7 Benefits of SEO for Small Businesses

Search engines play a central role in the Internet's universe, with 68% of all online activity starting with them. Google alone receives more than 13 billion search queries each day.

With all these searches, it’s easy to imagine that every web page out there receives visitors. But nothing could be further from the truth. Only 9% of all internet content receives Google traffic, with only 4.5% receiving ten or more clicks per month.

These statistics underline the importance of SEO for small businesses. The goal of search engine optimization is to increase the visibility of your content on search engines.

Considering that 75% of users never go past the first page of Google results, it’s clear that SEO needs to be at the center of every digital marketing campaign.

In today’s post, we highlight seven tangible ways SEO can help your company. Let’s delve right in.

1. SEO Boosts Credibility

High SEO rankings communicate that your content is top-quality and trustworthy. Users are more likely to find your brand, which can help your business a lot. That’s because 81% of customers say they need to be able to trust a brand before they can do business with them.

Take the time to improve and add quality content to your site to help boost rankings. Research and use appropriate keywords and take care of the technical aspects of the site. Hiring a professional SEO services provider is also a great way to boost rankings and increase credibility.

2. It’s a Low-Cost Technique to Market Your Brand

Marketing costs can be steep, with the average 30-second TV ad costing about $115,000 to air on a national network. That’s on top of product costs, which can run into thousands of dollars, even for a low-end commercial.

With SEO marketing, costs are drastically reduced. If you decide to handle it yourself, you may not spend any money at all. It’s the perfect digital marketing strategy for startups with a small marketing budget.

Search engines constantly crawl your website and will promote any useful content they find. This helps bring you traffic organically.

Regularly review high-ranking content in your niche, and endeavor to develop even better content. Share this content widely on your social media platforms to promote it.

3. SEO Supports Content Marketing

SEO works closely with original content. Creating top-grade content that includes text, video, and images helps your site rank better. When you incorporate SEO techniques, your content gets to rank even better.

One way SEO can help your content marketing is by optimizing the content for keywords you would rank for. Other SEO factors, such as link building, also help drive more traffic to your content.

4. SEO Can Help Maximize Your PPC Campaign

SEO can work well together with your paid marketing strategies (PPC). With PPC, your site appears at the top of paid search results. Organically, SEO will have the same result.

When both PPC and SEO results appear at the top of Google results, it enhances your brand’s credibility. Users can see that you aren’t ranking highly just because you threw money at advertising. Sometimes, marketers use SEO as part of PPC advertising, particularly when the keywords have a low cost-per-click.

5. You Gain a Competitive Advantage

Another reason to use SEO for your small business is to keep up with the competition. The fact is, your toughest competitors are most likely already investing in SEO, and you’ll lag behind if you don’t do the same.

Generally, companies that invest significantly in SEO outrank their competition when it comes to search engine results. These businesses also tend to have a larger market share as a result.

Take the time to identify and analyze your competition’s strengths and weaknesses. Use this information to help create and manage your own online reputation. Take the necessary steps to create the best possible user experience, and soon you’ll begin to attract more traffic.

6. SEO Can Help You Rank Highly in Local Searches

The value of being found easily in local searches is massive. About 97% of consumers learn more about a local business online than in any other place. Most of these searches lead to conversions.

Local SEO techniques can prove helpful when it comes to attracting searchers in your area. If you already have a Google My Business account, request your clients to review you. You can also get your listings optimized by using your correct name, contact, and address.

Carefully consider the local keywords you use in your content, and create listings in your local business directories. These are just some of the ways to boost your local SEO rankings.

7. You Get Quantifiable Results

Another benefit of SEO is that it allows you to track any changes in your site’s rankings. You can also track website traffic and conversions.

There are many tools for tracking SEO results, including Google Analytics. These tools offer detailed insights into your SEO campaign. You get to see your site user’s buying journey, from the keywords they used during the search to the pages they visited. You can also see whether the user completed certain actions.

From the information you get, you can finetune your SEO strategy for better results.