If you’re not on the internet, you don’t exist. That’s the unwritten rule of today’s market. That is why Search Engine Optimization or SEO is highly important in today’s market especially if you are running a small business.
Why is SEO such a big deal? SEO is used by businesses everywhere because it helps with your online visibility. Given that majority of customers would trek over to Google to do a quick search, whether it is to check on your product’s availability or a business’ trustworthiness, being visible and at a certain rank helps establish a reputation. Furthermore, if you don’t show up at the first three pages or even at the first page, they’ll believe that you don’t exist.
As much as it is handy to spend on adverts and promotional materials, you are still spending so much money and this can be risky for small to medium business enterprises who don’t have that much resources as big companies. That’s why it is important for small business to invest in promotional venture that will cause little to no expenses; search engine optimization allows that.
SEO is also important in generating traffic for your website as naturally as you can. Some sources call this as organic traffic and this saves more than pay-per-click advertising which requires you to pay for each new lead that your website generates. Furthermore, it is the most cost-effective method as it requires little to no expenses; all you need is your website, keywords and content and if you need to spend on something it is for the manpower whose tasks are to maintain and manage your websites and social media.
However, the problem is that some people don’t know how to do SEO correctly nor have the patience to do it right. SEO is divided into two types: on page and off page.
On Page SEO is the content you can control and is within your page. This includes your codes, HTML tags, written content and everything you write that can be possibly reflected on search engines. On the other hand, Off Page SEO is content that you cannot control because it is from other websites that link back to your page, however, the good thing about this is that you can exert some kind of influence on it.
The main key player is On Page SEO because it can help define what your website is. Why? Because relevant keywords must be found here such as your location, profession, niche, etc. These keywords are often used by users everywhere when they are searching for something on search engines. For example, if your company specializes in content and you are from Arizona then a more appropriate and specific keyword for your site is content marketing Arizona.
It is also to note that the more defined and less vague your keywords are, the better you will be found. For example, website development Arizona is a highly defined set of keywords that tell users of your location and what is your company’s niche.
Marketing experts calls these as local SEO and is highly important for small businesses and if you think that it will die soon, think again as it has proven to be a consistent ally for budding marketers especially now that mobile usage is on the rise.
