‘Is SEO worth it for small businesses?’ might be the question you’ve just typed into Google. A quick search on SEO may bring up results saying SEO is dead, however this is a common misconception that has hindered the understanding of the value of SEO for small businesses.
SEO has evolved. Parameters have changed for what search engines now deem valuable. Gone are the days of keyword stuffing, the focus is now on providing information that is relevant to the right person at the right time. Content should now focus on providing a solution to that person’s intent. Those who have not caught up have now been caught out.
But what does that mean for small businesses? We’ve heard on a number of occasions during our initial consultations that some small businesses don’t believe SEO is important enough to invest in, it’s just something they will look at ‘if they have time’ or they think it is only valuable to larger businesses.
But this thought process needs challenging, as it could not be further from the truth. SEO is an opportunity that should be integrated within your marketing strategy, in order to provide the most value to the largest audience. But how?
Take this example. One of our clients came to us wanting some content created for their website. After running through how our content creation process works, we mentioned that a keyword analysis would need to be completed first.
‘Why?’, they said, ‘I only want some blogs writing.’
‘Okay, so what topics would you like us to write about?’, we challenged them.
‘Well, we’re not sure, whatever you think people will be interested about.’
In order to find the topics which people will be interested in, we needed to understand the target audience - what were their customers searching for already, what were competitors writing about within the industry and what keywords were already driving the traffic to their site. One of the first places to look for this information is to type a relevant query into Google and see what results appear on the first page of the SERPs. And how do they appear on the SERPs? Through SEO.
The importance of SEO for small businesses
#1 Helps improve conversions
What do you use search engines for? Usually, you are looking for more information or looking to purchase something. When your website pages are optimised correctly for both informational and transactional search terms, organic traffic tends to convert well as customers have already expressed their intent for buying a product or service by asking Google.
Of course, the ability for a consumer to convert also comes down to your website design and structure. SEO-optimised websites, which takes into account technical and on-page SEO, ensures that your website is user friendly, well structured and available on multiple devices, in order to appear on SERPs in the first place.
#2 Keeping up with competitors
You probably didn’t gasp at the expense of getting your website built in the first place because you understood the value of it to your small business. One of the main reasons for having a website is to stand out from your competitors and increase your customer base. But what is the point of having a well-built website, if only a few can find it?
If you’re wondering why your key competitors tend to be performing better, chances are they have already invested in SEO. They aren’t relying on people coming to their website through other marketing channels.
By not having an SEO strategy in place for your business, not only are you missing out on potential leads but those leads may be going to your competitors.
#3 Building brand awareness
One of the biggest benefits of increasing your position in SERPs is building brand awareness. When your site appears on the first page of Google or Bing, your potential customers are more likely to click onto sites that are higher in the rankings as they are more likely to trust that your site matches what they are looking for.
By gaining top rankings for the key search terms related to your business offering, your visibility improves, which in turn helps to increase organic traffic and potentially improve your conversion rate.
Another key area of SEO which is beneficial in building brand awareness is investing in an outreach strategy. Backlinks, especially those which are associated with websites with a high domain authority, are a key ranking factor. By targeting the right sites for your target audience through partnerships or guest blogs for example, you can increase the number of relevant links going back to your site, again increasing the chances of you appearing higher up in the results pages.
#4 Understanding your customer
SEO metrics tell us exactly what customers are looking for (through their search queries) and what they are interested in (by taking a look at behaviour on your website).
The data captured in Google Search Console, Google Analytics and other SEO tools which track keywords gives us clear signals of user intent and behaviour, which is key to understanding what keywords to target and how to optimise your pages to boost conversion.
#5 Support local
With mobile searches now surpassing desktop, more people than ever are doing research on the go. By investing in local SEO, you can optimise your website and content marketing for a specific vicinity, so people are able to find you quicker and easier. This is great for small businesses because it means that people are searching for things at the exact time that they need them, meaning they are already one step closer to making a purchase.
A recent rollout by Google also means there is added focus on how your website performs on mobile. This makes SEO even more important to ensure your website is best optimised for mobile search in order to appear in the rankings.
#6 Results are quantifiable
SEO will help bring targeted traffic to your website and has the potential to reach even more customers than any other marketing tactics. It also stands to ‘future proof’ your business - by investing now and making the right changes as search engine algorithms evolve, it can keep you relevant and help you to stay on top of the competition.
SEO is also relatively inexpensive in the grand scheme of things, and the return on investment will most likely be considerable in terms of long-term benefit.
The overall goal of any SEO strategy is to establish strong foundations of a website with a clean user experience, which is easily discoverable in search, with attractive content used to dress the windows of your site and lure searches in, to boost trust and credibility of your brand for long term success.
We may be a bit biased, but we believe our expert team of SEO and content marketers are the best of the pick. We know what it takes to get your small business visible on search and build a long-standing SEO strategy. Contact us today to arrange a free consultation so we can best match our services to your small business needs.
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