Importance of SEO for Small Business Owners
Reading Time: 2 minutes Small businesses are everywhere, all across the United States – the contiguous mainland, Alaska, Hawaii, Guam, Puerto Rico, and every other territory the U.S. owns – with the United States Small Business Administration (SBA)indicating that the country is home to 30-odd million small businesses, which collectively employ about 48 percent of all employed Americans.
Since locals know where most small businesses are around towns and cities, it only makes sense then they’d, like – never – bother searching them online, right?
Wrong!
Research indicates that roughly three-quarters of all Americans search for a business – and that business specifically, not just all whatever-they-sell businesses in a certain area – on Google prior to even stopping by in person.
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Further, about 30 percent – only 30 percent – of small business owners claim that staying current with technology and its business purposes are of “major concern.” If seven of your competitors don’t care about using search engine optimization to get more widely known by – oh, I don’t know – maybe the 75 percent of Americans that search businesses online prior to even thinking about making purchases, can’t you imagine the benefits of building a presence on search engines are substantial?
I’ll answer for you – they are substantial.
See those links atop Google search engine’s results?
For the longest time, I always thought that prospective shoppers seeking unbiased information regarding a business, brand, product, or service would skip the sponsored ads atop all Google search engine results.
However, those paid advertisements account for nearly two-thirds of all pages clicked in terms of searches in which consumers could be reasonably assumed as seriously considering making a purchase – in other words, for “high commercial intent keyword searches,” as WordStream Research defines it.
What does this mean?
Those ads are difficult to compete with. Imagine if your business’ web page showed up on the second, third, or fourth page of Google results. You’re likely going to get beat out by that paid advertisement.
This time, imagine that you poured time and effort into the welfare of your entity’s search engine optimization. If your page pops up atop a search listing, right next to that or those paid ads, don’t you think competing with them would be that much easier?
Answer yes, trust me!
There are certainly a handful of tech-savvy business owners that have already started addressing their SEO needs
In business, as I’m sure you already know, there’s something called a competitive advantage, which are qualities that help businesses stick out from the crowd.
Let’s say you sell birthday cakes. If just one small business selling birthday cakes already have a well-developed presence on the Internet, they’re likely drawing in the bulk of traffic that came through the Internet.
Even if you don’t know SEO like the back of your hand – even if you have to outsource small business SEO services – stay competitive by fighting other tech-savvy small businesses, or, if possible, get that first-mover’s advantage.
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