Does SEO really matter for your small business?
Ok ok, you know I’m going to say it does. But let’s talk about why!
Top benefits of SEO for small business
What is SEO?
SEO in a nutshell is the process of making your site easier for search engines to understand, which will help your rankings and traffic increase. Basically, you want to make sure you’re giving Google the best information to know what to rank you for to make sure you’re reaching the right people (plus, a lot more technical things with data, user experience, mobile design, etc.)
This post is going to be focusing on the benefits of SEO for small business and not the strategies, so if you’re more interested in SEO strategies, check out my post 5 Stress-Free & Easy SEO Tips for Small Businesses.
If you’re ready to go through the top benefits to see if SEO is right for you, let’s do it!
#1 It will increase your website traffic
The main purpose of ranking on Google is to get more traffic to your website. The higher your site pages rank, the better chance you have of getting more website traffic (if you’re ranking well but not seeing an increase in traffic, check out my guide to title tags and meta descriptions to increase your traffic). And the more traffic you get, the more you’ll be able to reach potential clients and customers to grow your business, which leads me to my next point!
#2 It will help you reach the right clients
I don’t know about you, but I have lots of people following me on Instagram who I doubt will ever hire me. They follow me because we know each other or for my tips or cute dog photos. And that’s fine because I love making business connections, but I also want to grow my business.
Probably one of the biggest benefits of SEO for small business is that it helps you reach paying clients.
SEO is what helps potential clients find YOU when they are ready to spend money on your services!
But when someone is really to find a copywriter for their website and they’re searching “copywriter for small businesses” in Google, they’re more likely to be ready to spend money for your services- rather than someone who stumbles across your Instagram page and doesn’t need your business right now, but they enjoy following you.
I get leads directly from Google every month, and optimizing my clients’ sites help them reach more potential clients, too!
The key to reaching these paying clients is to make sure you’re using the right keywords related to your products and services, which my Tips for Keyword Research post can help you get started with.
#3 It gives your content a longer shelf live
You may not see results with SEO as quickly as with something like social media, but the wait is worth it because SEO will give your content a longer shelf life.
If you’re writing great blog posts and don’t want your older ones to go to waste, SEO can help give them continual traffic over time so people can keep finding your content (and potentially converting to clients).
A Facebook post’s shelf life is only 1-2 days (and always decreasing), but you can get continuous traffic from Google for a blog post for months to even years (just make sure you’re keeping old posts updated).
#4 It can help you grow your email list
With the increase in traffic and continuous traffic to your blog posts from the RIGHT people, you can utilize all those visits to grow your email list and build your following!
Email lists are a great way to get repeat visitors, build connections, and sell to, so make sure you have a strong opt-in to encourage website visitors to join your list.
#5 It improves your site user experience and accessibility
User experience, accessibility, and SEO go hand-in-hand for reaching the right people and converting them to clients (no matter if they come from Google or social media or elsewhere). And Google is also focusing more and more on user experience as a ranking metric. Accessibility is also important for making your site is able to be used by everyone (Erin Perkins is a great person to get tips from to make sure your site and marketing efforts are all accessible).
If you want to make sure your site is user friendly, my post How UX Can Help Your Site Rank Higher in Google will help get you started!
#6 You don’t have to spend as much time on social media
I am pretty active on Pinterest, but I do the bare minimum on Instagram, the even barer minimum on LinkedIn, and I don’t have a presence for my business on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, or any other new social media platform that I’m forgetting.
But my business is still growing without focusing on social media.
If you’re tired of trying to keep up with all the different social media algorithm changes, my favorite SEO benefit is that it can help you reach more potential clients! (No dancing needed)
I’m not saying to write social media off completely because it definitely has value for businesses. But if you’re a busy small business owner, you don’t need to be spending hours on social media every day dancing and finding the perfect music for an Instagram Reel in the hopes that you convert one of your followers.
If you’re loving all the time you spend on social media, go for it! But if you’re not growing your business despite all the effort you’re putting into social media, SEO is a longterm strategy that can help you reach potential clients that are searching specifically for you.
Have these 6 benefits of SEO for small business convinced you to start working on your site?
I LOVE seeing when my clients’ sites increase in traffic, and my absolute favorite thing is when they land their first client who found them on Google and they send me a super excited email! SEO really does work, and I can help you grow your business on Google, too.
If you’re ready to have your ideal clients start coming to you so you don’t have to feel like you’re wasting hours on social media every day, it’s time to try SEO. Check out my Seeds for SEO Success course if you’re interested in the DIY route. If you want to just hand SEO off to an expert, check out my SEO services and see how I can help you grow your business!