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aving a strong digital presence is more important than ever. Especially for small businesses looking to make a big impact in their niche market or their local area.  With increasing numbers of people looking to shop locally or buy from independent stores, there has never been a better time for small and independent businesses to jump on the SEO bandwagon, let’s face it, most of the competition is already using it.

SEO Friendly Website = High ROI 

Compared to many other marketing strategies, investing in a search engine friendly website has one of the highest returns on investments.

Smaller businesses may still be drawn to traditional methods of marketing; however, SEO can prove to be just as valuable to small businesses as it is for large corporations. If small businesses want visibility in the SERPs, SEO marketing is the way to do it. It is also far more effective than social media marketing, pay per click advertising and email marketing for many business owners.

Remember the golden rule, search always beats social. Just consider your own consumer habits, if you’re looking to buy something online or find a local store of service, where will you go first?

Search engine optimised websites are also useful tools for building brand trust and awareness. If a business appears on the first page of results, customers are more likely to trust what that website has to offer. Also, it is a matter of convenience, if someone searching for goods or a service finds the perfect company on the first page of results in the top 1 to 5 positions, they will be less inclined to look through the rest of the websites which appeared when they searched their search term. In fact, 75% of people never scroll past the first page in the SERPs.

A good SEO plan will know what your potential customers will be searching for when they load up their preferred search engine, and those phrases will become keywords which will feature heavily throughout your website, acting as a magnet to organically draw in potential clients.

While the key role of SEO is to make fast, robust and user-friendly webpages rank higher on internet searches which leads to more organic site traffic and in turn, increased conversion rates, but there are many different benefits to having SEO plans for small businesses, which we will highlight below.

1. Cost-Effective Marketing

Many small businesses can’t afford to waste money on in-effective marketing, so it comes as no surprise that small business owners are often a little apprehensive about investing in SEO marketing, but when done properly, SEO can be priceless.

Traditional advertising may have proven beneficial in the past, but there was always a major drawback to traditional advertising – there was no way of ensuring that the right people would see the advertisement. Whereas with SEO marketing, you’re simply making yourself more visible to the people who are already out and looking for your goods and services.

A high-quality SEO strategy isn’t something which businesses can create independently without professional help, however, there are plenty of SEO plans and affordable SEO packages available to help independent businesses to outshine the competition.

2. Join the Digital Revolution

Love it or loathe it, but the internet is here to stay, and the same adapt to survive rule applies when it comes to small business marketing.

Google processes in excess of 3.5 billion searches a day, that is 40,000 searches every second. While not all of those searches are potential customers looking for goods or services, a 2010 study showed that 78% of internet users use search engines to research services and products online. That figure in 2020 and beyond will only get higher.

When potential customers are embarking on that first and crucial step in the consumer process, it is imperative for your business to catch their eye and SEO is one of the best ways to do it. 

Keeping up with new digital consumer trends is key for any business, which is why many businesses have keenly ensured that their websites aren’t only SEO-friendly, but mobile-friendly too.

3. Increased Conversion Rates

Expert SEO tactics don’t just increase the number of hits your website receives, they also increase your conversion rates.

SEO marketing doesn’t try to put goods and services in front of as many people as possible, only the people who are searching for them. For example, if someone searches for ‘bike repairs in London’, if you run such a business and you are the number one search result for that term, you will attract more SEO-driven leads than bike repair shops appearing on the 2nd and 3rd page of search engine results.

4. Get Ahead of Your Competition

Small businesses who are only just starting to consider SEO will also need to consider that they’re miles behind their tech-savvy competition. In 2020, almost all businesses, of all sizes, use SEO in their marketing strategies. If your competitors’ websites are already featuring on the first page of search engine results, that is a sure sign that they are profiting from their SEO plan.

Even businesses that are thriving without the use of SEO strategies are guaranteed to be missing out on potential customers and clients, especially as 93% of online experiences begin with a search engine.

The good news is that not every business executes their SEO strategy well, that includes competitors. Effective SEO strategies will always involve scanning the competition’s business websites to scout out room for improvement.

5. A SEO Website is a Valuable Investment for the Future and the Present

Unlike any other mode of advertising or marketing, SEO marketing is a sure-fire way of future-proofing your business, as any investment of time or money has a long-term impact on your business’ visibility.

The sooner a website becomes search engine optimised, the higher the chances of small business websites taking advantage of the algorithm changes which consistently happen on search engines and in turn with SEO. It is due to these constant SEO algorithm changes that it pays to invest in the expertise of SEO experts. Additionally, time is of the essence with most small businesses already onboard with SEO marketing, there is no time to hang around and wait to acquire the necessary skills for you to create a successful SEO plan for your small business website and to keep updated with all the changes that happen in the world of SEO.

6. The impact of local SEO

Local search engine marketing requires an approach that is different from general SEO practices. Ask yourself, will your business show up at the exact time someone is searching in your area?

Local SEO begins with a good foundation and strives to engage with potential customers in specific geographical areas near your Brick-and-mortar store, however you don’t have to have an office or store to benefit form local search marketing. Like all SEO, local SEO requires ongoing effort, as it’s important for all small businesses to invest in the continual growth of their brand visibility and recognition within their local community.

You should:

1. Make sure your NAP (name, address, phone number) is consistent as these three pieces of information about your business will make up the core of your business information in the world of local SEO.
2. Build structured local citations aka business listings on important platforms like Facebook, in your GMB page, Yellowpages, Yelp, Bing place for Business, Yahoo Localworks, Apple Maps etc.
3. Incorporate local search keywords as well as ‘near me’
4. Mobile responsiveness is important, especially as Google’s mobile-first indexing has now been rolled out. This means Google looks at you mobile site first and not your desktop site.

As a small business owner you should be aware that as many as 46% of all Google searches are local and over 50% of 'near me' searches result in a physical store visit.

There is a lot more to consider when optimising your website for local SEO, which is why it is important when setting up an affordable SEO plan that it includes local SEO.