Many small business owners think that SEO does not work and will not help in the success of their small business, therefore they make the critical mistake of not investing in SEO marketing or local SEO either at the beginning of a re-design or with their current website.
Well, what they do not realize is that, depending on the stage that their business is in, they could have organic traffic coming in or their visibility could be very low, with hardly anyone aware of it outside their immediate circles visiting.
SEO is by far one the most cost-effective way to bring in traffic to your business and increase conversions but it is also the most time consuming that is based on the number of hours an SEO professional has to work on the onsite and offsite SEO for the website.
With effective search engine optimization (SEO), even the smallest of businesses can receive organic traffic, regardless of time of day, on their website, through SEO and local SEO. Let’s assume that you have recently opened a café in your local neighborhood. Since your café is new, only those who walk by have any likelihood of coming in.
With your own responsive website (mobile / tablet friendly), you can update people on the web about the many different items that you offer at your cafe. By keeping your blog and social media current with what your day to day specials, hours of operations, etc will help your customers know more about your business but also help Google’s “Spiders” learn more about your website and business in general.
What many business owners do not realize is that when people search for places online, they use all different types keywords to find you – (ie. Pizza – Pizza Delivery, Pizza Near Me, Who has the best pizza, Pizza in West Palm Beach, Pizza 33401, etc) – you get the picture, the possibilities are endless.
The only way which they can divert traffic to your website pages is to use a natural tone of writing that does not sound technical but describes your business and general city area through such keywords and high quality images – something that SM Digital’s SEO division excels in with great ROI results in this arena. The whole purpose of search engine optimization is to provide content with such keywords so that more individuals visit your page, leading to more sales, and thus higher revenue.
The Shifting Paradigm of SEO Marketing
Over the years, SEO has evolved considerable, and currently, the three pillars of SEO marketing that are most relevant for small businesses, are organic SEO, social media marketing and local SEO.
When we talk about organic SEO, the main purpose here is to provide individuals with high quality information that provides the correct answer to an end users answer via Google or any other search engine.
Thus by engaging in a strong and aggressive content marketing strategy, that is, information that people can benefit from with regard to your business experience and quality, in a highly engaging manner of course, your business will earn social signals and organic rankings. It is important to use markup language like schema code to better utilize Google’s search engines.
For instance, if you are the owner of a café, you will have items like brownies and cakes; if you were to describe and label those goods as cakes and brownies, your customers will not have much interest in them, whereas if you use a description like, chewy, hot, delicious, chocolaty delight, complete with mouthwatering visuals, then that will definitely catch their attention, which is the beauty of content marketing. Remember a picture goes a long way, especially on social media like Facebook and Instagram.
Local SEO works differently
Instead of using high quality content, local SEO uses the information of your business, such as the geo coordinates / location, timings, menu, etc. When an individual uses a search engine and uses keywords like ‘nearest café’ or ‘best café,’ Google and other search engines automatically detect the location of the individual, and based on reviews and information provided by the business owner, shows your business as one of the nearby cafes.
Depending on your industry competition locally, your local business directory listings like Yelp!, Angie’s List, American Town, etc may show up for various local keywords. Through the use of citation building, social media advertising, a clean website, directory listings, and Google My Business optimization, you will be able to attract more people to your business, thanks to marketing via Google+ and Google Maps.
Also, if their experience at your eatery is good enough, they might advertise your business through word of mouth on their social media accounts aka “viral marketing”.
Want to learn more about SEO and how your small business can benefit from it? Contact our SEO experts at SM Digital and learn how you can high returns on your marketing efforts with your budget. Call us at 561.404.9787
