Is SEO Worth It for Small Business?
Optimizing your site for search engines can take some time depending on how large your site is. Asking "is SEO worth it for small business" is a fair question to ask because no one wants to waste a bunch of time if it isn't going to benefit them.
So, is SEO worth it for small business? Local SEO for small businesses can help generate more leads for your business without having to spend an extra dime on paid advertising. Since 93% of consumers use online searches to find local businesses (as of 2020), I'd say local SEO is pretty important and definitely worth it!
Why SEO is Important for Small Business
Approximately 45% of all searches on Google include local intent
Shocking fact...
No one uses the phone book anymore. *gasp*
So what are the main sources for finding a local business these days?
Word-of-mouth recommendations from friends and family
Online searches
Word-of-mouth advertisement is difficult to control. Just making sure you offer a high-quality product or service is all you can do to hope that your customers will recommend you to their friends and family.
However, when it comes to search engine optimization, there are so many things you can do to your site to help you reach those potential customers online. And unless you hire someone to do it for you, it will only cost you your time!
If you don't optimize your site to compete with other businesses who are ranking on page one for your same product or service, you are completely missing out on a huge percentage of potential customers. Without SEO, there are people who may never find our site because they searched on Google and someone else's business showed up instead of yours.
In order to stay competitive and make sure that customers can find you in this day and age, optimizing your site is extremely important.
Try my FREE Local SEO Meta Tag Generator to help you write the best Local SEO tags and descriptions!
Advantages of SEO for Your Business
Before you jump right in and start optimizing your site for search engines, you might want to know "what are the actual advantages of SEO for your business"? Whether you plan to spend the time learning and implementing local SEO by yourself or hiring someone to do it for you, it's wise to know exactly what you'll get getting out of it.
Here are some of the advantages of SEO for your business that you will get by optimizing your site:
1. Reach More Potential Customers
This is the number one advantage I've listed for a reason. I mean, as with any business decision, if you're not doing it to get more customers and make more money, then why are you doing it? When you optimize your site for Google Search, you are helping get your site to the first page of Google results. This is so when people search for your product or service near them on Google, your site will be one of the first to show up.
If your site is showing on page two or greater, you have pretty much zero chance of getting any potential customers to your website.
Page two of search results is where websites go to die.
2. It's Free Advertisement (if you want it to be)
Most small businesses can't afford to spend thousands of dollars every month on paid advertisements. Whether it's Google ads, Facebook ads, or some other form of online advertising, it gets really expensive, really fast. Let alone the fact that those advertising costs eat into your profit margin.
Local SEO is totally something that you can do yourself if you have the time and motivation to do so. Another option is to pay someone a one-time fee to go through your website and optimize it for you. It will cost you money upfront to hire someone to do this, but it will still be cheaper than paying for ads.
3. SEO Makes Your Business Look Credible
Small businesses that just have a Facebook page or hand out flyers door to door don't look nearly as credible as those who invest in a website and SEO. You can tell when a company has invested in its messaging and online presence. It shows that you're not just a fly-by-night company but that you are a real company trying to offer real services. Of course, obtaining online reviews will also help with this and is the cherry on top of a well-optimized website.
So, is Local SEO Worth it?
I think you can already tell my opinion on the matter, but to answer the question, YES! Local SEO is totally worth it and every local business who wants more leads and customers should be investing in it!
If you have more comments to share on this topic, please feel free to add them below!
