In the past year, several of our clients have seen significant increases in their organic traffic and conversions. As we begin to incorporate more search engine optimization into our client marketing strategy, we want to share 5 reasons why small businesses need SEO in order to attract and convert more potential customers.
In writing this, I will go over a few basic aspects of what SEO includes, but I will not go too far into detail because that information is widely available online. Instead, I want to focus on the long-term ROI small businesses can specifically gain from implementing an effective SEO campaign. If you are interested in an overview on what SEO is and includes, I highly recommend checking out this article from Moz.
Let’s get into it.
SEO Increases Your Exposure and ROI
Fundamentally, SEO is about optimizing your website content so that search engines like Google show your content at the top of search queries. If you do this well enough for your priority pages, you begin to increase your organic reach over time.
For small businesses, this means more (unpaid) eyes on your content and chances to convert valuable customers.
For example, one of our industrial clients has received 23% more organic traffic YTD than in 2020, and over 56% more organic conversions after implementing SEO into their marketing strategy.
That exposure to their target audience would not have been possible without the following SEO tactics:
- Optimizing their current content to specifically match high volume search queries
- Fixing technical issues that were hindering visitors from converting
- Developing new content marketing ideas to grow their reach and add value
An Optimized Website Converts More Visitors
A site optimized for search converts at a higher rate. Why is that?
In the example above, we were able to identify technical issues on their site as well as on-page optimization opportunities that dramatically increased conversion rate.
The reason changes like resulted in more leads is because instead of focusing on your business or your design, your content focus shifts to specifically what users are searching for.
For example, our client had pages designed and optimized for “portable wash pads”. However, after doing SEO research, we were able to determine that potential customers were actually searching for “portable wash racks” more often, even though they are the same product. By optimizing for “portable wash racks” throughout their site, we were able to increase their ranking for related keywords, gain new exposure, and convert at a higher level.
Content optimization is only part of the puzzle, though. Having a technically sound website will also increase your conversion rate.
What goes into technical SEO for small businesses?
- Site speed
- Site map and navigation
- Redirects
- UX (user experience)
- Crawlability
- and more…
SEO Helps You Find New Opportunities
As I mentioned, SEO is not only about optimizing what is currently on your website, but it is also about content marketing research in order to find new opportunities.
As part of our monthly SEO services, we perform content research in order to discover trending topics and subtopics in your industry niche. After identifying a list of high opportunity topics, we can provide guidance on how to develop content to rank for new keywords, or write it ourselves.
This is they key to scaling your SEO once you have optimized your current content and technical issues.
Discover How to Beat Your Competitors
Another reason why small businesses need SEO is to gain competitive insight.
SEO tools today allow us to not only track keywords vs. competitors, but also discover keywords that your competitors are ranking for that you might not be. This information is extremely valuable in order to identify weaknesses in your content mix and gain new opportunities.
By analyzing your competitors websites, you can also identify authoritative websites that are linking to their content. At the end of the day, all things being equal, if your competitor has websites linking to it with a high reputation, they are going to rank above you.
Backlinks to your website are paramount to your long term SEO success, and would require several blogs just to get into the basics. If you have not heard of these before, I recommend reading this blog from SEMRush.
Local SEO Helps Users Find Small Businesses
An important slice of the ‘SEO pie’ is how easy it is for users to find your small business on maps and local listings.
By creating consistent local business listings with enough information about your location and services, search engines are able verify they are ranking the correct business.
One of the key local listings we optimize for our clients is a Google Business Profile, which displays information on the side of search results, contact information, map directions, reviews, updates, and more. If you do not have one currently, we highly recommend creating one, getting it verified, and begin collecting reviews.
Why Small Businesses Need SEO
At the end of the day, a strong SEO campaign helps small businesses get in front of potential customers. Even though SEO is a long-term game, imagine what an increase of up to 50% or more leads per month could do for your business.
By optimizing your website for what your prospects are actually searching for, developing a technically sound infrastructure, and developing valuable new content, your small business can reap these benefits.
If you would like to learn more about how we can help grow your small business with SEO, please reach out to us here.
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