As a small business owner, you probably think you have better things than to do than ensuring your website and online presence is mantained and managed properly. After all, that’s what young people are for right? Unfortunately these days, it’s not quite as simple as hiring someone fresh out of college to manage your social media platforms and WordPress site. In order for your website to function as it should, it needs to be properly maintained. There are a number of factors that go into managing your website. Perhaps most pertinent to your strategy is ensuring your site is SEO friendly.
What is SEO?
SEO, also known as search engine optimisation, is the process in which a business or individual improves the organic visibility of their website on search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing. The overall aim of any SEO strategy is to drive the right kind of traffic. Depending on what you’re offering, SEO can attract new and existing customers to your product and/or service.
Contrary to popular belief, optimising your site for search engines isn’t about stuffing as many keywords into your content as you can. You should be focused on the core aspects of your website that appeal to search engine algorithms and crawlers, such as mobile optimisation, your loading speeds and navigability.
Now let’s get one thing straight – your digital marketing strategy should absolutely be customer-centric. Your SEO strategy should anticipate the intent of your audience. You need to understand the type of content they are searching for and would like to see. However, it’s also important to remember a successful SEO strategy combines thorough audience research with the technical and strategic elements that actively appeal to search engines and their algorithms.
Why is SEO important?
SEO has a number of benefits for large and small businesses alike. For many organisations, particularly smaller businesses who may not have the manpower and income of a larger corporation, SEO can seem like a tremendous burden, not to mention complicated, overwhelming and just plain annoying. The reality is, SEO is essential for websites in this day and age. If you hope to drive traffic and stay ahead of your competitors, you must adjust your digital presence for the purpose of becoming more valuable and visible to your target audience.
Your SEO strategy can have an incredible effect on the success of your site and, perhaps most paramount for small businesses, can even boost your conversion and lead generation rates. Of course if you’re feeling overwhelmed by all this digital talk, you could always turn to a professional digital marketing agency offering professional SEO services. Boasting a talented team of SEO specialists, a professional SEO marketing agency can take the stress out of your online strategy.
Convinced yet? It goes without saying, the pros of a successful SEO strategy far outweigh the cons. So what are the benefits of SEO?
Cost-effective
Believe it or not, a bespoke SEO strategy is usually cheaper than traditional advertising. Search engine optimisation is hyper-targeted and customer-centric. Instead of implementing a more traditional throw it at the wall and see what sticks mentality, SEO requires thorough audience research and a more targeted approach to marketing that can save you money in the long run.
SEO also allows you to digitally track the success of your campaign and streamline your marketing, which can result in a better return-on-investment for your small business. You’ll be able to see your rank, the amount of traffic being generating and your conversion rate, which will allow you to make better business decisions.
Improves navigability
High-quality SEO tools will ensure your website and links are structures in a manner that is easy to access and navigate. This makes it easier for search engines to index and rank your website. SEO also improved your loading speed. As a result, your site will have improved accessibility and navigability which allows your target audience to easily find and access your content.
Drives traffic
Search engine users are essentially looking for an answer to their question, whether that answer be a product, service or a simple how-to blog. As a result, improved organic visibility can drive high-quality traffic to your site without the need for paid advertising. By implementing a bespoke SEO strategy and ranking for specific search terms, your website will drive the right kind of traffic and boost your conversion and lead generation rates.
Builds credibility
Search engines rank you and your competitor’s websites using a combination of on-page and -off-page signals and innovative algorithms. While most users don’t stop to think why a site is on the first page of the search engine results, they do actively trust search engines to rank sites in order of authority and relevance. As a result, improving the organic visibility of your builds the credibility and authority of your brand and boosts brand awareness.
Competitive edge
A crucial element of running a small business is remaining competitive. Search engine optimisation can help you stay ahead of the curve by driving traffic to your site – and actively diverting it away from your competitors. While a high-quality product and/or service is paramount to nurturing growth, as is good customer service, SEO increases your chances of attracting new customers to your site. In addition, by tracking the success of your SEO, you can maintain your competitive edge by streamlining your marketing and implementing a strategy that actually works.
Final thoughts
Ensuring you have an SEO strategy in place is absolutely paramount for large and small businesses alike. It is particularly pertinent for smaller businesses who, without the manpower or funding behind them of a larger organisation, need to focus on driving the right kind of traffic and increasing their digital conversions.
Implementing a proper digital strategy may seem like a time consuming hassle. However, the realist is a practical and simple yet effective SEO strategy can have an enormous impact on the success of your website. Search engine optimisation is, without a doubt, the cornerstone to any successful digital marketing strategy.