4 reasons why small businesses need SEO to grow

What is SEO?

SEO or Search Engine Optimisation is a series of adjustments you can make to your website so that it will rank higher in Google search results. As a small business, this is your chance to compete with the big guys without a huge advertising budget.

Google doesn’t care how big or small you are, or how much you spend on advertising. As long as your pages are seen to be of value and answering what consumers are looking for, you will be ranked highly in searches – ideally, on the first page of Google.

Here are 4 reasons why more and more small businesses are investing in SEO.

What are the benefits of SEO for small businesses?

1. Be seen by customers

Google Map Local Search

When people are looking for something, the first thing they do is Google it. Searches with the terms ‘near me’ or ‘close by’ have gone up by 500% over the last two years. People are searching for terms such as ‘accountant near me’ or ‘buy coffee beans near me’. If you’re not in search results, they might never find you, even if you happen to be a few roads away.

A website that is optimised for SEO improves your ability to appear in search results, and enables customers to find you. Most customers who look up a local business online will visit or call that business within 24 hours.

2. Get more conversions

Online Business Conversions

SEO, when done correctly, brings quality leads to your business. The people who arrive at your page are actively looking for a product or service you are offering.

It is much easier to convert people who already have some intention to buy. By drawing this targeted group to your site, you have already won half the battle. All you need to do is win them over with your offerings so they hit that Subscribe, Buy or Enquire button.

3. Make your website better

ecommerce

SEO is not just about technical adjustments to make your web pages rank more highly. True SEO works closely with content to provide customers with the best user experience possible. We look at things like making sure your pages load quickly, the layout of your content, and providing information that adds value to your readers.

When users spend a longer time on your website taking in all this interesting content, Google sees this as an SEO plus and will rank you more highly in searches. By doing SEO you will inadvertently end up with a better website, which in turn leads to higher sales.

4. Build brand equity

Branding NIKE

When your site is on the first page of Google, users are more likely to trust your business. Think of the last time you did a Google search. Did you not feel more affinity to the first three results you got on Google?

SEO however doesn’t happen overnight. Usually it takes about 6 months to see any changes. During the first few months you might not notice much because Google needs time to recognise the value of your pages and push it up the rankings.

As time goes by however, there will be a snowball effect. All the work you put into optimising your main pages, blogs, news articles and even your social posts, will pay off, pushing your rankings up in searches.

The first thing to do is to get your website evaluated. Find out more about the website audit that we offer and book a free website audit with us to find out how your site is performing in terms of speed, usability and SEO opportunities.

If you have the budget, you can hire an agency to take care of your SEO needs – but not many small businesses can afford this. If you have the time and resources, you can actually do SEO on you own.  To save you the hassle of learning everything from scratch, you could work with a small SEO business like us.

For more information on SEO or how we can help you grow your business, get in touch with us today.

Sources: Hubspot, Moz, Think With Google, Nectafy

Sign me up for a free website audit!

powered by

Proud Cactus Logo Design 2_email