Have you ever wonder why churches once built huge, ornate steeples? Everyone knows that there is no practical purpose for a church steeple. Steeples aren't used for storage, not used for a scenic view for the pastoral office nor is it a place to tuck away smelly middle schoolers.

Before Google or GPS's architects designed and built tall steeples simply to help people locate churches. A church steeple is so engrained into our western mindset and culture that many of us couldn't imagine seeing a church without a steeple.

For more than eight centuries churches were easily the tallest building. Think of the steeple as the modern version of asking Google, "Restaurant near me," "highest rated car repair near me," or "Google, give me directions to Carter-Finley Stadium."

Basically, the bigger the steeple, the more important you are. Churches had "steeple wars and steeple envy." On June 30th, 1377 the first stone was laid on Ulm Minister's 530 feet steeple. Once completed it remained the fifth largest structure in the world prior to the 20th century.

1. BEING FOUND - (Think Church Steeples) Foundational to every marketing strategy is the priority of being found. 64% of Google users click on the first three ranked websites. A church steeple says loudly to a community, "We are here and we are open." If your business depends upon local customers then you MUST prioritize being in the top 3 of Google rankings.
2. IT COSTS MONEY - Steeples like the one pictured above cost a lot of money. Sure, using a marketing firm to handle your PPC and organic search ranking will cost money but it may cost you a lot more to do nothing.
3. ARCHITECTS MATTER - There are some jobs that are better left to professionals. Pastors didn't design on build their steeples. Today, many businesses trust professional agencies to construct their digital marketing strategies.
4. ADAPT OF DIE - The largest attended churches in Raleigh and around the world do not have steeples. Churches have learned that there is a new way of being "found" today and they have all adapted to Google, PPC, Search Engine Optimization and Analytics. Churches pay close attention to their Google reviews and rankings due to their willingness to adapt.
5. OTHERS OPINIONS - Social media totally rewired consumers' thoughts and purchasing practices. Once upon a time, people valued what businesses said about their own products. Today, people want to see what other consumers say about your products and services before they purchase. 84% of consumers read reviews prior to purchase today.
6. LOCATION IS NOT WHAT YOU THINK - Hope Church and Summit Church are two Raleigh churches that most people have heard of. The physical locations of these churches are decent but not great from a daily traffic flow metric. These churches are located very well on Google searches - respectively #1 and #2 making these churches easily found by new residents in Raleigh.
7. RESEARCH, THEN LAUNCH - Knowing precisely how people search for your product, services or business is the secret sauce to successful online marketing. Paying monthly for SEO help that isn't researched, documented and analyzed is a waste of money.

We use Digital Rocket for our online marketing. Our rankings went from the fifties to NUMBER 1!!!