Have you ever noticed how some businesses seem to attract clients effortlessly, while others with similar services, sometimes even better services, struggle to get noticed? You might assume it comes down to luck, or connections, or having a bigger budget. But a lot of the time it comes down to something far more practical: how visible and credible your business looks before someone ever picks up the phone.
There is a marketing principle called the Rule of 7 that helps explain this. And once you understand it, it changes the way you think about your entire online presence.
What Is the Rule of 7?
The idea is straightforward. Before a potential customer decides to buy from you, they have typically had multiple interactions with your business. On average that number sits around 7, though it can be less or more depending on your industry, the size of your market, and the reputation you have already built.
Think about your own buying behaviour for a moment. When you are looking for a new service provider, do you call the first result you see and hand over your money? Probably not. You look around. You compare. You read a few reviews. You check out a website. You might even follow someone on social media for a while before you feel comfortable enough to reach out.
Your customers are doing the exact same thing with you.
The Buyer Journey Is Not a Straight Line
Here is where it gets interesting. Those 7 interactions do not happen in a predictable order. Every buyer takes a different path depending on how they found you, what they are looking for, and how much trust they need to build before they feel ready to commit.
Let’s walk through a real example. Say a homeowner in Edmonton searches on Google for a local landscaping company to redesign their backyard. This is where Local SEO becomes your best friend. Here is one version of how that journey might unfold:
- They search on Google and your listing appears
- They visit your website to look at past projects
- They follow you on social media
- They see a social media post
- They come back to your website to get a better sense of your business
- They read through your Google reviews
- They call and book a consultation
Seven touchpoints. And you did not have to do anything in real time for most of them. Your website, your Google listing, your social media content, they were all working quietly in the background while you were busy running your business.
But here is what changes the picture. Another potential client might find you in a completely different way. Maybe they heard about you from a neighbour first, then looked you up online to verify you were legit. Maybe they spotted one of your project photos on Instagram and that was their very first introduction to your business. Maybe they called you cold based on a yard sign they saw, then spent the next two weeks researching before they called back.
And it does not stop at traditional channels. We are also seeing an emerging touchpoint that was not part of the conversation a few years ago. Potential customers are now turning to AI tools like ChatGPT to research local businesses and services before making a decision. If your business has a strong online presence, chances are it is showing up there too.
The order varies. The entry point varies. The timeline varies. Some buyers move fast, others take months.
What stays consistent across almost every version of that journey is this: your website and your Google presence are there for most of it.
The Real Cost of a Weak Online Presence
This is the part that most small business owners do not fully appreciate until they see it laid out clearly.
If your website is outdated, hard to navigate, or does not clearly explain what you do and who you serve, you are losing people at one of the most critical points in their decision making process. They came looking for reasons to trust you, and instead they found reasons to keep looking.
If your Google listing is incomplete, has no reviews, or does not show up at all for the searches your ideal clients are making, you are invisible before the conversation even starts. It does not matter how good your work is if nobody can find you.
And if your social media presence is inconsistent or non-existent, you are missing touchpoints that could be building familiarity and trust with people who are not quite ready to buy yet but might be in a few weeks.
A lot of small business owners think about their website as a one time expense. Build it, launch it, forget it. But your website is not a brochure. It is a living, working part of your business. It raises awareness that you exist. It builds credibility before anyone speaks to you. It answers questions your future clients are asking at 11pm when your phone is off. And it quietly guides visitors through the decision of whether you are the right fit for them, on their timeline, not yours.
What Good Strategy Actually Looks Like
Here is the thing about building a strong online presence. It is not just about having a good looking website, though that matters. It is about understanding the journey your clients take before they buy and making sure your business shows up meaningfully at every stage of it.
That means your website needs to be more than pretty. It needs to be clear, fast, mobile friendly, and optimized so that Google actually surfaces it when someone is searching for what you offer. It needs to speak directly to the problems your clients are trying to solve, not just list your services. It needs to build trust through social proof, whether that is reviews, case studies, or photos of your actual work. And it needs to make it easy for someone to take the next step when they are ready.
SEO is not a buzzword. It is the foundation of how people find you organically, without you having to pay for every click. A well optimized website compounds over time. The effort you put in today keeps paying dividends months and years down the road.
For small business owners who are wearing ten hats and trying to grow without a massive marketing budget, that kind of long term return matters.
You Do Not Have to Figure This Out Alone
Running a small business is hard enough. Managing your team, delivering great work, keeping clients happy, chasing invoices, and somehow finding time to grow. The last thing you need is to also become an expert in web design, SEO, and digital marketing strategy.
That is exactly why we started SelexWeb.
We work with small business owners across Edmonton and Alberta who are great at what they do but need a trusted partner to handle the online side of their business with intention. We do not just build websites. We build with strategy. Every decision we make, from how a page is structured to how your content is written to how your site is optimized for search, is designed to support your buyer’s journey and bring more of the right people to your door.
Because at the end of the day, your website should be working for you even when you are not.
If you know a business owner who is struggling to generate leads, frustrated that their website is not doing anything for them, or simply ready to take their online presence to the next level, we would love to connect.
