Why SEO is Essential for Your Small Business in 2022

The need for eCommerce adoption and online engagement has accelerated in 2022 and will continue to grow. People want to socialize with brands on their own terms and are looking for unique and streamlined online experiences to do so.

To remain competitive, businesses will need to adjust their digital presence to be more visible, valuable and available to their customers. One important way to do this? Focusing on SEO for your business website.

Now, you might be asking what is the real value in SEO? why is it important? Well, let's take a look at what implementing it can do for your business and how it can become one of your most effective marketing strategies.

What is SEO?

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization, which is the process of improving your site to increase organic visibility for specific search queries. The goal of SEO is to improve the quality and quantity of traffic to your website through onsite changes. This means not just filling pages with relevant keywords, but focusing on core web important things like site speed, mobile-friendliness, interactivity, and the content of web pages.

Experts agree that successful optimization is as much about meeting customer needs as it is about following the guidelines and best practices of search engines like Google and Bing. Anticipating customer intent, understanding the type of content they want to see, and providing the best answers is the heart of good SEO. It is simultaneously a customer research methodology and sales channel for your business, and it allows you to get to know your customers and their habits.

The key is being able to put together both technical and strategic elements. To simultaneously meet the needs of our customers and deliver it in a way that is attractive to search engines.

Benefits of SEO for Small Business

The beauty of SEO is that anyone can do it and it's much more accessible than you might think. Taking the time and effort to understand SEO basics, and possibly investing in some tools, can lead to greater long-term value for your business, rather than paying for traditional print ads or sponsored posts. Here are some reasons why you should consider taking advantage of organic search for your business.

1. Brings in more customers through organic search

53.3% of all web traffic comes from organic search and 60% of marketers say their highest quality leads come from SEO-engaged customers. Why is it like this? Because they are searching for a solution, and by being one of the top results you are fulfilling a need.

Ranking on the first page of Google is essential for customers to see. Climbing to the top spot can almost double your click-through rate to second place. And claiming the featured snippet (the top element of the page) can help jump you to the number one spot, while potentially adding another way for customers to click through to your website.

The volume is there and by ranking for specific search terms you will attract the right customers. And by getting your site on the front page, you make your brand highly visible and demonstrate that you are a trustworthy resource.

2. Creates a Trustworthy Web Experience for Customers

Hitting the front page, and claiming the number one spot in the search result is entirely up to the authority you hold. You may have the best answer or resource available, but without a quality experience for users, once they click through to your site, you'll have a very hard time getting them there.

That's why the technical elements of SEO, such as page speed, backlinks and other authority-building elements, are so important to the success of your online business. Playing with the rules governed by search engines forces you to keep your site in top shape and make its health a regular priority.

The benefit for you is that it will not only help you rank better and hence you will get more exposure. It will also make it easier for customers to trust you based on the functionality of your website. Faster pages, security measures, and automated customer service portals are just a few of the ways to do this.

3. Encourages you to focus on user experience

Speaking of your web experience, a key element of SEO that continues to grow as needed is optimizing the user experience. Google is prioritizing user experience as a ranking factor in 2022 and will leverage its new core web vitals, along with previous factors like page speed, to help determine whether you're providing a valuable interaction. Featured snippets and other in-search elements also take advantage of this idea by pulling answers, images, and other valuable information to the search page itself.

For businesses, this simply means that you need to focus on the needs of your customers. What do they want to know? What would they like to do next? What other information, resources or services can you provide them?

By prioritizing your customer's needs first, you give them a better chance of ranking better, keeping them on your site, and converting. The more frequent this happens, the more authoritative your site will be and the more people you bring in. And this cycle continues.

4. Improves Brand Awareness

One tangential element outside of converting users into customers is overall brand awareness as you improve your rankings. By just getting to the first page and climbing closer and closer to the top spot, the more touchpoints you'll generate. Even if they don't click through to your site, potential customers will start to associate your brand with those solutions.

This is especially important if you are competing with other businesses on specific search terms. You want to be at the top when people enter questions or directly search for the product or service you offer. And if you're competitor owns those searches, the more likely those organic sales will go to them.

If you're just starting out exploring how to implement SEO for your business, the best thing you can do is target long variations of a given search. For example, instead of trying to rank for "online accounting services" you would follow up with terms like "online accounting services for small business" or "best online accounting services for small business in the Northwest."

Yes, these do not generate that much search traffic. But, it is far easier to rank them than in shorter, more competitive periods. The more of these longer variations you rank for, the more likely you are to advance to the shorter search term. And through this all your awareness is created within your target market.

5. It Helps Keep You Informed

Like anything related to operating a business, SEO changes all the time. Search engines are updated, various factors become important and other businesses are working on their own strategies to rank. This means, that in order to execute SEO successfully, you need to stay informed about best practices, solutions and changes.

While this may sound like more work, it is actually a benefit to your business as it keeps you informed about online processes. SEO is directly related to digital technology, which means that whatever happens with it, it can help you understand online trends and proactively address any major changes. Also through your research and site updates, you understand more about your customers, your competitors, and the digital experience as a whole.

Now, to be honest, you won't be able to pace with everything and there's no need to go crazy about it. Just keep your ears to the ground, pay attention to any major changes, and focus on your industry. Doing just that can keep you on track.

6. It Can Be Done on a Budget

Probably one of the best things about SEO is that it can be relatively cheap to implement. Sure, you can hire an expert within your business or take on an SEO-oriented role, but you can learn and apply it yourself to get started. And outside of the cost of hiring someone, buying a few subscriptions, or spending your time, the actual implementation costs nothing.

Additionally, investing in SEO is a long-term benefit to your business. Yes, things change all the time, but the core processes and strategies associated with SEO should last for years to come and probably only require minor changes. When done right, it can be the best long-term marketing solution for your business that provides a consistent return on investment.

7. It's Trackable

One element of traditional marketing that is generally frustrating is how vague your return on investment can be. Billboards have an average number of views based on traffic patterns. Ads measure overall views based on a rating system. But SEO is completely quantitative and can easily be integrated into any number of paid digital strategies as well.

Now it will not be as straightforward as paid ads and you will need to add a few dots on the backend of your site to really understand how your organic traffic is leading to sales. But, with a little Google Analytics knowledge, you can easily set up individually trackable conversions based on on-site ad clicks, page views, order fulfillment, click-to-calls, and more.

With regard to optimizing your SEO efforts, you can use tools like Google Search Console to get a better idea of ​​how people are finding you, what you are ranking for and where there is room for improvement. You'll also be able to get an in-depth look at the health of your site here, which is again an important element of user engagement.

8. It Benefits Other Marketing Initiatives

From the LivePlan team to Inside Baseball, almost every web project includes some element of SEO research. Whether it is paid, inbound (content on our website), outbound (content sent to customers), or product-related, our SEO-related resources and efforts are used to help make decisions for other teams goes and vice versa.

Research and insights from each team help take that itch to research a potential search query or try a different phrase on an ad. In many ways, working systematically through other marketing channels can solidify testing whether something is actually working in your SEO strategy.

It can tell you what trends are emerging in your industry, which customers are more likely to click on, what elements of a product or service are more useful, and even what you need to name a feature. should keep. Again, you are working to optimize your site by understanding what your customers care about. It can only help inform your other marketing efforts

Where to start with SEO

Knowing where to start when developing an SEO strategy can be incredibly difficult. There's so much information trying to address trends, implementations, and best practices that it's frustrating to jump into it.

I recommend starting out with this annually updated guide created by the folks at Backlinko. It addresses the always existing methods, is incredibly consumable, and is really easy to implement based on their insights.

Additionally, it is advisable to start your SEO journey by doing a market analysis. By taking advantage of keyword research, discovering competing sites, and signing up for their lead generation content, you will not only better understand your competition but also embark on an SEO strategy. To help you start that research, check out tools like Ubersuggest or sign up for courses offered by SEMRush. Both of these are free resources that can help you dip your toes in understanding SEO without investing a ton of time and resources.

And just keep in mind that it will take some trial and error. No one has the secret recipe for successful SEO. Instead, all SEO professionals have content or methods that are known to work and they constantly test and iterate to find improvements. Like anything with running a business, you're making your best bet, reviewing the results, and trying it again.