Affordable Small Business
SEO & Web Design
SEO
IMPORTANCE
SEO is a combination of on-page and off-page optimization.
The importance of search engine optimization for small businesses can be best explained as various methods/factors in making a website a true asset to you and your company. Instead of it just being pages on the web, it can actually work to attract new clients, re-engage existing clients, and perform other helpful functions as well. Though this may sound complex, it really comes down to some very basic things.
Here's how small businesses can reap big benefits from SEO:
SEO MAKES A SMALL BUSINESS WEBSITE EASILY DISCOVERABLE
Just because a site is live on the internet doesn't mean that search engines will find it and include it in their discovery index.
Googlebot and Bingbot should be alerted to the presence of a new site while existing sites must submit updated sitemaps in order for the pages to be indexed and show up in search results.
This is at the core of search engine optimization, making it possible for Google, Bing, and other search engines to crawl the site and include it in their results when people enter target keyword queries.
So, it is imperative that the basic elements are present and that the proper steps are taken in order for a site to show up in search results.
This is done by creating a sitemap and by including relevant keywords on various pages.
Without this very basic optimization, a site cannot be indexed and therefore, will not appear in search results.
SEO INCREASES VISITOR CONVERSION RATES SUBSTANTIALLY
It is important to remember that a website is a marketing tool, but it only is as effective and powerful as it is made to be.
In other words, it's not possible to just throw up a digital property on the web and have it as an effective promotional tool.
With the right SEO, it can create more leads, and bring back repeat visitors.
This can be done through a combination of the right navigational properties, compelling content, linking between pages, keyword presence, density, and other factors.
When included, leads will rise over time, particularly as the site matures and gains more traffic
SEO helps to build small business brand awareness.
Your small business likely faces stiff competition. With so many players in the same industry, it's essential that you stand out.
This can be achieved through social media marketing and routine presence, but that alone probably won't be enough.
This is another area where SEO can be a huge asset. It allows you to create more brand awareness by putting your business on various properties.
For instance, digital spaces like Google My Business, Google Maps, Yelp, and other review sites.
The search engines do support these types of proprietary and third-party properties, so be sure to utilize them to the fullest.
Small business SEO-friendly websites outperform non-optimized sites.
This is something that a lot of small business owners don't really think about.
Even though there are a number of website products available on the internet that claim to be out-of-the-box SEO friendly, there are usually many tweaks that must be made in order to leverage those particular assets.
What's more, optimized sites have shown in study after study to greatly outperform web properties that are not search engine optimized. This is because search engines are just software and are programmed to look for certain elements and markers.
If a small business website isn't optimized for crawling and searching, it cannot reach its fullest potential.
This process takes quite a bit of time and certain elements and markers must be re-examined on a regular basis This is one of the reasons that SEO is an ongoing, long-term process and strategy. It requires routine attention in order to make a website perform its best.
SEO process improves user experience.
Modern search engine optimization is much more than it was in the past. Previously, it was almost entirely about making a site search-friendly and giving it the necessary factors to allow it to rank high in organic results.
That's definitely changed over time and today's optimization puts heavy emphasis on user experience. This is due to a number of reasons, including Google and Bing's advice for webmasters to put people first and make humans the focus rather than search engine software.
Over the years, both companies have steadily moved their services to influence webmasters to adopt this approach. In fact, Google just recently published an article on its proprietary site that states this very position.
In that very post, Google specifically warns that it will begin to downgrade websites that attempt to gain an advantage through manipulative practices or through over-optimization. (Even previously used and accepted techniques that are designed to perform well under prior practices set forth or allowed by Google.)
Conversely, Big G will give greater consideration and emphasize sites that use natural language that put user experience first.
Search optimization helps to build trust and credibility.
Another benefit of SEO is that the most up-to-date practices will also help your small business find its voice and niche.
Today's search optimization can greatly assist in building trust and credibility with new visitors and repeat visitors alike. It has quite a bit to do with the end-user experience. Put another way, properly optimized sites not only hit on key points required by search engines to find, index, and rank web properties, but also place quite a bit of emphasis on user experience, which is to say making it user-friendly, and that necessarily means that it can help build trust and credibility.
A site not only needs to be aesthetically pleasing, but it also needs to be simple to navigate in order for people to find what they came looking for in the first place.
The more intuitive and free-flowing a site is, the less friction there is, which means ease of use. Friction is a web design and search engine optimization term that means anything that makes it more difficult for end users to find what they are looking for.
Search engine optimization is quantifiable.
Another huge advantage of search engine optimization is that SEO is entirely quantifiable. Small business owners can look at several, various metrics in order to know important information in a very short amount of time.
Such data will include key points, like how people are finding the site, either through organic search, direct links, or social media.
In addition, the data will also break down what devices people are viewing your small business website on, which typically includes smartphones, desktops, and tablets.
What's more, you'll also be able to see certain demographics, usually, the country of origin of traffic, and other bits of demographic information.
Not only would you be able to see and measure all of this data, but you'll also be made aware of the most strongly performing pages and the least visited pages as well.
Our SEO is scientifically based, white hat methods, and not GUESSEO!
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