The reason why SEO is important for business is simple: it increases the visibility of your brand. This is mainly in organic search engine results. This is exactly where people are looking for products and services. Therefore, an effective SEO marketing strategy offers many long-term benefits to small, medium, and large-scale businesses. Investing in strong SEO campaigns can turn a small business into solid competition even for medium-to-large businesses. The key is the business is able to be seen in the correct ways. The business also needs to be seen for the correct terms in the cleanest ways.
SEO can help you get new clients
Being on top of search engine optimisation also means ensuring that your SMB clients are visible for new audiences. This is especially important in a local context as consumers are more likely to search for the product or service instead of the company name. Again, the transition to online purchases gives your SMB clients the perfect opportunity to invest in improving the visibility of their website in local search rankings, and ultimately win them more business.
A major benefit is you can out do the competition
Small businesses are not the only ones feeling the effects of dwindling foot traffic, and competitors (whether large or small) are taking proactive measures to react to this crisis. Some businesses will be forced to cut cost by allocating less budget to their marketing efforts. Others will increase their marketing spend in order to gain more visibility online. Either way, this is yet another reason why your SMB customers can benefit from prioritising SEO as they will stay ahead of the competition.
SEO can have and offer some very good results and outcomes for and in the long-term
SEO is a long-tail game, and whether your small business clients have an SEO strategy in place or not – there is always an opportunity to improve search result rankings. While COVID-19 has brought many business activities to a slow, making an investment into SEO is an initiative that can be done despite social distancing. It will help your small business clients to increase online visibility. They will be able to also continuously appear in search results over time. Also they can ultimately emerge from this crisis stronger than ever.
Small Business SEO Investment Increases With Company Size
The larger a small business is, the more likely it is to invest in SEO and PPC. A majority (82%) of small businesses with 50 or more employees invest in SEO as part of their digital marketing efforts. In addition, 74% of this group invests in PPC advertising. What is nice though is this is a service more or less any business of any type and size can carry out.
Results are key and can be life changing
The investment into SEO marketing is generally made upfront, no matter what route a small business decides to take. Time and energy to learn the basics of SEO is an investment, and then implementing those SEO strategies into the company’s marketing plan involves a greater investment of time. Finally, more time is required to continually update SEO. It is also key to adapt to new SEO practices that are necessary as search engines are updated. For these reasons, any time and money put into SEO marketing is going to be a long term investment. Small businesses will begin to see improving search discovery data. They will also see an increase in sales and traffic over time due to this investment. Because of the time it takes to take hold, it is important to implement this as soon as possible.
SEO can let a business grow on and with the internet – it is down to effort to enable this
Most small business owners believe that all their growth and business comes exclusively from local sources, but even when that is true the internet can play a huge role. The internet drives business through online searches, product and service reviews, and online shopping. Year after year, the internet drives more and more business, attracting more and more buyers willing to conduct business online. Buyers have become used to looking for information online, especially when it comes to making informed buying decisions. For this reason, it is necessary to get businesses of all sizes in front of consumers. Ranking in search ensures that a small business is just as capable of growing and reaching customers near and far.
Conclusion
At some point every small business comes to understand and accept the importance of having online presence. Whether a small business realises this now or ten years from now, establishing a good SEO strategy now will prepare your business for a successful future. SEO strategies and practices are always changing as search engines update and change their algorithms. Because of this, the sooner a small business establishes good strategies the better.
An already SEO optimised website is in a better position. It will be better off to rank higher on the internet than one that is just beginning to adopt practices. This is the case no matter how much change occurs. The initial investment in time, education into SEO strategies, and implementing them pays off in the future for any business. Any new competitors just trying to establish themselves or learning to use SEO themselves, will need time to build up the same SEO ranking, as well as positive reviews and clout that has already been built up with time spent ranking on the internet.
