Why SEO is important for every business…
Why is SEO important for all businesses? As soon as we stop paying attention to our website, stop adding fresh content and key phrases that people are using in searches to find us, if we stop optimizing each page, Google or DuckDuckGo (or any search engine) will stop crawling/indexing the site and the site will drop in search results.
If all of this sounds like a lot of work…it is because it is!
SEO involves adding keywords in image titles and adding key phrases in content throughout the website.
It also involves embedding more video into the site since video ranks well with searches. It involves adding more internal and external links and optimizing titles and meta descriptions. Yes, it is a lot of work, but it is well worth it if your website is working day and night for you…showing up in searches higher than your competition. SEO is helping people that want to find your product or services…well…find your products or services.
Organic visitors (people that type your product or services into a search engine) are known for spending more time a website than any other type of web traffic (such as traffic from your social media sites or ads you run, etc.) They are LOOKING for your product or services and WANT to be on your website.
Speaking of SEO terms…You probably should try to learn a couple of them…
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the quality and quantity of website traffic to a website or a web page from search engines.
SEO targets unpaid traffic (known as “natural” or “organic” results) rather than direct traffic or paid traffic.
Unpaid traffic may originate from different kinds of searches….like a Facebook ad.
We are the first to admit we are NOT SEO experts, but we have gathered information that we deem valuable and information our member companies could benefit from utilizing.
So, we will keep it simple! (If you want to dive deeper into more of what SEO can involve, check out all kinds of good advice online, including 35 Ways to Increase Website Traffic in 2021 – Oberlo for actual SEO suggestions.)
A few great SEO questions answered…
1) Yes, you can compete with the big guys without a big budget.
SEO doesn’t discriminate on size or budget. It cares about keywords. The best way to get a higher ranking is to use the right keywords… not words your organization uses but words people use in searches. These can be very different. Don’t guess on keywords. Do the research.
Try typing in different phrases to see what Google or other browsers give you for results. Try using Google’s “suggested keyword phrases” that it tries to show you while you type a word.
Try to search on your competition to see what keywords and phrases they rank for and make a note. You may use a few of those keywords down the road on your own site.
2.) How do you know what to write about on your website?
You can use sites like “Answer to the Public” to learn what people are asking Google to better understand the concerns of your customers. You can then create content for them to attract people like them.
3) SEO makes it easy for consumers to find you.
If a person searches on your company name incorrectly or partially, SEO will make it so that your company will still show up in search results. You can use these alternative “misspellings” in your meta data so that search engines still recognize a misspelled keyword or incorrectly spelled company name.
4) You will have a constant stream of potential supporters.
SEO can help people who don’t know you and have an interest in your cause find you.
If you understand what keywords are searched and use them, you can attract NEW people to your organization. These are people who self-selected as interested in your mission, so they are likely prospects. This is how you keep new members flowing into your organization.
5) SEO can help you get local attention.
If you are a locally-owned and operated business, why try to compete globally? If you want local business, optimize for it. You will have less competition if you are trying to gain local traffic versus traffic from all over the world.
Search engines include geographic information in their results. Your organization will rank better for searches that include your area like “dog rescue Covington, Kentucky,” and probably won’t rank as well without an area mention since “dog rescue” will pull up all the dog rescues websites that have good SEO in place.
Use this free tool to help your rank even better locally: Local SEO Checklist for businesses | Boost your Local SEO
Keep in mind, the higher your company ranks on searches, it may also help your company appear more reputable.
Okay! That’s it for now! We may be back with Part 3 in March with our small business SEO series. See you then and happy SEO’ing!
