Why Small Business SEO Is Important
If you run a small business and you are contemplating whether or not to build a website and make the transition to online marketing, maybe you should listen to this:
(Source) Webvisible said this means that while searchers don’t always find the specific business (no online advertising/no website, etc.), they may choose to contact a similar business with a stronger online presence.
If only 44% of small businesses have a website then you’re competition online is much smaller than it is off line. And if 89% of consumers use the search engine before consulting the yellow pages, that’s just one more reason to go online. But that’s not all.
Even of those businesses that do have an online presence, most of them aren’t using the Internet for marketing purposes as effectively as they could be. On the conservative side, let’s say that only 50% of small business websites are SEOd effectively. That essentially amounts to an open door when it comes to search engine marketing for any small business in America.
A well search engine optimized small business website in any niche geographically targeted can do more to increase your market share and your ROI than a single yellow page ad. I’m convinced of it. What are you waiting for?
7 Responses to “Why Small Business SEO Is Important”
The Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Journal is Written by SEO Expert:
Nick Stamoulis
Tel - 781-999-1222
nick@brickmarketing.com
Brick Marketing - SEO Company
All business should be considering SEO whether they are small, medium or large. On top of this it needs ot be considered at the point of designing a website not after all the work has been done. There is no point building a website and then asking someone about SEO as chances are, unless your design agency are very good, you will have to go back to the drawing board.
Hmm, good post, but there’s few things you haven’t mentioned.
Small businesses usually serve only local areas.
Small businesses can’t afford to spend enough money to get them into a national listing for highly competitive phrases.
Small businesses can spend a bit of money, and let’s say get optimised for areas where they deliver their services.
Problem is that there’s not many searches locally, ie, “web design” has millions of searches but “web design sussex” has only over a thousand estimated searches.
How would you address those concerns?
Krystian, therein lies the opportunity rather than the problem.
Unless the industry the particular small business operates in is largely unsophisticated (in terms of search marketing) then the capacity for a small business to generate high rankings for generic terms, and meet the needs of the user equitably, is often an uneconomical pursuit.
Nor does it represent good value for the searcher as the vast majority will view the results as irrelevant to their needs.
Assuming you need a slice of the relevant prospective pie – 1000 relevant keyword searches driving optimal traffic may be all you need. Combined with a broader, more generic keyword targeting strategy, you may just be able to get great value from your spend and turn it into an investment.
I posted on keyword research for small business SEO just last night if your interested.
@Krystian – I’ll have a go at addressing that. The way I approach it, is to use global, and sometimes international, search estimates to gauge user behaviour and then apply that locally.
“web design” gets millions of searches, therefore “web design perth” is going to get the top spot quite a bit of traffic. Doesn’t mean it’s all I focus on, but it’s a great start.
I service almost exclusively small business, and I have to tell you that targeting almost nothing but local searches has meant a substantial ROI for the vast majority of my clients.
Nick’s got his finger on the pulse here in Oz though, maybe he’ll chime in.
I do agree with you, but doing SEO means not hitting client website on top of the search engines, but choosing and targeting highly potential keywords is most important factor in SEO and also creating good content on the web (Brand Indentity).
Once you are targeted relavent keywords then automatically visitors and sales will flow for you.
I just designed a site for my small business, keeping SEO in mind. Two weeks later, and my site, which is obviously not ranked by Google, is sitting in the top 3, if not top 10 for all phrases. The opportunities for prospects to find me are therefore looking good, all thanks to basic SEO techniques, noting of course that SEO can only benefit and support an established marketing/advertising mix.
Thanks everyone for reading and the discussion!
@Krystian, let me address your questions:
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Small businesses usually serve only local areas.
***This can be true but often many niche ecommerce businesses are small, also what is your definition of small
Small businesses can’t afford to spend enough money to get them into a national listing for highly competitive phrases.
***I disagree on this as I have many clients that are small and spend a small budget (not fortune sized budget) and we do very well…SEO allows small businesses to compete not only on niche keywords but also on more competitive ones over time.
Problem is that there’s not many searches locally, ie, “web design” has millions of searches but “web design sussex” has only over a thousand estimated searches.
***If a company that targets local keywords maxes out, meaning hits top 3 for all of their local keywords, then they should consider marketing their business other ways besides SEO…:o)