SEO and small businesses

SEO or search engine optimization is the process of modifying your site or parts of it to get recognized by search engines. This recognition is rewarded through a higher ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs). The higher your rank, the better for your business. Businesses should aim to rank on the first SERP because no one scrolls past the first page. People only ever scroll to about the fifth result on the first page. So, if you’re not going to use PPC to make your business known, SEO would be your best bet.

SEO strategy 

SEO is a great asset because it provides a neutral platform for small businesses with a limited budget to compete with giants in their niche. Small business owners create fast, robust, and user-friendly websites that rank higher in search engines. This helps bring more qualified potential customers to their sites and increases conversion rates.

We’ve covered a step-by-step SEO strategy to help you figure out where to start your journey. It’s time to figure out what SEO can do for your small business. 

Advantages of SEO for small businesses

Cheaper marketing

The heart of SEO is digital marketing. You are going through all the trouble of ensuring your site is SERP-worthy to drive more traffic and build sustainable revenue. If you don’t have the funds to pay for PPC advertising, the best way to drive traffic would be through SEO. 

Pros of this are that it is considerably cheaper than PPC, you can do it yourself, and organic traffic from SEO is more valuable.

Create fast and robust websites

SEO will help small business owners create a faster, smoother, and user-friendlier website. Although most people still hang on to the old definition of SEO, thinking it is only about optimizing for the search engines, today, SEO is also about improving user experience.

Well-structured, clean, and uncluttered websites compel visitors to stay longer, decreasing bounce rate and increasing page views. Similarly, highly relevant content keeps your readers happy as they are more likely to answer their questions, solve their pressing issues, and help them find exactly what they’re looking for on your site.

Uncover growth opportunities

One great benefit of how small business SEO works is competitive analysis. Many businesses are competing for the same keywords and the same customers. 

Analyzing your competitors’ strengths and weaknesses is crucial to the success of your business. This will help uncover opportunities for growth that your competitors are yet to tap into.  

Let’s take an example of two businesses in the same industry, selling similar products at similar prices. One has an optimized website, while the other has a non-optimized website. Keeping all other factors equal, the optimized site will rank higher on search engines, attracting more visitors.

Reach your target audience

SEO practices for a small business are one of the easiest and cheapest ways to reach your target audience. An online presence will mean more people looking to hire your services will find you. 

SEO’s role in this is higher ranking, driving traffic to your website, and potentially expanding your client base.

Create brand awareness

97% of people learn more about a local small business online than anywhere else. People searching for your business will look for your website first. People want to know more before buying through websites, reviews, images, and competitors. Without clear online visibility, you’re leaving a hole of knowledge that may push customers elsewhere.

An SEO strategy helps businesses rank better on search engines. It’s important to note that Google does not allow websites to pay for crawling and indexing, making it a level playing field for any business to rank for a specific keyword. 

Better conversion rates

Seo-optimized websites load faster, are easy to read and surf, and display properly on almost all devices, including mobile and tablets. Websites that are easy to read and navigate are more likely to grab and hold the attention of your readers or visitors. Visitors who stay on your page or those who come back help with click-through conversions. 

Monitoring and reporting guarantee quality results.

Constant monitoring and reporting are also crucial in growing your SEO efforts. Monthly reporting schedules help you stay in the loop by showing the actions taken to increase your online presence. This also helps ensure the best approach to targeting the right people at the right time. Ultimately, this helps lead to quality results that increase your potential to turn visitors into paying customers.

Small business SEO is a long-term game with even longer-lasting results. Businesses typically start to see movement in search results at the six-month mark. Once you are there, ranking for a keyword, it is much easier to maintain and continue to write and publish content relevant to your search term. 

SEO strategies help with quality link-building

A crucial aspect of growing your small business via SEO is link building. Building links with websites that are relevant to your cause is good for your SEO. For a small AirBnBlooking to increase its online presence, they might want to work to build links with travel websites. Relevant and quality links like these help bring high-quality traffic to your site and help increase your page ranking.

Our small business SEO packages start with a minimum of one link per month. We will help write the content and publish guest articles featuring your business on relevant sites. We do this by reaching out constantly with new topics and content ideas to our backlinking partners. Backlinking can be a challenging job. Let us do the work for you!

Build market authority

The ultimate goal of SEO for any business providing online services is to ensure that searchers get the best quality and relevant results based on their searches. Because of this, search engines only rank the best possible results that answer queries. 

An SEO strategy for a small business will help in ranking, perhaps even the first SERP. Good rankings signify to other people in the market that your content is of good quality and can be trusted as a source. 

Building this market authority will lead to more people sharing your content on other social media platforms or recommending you to potential customers through word of mouth. 

Do it yourself or hire an expert.

It is possible to implement SEO yourself or hire the services of a professional. We have listed great resources from our SEO playlist to help you navigate the industry. 

The decision to do SEO yourself or hire a professional boils down to:

• SEO funds you have. SEO can vary from cheap to very expensive. Hiring the services of an expert will require money. If you are working with a limited budget, consider doing it yourself.
• SEO services. Some services are simple enough to implement by yourself, but others are more complex and require a professional’s expertise.

SEO for small businesses: Takeaway

Small businesses are benefiting more than ever from search engine ranking efforts. SEO is necessary if you wish to rank well on the first page and drive traffic to your business. Employ an SEO strategy by doing it yourself or hiring a professional to take care of it. SEO strategies are known to have a high ROI (Return On Investment) and will boost your business’s visibility.