For someone who is starting a business, SEO may seem to be an unnecessary expense. Some may think that SEO is a waste of time and would rather focus on running their business. Also, many believe that SEO is dying, but this is far from the truth.
The search engine landscape is constantly evolving, but SEO continues to be a vital tool for digital marketing. While SEO helps grow small businesses online, many do not have the knowledge or skills to optimize their website for search.
With the impact of the pandemic on the global economy, the need for SEO in small businesses rose to an all-time high. With many customers are shifting to online shopping, brick-and-mortar businesses must realize the importance of changing their marketing efforts to digital.
What is SEO and How does it Benefit Small Businesses?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of building a user-friendly website and optimizing relevant keywords to drive more web traffic, attracting your target audience, building your brand, and generating more sales.
Here are some statistics showing why SEO is vital for small businesses:
- 46% of all searches on Google are conducted by people seeking local information. With the right SEO strategy, you can easily stay in front of your target audience when they search for a business like yours.
- 97% of potential customers learn about a local business online. When your target customers search for your products and services, make sure to provide them with important information about your business.
- Searches for keywords with “near me” have increased by more than 900% over two years. Many potential customers use these keywords to search for small businesses in their area.
- 75% of online users do not go beyond Google’s first search results page, making it critical for small businesses to appear on the first page.
Here are several reasons why you need SEO to grow your business:
- User-Friendly Website – SEO does not just optimize your website for search. It also improves user experience through a faster, smoother, and user-friendly website. It compels a potential customer to stay longer and explore your website to reduce bounce rate and boost page views. Additionally, providing visitors with highly informative and relevant content promotes engagement, as they are likely to obtain solutions to their problems and find the exact information they are looking for on your website.
- Attract More Customers – Your website is your portal to your physical store. It helps attract prospects and increase your customer base. If you optimize your website for search, you will likely bring in more customers. Investing in an effective SEO campaign ensures more targeted traffic is coming to your website.
- Better Conversion Rates – Since search engine optimized websites load faster, are easy to use, and work on different electronic devices, they are more likely to convert prospects into actual paying customers subscribers, and returning customers.
- Build Brand Awareness – Ranking high on the search engine results pages (SERPs) can help your target audience recognize your brand and get to know more about your business. People searching for information online are more likely to trust websites that appear on the first page of major search engines, such as Google, Bing, and Yahoo. With search engines constantly changing, investing in SEO does not just get your high search engine rankings for terms related to your business but also builds brand awareness.
- Cost-Effective Marketing – Let us face it; most startups and small businesses do not have the same financial resources as the big players in the industry. While large companies can invest in costly pay-per-click advertising and other ad campaigns, SEO is a cost-effective digital marketing approach that helps level the online marketing battlefield, allowing you to compete with the big guys. When properly planned and implemented, SEO can bring a high return on investment (ROI) while getting more organic traffic and ranking well in search engines without actively spending on paid marketing campaigns.
Basic SEO Tips for Small Business
Now that you know the importance of SEO for small businesses, entrepreneurs need to understand the basics and how SEO works to grow their company and compete in the online marketing world. SEO may seem complex and overwhelming, but we have rounded several proven and actionable SEO tips that are worth considering if you want to take your business to the next level.
- Optimize Your Website Using the Best SEO Practice – Some small businesses fail in digital marketing because their websites are not built with search in mind. Having a stunning design alone cannot drive organic traffic if its website structure is incorrect. Your website must have a solid and organized structure to allow search engines to crawl and index your web pages. Examine the logical structure of your website. Start looking at your homepage and check if you can easily find and navigate all the vital web pages quickly.
- Find the Right Keywords – Keyword research helps you find out the right words or phrases used by your target customers when searching for your information related to your products and services. For instance, if you sell appliances, your target customers are more likely to use a keyword like a refrigerator or a slang word like a fridge if they want to purchase online. To stay in front of high intent customers, you have to rank your website for relevant search keywords or phrases that your potential customers use.
- Publish High-Quality Content – People often search the Internet to find answers and solutions to their problems, and a better way to provide them with quality information is by creating and sharing high-quality content tailored for your target audience, but it has to be consistent. Content consistency is vital to your SEO strategy. Publishing and sharing content regularly around a precise range of related keywords and topics can effectively show Google you are an authority and thought-leader in your niche market.
- Set Up Your Google My Business Page – Consider Google My Business (GMB) as the focal point of your small business as it helps maximize your online presence by displaying your crucial information, such as the name, address, and phone number of your business. You can also leverage the different GMB elements (images, videos, reviews, FAQs, and posts) to your advantage.
Optimizing your website for search can be a challenging process. There is no shortcut to a successful SEO campaign. It takes careful planning, time, and effort before you will see the results.
If you do not have the time and skill to focus on online marketing, let a trusted SEO company lift this burden off your shoulder.