There is a lot of mysticism surrounding SEO because most business owners do not understand what it actually is. Every single person in the industry knows the memes surrounding “what people think we do”.
We laugh about them, but there is a huge truth behind them:
Business owners often fail to understand how SEO helps and why experienced marketers never neglect it. You cannot talk about an online marketing strategy without website SEO.
Search engine optimisation is actually the cheapest way to increase your traffic and profit in the long run. However, many do not see this because they focus on quick gains.
Let me tell you the most important thing about SEO services:
SEO is meant to be always used. You NEED to keep using it. This can make you think that other better options are available since you are most likely used to regular small business promotion strategies, like advertising to increase brand awareness.
HOWEVER
If you use SEO and work with an experienced SEO company, you can always be highly competitive in the industry.
Just think about these statistics (we also have more here if you want to read them):
- Search engines generate 90% of all organic traffic.
- 81% of people now use search engines to research before buying something.
- 64% of people using search engines depend on them to make the final buying decision.
These statistics alone should highlight the importance of search engine optimisation for all businesses. But, if you still have doubts, here’s exactly how SEO services help a small business grow.
Table Of Contents
- Increased Inbound Traffic
- SEO Delivers More Customers
- SEO Increases Brand Credibility And Trust
- Local SEO Offers Highly Converting Traffic
- Increased Business Referrals
- SEO Offers Long-Term Results
- SEO Has The Very Best ROI
- SEO Increases Brand Value
- Modern SEO Focuses On Creating User-Friendly Experiences
- Search Engine Optimisation Makes Customers Come To Your Business
- Conclusions
Increased Inbound Traffic
When you want more business, you need more exposure. This is logical, and for most businesses, different marketing methods are necessary to increase website traffic.
At the end of the day, you want sales.
As a business owner, you are tempted to think that you have to run several ads. We are also naturally used to outbound, old-school practices, like cold-calling, or maybe TV ads.
The problem with using most marketing channels is they are costly. And when you do not invest, you do not get results. With search engine optimisation, the results you get now linger around for a long time.
Even if you stop doing SEO work, it will still take some time for your competition to catch up.
SEO is very cost-effective and organically increases inbound traffic. Even more than that. It attracts high-quality inbound traffic, which is paramount for high conversion rates.
SEO Delivers More Customers
You can easily differentiate your site from your competition when it is informative and well-structured. But, you can have the very best website in the world and not make a single sale if people do not find it.
It does not matter what stage the business is at. It would be best if you always had a steady flow of customers. As a business owner, you want to increase sales and profit. And it is the website that stands out as the best tool to do this in the modern digital age.
One of the clearest ways in which SEO helps your business is through the delivery of more customers.
Remember that modern shoppers now use Google and social media to learn more about the services and products they want to buy. They expect you to have a site.
If your website does not appear high in search rankings, you automatically miss out on countless potential customers.
Obviously, increasing a customer base is far more complicated than just increased exposure. Targeted exposure is necessary.
Search engine optimisation offers exactly that. It attracts the correct type of traffic and allows the business owner to quickly figure out what type of content works for promotional purposes.
Although SEO does not offer overnight results, they translate in increased sales when you start to get results.
SEO Increases Brand Credibility And Trust
When you have an online presence, your reputation is one of the most important things you have to focus on. Real authority can have a hugely positive effect on any business, even if it takes a lot of time to appear.
The brand you want to promote needs authority to be trusted by potential customers.
One of the big reasons you want to consider investing in effective SEO seriously is that it will help build brand credibility and trust. This first starts with Google.
As Google trusts your site more, extra traffic appears. Then, customers start to notice.
Remember that many search engine users think that the credible business is always found on Google’s first page. Prospects see this as a sign of trust and authority.
Appearing on other search engine results pages does not offer great results, especially for a small business.
Local SEO Offers Highly Converting Traffic
The niche you operate in is completely irrelevant because local SEO will always help the business grow. (As long as it is done right, of course).
Why Is This The Case?
The number of people that now use mobile devices to look for local businesses is constantly growing. Local search now needs to be a part of any business's online marketing strategy with a physical location that services customers.
Remember this important statistic:
Such a percentage cannot be neglected. Also, you might want to know the following:
- 97% of all consumers now look for local services and goods online.
- 4 out of 5 consumers look for local information with search engines.
- Only 37% of businesses claimed their local business listing.
We should also highlight that a large part of local SEO is building citations in local online directories and review websites. All of these are beneficial because they boost online visibility.
Conversions are automatically increased when potential customers find businesses at the appropriate time, which local SEO tries to do.
We can help you with your local SEO campaign, but you might also want to know the following general tips:
- Always get the business listed on GMB (Google My Business).
- Always keep contact details updated and the same across the site and everywhere else, like directory listings and social media pages.
- Try to obtain as many reviews as you can.
- Focus on increasing the small business' visibility among local businesses that complement the services offered.
- Try to create local, high-quality content to improve local search rankings.
- Try to obtain local backlinks from targeted businesses. You may also want to build strong relationships with the local sites that operate in the industry, those with very high domain authority.
- Do not underestimate the benefits associated with using social media channels. The small business can get exposed to a much higher audience with a few local, targeted shares.
Increased Business Referrals
It is a well-known fact that when you rank on Google’s first page for specific, targeted keywords, you attract more potential customers. Basically, when the site ranks high, you get increased attention.
One Thing
What is not well-known is that SEO can also help you with increased industry reputation. Businesses that do not compete with you directly can find you.
If their customer base or audience is the same as yours and your services can complement theirs, you will be contacted.
Basically, when you rank high in search engine results, you have businesses reaching out. They will give you new referrals as you give them extra referrals.
This bartering type is critical in modern business since networking and cooperation can easily help brands grow together.
If you want to increase business referrals through SEO services, remember that:
- Local SEO is, by far, your best friend.
- Both potential customers and search engines like Google want to see a great user experience.
- Combine inbound marketing with SEO for higher conversion.
Simply put, treat your website well, and you will be contacted by other businesses that find you through Google Search.
Example
As an example, we run an SEO business. Let’s say we would not offer web design (although we do). In this case, it would be wonderful for us to work with an experienced web developer/designer. When the designer has clients requesting SEO work, we would be contacted. When we would get clients that would need web design work, we would refer them to the partner.
Bartering is a great way for small businesses to increase profits. This also increases search ranking in the long run because of the quality backlinks you get, all while being cost-effective.
SEO Offers Long-Term Results
Let’s think about traditional marketing strategies, like outdoor ads, print ads, and TV ads. All of these have one huge disadvantage, especially for a small business:
They are 100% time-bound.
When you stop paying for the ads, you no longer have the associated benefits, and your business website no longer receives traffic.
With SEO, the results you get now will be visible for a very long time. In fact, it is much easier to keep top-ranking positions than to get them.
Search engine optimisation offers long-lasting results. You automatically stand out from your entire competition if you are high in search engines and people trust you more. All this has a snowball effect you will surely appreciate.
The big problem is:
Most businesses think that SEO is not worth it because the process is really slow. With traditional marketing channels, results are instant. You buy a PPC ad, and you get traffic. It is completely understandable to think that search engine optimisation is not worth it.
What has to be understood is that SEO is meant to be used for a long time. After you decide to invest in it, real visibility is obtained for years or months to come. You can easily dominate search results once you get high.
Simply put,
The return on investment is just a lot better with search engine optimisation strategies, especially when using a proper content marketing approach.
Another thing you should know is that SEO keeps evolving and is very complex.
You might not get all the results you want, especially in a short timeframe, but eventually, the more SEO work you do, the better results you get! Even if you do not rank high for your money keywords, you will still have growing site traffic and more conversions.
SEO Has The Very Best ROI
We have to talk more about the return on investment when discussing SEO. Simply compare search engine optimisation with all the other digital marketing methods and offline advertising. You will instantly realise that ROI is higher with SEO.
The main reason why SEO has such a high ROI is that, when done right, your business is automatically connected with the right target audience.
Make Sure You Remember this!
Statistics show us that 40% of the SEO campaigns that measure ROI achieve returns of up to 500%. Compare this with PPC, which only gets such results in 22% of cases.
Remember that people do not hate SEO because they do not really see it. They do see all the ads that appear around them. And the truth is that there are way too many ads bombarding us every single day.
Hard-selling is quickly becoming less and less effective, while SEO becomes more and more effective. Your entire digital marketing journey becomes easier with proper SEO since people find you, as opposed to you looking for customers.
SEO Increases Brand Value
There is an old saying in marketing: “people buy from people”. This was translated into branding. The stronger brands are trusted and respected. Potential customers tend to choose businesses that present high brand value.
SEO is beneficial for every single business out there as it increases brand value. This is possible without cost increases. You make small investments and build brand value, which can easily land more customers.
An Example
Let’s take a look at media and print advertising space. It is costly to boost brand value with traditional marketing. When you choose to use SEO as the main tool to increase brand value, you get results faster and with a smaller investment.
Never underestimate how potential customers automatically trust a brand more when it appears high in search engine results. And SEO is one of the best ways to increase brand trust.
Modern SEO Focuses On Creating User-Friendly Experiences
This is one of the huge advantages of using search engine optimisation that few business owners understand. We completely understand why, since so many SEO specialists out there still use outdated strategies that simply do not work anymore.
With modern SEO, one of the main focuses is creating a friendly UX (user experience).
Google wants to prioritise the best possible results. This is why websites that look poor, have bad navigation, or load too slowly are pushed down the rankings.
One of the first things we do when a new client trusts us with increasing their search engine rankings is to create a user-friendly experience for site visitors. We actually often recommend numerous web design changes before we even start working on optimisation.
Numerous things can make a true difference to search engine rankings from a user experience point of view. This ranges from how fast pages load to the mobile-friendly experience created.
Fortunately, when you offer a perfect experience for your visitors, you also get higher conversion rates. This translates into increased profits.
Search Engine Optimisation Makes Customers Come To Your Business
With traditional marketing strategies, your business only gets results for the duration of your investments. We already mentioned that, but we have to highlight a secondary advantage of doing website SEO that is most likely not noticed.
We are talking about the fact that a small business needs to work hard to get clients. SEO can help get higher ranking positions. This means that customers will find the small business instead of the small business reaching out to potential clients.
Always make sure that you invest at least some money in on-page SEO and off-page SEO. Even small amounts can help. SEO can help every single small business get more clients.
The bottom line is this steady flow of customers is exactly what a small business needs to grow.
Conclusions
Digital marketing is getting more and more complex every year, and SEO services often change their focus, usually after every single Google update. Search engines like Google work hard to offer the best possible results. SEO specialists work hard to climb rankings in search engines. This is an ever-going dance that never ends. But small business owners do not care about that. They care about the results.
Search engine optimisation helps every single digital marketing campaign because it focuses on user experience and then delivers higher search engine rankings. As a result, SEO can help get more customers, increase exposure on social media, lead, and overall increase visibility for a product or service.
Simply put, a good SEO strategy will give the small business more money in the long term.
This is due to the results gained. But at the end of the day, it is effortless to miss the mark and not understand how using SEO is beneficial for a business.
Do you want to enhance your digital marketing campaigns? Focus On Search Engines!
You simply HAVE to use SEO services. There is no way around that.
Nowadays, more and more people use the internet every single day to look for your small business. SEO can help put your business in front of the right target audience, increase brand awareness, and get products and services sold. Having a business website is not enough if you do not get traffic and SEO will help you get the traffic that converts.
