For the last decade, we’ve all been hearing about SEO and its benefits. Various case studies have proven the significant impact that SEO has on small businesses and how small business owners should utilize SEO to build a strong web presence and bypass competitors. But this begs the million-dollar question – how beneficial is SEO for small businesses?

SEO helps small business owners to create fast, reliable, robust, and user-friendly websites that appeal to their target audience. The user experience is everything when it comes to building business websites, and with a proper SEO strategy in play, the sky is the limit to what can be achieved.

If you’re a small business owner and want to drive traffic to your website, then SEO is always the best way to go. SEO brings more brand awareness to your business website as search engine users are much more inclined to trust a website that is displayed on the first of the search results pages. Approximately 75% of search engine users don’t click on the second page, third page, or beyond on the search results listings.  

So if your business website is not located on the first page of the search engine results pages, then you might be in trouble. This is where SEO can come to your rescue and save the day.  

Benefits of SEO

SEO (search engine optimization) refers to how well your business website ranks on search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo. With higher rankings comes increased online visibility, brand awareness, website traffic, and conversion rates. 

User-Friendly Responsive Websites

Having a user-friendly website that is responsive to all digital devices is crucial. Providing an excellent user experience should always be the primary goal for any SEO consultant. Your website should be clean, well-structured, uncluttered, and visually appealing. This compels the user to stay on your website longer and therefore, increasing the chance for online purchases. 

Similarly, highly-relevant content will most likely answer common questions that the consumer may have while keeping them engaged and intrigued to learn more. Providing detailed but carefully worded content is essential to providing the best user experience possible. 

You don’t want to be too wordy when discussing your product or service given the low attention span that the average online consumer has. You also don’t want to be too vague because the visitor may not fully understand what your business is about which will cause them to search for a different website. 

If SEO is done properly, then your business is more likely to convert potential customers into actual customers, thus increasing sales and public awareness.

Increased Conversion Rates

SEO makes websites load faster, makes them easier to navigate, and helps them to display properly on all digital devices. Websites that are easy to read and navigate smoothly will grab your audience’s attention for a prolonged period, which will likely compel them to become your loyal customers. 

Increased Brand Awareness

One of the great benefits of SEO is how it impacts a business website’s rankings on the search engine and how it impacts brand awareness. When your business website appears on the first page of the search engine results pages, your potential customers are much more likely to trust your business. 

It has been proven that search engine users are much more likely to trust a website that appears on the first page rather than any other proceeding pages. Being on the first page means that you have a strong web presence and says to audiences that “you are a trustworthy business.” 

This is why building brand awareness is so paramount. Local SEO campaigns and strategies will help your small business to thrive within your local area. Local search engine users that use key terms that are relevant to your business will see your business website on the first results page. This will dramatically increase the chance for more local consumers to visit your website and therefore, inquire about your services. 

Outrank Competitors

The primary objective for any small business is to be the more successful of your predecessors. From an SEO standpoint, you want to be displayed higher on the search engine results page than your competitors. 

Let’s take an example of two small businesses in the same industry. Anthony’s Pizza vs. Tony’s Pizza. As you can infer, these are two Italian restaurants with virtually the same items on their menu. Anthony’s Pizza has a more optimized website, with an online order service, and a more established social media presence.  

Considering that everything else is equal, which restaurant do you think will attract more customers for local searches? Which business will grow faster and become more successful in the long term? If you guessed Anthony’s Pizza, then you guessed correctly. 

So as you can see, SEO is beneficial for small businesses in a number of ways. If you’re a small business owner and need assistance with your SEO management, then Ringo Media can help. We are the one-stop-shop for all of your SEO maximization, web design and development, and digital marketing needs.