It is really astonishing in our digital era how some businesses think of SEO as a luxury and not a necessity. We get it. There is a lot of SEO snake oil sales people out there and not only are they making a bad name for the practice, they’re leaving a bad taste in the mouth of the most vulnerable: small businesses.
When SEO is performed in earnest and with skill, it is an ally you’re business should never be without, ever again. Here are 10 reasons why Search Engine Optimization can help your small business and be a lifelong friend.
1) INSISTS ON USER EXPERIENCE
Google’s main focus is to direct its searchers to the BEST possible content for the inquiry. So, one of the key SEO performance checks is also a user experience check. This doesn’t just make sense on an SEO level, it makes sense on all levels. If you’ve optimized your site to be sleek and fast and easy to use, you’re not only scoring points with Google, you are scoring points with potential customers.
2) CREATES TRUST
We are pretty sure that you aren’t going to spend money with a business that you can’t trust. If you can’t find them on Google, or you do find them, with some difficulty, a doubt comes over you. If they don’t care enough about their webpage and they are this hard to find, how many people have really used this business’s product or service? People trust page 1 results. People might even trust pages 2-4 if the price is right. Bottom line, SEO gets you on these pages, and brings about trust in the process.
3) BRINGS ON THE CONVERSIONS
It’s time to invoke a cheesy scenario to make our point. Don’t worry. It’ll get worse before it gets better. So, you are selling Poodle Shampoo. That’s you’re thing. You’ve dreamed about it your entire life and now you want to get visitors who are looking to buy your special shampoo, because it’s one of a kind. Well, it so happens that your SEO has you ranking on page 1 for “where can I find poodle shampoo.” Signs point to you definitely getting people with a considerable interest, people who are on the precipice of purchasing your product and making their poodle’s curls gleam.
4) IT’S BRANDTASTIC
Okay, so they went with your competitor, PoodleBrite. They did see you come up on page 1 however, and once they’ve used that awful swill on their dog, after they tend to all the bald patches left behind, they are going to search again. Right? Oh yeah. Because you rank for dozens of organic searches related to the product, they are likely going to see your brand once again. It’s going to ring truer this time. I should have tried these guys last time.
5) REVEALS YOUR BUYER
Free data is always a good thing. With google analytics you’ll be able to see the type of organic traffic you attract, with complete demographics, geographic, and device info. If you’re getting a ton of 30 year old females from Beverly Hills on iPhones, you can adjust your page. Take down that grizzly bear with nunchucks in your slider, which, incidentally, only looks good on android phones. It wasn’t effective for marketing poodle shampoo anyhow, come to think of it.
6) ALLOWS FOR OWNERSHIP
SEO is long term. As long as you rank well and keep monitoring your content, the longer you can expect to bring in organic leads. PPC is like renting a house. It gets the job done, but SEO is buying a house— just remember to landscape and repair the roof when necessary.
7) ASSISTS YOUR PPC
Don’t get us wrong. Pay-per-click is a part of this game too. Think of it as the higher maintenance, more insistent twin brother. While PPC is great to get you to rank for more difficult keywords, let’s face it. Some people think twice before clicking an ad. Even though they’re really looking to buy something that don’t want to consider it a reality yet. For those souls who aren’t in the Action phase of the sales funnel, Organic results somehow feel safer— essentially because we know with an ad we are going to get a landing page with a bunch of Call to Actions pressuring them to Buy Now. A buyer may investigate your blog on Poodle dandruff problems based on an organic result, then do a search later and see your google Ad and click on it because they’ve already had a positive experience with your brand.
8) HELPS THE REVIEW PROCESS
People count on reviews to give them info and to report on excellent products and services. If your business doesn’t come up organically, they can’t check your business’s great reviews. We can’t have Fifi the poodle languish in his own filth, shampoo-less, now, can we?
9) OUTRUN THE JONESES
If you think SEO is too much of an investment in time, your competition doesn’t feel that way at all. You’re going to get smoked down the road. You don’t want to keep up with the Joneses, you want to lap them. PoodleBrite may stink as a product, but nobody is going to believe you if you’re on page 10 and they rank on page 1. It’s just the way it is.
10) LORD OF YOUR MESSAGE
Control your message. Through webpage title tags and meta descriptions, your SEO allows you, the business owner, to paint the picture you want. It’s the only real free advertising we can think of. Compare this to a site without SEO– that business is allowing google to deliver the message for them. Not cool. Not cool at all.
Bonus: PASSES THE BATON TO SOCIAL SITES
Social Media sharing. Want to get more shares of your content on social media sites? It might help when someone discovers your content by searching google and… then don’t be surprised if a link to your site is shared on some poodle fanatic Facebook group!
