Why SEO is Critical to Small Business Success

For many of you, search engine optimization (SEO) makes perfect sense for your business while for others it’s a new concept. For you newbies out there or for those of you looking to justify the expenditure for a SEO project, here are just a few of many reasons why SEO for small businesses is critically important for longevity and success.

People Are Looking For Your Business!

Don’t you love the phone calls where someone tells you “I want to give you money for your product/service”? It doesn’t get any easier than that does it?

But what about those who have no idea you exist? How can you reach them and give them your message?

Just because you have a website doesn’t mean they can find it. There are over 200 million websites on the internet and that does NOT include the pages within each site!

How far does your internet light shine?

SEO is the spotlight in night. It draws in the customers who are searching, looking to spend their money.

Google, Bing and Yahoo Already Decide If You Are Relevant or Not

A search engine’s ultimate goal is to simply provide the most relevant sites and content relating to a person’s search query. And when it works well they are handsomely rewarded for those results. In Q1 2009 Google’s revenue was $5.51 billion dollars!

The reason they are so successful is that they have earned your trust by providing exactly what you need when you search. Google’s objective is simply NOT to provide you with the most optimized site at the top of the list but to place the most relevant site at the top of the search engine result pages (SERPs).

SEO is not solely about optimizing your website but building trust and relevancy for your business which inevitably will lead to increased revenue. Improving your Google ranking must be done with care and strategic planning to ensure your site is both trustworthy and relevant in the eyes of the search engines; correctly doing so will reward you with new visitors and customers.

SEO Will Help Build Your Brand and Name Recognition

Branding is becoming a key component in the SEO world. Google’s recent algorithm release on January 18th revealed they are beginning to place more and more emphasis on branding. Ultimately this means the more Google knows about you and your reputation the better your rankings will be.

Search engine optimization is a critical component of branding. Expect to fall even lower in the rankings if you are not on the path of improving your brand name and market awareness.

Higher Rankings Increases Repeat Business and Customer Retention

Searching is the new paradigm, period. If you don’t believe me simply look at how younger adults use the internet today. They rarely retain the information they find but they do remember “how” they found it. The same philosophy applies to your small business and search engine optimization. People don’t always remember you or your name but they will probably remember how they found you.

I consistently find businesses and information on the internet whose names and titles I quickly forget but I generally remember the search terms I used to find them. If I lose your business card or forget your company name, will I be able to find you again?

Until you’ve reached that level of mega-brand (e.g. Amazon, Old Navy, Coca Cola, etc.) the majority of people will find you based on the terms you’ve optimized for.

Organic Search Provides a Better ROI than Pay Per Click (PPC)

One of the key differences between a PPC campaign and a Search Engine Optimization engagement is that there is zero residual value when you terminate your PPC campaign or your daily budget runs out. In the Pay-Per-Click world once your advertisement is gone so is your traffic.

The goal of search engine optimization is to build a foundation for organic traffic growth. If done correctly (and trust me there are a lot of bad SEOs out there…luckily for you I’m one of the good guys), people will begin to find your business using a variety of keywords and phrases you never would have imagined.

Even the best salespeople sleep and engage in other activities. With SEO, your site will work 24x7 for you…the real question is how hard is it working for you now?

Being on the 1st page of Google is EVERYTHING!

In August of 2006, AOL accidentally released data that revealed the following internet search statistics:

• 89.82% of all search queries click on 1st page result
• 10.18% of all search queries click on 2nd page result
• Only 1% go beyond the first two pages

What page are you on for your keywords and phrases?

More importantly, where do your competitors rank?