Gone are the days of calling out every name in the phone book or handing out flyers on the street corner. Nowadays, for any business to thrive, it needs to have a thriving online presence. With so many different companies competing for space and trying to win clicks, it can be difficult to see a way forward for your business.
However, your small business should incorporate Search Engine Optimization (SEO) from an agency like Peaks Digital Marketing moving forward to grow your niche, attract more customers, and rank higher in organic searches. We’ll explain the basics of SEO practices, how they work, and why they’re important to growing your business, both in the short and long term.
What is SEO?
Search Engine Optimization, abbreviated SEO, is a set of practices and techniques designed to help your website rank higher in search engine results when searchers enter a keyword related to your niche.
Now, you shouldn’t think that SEO is only for computer experts, although there is a lot of behind-the-scenes work that can improve SEO; instead, it’s a systematic approach to content production and web design to engage readers, provide authoritative data, and drive sales.
Basically, the more useful your content is to readers, as determined by dwell time, crawl indexing, authority, backlinks, and other metrics, the more prominently your web page will appear when a user searches for a keyword in your niche.
How does SEO help my business?
Placement improvement
One of the most obvious benefits of SEO involves its primary goal of getting you to the top of the search results page. Searchers rarely go past the first page of Google, and they’re more likely to choose the first, second, or third option listed over links provided later. Google determines who can make top dog through a series of bot-indexed evaluations. The closer you are to the top, the more likely you are to attract visitors to your site. And, of course, visitors mean potential customers. If you’re using your website to drive sales, it’s little wonder that more web traffic translates to more revenue.
This positive feedback also continues. More positive interactions with your site convey more trust, which in turn strengthens your authority in the eyes of the search engine.
Brand awareness
One of the benefits of SEO marketing strategies is that they can really help you stand out in your niche. If you’re passionate about something you want to share with the world, you can quickly learn what works and what doesn’t with SEO research and marketing.
In other words, if your brand continues to occupy your place at the top of the list, you can convert curious information seekers about your niche topic into customers.
Of course, being on the top page of search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing builds trust and brand awareness.
When customers click through to your top-ranked website and see the incredibly relevant and insightful information you provide, they’re more likely to trust you and recognize your brand.
Improving customer experience
One important aspect of SEO is web design. Google’s AI highly values websites that are designed to be user-friendly due to higher page views and lower bounce rates. Surprisingly, customers also appreciate the well-thought-out layout of the site.
SEO uses in-depth marketing tools to deliver a fresh, user-friendly website that customers will appreciate, which can lead to further sales.
Providing useful, relevant data
As a small business owner, you probably have a lot of information and experience to share with the world about your niche. Once you’ve decided where you want to establish yourself in the market, SEO can help you digitize that information for a growing audience. Whether it’s through a blog on your website or helpful articles, the internet is a great place to share your knowledge.
Distilling your expertise into a bite-size format is helpful for readers who want to learn more about your product and share the same interests as you. For example, growing your audience through blogging is also a great way to build your business in the long run.
Adapting to changing markets
A key sign of business development is the ability to adapt to change. SEO can be part of your quick turnaround if you need to change your marketing approach, product line, or media.
SEO can provide you with useful analytics about what products consumers prefer, what topics your viewers are most interested in, and what your competition is doing that you are not. All of these factors can help you focus when you need to and adapt to market changes that would otherwise lead to business stagnation.
Business growth
The flexibility to make changes, the ability to get in front of a larger audience, and the ability to improve the customer experience, all of these SEO features have one thing in common: progress. At its core, SEO is about growing your business by increasing your exposure, building your brand, and equipping you with the right resources to improve your product.
SEO is a long-term strategy that can generate income with very little investment. Most importantly, it generates a continuous flow of organic traffic. Not only does this traffic help you get more sales in the short term, it can also build a base of repeat customers who can then help spread your business through word of mouth.
Bottom line
Search engine optimization is essential for any business with an online presence and often serves as a differentiating factor between businesses competing in the same niche.
If you want to rank higher in organic search results, generate more organic traffic, and grow your business in the long term by building a customer base and providing useful, relevant content, it’s important to incorporate SEO strategies into your business model. Whether you are just starting your business or are in a phase of explosive growth, SEO is a necessity that can greatly help your business.