Most business owners think about Google search in a fairly straightforward way — rank higher, get more clicks, appear on the first page. And all of this is fair, but ranking is only a part of the journey. Before a customer becomes your customer, there’s usually a series of events that have happened in between. They searched something, looked through the results, compared a few websites, looked at reviews, and more. These are the events I call the Google search journey. Looking at the Google search journey this way makes it easier to understand why getting a click is not always the same as getting a customer. If you’re only thinking about rankings and keywords, you’re thinking of one part of the journey. Knowing what happens after someone has found you can help you shift your thinking in a way that thinks about not just getting visibility, but getting customers. What Is the Google Search Journey? The Google search journey is the path someone follows from realizing that they have a problem, to picking a business that will solve the problem for them. And it doesn’t always start with them going to Google and typing in your exact service! Say, for example, there’s a small business owner who wants to get more customers from Google. The owner may search for things like: They probably aren’t looking for a specific digital marketing professional. They’re looking for an answer to the problem they’re already experiencing. That’s different than someone searching for a specific service. They often search for what they want or need in a certain way that may be different to how services are traditionally described. Once they’ve found a few possible answers, most customers will then go through a comparing stage. They may look at a few websites, read reviews, look at social media, and so on — before deciding which business is the best fit for them. That’s why a customer doesn’t just become a customer merely because they found you! Their decisions are often greatly influenced by what they see, and you need to be on the receiving end of that. A Simple Breakdown of the Google Search Journey That may seem very simplified, but the beauty of this way of thinking is that it shifts the focus to how someone may actually become your customer. Instead of just thinking about the question, “How can I get ranked higher?”, you’re also thinking about the question, “What can be done to ensure someone becomes our customer?” Search Journey at a Glance Stage What’s happening What businesses should focus on Problem The customer realizes something needs to be done Understand their actual needs Search The customer searches on Google Understand how they search Evaluation The customer compares things Build clarity and trust Action The customer decides to take action Make the next step easy Where Most Websites Lose a Potential Customer I’ve seen small businesses lose a potential customer because the website made it too difficult to understand what the business does. The website may look nice, have a few nice graphics or animations and plenty of information, but if you land on the page and you don’t know anything about what the business does, who they’re for, and what they can do for you, then there’s a good chance you’ll leave it and try to Google someone else. Think how you act when you’re in search of something. If you come on a website and understand what it’s about and what you can expect, you’re probably going to want to stay there to browse some more. But if you have to scroll down quite a bit before finding about what the business does, then there’s a good chance you will not explore that far. I think the first few seconds are always a big deal, and you should make it as easy for people to understand what you do and what they can do next. A Quick Website Check in the Google Search Journey Ask yourself: Sometimes improving your websites clarity can help far more than content addition could. Where Does Local SEO Fit Into This? Local SEO plays in even earlier parts of the journey than many may be aware of. It can be an important part of the Google search journey because people often form an impression of a business before they even visit its website. The things a customer may see when they search for a local service may be your Google Business Profile — and not necessarily your website. For example, someone searching for “digital marketing agency near me” may immediately see a few businesses on the search results or Google Maps. Before browsing any of the businesses’ websites, they may already be able to size things up. Reviews, ratings, their location, some photos, some business information, and the services that each business offers. All of that information can play a big factor in which businesses they choose to look at first. Reviews are also very important. If there are two businesses offering similar services, but one has reviews and an active, fully described Google Business Profile while the other doesn’t have much information, then the first business may have more appeal just based on what information is present. Local SEO is about making sure that the information people see when they search for similar businesses is a true reflection of your services. I don’t have a large amount of client campaigns to use as a basis of a case study just yet, but the more I work with SEO and Google Business Profiles, the more I realize how these first impressions can be so important. A business can be seen by many, but visibility alone doesn’t create trust. Search Isn’t The Same Google search, as we’ve seen it for the last few years, isn’t the same anymore. We’re seeing more AI-generated search results, rich snippets, maps, featured snippets, videos, and more that appear depending on what is being searched. But I don’t think

A website can look incredible and still fail completely at website conversion. I didn’t fully believe that until I saw it up close. Great fonts, smooth animations, a color palette somebody clearly agonized over for weeks — none of it guarantees a single sale. Usually, when that happens, it’s not really a design failure. It’s trust that’s missing. I ran into this myself while comparing digital marketing institutes before deciding where to enroll. A few of the sites were genuinely gorgeous. Clean layouts, professional photography, the whole package. But that’s not what made me pick one over the rest. What actually got me to commit was seeing real testimonials, some clear info about where past students had landed jobs, and a trial period that let me test the course before I paid for the whole thing. Honestly, that trial mattered more than everything else on the page combined. It gave me a way to check if the thing was real before I had to just trust it blindly. Beauty attracts attention, but trust is what makes people take action. Website Conversion Depends on More Than Design A beautiful website can certainly make a good first impression, but that doesn’t always lead to better website conversion. When a person is deciding whether to register, pay, sign up, or invest their time in a business, they usually need more than an attractive design. They need some reason to believe that the business can actually deliver what it promises. Research seems to support this idea. Baymard Institute performed a series of usability tests on product pages and found that 95% of users relied on reviews when deciding whether a product was worth their time. This shows how important other people’s experiences can be when someone is trying to make a decision online. The same idea can apply to websites more broadly. Testimonials, reviews, recommendations, and other forms of evidence can help visitors decide whether a business is worth trusting. Without those things, even a beautiful website can struggle with website conversion. What Makes a Website Feel Untrustworthy? I’ve seen too many examples of businesses trying to attract customers with beautiful websites, only for those websites to fail because there wasn’t enough substance behind the design. Some of the most common problems include: Once these red flags start appearing, visitors can become more doubtful about the business. A website might initially look professional, but if the visitor starts noticing that the testimonials don’t feel genuine or that the information is too vague, the design becomes less important. They may simply leave and look for another company that provides the information they were looking for. This can actually be worse than having a less beautiful website that is honest and informative. A visitor may forgive a website for not having perfect design, but it is much harder to overlook a lack of credibility. The Trust Test in a Few Seconds When it comes to website conversion, deciding whether a website feels trustworthy often doesn’t take very long. Visitors usually start looking for a few basic things almost immediately. They want to understand what the business does, what it offers, and whether there is enough information to support its claims. Some useful trust signals should be easy to find on the website rather than being buried several pages deep or hidden behind menus. For example, a visitor might look for: If these things are difficult to find, the visitor has less reason to stay, which can hurt website conversion. In many cases, the next website they visit may have exactly the information they were looking for. That means a business doesn’t necessarily lose a visitor because its website is unattractive. It can lose them because another website made them feel more confident. What Actually Builds Trust for Better Website Conversion Based on my own experience, there are a few things that can make a significant difference to website conversion. Real and Specific Testimonials Testimonials can be useful, but simply having a testimonial section isn’t enough. A testimonial with a name and specific information about what the customer purchased or experienced is much more convincing than something like “Amazing service! Highly recommended!” Generic testimonials can apply to almost any business, which makes them less useful to someone who is trying to decide whether to trust you. Whenever possible, testimonials should provide enough detail for the visitor to understand what the person’s experience was actually like. Substantive Information A website also needs to explain what it actually offers. A portfolio can look beautiful, but that beauty quickly becomes less impressive if the visitor can’t understand what was done, what the results were, or what value the company actually provides. The same applies to service websites. Visitors shouldn’t have to rely on vague descriptions or generic marketing language to figure out what they’re paying for. Clear and specific information gives people something they can actually evaluate, which can support better website conversion. Lower the Risk of Making a Decision for Better Website Conversion This is one of the things that influenced my own decision the most. The institute I eventually chose offered a trial course, which gave me an opportunity to experience what they were offering before paying for the full course. That made the decision much easier. Instead of asking me to trust the company completely from the beginning, they gave me a chance to see what I would actually receive. Once I was comfortable with the course, paying for it didn’t feel nearly as risky. Depending on the business, this could mean offering a free consultation, sample, demo, trial, or another way for potential customers to experience the service before committing. Make Your Proof Easy to Find Another mistake websites make is putting their strongest trust-building information too far away from the homepage. If a visitor has to click through several pages just to find testimonials or reviews, many people simply won’t bother. Your strongest proof should be available where visitors are most likely to look