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What’s the big deal with SEO?
If you’re a small business owner you eventually reached a point where you felt good. You’ve got your website set up, your product/service is up and running, you figured out your payment processor, your ducks are lining up nicely and you’re feeling good.
So you let out that breath you’ve been holding for the first time… *ahhhhhhhh*
And then someone mentions SEO. The natural inclination is to start thinking is SEO that important for my business? How can SEO actually help me? Is it worth the time and money?
While your anxiety is rising, the person continues…
- Did you hire an SEO agency?
- Uhh no those are expensive.
- Does your website designer know how to optimize your website?
- Oh shit, I didn’t even ask them!
- Did you pay for / download an SEO tool like Semrush, Moz, Ahrefs, or Ubersuggest?
- Lol $100 A MONTH?! No
- How’s your website authority?
- My what?
- Do you know where you’re ranking yet?
- Ranking where? How would I even find that out?
And you just suck that breath right back up *wooop*.
Sorry to bring all that anxiety back up. But hopefully, you learn something in this post that can help you on your journey or if you’re ready to take it off your plate, let’s talk!
How Does SEO Really Help Your Business?
SEO helps you get in front of the people who are looking for your solution. Simple as that.
SEO stands for search engine optimization. It’s a series of actions, revisions, and updates made to your website, based on research, so your business shows up in the online places it needs to.
- An SEO strategy looks different at different scales. Your needs as a small business are not going to be the same needs as an enormous household name brand conglomerate.
- The SEO needs of an e-comm business are not going to be the same as a service-based business.
- Every SEO solution is (and should be) customized to your needs and goals.
When working with an SEO specialist, we look at your existing website (if available) and then get to work making a plan to help you create a plan based on on-page, off-page, and technical SEO recommendations.
- On-Page SEO includes headers, word count, meta descriptions, title tags, alt text, keyword research, (and much more).
- Off-Page SEO includes backlinks, podcasts, reviews, other reputation-building things (and much more).
- Technical SEO includes site speed, site structure, submitting content to Google (and much more).
An SEO strategy created for your unique needs and goals helps you get in front of the people searching for your solution.
So, Is SEO Really Worth It?
Websites that rank higher in search results are perceived as more trustworthy and credible, both by users and Google. Implementing SEO strategies helps you enhance your website’s authority, reputation, and brand visibility which in turn establishes trust with potential customers.
Implementing an SEO strategy provides long-term value and cost-effectiveness compared to other digital strategies. Whatever other strategies you decide to implement, they’re all important to your overall marketing strategy. But SEO provides ongoing organic traffic that continues to grow and bring in new (qualified) people long after the initial investment.
92% of searches are made on Google. That’s a lot.
Other platforms are starting to gain popularity such as DuckDuckGo and Ecosia, but optimizing your site will allow you to be found across all search engines by your ideal client.
When you get on the internet to find something, you want to find what you’re looking for. Quickly. The results that show up for your search are brands that have prioritized optimizing their site/page on a variety of factors.
Optimizing your site for the correct SEO strategy means when someone types “sustainable chapstick” into the search bar, a relevant answer — which is your company — comes up (assuming you sell sustainable chapstick).
- Or “sustainable shampoo”
- or “plant-based soap near me”
- Or “should I start a native garden?”
- Or “Pedro Pascal single?”
Is this based on my search history? I’ll never tell.
Google’s first priority is serving the best results to their users (the searchers, not you as a business).
Gone are the days of the lawless internet where keyword stuffing ran rampant. The days when a site that said “cat food” a thousand times could outrank an actual cat food store as long as they had that word on their page more often.
We’re all smarter than that now. Google is smarter than that now.
To make sure your product or service is being served to the right audience, you have to create high-quality content and optimize your site accordingly.
Optimizing your site for SEO is like putting a billboard in the main area your ideal customers hang out. Not optimizing your site for SEO is like putting your billboard in the woods. Behind a tree. So yes, SEO really is worth it.
How Important is SEO For Your Business?
You are never too small, too new, or too anything to start optimizing for SEO.
It’s kind of like saying you’re ‘too fit’ to warm up.
- SEO can be the difference between 2 visits a month or 200 visits a month.
- 2,000 visits a month or 200,000 visits a month.
- 1 new lead per month or 10 new leads per month.
- 1 sale or 10 sales.
You can have a beautifully written and gorgeously designed website, but, if it’s not optimized correctly, you’ve created something beautiful for an empty room in an abandoned house.
Your customers are looking for your solutions. SEO helps you be the solution they find.
SEO helps your ideal audience find you in multiple ways such as:
- Increasing your visibility.
- Getting more organic traffic from people genuinely interested in your solution.
- Being seen as an industry leader.
- Having your content be referenced and linked to other articles in the industry (hello backlinks).
- Building relationships and creating loyal relationships with your audience.
Your audience is there, searching for your solution. But you have to meet them halfway so they even have the option of finding you.
How Does SEO Help With High-Quality Traffic
There are ways to rig, and take advantage of, every system.
If you’ve tried DIYing your SEO thus far or you wanted to do your own research, I’m sure you’ve seen the countless videos telling you how to…
- HACK YOUR WAY to X
- GUARANTEED TRICKS to get you on page one
- THE ONLY 3 THINGS YOU NEED TO DO to rank well
Those are my icks. There’s always a hack, a trick, or whatever else. Sometimes they work, sometimes they work for a while, sometimes they cause you penalties, and sometimes (most of the time) they end up being a total and complete waste of time.
The reason I have repeatedly referred to helping you grow organic high-quality traffic throughout this piece and everywhere else on my site is because my client’s performance is more important to me than looking good.
Sure we can increase your traffic, and I can go on to say I increased your traffic by 200% but if no one purchases anything and it’s all shitty traffic, what’s the point?
You’ll end up wasting your time answering useless calls, pointless emails, and getting ghosted for meetings.
I once heard an SEO professional say a client told them their traffic was going up but their sales were going down. That’s the exact opposite of what we want to achieve with SEO optimization.
That’s not only what this SEO professional set out to do, but they also went so far as to say they couldn’t control that, traffic is traffic.
That’s a half-truth. Of course, you can’t control traffic, but you can research, optimize, and tweak to bring in the right kind of traffic. I obviously bounced away from that conversation like a brand-new tennis ball.
If you’re looking around for someone to help you with SEO be sure to bring up high-quality traffic. Ask how they distinguish it from other traffic and how their strategy helps you get more of the right kind.
As I said, nothing can be guaranteed, but as an SEO strategist, I listen, I research, I optimize, and I tweak. And of course keep up with the latest SEO trends, updates, and best practices.
An SEO strategy gets your brand noticed by the right people.
It helps you understand what your audience wants and allows you to create content that matches their needs.
Put your solution in front of the people looking for one.
I’d love to talk about your SEO needs, fears, concerns, and goals! I’m happy to explain why I targeted a specific keyword, why I put something in a certain place on the website. I want you to exit our relationship feeling confident in the work we’ve done together and your SEO future.
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