Why YOUR Small Business Should Care About SEO

Because SEO the cheapest and easiest way to get more new customers, now and in the future.

“Why should I care about search engine optimization? I’m just a small business. I don’t have a lot of money to spend on SEO.”

Friends, SEO is THE way to compete with any size company in your field of business. Good SEO has nothing to do with how much money you spend on it. It has nothing to do with tricks or shortcuts.

Good SEO has more to do with what you know about SEO and about how your website communicates with potential customers searching for a product or service like yours, even if they don’t already know you exist.

This article WILL give you insights that will help you make better decisions about your website content and better decisions when you’re looking for help with your website and digital marketing in the future.

All the while, your website will serve your customers better and consequently, you will get more customers.

How Search Engine Optimization Works-Demonstrated

In this article, I am in the act of demonstrating a fundamental search engine optimization strategy. I’m showing you how it works. Here’s what I’ve done so far:

• I’ve created a sensible title for this page. It asks a question about search engine optimization. Many people search the internet for information about SEO every hour of the day because it’s such a valuable skill to understand. The title of the page tells Google what this page is about. That’s vitally important for good SEO.
• I typed 3 short paragraphs that are relevant to the page title. This also signals Google that the content appears to match the title. Although this may seem obvious, it doesn’t necessarily happen. The average business owner isn’t aware of the value in this small but important element. (Pssst…neither do a lot of SEO service providers.)
• Next, we have bold Subtitle which reads This is How Search Engine Optimization Works. This bold type is in H2 format, otherwise known as a Header Tag, and in this case, the 2nd header tag on the page. The Page Title is being used as the H1 tag.

Continuing This Search Engine-Friendly Article About Search Engine Optimization.

As we continue with this tutorial about optimizing a website (or web page) for gaining search engine attention, notice the 3 elements above:

1. There is a bullet list in the section under the H2 tag. While this isn’t necessarily a necessity, it does have SEO-rich content, all within the important ideas in the article. A bullet list is orderly, it breaks up long swaths of text, and this, therefore, more readable. This has many benefits (but we won’t get into all that detail right now).
2. Then we have an image. It’s actually a colorful block of text but in the form of an image. Images have their own SEO characteristics if done properly and this article will have a link right here when the content describing the optimization of an image is created.
3. The image above also has a Call-to-Action. A call to action (CTA) is smart marketing because it’s designed to get a website visitor to make make a decision. I often recommend an offer such as a coupon, a limited time offer, or some kind of free and valuable information. When someone clicks on a link on your page and it takes them to another page on your website, therefore it’s a signal to Google that your website has value. It’s called an internal link. You’ll learn more about this in another article on our blog about the benefits of internal links.
4. Finally, we have another Subheading and this is the H3 tag. The H3 tag gets to be rather meaningless and any further heading tags can just remain as H3 tags. (Don’t use H1 or H2 tags more than once in a post or page.

Search Engine Optimization is One of Your Best Marketing Investments

When I say SEO is one of your best marketing investments, I’m talking mainly about your investment in time, not money. You, the business owner understand more about your products and your customers than anyone else. Since you know more about customers think about your product, the words they use and the questions they ask, you are the best person to create search engine friendly content for your website.

When the words and phrases on your website (particularly the page titles and header tags) are a close match to what a potential customer is searching for, your website will have a much better chance to appear at, or near the top of search results.

The Top Benefits of Good SEO:

1. Potential customers will find you at the precise moment when they’re in the act of making a buying decision.
2. It lasts indefinitely. Once you add content to your website, it stays there to serve you and your customers as long as your website does.
3. It gets better with age.
4. It allows you to compete with any size business in your field.
5. Building a good SEO website that attracts more new customers adds value to your business. Your website becomes an asset.

You can’t get these kinds of results from any other type of advertising, even with bucket loads of money to spend on it.

Learn more about the benefits of good search engine optimization here.