Online presence is essential when it comes to promoting your business effectively, and SEO assists you in establishing a strong foothold in the industry through powerful online presence. An effective SEO strategy gives you a competitive edge, especially if you own a small business. As a business owner, London SEO companies can assist your businesses in being at the forefront of its industry by increasing your online visibility, and eventually increasing your sales. Small businesses have a lot to benefit from SEO, and it is apparent that the businesses that don’t practice SEO are in far worse situation compared to those who do invest in search engine marketing.
What Is SEO Marketing?
SEO or Search Engine Optimisation includes strategies that ensure that your website gets maximum visibility on search engines, which will assist in driving more traffic towards your website,increasing the number of leads which you can work on converting into sales.
As per a social shopping survey, about 50% of all consumers spend time researching the product they want before purchasing it. This means that for most consumers, the initial step of making a purchase online is research about the product. So, optimising your website as per the needs of a search engine is crucial to ensure online visibility. Just building a website is not enough for small businesses. It’s vital to ensure that the website is structured with content that is relevant to your target audience, as well as in line with search engines algorithms.
What Is a Good SEO Strategy?
A good SEO strategy needs to consider a lot of factors to generate the maximum output and should not be just focused on the keywords alone.
An SEO strategy should also focus on the following aspects:
- Improving search engine rankings.
- Driving qualified traffic to your website.
- Increasing the conversion rate- from website traffic to sales.
- Keeping customers engaged with targeted content.
- Reducing the bounce rate.
- Promoting your local business.
It should also include researching about search engines used by your target audience, how those search engines work and what are your customers are looking for. The aim is to get your website indexed by a search engine to rank it on the first page of search engine results.
Why SEO?
SEO offers certain benefits to small businesses that are discussed below:
- Assisting and Creating a Better and More User-Friendly Website- For new business owners, SEO assists in creating a better, faster and friendlier website for users. Regardless of it’s the name, search engine optimisation is not only about search engines but it focuses on the user as well. Implementing SEO techniques that improves the user experience creates several short and long-term benefits for the business.
- Generates New Customers and Assists Growth-If you think about it, one of the main reasons for having a website is to increase your customer base. What other purpose does it have?
SEO strategies assist the small businesses in gaining better rankings in search engine result pages (SERPs) and this leads to more targeted visits and potential new customers.
- Explores New Markets for Businesses-The web is one of fastest growing markets in the World economy but it is not the only one. A successful SEO campaign will assist you in finding new markets and exploring new economies. Social media platforms and mobile marketplaces can elevate the traffic to a whole new level.
- Facilitates Better Conversion Rates-An SEO optimised website is fast, easy to use and compatible with all mobile and tablet devices. This leads to better conversions i.e. visitors coming to your website are more likely to become subscribers, loyal visitors or customers.
- Builds Brand Awareness Through Better Rankings-One of the added advantages of ranking in the top positions of the SERPs is brand awareness. Users are more likely to trust a brand when it appears in the first Page when they search for a term rather than brands that don’t have a good web presence or ranking in search engine result pages.
Small businesses that require building brand awareness either for local purposes or for expanding nationally need to invest in SEO. This makes them gain top positions for the terms related to their business. It is not the 90’s anymore and search engines play a very important role in destroying or building a brand.
- Builds a dedicated fan base via newsletter-A decent SEO approach means more traffic and a great way to build a dedicated fan base through newsletter and RSS feeds. These two services existed before booming of social media and they are still very important sources of traffic. In fact, many successful bloggers state that most of their money comes from their email lists and not from social media or any other medium.
So, even if you are working on your social media marketing it is essential to make it easy for your users to subscribe to your newsletter and feed.
- Makes the business Stay in-sync with latest developments-The search engine industry is one of the fastest developing industries in the World. Rules and practices change frequently, and if you can stay in-sync with the latest developments then it’s for your benefit.
SEO is a continuous activity. If you hire a reliable SEO company they will give you the necessary advice and implement up-to-date strategies so you won’t miss any opportunities.
- Gives an Edge Over Competitors- SEO gives small businesses an edge over the competitors in their niche. Consider two businesses that are competing against each other in the same market and have similar prices. One business uses search engine optimisation and the other business has a non-optimized online presence. Other factors of business conduct being equal, which business according to you is more likely to succeed?
It is quite obvious that the business with SEO incorporation will perform better, gain more customers and is likely to grow faster due to increased traffic and visitors on their web page.
If your competitors are applying SEO to promote their business, you should do it too but, ensure that your products and services have a Unique Selling Point (USP) that sets you apart. If your competitors are not conducting SEO then, it is your chance to seize and give your business an edge over others.
- Conducts Business Operations 24/7-An SEO boosted website is likely to get better Google rankings and drive more organic traffic. This makes a business available always, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. That’s a major plus point of conducting a business online. Businesses can invest time and money to get their website in the initial list of responses provided by Google when a search is conducted. This will automatically widen your customer base and add to the profits of a business.
- Aids Social Media Presence-A business can get strong social media presence through better rankings resulting from a web page which is SEO optimised. There is a direct relationship between SEO and social media. A good Social media presence aids SEO purposes and SEO directs more social media presence. A web page appearing in the initial Google searches is more likely to be shared, tweeted or liked than a page that does not have good rankings.
How Can You Exploit These Advantages to Your Benefit?
- To begin with, your business needs to have a website. Most businesses are yet to establish their businesses online as they typically conduct their business offline. A recent figure from Google survey states that businesses that use websites are expected to grow 40% compared to those who don’t.
So, you need to establish a domain name and hosting for your business web page. You should provide information.
- You must get your domain name registered and get a website developed for your business. Contact details, your company details, products details, working hours, etc. are the minimal information that needs to be provided on your website.
- Next, you require a company to make a digital marketing campaign for you. The company chosen must have expertise in SEO, or must have a good amount of experience in SEO and other digital marketing techniques. Thus, the budget spent on SEO marketing is an investment.
- You cannot also outsource SEO to external agencies, without worrying about getting your business online. This way you can reap its benefits and save some cost as well. Also, keep in mind that there are risks involved in outsourcing your SEO work to unreliable agencies. SEO providers who use the black hat SEO techniques can get your site banned from the search engine as those methods are unlawful. Therefore, rather than risking your site getting banned and then spending more money in making a new site and promoting it online fresh, it is good to know the lawful methods of doing SEO that will assist you in hiring a reputed SEO company.
Conclusion
SEO is not only important for small businesses that compete online but it is also a necessary investment for all types the companies. Having an optimised website is the absolute requirement these days and the money spend on SEO should not be considered a cost but an investment.
