With the constant evolution of search engines, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a familiar concept for digital marketers and business owners all around the world. As SEO helps your business to stay on the top of search results improving your online visibility and conversions.
But unfortunately, business owners often end up making the same mistake of not creating and utilizing a well-planned SEO strategy.
Gone are those days when SEO was just about optimizing your business site with the right content and keywords. With increased competition and changing trends, there is a lot to do in SEO.
If you are a business owner, struggling to get desired results from your SEO, this article is for you. Check out what is a comprehensive SEO strategy and why every business needs it.
What is a comprehensive SEO strategy?
SEO is not just about doing relevant keyword research and using those keywords. SEO is a broad process where you have to consider every aspect of your website (and its impact on users and search engines) in order to rank it higher on SERPs. And SEO does the same for you.
A comprehensive SEO strategy is your roadmap for planning and executing different SEO practices like On-page SEO, Off Page SEO, Technical SEO, Local SEO, etc. Even though the main objective of any SEO strategy is to improve the website ranking, a comprehensive strategy also focuses on improving the user experience that can convert the site traffic into leads.
Why Small Businesses Need SEO?
Small businesses having less capital and resources and operating in a particular locality can be benefitted from SEO in the following ways.
1. More Online Visibility
Do you remember when was the last time you visited the 5th page of a search engine after searching for some query? I know you certainly don’t. According to a study, only 0.63% of users visit the second page or further. This means you have to be on top of SERP if you want to get noticed by your customers. Like this quote –
“The best place to hide a dead body is the second page of Google search.”
Small businesses often struggle with poor visibility. But by using the right SEO strategies like on-page and off-page optimization, you can achieve a higher organic ranking for your relevant searches and gain more online visibility. Helpful content and relevant keywords will help your business website get more views from your potential customers.
2. High Competition
One of the major reasons why small businesses need SEO is that their competitors have already implemented it. With so many competitors, you will surely need to do something better to stand out from the competition. Even if you reach the top of SERPs, you must make several efforts to stay there.
A progressive SEO strategy focuses on improving and maintaining your ranking for relevant keywords. By considering trends like AI and voice search optimization, you can stand out from your competitors and get the most out of your SEO strategy.
3. More Organic Traffic & Conversions
Any search has the ultimate goal to show the most relevant search result for the searched query. So when a user is searching for products/services you offer and your site appears on the top SERPs there are certain chances of them visiting your site.
Local small and medium businesses like cleaning, pressure washing, janitors, etc can take the benefits of local SEO by implementing it in their SEO strategy. As more and more people are now supporting local businesses.
As discussed earlier, people are more likely to visit the pages that rank on the top of search results. In fact, the top ten results have more than 86% CTR in total. So if your business ranks at the top of search results, you will gain more organic traffic which you can convert into customers.
4. Cost Effective
Small businesses with a lower marketing budget can leverage SEO strategies as they won’t cost you as high as other paid marketing channels. It doesn’t mean you don’t have to spend on SEO, the point here is, your investment in SEO will give you more returns in the long run.
You will have to invest in hiring professionals and some of the paid tools for SEO. However, you can also reduce your cost by hiring a marketing agency, as less cost is one of the major reasons to hire a marketing agency.
Why Enterprises Need SEO?
Large businesses and enterprises with multiple products and services providing in different locations have their own sort of challenges in SEO. Check out how a comprehensive SEO strategy helps.
1. Builds Trust & Credibility
When you search for business-related queries on search engines, let’s say “odor removal services near me” you will first see a few results with a ‘Sponsored’ or ‘Ad’ tag. Which are PPC ads.
After these paid results, you see the Google business profiles and organic results for the searched query.
According to a study, these organic results are likely to have more CTR than paid ad results. This doesn’t make PPC less worthwhile; but the bottom line here is with the right SEO strategy, you will gain enhanced credibility and more trust from your potential customers.
2. Improves User Experience
Large businesses and enterprises that have large-scale websites with multiple pages often struggle with poor user experience. However, it is essential for them to provide their site visitors with a smooth experience. A better user experience not only improves your ranking but also reduces your site’s bounce rate.
Using technical SEO strategies, you can boost your user experience. It helps make your site responsive for different devices, reduces the loading time, improves navigation, and enhances its aesthetics.
It also helps you appear in the rich results and snippets, which makes it easy for your customers to find the required data/information with fewer clicks. And that is what Google and other search engines are more focused on.
3. Long Term Results
Unlike small businesses, large enterprises have to think about long-term goals. Even though using paid mediums like Google Ads, you can attract web traffic and also get leads and conversions. But it won’t help you get results once you stop paying for ads.
On the other hand, by implementing the right SEO strategies, you can build long-term trust and credibility on search engines that will help your business for years to come. Being at the top of SERPs makes you a trusted business which helps you create better brand awareness and get better results in the long run.
4. It is Multichannel Strategy
SEO today is not just about ranking your website at the top of search results. An SEO strategy that focuses on different marketing channels like PR, PPC, content marketing, and Social Media results in better results for your PPC campaigns along with organic ranking.
Also, your SEO strategy will provide you with valuable insights like trends, user behavior, and user intent that helps you understand the needs of your customers. With these helpful insights, you can define and execute the marketing strategies that will provide you with higher returns on your investment.
Summary
SEO is the most useful marketing strategy to make a strong digital presence of small, medium, and large businesses. However, with increased competition, the requirements of SEO practices have also increased.
A comprehensive SEO strategy consists of all the SEO practices that not only help you gain more online visibility, web traffic, and clicks but also help you in the long-term game by building trust and credibility of your business.
