Realistic Expectations

Everyone wants to come up in the top ten results on Google for search terms related to their business. Unfortunately, for a common term such as "Used Cars" that puts you in competition with some big players with huge budgets. The reality is that local sellers of common products such as vehicles or real estate should not expect much traffic from search engines like Google, no matter how nice a site they build. Traffic is going to come from including your domain name on all your other advertising.

The biggest factor that Google uses to determine the order of search results they show is the number and "authority" of links to the site. A national chain with a large budget can obtain or buy links from many high ranking sites. This will get them ranked for the terms they want and they will always come up at the top of the results.

Fortunately, you probably don't want or need that kind of traffic anyhow. It's important that you show in the search results for your own name and it's variations. That way people who have seen your print ads can find you. These will be people in your area who are actually prospects for your goods or services.