Search Engine Optimisation, or SEO, is an essential component for any small company fighting to be successful, and compete with the big guys.
SEO is able to help small businesses create a pretty fast and user-friendly website which ranks high on search engines, resulting in more potential customers flocking to your site.
Partaking in SEO also helps to build brand awareness for your young business, as search engine users are more likely to trust a site that is featured on the first page of search engine results pages.
Small businesses should take full use of SEO to build a strong web presence and take over your competition to gain new customers in order for you to take your business to that next level.
Every small business needs to have goals, and SEO can help you keep on track with this.
Let’s Keep Updated
Most people are still under the impression that the definition of SEO means only thinking about optimising for search engines.
In today’s world, though, SEO is a little different and leans towards improving your user experiences as well. So, you’re going to need to optimise your website to be search engine friendly, and if this means having to do an all-nighter of SEO research, you just gotta grin and bear it.
What To Consider
I can assure you that search engines are the most popular method we use to look for products and services. In most cases, ‘search’ is a great way to get in front of potential customers, however, this does not mean to say that it is the right marketing approach for every business at any given time.
Before you have decided that you believe SEO is right for your bitesize business, there are a couple of factors I’d suggest you think about before you definitely go ahead with it:
- Budget: You need to consider whether you have the budget to compete with established competitors.
- Patience: SEO isn’t a quick fix. It can take a long time to see results, especially in competitive industries.
- Ads, ads, and more ads: Keep these little things in mind. As you’re probably already of aware of, they take up a lot of space on a screen.
- The big boys: Some search terms are going to be entirely dominated by the more established companies, and who you’re going to compete against.
Now, let’s focus on the positives!
Allows You To Bring in More Customers
I’m just going to put it out there, we can all agree that this is one of, if not the main reason for having a website which will stand out from your competition and ramp up your clientele. Why else would you invest all that money?
The businesses which have an SEO optimised website are sure to bring in a lot more customers and grow twice as fast, compared to a business that doesn’t have one. SEO is potentially the most efficient and affordable marketing strategy there is in the digi-sphere. Additionally, it will only bring in customers who are specifically trying to find the product or service that you provide.
If you’re able to spend time, energy and a small amount of money, SEO is going to bring in the targeted traffic to your website, and eventually, more customers will come to your business. Pretty savvy, right?
Improved Conversion Rates
You’re going to make life a lot easier for all of your (soon-to-be) customers as SEO-optimised websites load much faster, are easier to read and surf, and will display correctly on mobile devices and tablets and so on. Websites that are easy to read and find your way around are going to hold the attention from customers, and end up being loyal customers and returning visitors.
Up Your Brand Awareness
One of the benefits of getting higher rankings on Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) is being able to hike up your brand awareness.
If, or when, your website appears on the first page of a search engine, whether it’s Google, Yahoo or Bing, your potential customers are more likely to trust your brand.
This is why a small business who wants to build better brand awareness should strongly consider investing in SEO and start gaining top rankings for their keyword terms related to their business.
What do you Need?
I recommend five tips to get you started on the SEO journey for a small business:
- Keyword Research: First thing’s first, you should not begin the SEO journey without finding specific keywords which are relevant to your product or service. This process is going to help you to understand what your potential customers are searching when trying to find your product or service. Looking for keywords with medium to low competition and the highest possible search volume (it’ll all make sense).
- Using keywords in content and metadata: Once you’ve found the appropriate keywords, then you use those in the title tag, description tag, website title and throughout the content of your website.
- Create backlinks: These are links which come from another website, which link to your own. They can be gained from creating directory listings, guest blogging and contributing to forums.
- Social Media: I’d definitely suggest you get on board with social media platforms on behalf of your business. Granted, some might not be quite right for your business tone, but the general consensus is there are many benefits from doing so. Networking through social media can spread the name of your business, and can be far more successful when compared to traditional ‘word-of-mouth’.
- Up-to-date content: Bear with me. I know it’s easy for me to say, working for a content-based digital marketing agency, but keeping your site relevant is essential. The more valuable content you have, the greater your chances of Google pulling through your site in the search results.
What Are You Waiting For?
Yes, that’s right. If you’re a small business, then you’ll know first hand how difficult it is to get your name heard in such a competitive world.
SEO is a brilliant idea for businesses who are simply wanting to get more customers, more attention, and most importantly, increased revenue.
Using the SEO tools I’ve mentioned in this blog is going to put you in good stead for being on track to the best business of the year (dream big, folks).
If you’d like to hear how we began our SEO journey, not too long ago, please contact us at Strawberry Forge HQ today.
