230,400/month

Movers | Memphis, TN | 1,000 Monthly Searches | $500 Average Job

#7 SERP = (1,000 * 3%) * 30% * $500 = $4,500/month

#5 SERP = (1,000 * 7%) * 30% * $500 = $10,500/month

#3 SERP = (1,000 * 13%) * 30% * $500 = $19,500/month

#1 SERP = (1,000 * 32%) * 30% * $500 = $48,000/month

Car Detailing | Dallas, TX | 1,220 Monthly Searches | $100 Average Job

#7 SERP = (1,220 * 3%) * 30% * $100 = $1,098/month

#5 SERP = (1,220 * 7%) * 30% * $100 = $2,562/month

#3 SERP = (1,220 * 13%) * 30% * $100 = $4,758/month

#1 SERP = (1,220 * 32%) * 30% * $100 = $11,712/month

Carpet Cleaning | Dayton, OH | 590 Monthly Searches | $200 Average Job

#7 SERP = (590 * 3%) * 30% * $200 = $1,063/month

#5 SERP = (590 * 7%) * 30% * $200 = $2,478/month

#3 SERP = (590 * 13%) * 30% * $200 = $4,602/month

#1 SERP = (590 * 32%) * 30% * $200 = $11,328/month

Water Restoration | Pittsburgh, PA | 80 Monthly Searches | $2,000 Average Job

#7 SERP = (80 * 3%) * 30% * $2,000 = $1,440/month

#5 SERP = (80 * 7%) * 30% * $2,000 = $3,360/month

#3 SERP = (80 * 13%) * 30% * $2,000 = $6,240/month

#1 SERP = (80 * 32%) * 30% * $2,000 = $15,360/month

Plumber | Houston, TX | 1,540 Monthly Searches | $100 Average Job

#7 SERP = (1,540 * 3%) * 30% * $100 = $1,386/month

#5 SERP = (1,540 * 7%) * 30% * $100 = $3,234/month

#3 SERP = (1,540 * 13%) * 30% * $100 = $6,006/month

#1 SERP = (1,540 * 32%) * 30% * $100 = $14,784/month

Lawn Care | Atlanta, GA | 740 Monthly Searches | $50 Average Job

** These services are weekly, bi-weekly or monthly, so these numbers below could be made every week, every two weeks or once a month depending on customers & the job.

**Also note, these are not landscaping numbers, these are just folks searching for lawn care/mowing — as there are over 1300 searches a month for Landscapers in Atlanta.

#7 SERP = (740 * 3%) * 30% * $50 = $333/week // bi-weekly // month

#5 SERP = (740 * 7%) * 30% * $50 = $777/week // bi-weekly // month

#3 SERP = (740 * 13%) * 30% * $50 = $1,443/week // bi-weekly // month

#1 SERP = (740 * 32%) * 30% * $50 = $3,552/week // bi-weekly // month

Now, are all of these numbers guaranteed to happen? Of course not. Some months, you could destroy these numbers by making 2, 3 or 8 times the numbers above, but others you could come well short. The purpose of this article is for you to see the difference between being ranked at the bottom of page 1 vs top of page 1 in terms of how much money you’re losing out on!

The better salesman you are & the more you can up-sell a client, the more you’ll make. If you can convince someone who just wants their driveway pressure washed to also include the siding, you make more. If you can convince someone who’s moving to let you pack up all their boxes, you make more. You see where I’m going with this 😉

If you want these results for your business, check out our SEO Services — we’ve even got a 90 day money back guarantee. You can also schedule a consultation with us to see how many searches are being conducted in your area because you might not even know that you’re sitting on a Google gold mine!

Don’t wait, take your business to the next level TODAY!