There are many aspects to building a website, each with varying degrees of importance. SEO for small business or search engine optimization considered one of the most important. SEO is the process of optimizing your website for discovery by the major search engines, driving inbound organic traffic to your site.
Theories abound on how to do it right. There is a growing SEO cottage industry, built for selling or coaching the webmaster. The technique for optimizing a website starts from the ground up. Tragically, webmasters build a site and SEO is an afterthought, by then it is a game of catch up.
Several advantages exist when SEO is planned and well executed.
Organic Traffic and Higher Conversions:
An optimized website brings in higher quality traffic. People who reach your site are there because they are looking for your type of product or service. This higher quality traffic provides a higher conversion rate. This higher rate may lead to increased sales and better leads for the company. An added benefit, the cost to drive those customers to your virtual doorstep goes down dramatically. Instead of pushing out large sums of dollars in paid advertising to acquire a customer, a sound SEO strategy brings in people that have a higher interest in your products.
Effective SEO campaigns are built with keywords. When customers come to your website, they are getting there by the use of keywords or phrases. An organic SEO listing will receive a 90% higher click rate than an advertiser with the same keyword.
Building Trust:
A good SEO strategy will promote your website 24/7. There is not a salesperson on the planet that can do that. Brand trust is a condition that takes a lifetime to build and can be brought down overnight. Optimizing your site for the search engines, give you immediate credibility with higher quality traffic. With a long-term strategy, customers see your brand whenever they look for the products you sell.
Because of this increased trust your customers are better informed, about the products you sell. This widens out into more offline referrals. Customers will sometimes not make a purchasing decision on the first visit. They want to “think about it” especially if it is a major purchase. The trust gives them the confidence to perform more research and feel good about the purchase. If they trust to know you will be there tomorrow, a bookmark is made and a sale is coming.
Intangibles:
You should know that your competitors think the same way as you, planning their own SEO strategy. If you consider your business a “small guy,” a pro-active SEO strategy will give you the opportunity to play with the big boys. Maybe someday you will be a big boy. SEO lets you branch out, no longer are you confined to one part of the world. If your product will sell a thousand miles away, an optimized website will help. The bottom line, SEO will increase the value of your business and integrates nicely everywhere in the company.
