So you’ve started a small business (like us!), looked into how to acquire customers and you’ve encountered a tonne of marketing acronyms but one sticks out more often than the others, ‘SEO’. What does it mean? And why is it crucial for the long-term success of your business? As digital specialists we’re here to answer these questions and how to leverage the power of search engines to grow your revenue.
In this day and age Google has become synonymous with everyday life, gone are the days of encyclopaedias on your bookshelf - with a world of knowledge only a few taps away on a multitude of smart devices. A substantial 66% of consumers start their buying journey for large purchases with a simple online search. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is about increasing the online visibility of businesses so you can be at the forefront of your buyer's minds.
In the competitive and digital business market, where billions of searches are happening daily, search engine optimization is imperative for small businesses to grow faster. As a small business owner, you must aim to maintain the highest rankings of your business website possible, as the first five positions of search results get more than 68% of the clicks. SEO gives you a productive opportunity to organically promote your business, drive more traffic, generate more revenue and establish yourself as an expert.
If you're unsure if you should invest in SEO as a small business owner, keep reading to learn why SEO is important for small businesses like yours and how to implement it effectively.
Most small businesses overlook the importance of SEO and invest in other types of paid advertising, such as PPC (pay per click) and banner ads. More than 70% of online marketers believe that SEO is more fruitful for generating sales than PPC. 86% of users prefer to click only on organic search results, ignoring the paid banner ads. All these facts highlight the importance of SEO for small businesses. It helps you promote your brand/product for free, generate leads, build trust, and achieve your revenue goals more efficiently.
The following SEO benefits will encourage you to add it to your online marketing strategy:
Nowadays, each business claims to be an expert in its field and the best in the market. But it's hard for customers to trust a business they see for the first time. SEO strategies fix that inconvenience to customers. It educates people about your business and makes it familiar to the consumers. More than 75% of customers say that they prefer clicking on the results appearing on the first page of the search engine. SEO increases the trust and authority of your business website by showing it at the top of the search results - putting you first for potential customers.
SEO strategies enable small businesses to excel from competitors relying on traditional marketing methods or is a great way to gain the upper hand over direct online competitors. For example, you and your competitor are selling the same product, but the one who is ranking higher on the search engine results page (SERP) results would get more clicks and sales. Investing in SEO is crucial here to ensure you outrank your competitors and gain precious market share.
One of the impressive benefits of SEO is it provides a long-lasting ranking to your business site. Unlike the old marketing strategies where business owners waste an array of money weekly to drive more traffic and boost sales, SEO is a medium-long term strategy and carries long-lasting results. You can think of your rankings for certain high-value keywords as ‘assets,’ whilst it will take a while to gain the top spot for commercial keywords and some financial outlay - once you’ve hit the top spot it will bring in revenue consistently for no extra cost.
Statistics reveal that the bounce rates increase by 38% if your website takes 5 seconds to load and 9% if it takes 2 seconds to load. Effective SEO strategies improve the conversion rate by driving more potential customers to your business site. It makes your website easy to use, fast, and compatible with every screen size. It encourages customers to visit your website, subscribe to your services, or make a purchase, resulting in better conversion rates.
Organic traffic is the shine of every business website because 53.3% of all traffic generates from organic searches. More traffic means more customers and sales, resulting in improved ROI (return on investment). SEO plans make your brand/business visible and aim to enhance the traffic on your website. These strategies target the relevant people by using specific and relevant keywords. It redirects organic traffic to your business website, resulting in more sales.
One of the impressive benefits of SEO is that it can be an inexpensive digital marketing solution to increase your online presence. You can get long-term benefits within your budget as the SEO strategies require only minor tweaks even after the years.
Only good SEO techniques can help you get a higher ranking in SERP results. Follow the below-given SEO tactics to get the most from your SEO efforts.
Focusing on the low competition keywords relevant to your niche is significant for small businesses. It can help you reach a smaller but potentially more specific audience. You must focus on long-tail keywords instead of short ones. For instance, you can use "American leather customized handbags" if you're selling handbags.
Mobile optimization is crucial for business websites as more than 60% of online searches generates from mobile phones. A mobile-friendly website design can help you boost the number of potential buyers. Search engines take notice of the increasing number of mobile phone users and use mobile-responsiveness indexing to determine the ranking of your website.
Change your SEO tactics to reflect the optimization for voice searches. A study by Gartner in 2021 revealed that website investing to support voice and visual searches is expected to increase its revenue by 30%. Above all, approximately 36.4% of the people in the U.S. use voice assistants to conduct searches.
You can get quality backlinks from websites with high domain authority to improve your SEO strategy and get more organic traffic. Analyzing the quality of incoming backlinks is vital because using questionable credential links can reduce your website's domain authority. You can use different platforms, such as Google Search Console, to find the backlinks for your website.
For small businesses, it is crucial to make people aware of your products and services. The effective use of SEO tactics can help you reach a wider and specific audience within your budget. The right SEO strategies can assist you in building credibility and boosting the growth of your small business.
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