Why Small Businesses Need SEO

In today’s online marketplace, it is crucial for small businesses to take advantage of every opportunity to get a competitive edge.  Applying SEO to their website is the most important thing they can do to compete online. 

Here are six reasons – and there are many more – why small businesses need to engage in search engine optimization.

Get Found In Search

There are people searching for what you do everyday.  In fact, 95 percent of all Americans shop online for the products and services they need.  If your company is a B2B, businesses use search engines, too.  If they can’t find your business website or listing, they will buy from your competitor.

Less Expensive

Search optimizing your website or online presence does require an investment.  If you want to rank high on Page 1, then you should budget for on-going SEO practices, as well. While these costs might seem expensive, they don’t compare to what businesses spend on paid advertising. Often those costs range between $3,000 to $20,000 per month!

Organic SEO is more attractive when you consider that the benefits are long-lasting and stay with that website for its life.  Additionally, optimizing for the Local Search Map will last beyond your website's life. When you stop paying for advertising, the effects of the paid traffic disappear immediately.

Organic SEO is More Efficient Than Paid

Another benefit is efficiency.  When you invest in organic SEO for your website and as an on-going marketing practice, it will likely pull in more traffic than those companies that advertise for the same keyword terms.  Organic SEO listings receive more than 90% of all the clicks on a search results page! Paid ads receive just 3 percent.

That’s because most searchers move past the paid advertisements unless they have an urgent need.  They understand that the high position of the ad is due to that company paying for it.  Thus, in the eyes of these searchers, that site is less credible than one with a high organic ranking.

As mentioned earlier, the benefits of SEO don’t go away, either. They are there 24/7/365. 

Builds Trust and Awareness For Your Brand

As the #1 search engine in the world, it’s pretty clear that people trust the search results that Google gives them.  In fact, 91 percent of online users never leave the first page of the search results!  That’s how much they trust Google to surface the best results.

Therefore, if your website appears on the first page, people will trust that your company is credible and there is a high probability that they will click through to learn more.

Being seen as one of the Top Three choices on the Local Search Map has the same effect.

Appearing on the first page or in Local Search also provides brand awareness, helping searchers become familiar with your company.  Building this awareness is key because not everyone will choose to buy on the day they search.  But when they are ready to make a purchase, the awareness your SEO program has built puts you in a better position to be the company they choose.

Traffic = Sales

As we shared above, search optimizing your site so it appears on the first page of the search results will provide more clicks to your site.  Because of the trust built by ranking high, traffic that comes to your site via search is more likely to convert into sales. In fact, it has the best conversion rates than any other traffic source.

Challenger Marketing

The internet offers an opportunity for smaller brands to compete with larger companies.  This is known as Challenger Marketing.  Small businesses can make their case and explain why their products and services are better on the "even playing field" of the web.

Of course, Challenger Marketing requires the smaller company’s website to be found in search so it has the opportunity to make its case.  If it doesn’t appear on the first page, there’s no opportunity.

Putting it All Together

Many small businesses still don't see the importance of SEO.  Perhaps they just don’t understand its role in online marketing today.  Or maybe they paid for search engine optimization services in the past, but they haven’t kept up with the Google updates and find it is no longer working for them.