The importance of SEO for small business owners can’t be understated
If you own a small business, you’ve probably invested time and money into an online presence (if you haven’t, it’s probably time too!). You may have carefully perfected your website, social media accounts, and Google Business Profile. Unfortunately, without SEO, you’re unlikely to see the results you were expecting. It’s as if you built a shop, stocked it, and marketed it, but forgot to tell anyone where it is. Your shop may be the best there is – it’s pointless if nobody can find it! 68% of online experiences begin with a search engine, so make sure your business can be found.
What does SEO stand for?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation, and it’s exactly what it sounds like: helping a search engine, like Google, find your content. There are many ways of doing this. One of them is content optimisation, which involves writing or adapting content to include search keywords. These keywords are words, phrases or questions people often search for.
Certain terms are more saturated and therefore more competitive. In selecting your keywords, you want to strike a balance between difficulty and search volumes. That’s how we came up with the title for this article! “SEO for small business owners” turns out to be a good keyword. As well as relevant content, Google prioritises fast, secure and accessible websites. If you’re not sure how to go about this, have a look at our web maintenance packages!
Why is organic traffic important?
Organic traffic is the traffic you’re not paying for. It takes time and money to create and optimise content, of course, but the traffic isn’t directly from paid ads. Organic traffic isn’t limited to search engines, either. It also involves visitors who are coming through social media or other websites. In the end, 53.3% of all website traffic comes from organic search, so putting some effort into SEO can drastically increase your reach.
Paid ads provide a higher return on investment when combined with good SEO. Customers are 155% more likely to search for brand-specific terms when exposed to display ads. For example, if you saw an ad for a sofa, and you didn’t need one, you’d probably ignore it. When you do need a sofa, you may remember that ad. If you can remember the brand name, it will likely come up when you search for it, but what happens if you don’t? You may type in “modern sofa near me” or a similar keyword. If the company from the ad doesn’t appear, you may just decide to give up the search and use a different company.
How much does SEO cost for a small business?
So, you know why SEO for small business owners is important. Now what? Learning the ins and outs of SEO can take a long time. If you run a small business, your time is a valuable resource. You likely want to focus on running your business rather than optimising your website. Don’t fret, we’ve got your back.
One Man Web Design offer SEO packages from as little as £49 per month. All of our packages include keyword tracking, technical optimisation and monthly SEO reports. If you also want more than 5 pages optimised, local/ national SEO and competitor analysis, our premium packages would be a worthy investment. Not sure what you need? We’d love to help you figure it out, just shoot us an email at matt@onemanwebdesign.com!
