Mastering the Traffic Code - The Importance of SEO for Small Businesses

What is SEO?

SEO (Search Engine Optimization), that is, search engine optimization. This is a technique for increasing your website's visibility for specific search keywords. The goal of SEO is to improve the quality and quantity of website traffic. This doesn't mean filling pages with only relevant keywords, but focusing on core web elements such as site speed, mobile friendliness, interactivity, and page content.

Experts agree that successful search optimization is as important as meeting customer needs because it adheres to the guidelines and practices of search engines such as Google and Bing. Predicting customer intent, understanding what type of content they want to see, and providing the best answer is at the heart of SEO. It is both a customer research method and a sales funnel for businesses, allowing you to better understand your customers and their habits.

How Can SEO Benefit Small Businesses?

The beauty of SEO is that anyone can do it, and it's more accessible than you might think. Rather than paying for traditional print ads or sponsored posts, taking the time and effort to understand the basics of SEO and investing in tools can bring greater long-term value to your business. Here are a few reasons why you should consider using SEO for your business:

1. Attract more customers through organic search

53.3% of web traffic comes from organic search, and 60% of marketers say their high-quality leads come from people involved in SEO. why is that? Because these people are looking for solutions through search engines, and when your site is one of their top search results, you're meeting those people's needs.

Your website's presence on the first page of Google results is the number one condition for customers to discover you. Climbing to the top position can almost double your CTR than the second position. And featured snippets (top-of-page elements) can help you not need the number one position, adding a second way for customers to click through to your site.

By ranking for specific search terms, you will attract the right customers. By placing your website on the front page, you can greatly increase your brand's visibility and demonstrate that you are a trusted resource.

2. Create a trustworthy web experience for customers

Getting on the first page and ranking first in search results is all about the authority you build. You can provide the best answer or resource available, but if the user doesn't have a great experience, even if they click through to your site, you can't get customers to spend.

This is why the technical elements of SEO, such as page speed, backlinks, and other elements, are critical to your online business. Following the rules of search engine management forces you to keep your website in top shape and make keeping it healthy as a regular priority.

What's good for you is that it doesn't just help you rank better and therefore get more exposure. It also makes it easier for customers to build trust based on the functionality of the website. Having quick pages, security measures, and automated customer service portals are just a few of the ways to do this.

3. Sustainable tracking

One of the reasons traditional marketing is frustrating is that your return on investment is very vague. Billboards have average views based on traffic patterns. Commercials measure overall viewing rates based on a rating system. But SEO is completely quantifiable, and can easily be associated with any paid digital strategy as well.

Now it's not as simple as paid advertising, you need to connect a few dots on the back end of your website to really understand how to drive business from organic search traffic. With some Google Analytics expertise, you can easily track data based on on-site ad clicks, page views, order fulfillments, click-to-calls, and more.

When it comes to optimizing your SEO efforts, you can use tools like Google Search Console to better understand the keywords people are finding you on, where you rank, and where you need to improve. You can even gain insight into your website health here, which is also a key element of user engagement.

Remember, this method of SEO requires trial and error to be successful. No one has a recipe for successful SEO. Instead, SEO professionals have ingredients or methods that are known to work, and they are constantly testing to find improvements. Like anything involved in running a business.