The key benefits of SEO for small businesses

Search engine optimization can be very helpful for small business owners who are looking for new customers and want their site to be indexed through online marketing. It can help increase conversion rate and improve search rankings. An SEO strategy is an important part of building brand awareness and helping your small business grow. When you are an independent small business owner, you will want to consider using an SEO company as part of your overall digital marketing strategy.

SEO will help you create a better website

SEO efforts helps to build your web pages quicker to browse and easier to understand and use. SEO for small businesses doesn’t only focus on search engine results, it also focuses on users. When the customers get the results they expect using their search term, they’re happy too. It’s important for small businesses to follow well-designed on-page SEO techniques to enhance user experience and increase your chances of being found on the search engine results pages.

Find new customers and assist in the growth of your small business

When you consider that a web page is important to grow a customer base, it helps increase their trust. The number of small businesses with websites has doubled since 2005, the same for businesses without websites. Small business SEO can improve your search engine rankings, which equates to higher traffic and ideally more potential customers.

Reach your target market early in the buyer’s journey

Consumers who identify pain points are able to look at solutions on major search engines such as Google or BING. Although most people have yet to commit to purchasing a product or service, they are out there looking for options and solutions to their problems. SEO and online marketing are powerful tools to respond to a broad audience and to sell products or services that will solve their problem or make their life easier. The benefits of SEO is that your small business can create immediate brand awareness early on in a potential customers purchase journey.

Better conversion rates

If your website is fast, easily navigated and compatible with smartphones and tablets, it will result in better conversion rates. A prominent advantage to gaining top ranking is branding. Users are more likely to trust the company if the brand appears when searching for the specific word, compared to brands with poor internet visibility. Small businesses who want to increase their visibility would benefit in investing in search engine marketing. It will pay off nicely and is cumulative in nature. It builds on itself and improves over time.

Local SEO helps customers find you

Local SEO is an incredibly important aspect of marketing that cannot be overlooked. 82% of shoppers looking at local businesses visit shops within 5 miles. If you’re found in Google searches or other search engine result pages, you’re more likely to attract new customers. Local SEO involves optimizing your website and online presence with a comprehensive SEO strategy. This is particularly important for businesses that rely on local customers or have a physical location. By implementing effective local SEO strategies, businesses can increase their visibility to potential customers in their area and drive more foot traffic to their brick-and-mortar stores. This can be done through various techniques like optimizing Google My Business profiles, creating local content, building local citations, and other local SEO work. By focusing on local SEO, businesses can gain a competitive edge in their local market and increase their overall online business presence.

Why is local SEO important for small businesses?

About half a million search results on the web are local searches. Even if you search Google regularly, the chances of spotting a business nearby are very high. Google says searches for phrases like “near me today/tonight” have increased 900%.

Identify relevant keywords

Small businesses can struggle ranking keywords with wide-scale scope, such as “barber shop” or “nail art”. The term is extremely competitive. A well-established company whose site contains good quality content will have higher rankings on Google. For small business search engine optimization success, you should first perform keyword research. Focus on longtail keyword searches such as “what spas are safe for pregnant women?”.

Build a dedicated fan base with email marketing

SEO is incredibly effective for boosting traffic and building a loyal customer base by using email advertising. Before social media, email marketing existed and today is one of the major sources for traffic and income. Many bloggers claim their money mainly comes through email lists rather than social networks. SEO brings users who sign up for a newsletter quickly and easily. This helps maximize your SEO investments by increasing your revenue and profits.

Should small businesses invest in expensive SEO tools?

Yes. But not if you don’t know SEO. SEO tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush, which are around $100 a month may be a better choice. You will have a difficult time gaining any returns as you may not have enough time to learn how to fully use them as a small business owner. If you are not willing to pay for SEO services, hire a digital marketing agency who can handle most of the tasks for you.

Create accurate, consistent local citations

Local citations include cases where your business address is mentioned on the Internet, i.e. local business listings. Whatever site you are posting on, make sure you use accurate and reliable data each time you update it, so search results can trust your personal info more easily. If you have inconsistent NAP (name, address, phone number) it will hurt your ranking.

List your business in online local directories

The addition of local business listings to popular search engines including Yahoo, Bing Places, and Google My Business helps search engines verify your business is legitimate. We recommend that you check all of your business information for accuracy including business name, business hours, address and phone number.

It can improve your business on a local and global scale

Growing business opportunities can be realized using search engines as more people search online. SEO helps to get your business on Google search as an important result. How can we compete with big global companies in this market? You can never outperform big companies without an enormous marketing budget, but by using an effective content marketing strategy you can rank for underserved & neglected keywords which your competition may not recognize.