Does A Small Business Website Need SEO?
Only if a small business hopes to thrive in a saturated market, establish a meaningful digital presence, and effectively leverage the power of digital marketing. More and more businesses both big and small are turning towards SEO in order to help bring in better traffic and boost their profit. Yet many small businesses still doubt the power of SEO, and their digital performance struggles as a result.
High Conversions
One of the biggest draws to SEO strategies is the leads that they generate are from intent-driven queries. Why wait for someone to meander onto your small business website serendipitously when you can bring in prequalified leads who are already looking for goods and services such as yours? Searches like ‘mechanic near me’ or ‘voted best local gluten-free donuts’ reflect a desire or need. It’s not curiosity-driven, there is a sense of urgency, and the person performing the search is already committed to taking action. If they are able to find someone who can meet that need after a few mere seconds of scrolling they’re more likely to take the plunge.
If you’re interested in bringing in people who are desperate to throw money at a business such as your own then you might as well put a Wacky Waving Inflatable Tube Guy by your front door and call it a day.
Building Brand Awareness
When you’re searching for something online, how many pages of results do you go through before arbitrarily stopping and saying to yourself “Yeah, I guess this one looks good enough?” Trick question, no one does that anymore. Search engines play a major role in establishing brand awareness now, and the higher a site’s ranking is the more reliable and legitimate the business is deemed to be. The number one spot has to be earned after all, so if you’re at the top then it’s assumed you’re doing something right. It doesn’t matter how great your goods and services actually are, because no one is going to remember you if they can’t see you in the first place.
Give Competitors A Run for Their Money
The truth is that your competitors are already using SEO techniques to boost their own traffic and sales performance. Not implementing SEO strategies yourself is about as helpful as sending them a fruit basket with a QR code to your mailing list in the card. Rather than jovially hand your business over to the competition, you can use SEO to bring in new traffic that would otherwise go their way. SEO will also help you snag the rankings away from competitors who aren’t using it or aren’t using it as well as they could.
User-Friendly Experience
SEO has undergone a transformation in recent years, one that focuses less on the dictionary definition of “search engine optimization” and more on what people want to see when they click on your site. If keywords alone were all you needed then with enough keyword stuffing you could skyrocket your site’s rank straight to the top. But your rank is also affected by your bounce rate, page views, and how long people stay on your site. Keeping your small business website low on clutter and high on delivering what people want is a necessary component for your SEO strategy. Casual browsers will stick around a little longer if they like what they see, dedicated inquirers will interact more readily if they can find what they need, and search engines will reward you for making their users happy.
Small businesses can sometimes feel pressured to go all out with their sites, embellishing with graphics and design and blog content and a bunch of other superfluous things that ultimately hurt your ranking. Don’t cave to peer pressure- a tempered, quasi-minimalist approach is all you need.
The Way of the Future
If nothing else, remember that SEO strategies have been around for decades. They have withstood the test of time, consistently proving themselves to be just as much a part of the future of marketing and advertising as they have been part of its past. Search engine optimization is here to stay, and if you intend to do the same then you need to get in on the SEO action. Your website and even social media will be optimized enough to hold a vice-like grip on a high ranking even in the face of those fickle algorithms and must-read-the-fine-print policy changes.
The business world is an ever-changing one, and it’s easy to get lost in the shuffle if you don’t have someone with strong marketing savvy on your side. Stay ahead of the curve, stay in the know, and stay at the top of the search engine rankings by partnering with a marketing agency that has a SMASHing track record for helping elevate businesses just like yours. Get in touch with us today!
