It’s a question that is asked a lot online, so we thought we’d give you our take on the question. Perhaps you have an established website for your business, or are just starting out with a new design. Whichever is the case, you’re going to reach a stage where you start to wonder how to get traffic ie. users to your website, to see your amazing products or services.
As many small business website owners will know, unless you have a very specific niche with very little competition, website traffic won’t come naturally. Generally there’s three main options for getting traffic to your website from the internet; SEO (search engine optimisation), paid ads or referrals from social media.
In this post we’ll be looking at SEO, and answering the question: ‘Is SEO worth it for small businesses?’
Firstly, What is SEO?
SEO or Search Engine Optimisation is the process of making changes to a website to increase its presence in organic search results. These changes include written content, image, site structure and site speed optimisations; these are also classed as on-page SEO.
The other area of SEO is off-page SEO, which refers to work done away from your website. For example, links from other websites or blogs to your own website, which act as a vote or referral, increasing the website’s authority with search engines.
Google, as an example, has a complex set of algorithms, which rank websites in organic search results, taking over 200 factors into account. While Google don’t publicise these factors, they offer their Google Search Essentials guide, which helps users to develop their websites the correct way, helping users with informative, helpful and trustworthy content.
How Long does SEO take?
There is no set timeframe for SEO to produce notable results, as there are varying factors which include: the age of the website, the website content, how frequently the website is updated and the level of competition for search terms.
As a rough guide, with consistent SEO, and utilising Google’s best practices, it’s reasonable to expect positive ranking improvements within three to four months from the start of an SEO campaign.
Is SEO Worth it for small businesses?
If you are serious of making a success of your website, and generating leads and sales, then SEO is worth it for your small business. It’s extremely rare that a website will start to rank highly without any search engine optimisation.
Approximately 70% of all clicks in the organic (non-paid) search results, go to the top three results.
Needless to say, if your website is anywhere but page one when users are searching for your products or services, your website is unlikely to bee found.
Any small business owner looking for SEO information or services online, will undoubtedly come across large agencies with hefty monthly retainers for SEO. This is understandably off-putting, and simply not feasible for most small or startup businesses.
SEO doesn’t need to cost the earth
There are certain elements of SEO that can be done yourself as a small business owner. Writing engaging, useful content that thoroughly and accurately describes your products or services is a great starting point. Focus on helping the user as your number one priority. Frequently adding fresh content to your blog that is designed to be useful, while showing your experience and authority on the topic is another.
Besides the basics above, consider your options when looking for an SEO Agency for small businesses.
You don’t need to spend thousands of pounds per month to get results and a return on investment.
We can help
As an established small UK SEO Agency, we specialise in working with small businesses to grow their website presence on search engines. Our SEO packages are designed to generate real results with affordable monthly plans.
Take a look at our extensive client feedback, and rest assured, SEO is worth it for small businesses!
