The SEO Follow-Up: Dispelling Myths about SEO for Small Businesses
If you are in a more niche industry which has few direct competitors, it’s easy to think that SEO simply isn’t worth the time and effort. However, it isn’t just about getting an edge over your rivals; there are far more benefits than that!
By Beth Owens — 26 September, 2018
Organizing your site.
As well as high-quality content, Google’s algorithm also rewards sites which are easy for people to navigate. If we go into a site and struggle to find the section we want, we quickly give up and go back to Google. That’s a customer that a business will have lost, and their ranking will also have taken a hit. This is because Google also measures the amount of time people spend on a site, taking it as a sign of its value to users. Web design 101 already tells us that a strong layout breeds high engagement, and this applies equally to your search engine optimization. Effectively, this is two birds with one stone!
Lead Generation.
This is the area that separates SEO from paid advertising. You can spend a lot of money placing ads all over the web, but this doesn’t mean that you are targeting those most likely buy your product or service. In many cases, you will see a pretty low return for these efforts because they are too broad. In contrast, SEO is successful precisely because it kicks in when people have already expressed an interest in what you offer. If someone looking for a hairdresser types in ‘hairdressers in San Francisco’ and you are in those top few results, you’ve put yourself on the radar of prospective customers. From a business perspective, this is a much better use of your resources that generic advertising.
Building your Brand.
To build a strong customer base, having a trustworthy brand is essential. No one will want to be your client if they don’t think you are a leader in your industry! SEO is instrumental in helping you become an authority in your space, because it rewards you for generating quality content on matters of interest to your audience. Aside from improving your ranking, this contributes towards your brand identity by providing a great opportunity to showcase your personality and values through your content.
To be successful at SEO, it’s important not to think about it as overcoming a series of barriers designed to trip you up. It’s actually set up so that everybody wins; Google ensures that it keeps delivering relevant content to its users, and so sites dedicated to serving the interests of their customer base will be rewarded for their efforts.
