Is SEO worth it for small businesses?

You might have heard of a little thing called Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) — the practice of tweaking and changing your website to make it rank better on search engine results pages like Google, Yahoo, and Bing.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a multi-national company or a small start-up, every website can benefit from SEO. Even if your website is already high-ranking, with the frequent updates to search engine algorithms, you’ll need to make regular adjustments. And this all comes under SEO, too.

Let’s take a deeper look at what SEO is and why it matters for your small business…

What is search engine optimisation (SEO)?

SEO is the process of improving your website to increase its visibility to web browsers searching for particular products or services.

When someone enters a query into a search engine, they run an algorithm to understand and sort the websites that make up the web. The search engine will then present the websites that it thinks will be of most interest to you. It wants users to be happy with the results it gives them, so they keep coming back to use the search engine. SEO is all about making your website as appealing to search engines as possible, so it presents you to users as a useful, reliable, and relevant website.

Why SEO matters for your small business

As the aim of SEO is to get your website to rank highly on search engine results pages, you can see why this is great for any small business! A higher ranking equates to better online visibility. And if people can’t see you, they can’t shop with you or use your services.

Not only will new customers see you as a more trustworthy and ‘popular’ option, but they will also assume that you are the most relevant option for what they are searching for. Studies have shown that the top three search results get between 50 and 60% of all clicks, so this isn’t a small matter. Even if you’re still on the first page of search results, you’ll be missing out on website traffic.

Unfortunately, it can be particularly hard for small businesses to rank highly and reap the advantages. Large companies generally have an easier time ranking high on search engine results pages due to larger marketing budgets and high levels of traffic due to their bigger name. Small businesses can’t expect to rise to the top of the rankings on their own — they need to invest in their SEO to help them get there.

What’s involved with SEO?

There are lots of different ways to improve your website to make it more SEO-friendly. In fact, you can’t just focus on one element of your site and expect it to soar up the results page. Here are just a few things you need to take a look at:

• On-site optimisation – focusing on optimising specific web pages to rank higher in search engines, this might involve changing headings and subheadings, images, alt-text, and internal linking.
• Content – you’ll need to ensure your website is displaying well-written, useful, and original material that gives visitors what they need.
• Keywords – you’ll want to make sure you’re using the best keywords in your content. It will help the search engines notice that your site is relevant to what people are searching for.
• User intent – this involves thinking about the goal or intent that a user has when they enter a search term into a search engine.
• Local SEO – if your business serves a geographical area or has a physical location, you will want a strategy to help you show up in local search results.
• Backlinks – these are links on a site that isn’t yours that direct people to your site. These links help to build credibility, trust, and relevance.
• Site speed – search engines like websites that provide a great user experience. A fast site speed will keep people on your page for longer and reduce your bounce back rate.
• Site architecture – good site architecture helps search engines to understand what your website is about, as well as find and index your web pages.

You don’t have to go it alone with SEO. By working with SEO experts, you can get the best, up-to-date advice on modifying your website. They’ll be able to save you time and stress trying to work out the technical side of things or what the latest algorithm change means for your site. An SEO professional will be able to create an SEO strategy that’s unique to your business goals and specific needs.

SEO services from Narwhal Media Group 

Need a hand with your SEO? Whether your business is big or small, contact us at Narwhal Media Group today. We’re a team of branding, marketing, and design experts providing a full digital service for businesses around the globe. From lead generation and web design to SEO, we combine our dynamic skill sets to achieve targeted results and help companies grow.

Learn more about our SEO services and how we can give your online business that much-needed boost.