Believe it or not, studies have shown that almost 50% of small businesses in the U.S. still don’t have websites set up. Running a small business without a website in 2020 seems like one of the worst ideas in the world. But for one reason or another, there are some businesses out there trying to do it.
If you want to make your small business as successful as it can be, you should have a website for it. You should also take search engine optimization, or SEO, seriously.
Why is SEO important? Let’s take a closer look at what exactly SEO is and then break down its importance to give you a better understanding of why you need to use it to your advantage.
First, What Is SEO?
Before we attempt to answer the question, “Why is SEO important?”, you need to have a good grasp of what SEO is. It’s a foreign concept to many small business owners, especially those who do the bare minimum when it comes to their websites.
It is, as we mentioned a moment ago, short for search engine optimization. It’s a process that involves increasing your small business website’s visibility on search engines.
In a perfect world, you want your business to appear on the first page of search engine results pages, also known as SERPs, when people search for businesses like yours on Google and other search engines. But that’s not going to be possible if you don’t make it one of your company’s top priorities.
Search engines like Google are always scanning all of the websites that are out there and bumping the ones that offer the most value to people to the top. Your goal should be to improve SEO so that your website stands out from the websites of your competitors.
Why Is SEO Important?
Now that you know what it is, we can talk more about the importance of search engine optimization. But we should let you know right from the start that there isn’t a simple answer to the question, “Why is SEO important?”
The truth is that it is important to your small business for many reasons. You can transform the future of your company in lots of different ways by pushing SEO to the top of your to-do list.
First and foremost, it will help you drive more organic traffic to your website when you work to improve it. That is, by far, the biggest benefit of improving SEO.
But prioritizing SEO will do more than just bring swarms of people to your website over time. It’s also important because it will:
- Create trust between you and your customers
- Build up brand awareness for your business
- Provide people with a better overall experience when they visit your website
- Help you hit your targeted audience in your preferred location
- Leave a more lasting impression on those who show an interest in your business
Additionally, one of the most underrated benefits of it is that it costs a whole lot less than most other marketing efforts. You won’t have to shell out the kind of money you would pay for traditional advertising for SEO, and you’ll often get a much better return on your investment.
Is SEO Useful for All Businesses?
There are some small business owners that are under the impression that SEO isn’t something that would be right for a company in their industry. But this couldn’t be further from the truth!
In reality, every small business in every industry can take advantage of the benefits of SEO. It doesn’t matter if you run a plumbing company, a restaurant, an amusement park, a pest control service, or a school. SEO is going to help you get your business name in front of more people when you put more of an emphasis on it.
How Can You Improve SEO?
At this point, you shouldn’t be asking the question, “Why is SEO important?”, anymore. It should be clear to you why it is so essential to small businesses.
But you might be wondering, “How can I improve SEO?” It’s a very common question since many small business owners aren’t sure where to start.
You can improve SEO in a variety of different ways when you commit yourself to doing it. Here are some of the ways that you can improve within just a few months:
- Start creating high-quality content for your website
- Find the right keywords to add to your content to drive organic traffic to your website
- Figure out ways to get backlinks for your content posted on other websites
- Post links to your content on your company’s social media pages
You can also improve SEO in a big way by optimizing your website so that it’s compatible with mobile devices. More than 50% of people access the internet exclusively on their smartphones these days. If your website won’t load on mobile devices, it could be detrimental to your site’s traffic.
Whatever you do, don’t pass up on the chance to improve SEO at every turn. By staying up on the latest practices, you can ensure that your small business is able to create and maintain a strong presence online.
Don’t Underestimate the Importance of Search Engine Optimization
The question that small business owners ask these days shouldn’t be, “Why is SEO important?” It should be, “How soon can I start improving it now that I know how important it is?”
Yet, studies have shown that only about 36% of small businesses have an SEO strategy in place. The other 64% are making a big mistake by not taking it seriously enough.
Don’t make this mistake with your business. Make a stronger push to improve SEO so that you can push more people to visit your website and see a huge spike in traffic.
If you need help taking advantage of the importance of search engine optimization, we can help you do it. You can order content from us and stock your website with SEO-friendly copy so that search engines start suggesting your site to more potential customers.
Reach out to us today to discover more about how we can help to improve SEO for your small business.
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