Is SEO Worth it for Small Business?

If you're a small business owner or solopreneur, you’ve probably asked yourself: Is SEO really worth it for my business? You’ve heard about search engine optimization (SEO) and how it can help you grow, but maybe you’re unsure if it’s the right strategy for you. Sometimes it seems too big, complicated, or techy, but I want to make sure you know it's actually an amazing marketing channel for your small business. 

SEO is one of the most powerful marketing strategies available. Let's talk about how it can help your business grow. 

SEO Is More Than Just Something you do on your Website—It's a Marketing Strategy

At its core, SEO is about helping get more traffic to your website, but it's about so much more than that. What I want you to think about is what that traffic could do once it gets to your website. SEO or search engine optimization, when paired with a good website and helpful content, can drive the organic traffic that will help your business grow. 

When you get more of the right people to your website each month, you can grow your email list, generate more leads, and make more sales. It's about ranking higher on Google and a lot more. 

Unlike paid ads on Meta or Google, you get traffic in exchange for creating great content that's helpful to your ideal customer and optimized for the search engines, not money. When you rely on paid ads, your traffic stops as soon as you stop paying for ads, but SEO can drive free website traffic for years. 

Do you wonder if SEO will work for your Niche? 

Most small business owners do. Here's the thing: SEO will work for you. It really doesn't matter what niche you're in, as long as people are searching for information on Google (or other search engines) then there's a possibility for your business. If no one is searching for information related to your niche, then SEO doesn't work, and you should rethink your niche because it's likely not viable. 

What do you do for SEO on your Small Business Website?

The first step will be to choose which pages you will optimize (do SEO on) on your website. I always recommend people start with the core pages on their website. Those pages normally include your home, about, contact, and products or services pages. You'll want to choose a different keyword for each page and then use it in each of your SEO elements. If you're not sure what those are, request a copy of my Beginner's Guide to SEO here and it will walk you through what to do. 

Once you've optimized your core pages on your website, if you've chosen keywords for which your site has a good chance of ranking, you should start to see your rankings increase, and you should start getting more traffic to your website. If you want more traffic than that, you'll want to add a blog, or if you have a podcast, your podcast show notes page will work if you create a blog post style show notes page. When you create additional content like your blog post or podcast show notes page, it helps increase your reach and website traffic. Rather than ranking for 4-5 keywords, you have the chance to rank for more because each page you create is another chance to rank. 

Local SEO - Matters for Businesses that Serve a Local Market

If your business is local, not online, then you'll want to also do local SEO which involves optimizing your Google Business Profile listing so that you show up on Google Maps more often. If you're not sure how to optimize your Google Business Profile, check out this post for more insights. 

You'll also want to be sure you're using location-based keywords in your website optimization. You'll use SEO keywords like Tucson gluten-free bakery or kid's birthday party Tucson. These keywords are more likely to be searched with the location information, and you want to have a chance to show up when people in your community search for things related to your business. 

How SEO was Worth it for one Small Business

One of my clients, a small preschool with a single location, has been doing SEO for years. We've optimized (done SEO on) their Google Business Profile so they frequently appear on Google Maps. We've also made sure all of the pages on the website are SEO-friendly and use keywords they have a good chance of ranking for. We've added blog posts to help drive even more traffic. Our content strategy is to create helpful content for our ideal customer, who is a parent with a child between ages 1 & 5 who is looking for childcare in their city. 

By doing SEO on their website for years, they've had great success:

• Over 30 keywords are ranking on Page 1 of Google.
• They get more website traffic from SEO every year. 
• 60% of their leads are free, thanks to SEO traffic.

Are you Ready to Start Using SEO to Help Grow your Business? 

If you're ready to learn how to do SEO on your website so you can rank higher, get more traffic, grow your email list, and make more sales, I'd love to teach you. Start by taking my free SEO 101 class to learn a bit more about how SEO works, and then sign up for Simple SEO Content. I'll walk you through how to create the right foundation for your business, whether it's online or local.