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written by Derrick English Jr.
Investing in search engine optimization (SEO) can help your small business obtain real value from your website. When you rank well in Google’s search results relevant to your company’s industry, you can receive an increase in valuable traffic, leads, and sales.
However, being found online isn’t as straightforward as you might think. In fact, even well-established companies struggle to rank high on search engines despite having more resources. This is because there is no way to pay to rank for keywords organically which makes the playing field equal for all businesses. With SEO, you have the same chance at ranking well as large companies with budgets ten times the size of yours.
What is search engine optimization (SEO)?
SEO is the process of getting web pages to rank higher in search engines. In other words, SEO is all about making certain changes to your website design and content to help your website to be more attractive to a search engine.
Since using Google, Bing, or other search engines are one of the main ways in which people discover content online, ranking higher on search engine result pages (SERP) can help your brand to be found and clicked on.
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Why is SEO important for your business?
We bet you don’t spend much time on the second page of Google, so why should your website be there? Every website needs an SEO campaign to get its products or services found. Since about 75% of users never venture past the first page of Google’s results, having an optimized website that ranks high increases your credibility and brand awareness.
In short, SEO is important because it makes your website more visible, which means more traffic and more opportunities to convert visitors into customers. What is more, 53% of buyers say they always do research before they buy to ensure they are making the best possible choice.
How will SEO benefit your business?
It’s important for you to know that an SEO campaign should be viewed as a marathon, and not as a sprint. The better you understand that SEO is an investment that your company must be willing to put in the time and effort to rank on Google’s first page, the more successful your campaigns will be in the long run.
Unlike a lot of traditional marketing efforts, SEO delivers more benefits in the long-run. That means your business will continue to receive the benefits of SEO years after you invested in it. However, to be able to receive those results, it’s critical for you to view SEO as a long-term investment.
With the investment, here are some benefits that your company will receive:
1. SEO drives quality traffic
By appearing on the first page of search results for relevant keywords used by your target audience to find your brand, SEO helps you to earn clicks and visits from the customers that matter most to your business.
2. SEO builds your brand awareness and credibility
SEO helps you rank higher in search results. This means that more people will be able to recognize your brand which they’ll be more likely to choose when it comes time to convert. Your brand will also gain credibility since people trust that the first listings in search results are reputable companies.
3. SEO gets more clicks and is cheaper than PPC
SEO delivers “free” organic traffic each month versus paid search traffic that only comes as long as you pay from month to month. Although PPC ads appear above organic rankings, statistics show that 70% of clicks on search engines go to organic traffic.
4. SEO improves the user experience
Google wants to provide users with the best result for their query. The best result does not only mean the best answer, but it also means the best experience by having quality content and easy to navigate web pages. By improving the user experience, you’ll increase your SEO rankings, keep visitors on your website longer, and receive higher conversion rates.
5. SEO educates potential customers
Producing quality content is an important factor in SEO. In addition to helping you rank higher for a variety of topics, your optimized content (such as a blog, video, podcast, or presentation) is an educational tool that helps you to build trust, loyalty, and quality SEO backlinks. If you want to engage and build a lasting relationship with your target audience, an SEO strategy can help you.
6. SEO grows your local marketing efforts
As the everyday use of smartphones continues to rise so does the rise in local searches. The value of local SEO can be huge if you have a local business because 46% of searches on Google are seeking local recommendations and 80% of local searches convert into a new customer. If you’re not investing in local SEO, you’re excluding your business from potential customers that are ready to buy.
7. SEO delivers an impressive ROI
Compared to traditional marketing channels, SEO requires little cost for big results. Since SEO campaigns focus on targeted searchers who are actively looking for your products and services online, it’s one of the most cost-effective marketing channels.
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Conclusion
After reading this blog, it should come as no surprise that SEO can do wonders for your small business. Search engines are here to deliver the exact results that people need. If you have an optimized website and provide useful content, you can compete with both other small businesses and large corporations.-
There is absolutely no point in having a website if potential customers can’t find it. By investing in SEO, you will be able to increase your website’s visibility which will deliver valuable traffic, leads, and sales to your business.
