Is SEO worth it for small businesses? This is something that I’m asked time and time again - surely with the huge boom in social media marketing and social media ads, SEO is on the back burner now, and no one reads blogs anymore, right? Wrong (and I’m not just saying that as an SEO specialist either.) Here’s why SEO for small businesses, just like yours, has never been so important. Stand by for some stats, and also some juicy tips you can take away and action, because that’s why you’re here - right?

What is SEO?

SEO stands for search engine optimisation, it’s the process of using targeted keywords and phrases on your website in order to rank higher in search engines like Google. SEO is organic, compared to paid like PPC. It’s what we consider to be evergreen content, in the way that organic results won’t disappear like paid ads will. But it’s also more than that; SEO also covers website usability and good website structure. If humans can’t understand your website, then bots can’t either. A good web designer should always build with this in mind. A confusing website will lose any potential web traffic you get, and the best SEO in the world won’t convert into paying customers or clients.

SEO covers these four main ingredients: Keywords (including low keywords), good website structure, well-written content and relevant backlinks (aka digital PR and citations). Keywords focus on the terms your audience are using to find companies like yours, it’s irrelevant to use terms you think describe you - it’s essential to amend your copy to target actual search terms. To do this, we conduct keyword research. Keyword research looks at your client base, location, difficulty and relevancy. As mentioned, website structure is paramount to onsite SEO, a well-laid out site will lead your clients in and make it easy for them to find what they need. It increases dwell time and reduces bounce time. Content is key to SEO - you want to answer your client's pain points. By creating info posts, blogs and good content you address the questions users are searching for; this is where your keyword research comes in. Backlinks are signals to search engines that your website is trustworthy; it’s also the perfect opportunity to work on your PR - win-win! Don’t get caught up in backlink farming, you want to create good quality links from websites that speak to your ideal audience. It’s best to have one killer backlink over thousands of bad-quality pointless backlinks.

SEO is about getting your website found on search engines, by users who already know what they are looking for, and a solid SEO strategy goes a long way to making this happen- SEO won’t teach users, but tells them that they’ve found what they are looking for. SEO services, like mine, are designed to make this process as easy as possible for you. SEO takes time, it takes learning, research, measurement and resources - something busy business owners like you don’t have time to invest in. It’s important to understand that SEO can’t directly increase your sales - that’s the job of your sales team and ensuring that your offering is hitting the mark. SEO can lead a horse to water, but it can’t make it drink.

How can SEO help your business?

Here’s the crunch, you are a busy business owner. You know that SEO is a thing, it’s been on your to-do list forever and it’s just not being done. You may have done a bit of keyword research or asked your friends what they would look for to find a company like yours, but that’s about it. You’ve got this spanking new website, that you are super proud of, and no one is looking at it. You know you should be getting more traffic, you can see your competitors sitting like ducks in a row along the top spots on Google, but you are languishing in the mud below. Sigh. So how can you get yourself seen? Search engine optimisation services take all that away from you, so you can deal with the day-to-day running of your business. SEO is a full-time job when done well and done properly. Frankly, if you aren’t investing the time, then you just won’t be found on search. When it comes to SEO, I can promise that if you do nothing then you won’t start to rank for what you do.

SEO can help businesses by putting you in front of the users who are searching for companies just like yours. To do this, we drill down into your target audience - we want to niche your keywords down and find the real terms being used to find websites that answer their queries.

Keyword research for small business

The biggest mistake I see time and time again is the small businesses trying to take on the big fish. It isn’t going to happen, at least, not yet. Basically, you need to understand your place in search engine ranking. For example, say your website currently scores 1/10 and your biggest competitor scores 10/10 - you are going to have quite the fight on your hands. I’m not saying it can’t be done, you just need to understand which keywords you will want to target. Use free tools like Moz keyword tool, Ahref keyword explorer or the beast itself, Google keyword planner and follow the steps. My top tip for assigning keywords is to use as many long-tailed keywords as possible, the more descriptive you can be the better your conversion rate - your traffic will be less, but the average conversion rates for long-tail keywords are 4.15% higher than the conversion rates for short-tail keywords. You also want to look at the competition - if the competition is high, don’t do it, even if the search volume is low. Ideally, you want low competition but a high search rate - sometimes this is considered to be the holy grail of keywords, but they are out there, so take the time for keyword research as it will pay off in the long run. Again, good organic SEO is all about the long game: it’s a marathon, not a sprint.

Organic SEO is slower than PCC

This is true, organic SEO is slower than PPC. If you are in a rush and need instant results then you can look into running PPC alongside your organic. It’s vitally important that you don’t let your organic side, like I mentioned earlier in this blog, organic SEO is considered to be evergreen. When your ad spend runs out, so does your ad and in turn, your traffic dries up with it. Your organic SEO never runs out, once it’s ranking (and you keep on top of your SEO), it will stay there.

SEO is more trustworthy than PPC

If you are a small business owner, then investing in organic SEO and PPC can be a costly venture - and neither are guaranteed in terms of results, sales or conversions. So which should you choose? It’s true that people don’t always trust ads - and ad blindness is a real thing. Over 70% of users will scroll past an ad to get to the organic results below. People don’t like being told what to do, or what to buy. They want to make their own decisions and in a world of constant ad bombardment, search engines are no different. Trust carries users over to your website, so keep that trust by showing them what they want and why they should trust you enough to invest in you. As long as you are targeting the right keywords, your conversions will follow. The beauty of organic SEO is, is that it’s a minor investment compared to costly ads.

So, is SEO worth it?

Ultimately, SEO is worth it if you can invest time and money into it. The changes you make today will see an effect six months down the line, so it’s not the instant hit you get like you do with social media. However, SEO compared to social media for a small business has the following benefits: SEO is about increasing your search engine ranking and social media is all about growing your brand and customer relations, and each has its place. Search engines still hugely outweigh users searching for answers, products and services. They use social media to help back up a companies presence - this is where your customer relations and brand building comes in. Search engine optimisation to draw in new customers still heavily outweighs social media, and websites convert social audiences wanting to purchase. Each platform has its place in your digital marketing, and each should be optimised according to its benefits.

If you’d like help with your small business SEO, then feel free to drop me an email and we can chat further about what you need.