All businesses today need internet exposure to grow, and if your business doesn’t do so, you could end up fighting to survive. One of the simplest ways to gain attention on the internet is by ensuring that your website gets listed in the primary search results. And here comes the important role of SEO in your small business.
What is SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Using the free (also called organic, natural, or even editorial) search results on a search engine is a process that helps you get traffic to your website.
Google, Yahoo, and Bing are some of the most popular search engines, and each of them has something called primary search results. When you type a keyword in the search bar, the first set of results that appear are the primary search results. These search results are thrown out based on what the search engine has deemed to be most relevant to your search.
SEO’s purpose is to increase not just the quantity, but also the quality of traffic that visits your website.
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How Does SEO Work?
Search engines use crawlers that gather information about the content they can find on the internet. Crawlers are programs that systematically goes through the internet to create an index of data. That index is passed through an algorithm that matches the data gathered to your search query.
Search engines rank web pages based on specific criteria, each of which given by weight. Here are some of the top criteria:
Relevance: If you type “party planners in my area”, then the first thing the search engines will do is look for webpages that have words matching your keywords.
Authority: This is the search engine’s way of verifying if the content on a web page is trustworthy and accurate. So how is authority determined? By seeing how many other pages get linked to that web page – these are called backlinks. Thus, the more links a page has, the higher its ranking will be.
Usefulness: Usefulness is measured by User Experience Signals, which is how users have reacted to search results. So, if people like a search result, that website will get a significant boost in its ranking.
Many other metrics are used to decide how highly ranked a web page will be, but these three are the main ones.
Why is SEO Important?
There is a straightforward reason why SEO is so important – it is a massive source of traffic for websites!
Why are Small Businesses Willing to Pay for SEO Services?
Because SEO-friendly pages get so much traffic, it is essential to get it right. And that’s where services from SEO companies come in. Their job is to ensure that your search ranking goes up. When someone types in keywords related to your business, then your web page can be right there on top!
The first thing that SEO services do is research precisely what your customer inputs as keywords. And to do so, they first build your customer persona – the kind of customer who will buy your product or service.
Then, they do the keyword research to figure out which keywords and phrases will be the most impactful for your web page.
And finally, they create content that incorporates all the metrics that are most likely to get you to that first results page on search engines.
Talking about the complexity in the execution of SEO tasks, Mr. Gerrid Smith, the CEO of goblackfin.com mentioned in his recent interview –
“It sounds straightforward, but a lot of research work and working hours go into creating SEO-friendly web pages. After all, everyone wants their small business to be on the first search results page, so competition is intense.”
What are the Advantages of Using SEO for Small Businesses?
The impact SEO can have on small businesses is immense. As a matter of fact, SEO can turn the fortune of small business holders. The primary problem for small businesses is the lack of customers. They want to gain new customers but fail to do so because they do not have the marketing budget. At this juncture, SEO comes in as a savior for small businesses. Here are some of the advantages a small business could gain by using SEO.
1. Get Permanent Results
If you are running a promotional campaign on print media, you will lose the slot when you stop the campaign. Therefore, you will have no more gains from that. However, SEO is different. For example, you are running an SEO campaign and have achieved the ‘numero uno’ position on the results page. Even if you stop the SEO campaign that that very moment, your rank will stay in the same position. It will remain there for some time, and you will continue to reap benefits from your campaign. However, for a more significant result, it will be highly advisable to continue your campaign.
2. Know Your Customer’s Tendencies Better
While running an SEO campaign, you will have access to some invaluable customer data, which can make a significant impact on your business growth. First of all, you will know what your customers are looking for on the internet. So, that will help you to make some assertive changes and improvements to your products or services. It will help you and your company to evolve and become the go-to place for your customers.
3. Stay a Step Ahead of the Competition
As you know, SEO is a highly competitive field. So many companies are turning to SEO to find new customers for their products and services. Therefore, if you can start early, then you will stay a step ahead of your competitors. You can also snatch customers away from under the nose of your competitor. That is how powerful SEO is. Therefore, if you want to stay a step ahead of the competition, then you need to start Using SEO as soon as possible.
4. Increase the Trust Factor for Your Products or Service
You will hardly ever find a person who would say that he or she does not trust Google for information. Google has become the primary source of data on the lives of human beings of this age. Not only Google but Yahoo and Bing are also playing their part in this congregation of information. So, when these major search engines on which the customers rely for information suggest your business as relevant by showing it on the first result, do you think it will have an impact on the overall image of your company? Your customers will start trusting your company like never before. This is a huge advantage of using SEO as it can make your company a brand easily recognized.
5. Reach New Markets Easily
SEO helps you to reach new markets and grow your business beyond the boundaries. Let’s give you an example. Suppose you are running a business in New York. But, you can see that there is a considerable demand for the products and services that you sell in New Delhi. So, by optimizing your website with the right keywords, you can also capture those customers who are searching for your products and services in New Delhi. Even though you run a small business, with SEO, you can transform it into a large scale business in no time.
6. Affordable Way of Getting Organic Traffic
SEO is a cost-effective solution to gain organic traffic. There can be no denying to this fact. You can get unimaginable numbers of traffic on your website through which you can grow your company. When you are getting a considerable amount of organic traffic on your website, the chances of that traffic getting converted into sales becomes very evident. The main reason for that is the customers are already willing to buy your products and services, and that is why they were searching for similar products and services that you sell. That is why SEO is a cost-effective way of taking your business to the next level.
7. Give a Fight to the Industry Giants
When you are starting, you are starting your business. You will have giants that are leading the industry. They are the brand that customers trust. Nobody even imagined giving a fight to these industry giants or the big boys for getting new customers. SEO is so effective that you can also snatch customers away from these big boys as well. When the search engine will show your business at the top, and you are a compelling website to gain respect in the eye of the customer, you will also become a brand in the eyes of the customer. In this way, even after running a small business, you can compete with the industry giants.
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The Bottom Line
Finally, SEO is one thing that has created a balance in the market and gave small businesses a chance to compete and survive against the industry giants. Therefore, to grow your business and survive in the market, SEO is the primary thing that you need. You should understand that only the fittest will survive and the importance of SEO in making you the most suitable is enormous.
Web Developer & SEO Specialist with 15+ years of experience in Open Source Web Development specialized in Joomla & WordPress development. He is also the moderator of this blog "RS Web Solutions".