8 Ways SEO Can help Your Small Business Grow

You can’t survive in business today without mastering search engine optimization (SEO). It can lead to business growth by helping you market your business online. But how do you get started with SEO?

What SEO is

Why SEO is crucial to the growth of your business
How you can get started with SEO to grow your business.

What is SEO?
The simplest definition of SEO is that SEO is a digital marketing strategy that helps your website rank at the top of organic online search results for relevant keywords. I know we've thrown in a lot of words that may not be familiar to you, so let's break it down a bit.

You see, search engines like Google rank search results according to how relevant your website is to the query. So, for example, if you run a vegan pizza restaurant, you would want your website to show up on the top results when someone Googles "vegan pizza restaurants near me."

So a well-designed SEO strategy will increase your online visibility and bring qualified leads to your website. SEO Is different from paid ads as it focuses only on organic unpaid search results on the search engine results pages (SERPs).

Every SEO strategy should include the following:

On-page SEO: This deals with things on your pages that you can control, for example, keywords, headings, SEO content, and page design.
Off-page SEO: Off-page SEO refers to things not found on your website itself but influence your rankings anyway. These include links to your website from other sites. While you can't directly control these factors, you can sometimes influence them.
Technical SEO: Technical SEO is slightly more complicated. It factors in backend website and server optimizations that help visitors and search engines understand and use your website. Examples of Technical SEO include sitemaps, page speed, and txt files.

Additionally, there are a number of SEO types that are unique to a business industry. These include:

Local SEO: This focuses on reaching users within a specific geographic area. These are usually customers within a local business's service area. Our earlier “vegan pizza restaurant near me” example fits this description. The user could also type other SEO location-specific keywords containing the name of a city, state, or region.
Enterprise SEO: This type of SEO is explicitly geared towards big corporations or large websites. This type of SEO focuses on ranking for broad, frequently searched, and highly competitive keywords.

How Search Engines Work: SEO Basics

Now, let's discuss some of the basics of how SEO can work for your business. This includes how you can get started with SEO and some bonus tips for improving your current SEO performance.

However, it's best to first understand how search engines work. This will give you some more context for understanding SEO strategies.

Ever wondered how Google works? Search engines like Google use web crawlers to look for relevant content on the web. In fact, Google was the first search engine to organize the internet to provide accurate search results.

Google's web crawlers look for content in two ways. They either discover content using links or find relevant content when publishers (you and me) submit it to the search engine. So, these bots analyze every link or published content to determine the topic and evaluate the quality of the content.

The search engine then arranges the content, i.e., it adds it to its database of web content. When a user types something, the search engine uses its data about the pages in its index to determine the most accurate results and rank them accordingly.

This whole content ranking process involves a complex algorithm that considers various factors to determine which website shows up at the top of the SERP. The comprehensive list of ranking factors used by search engines is not public knowledge. Still, experts believe that they weigh more than 200 factors when ranking content.

If you want to succeed in search, you need to optimize your web content for these factors. A good SEO strategy makes it easier for search engines to find and understand your content. It allows Google to view your content as high-quality.

Later on in this guide, we’ll discuss some of the most important SEO factors and how to optimize for them. But first, let’s talk about how SEO can grow your business.

How can SEO grow your business?

This is the key question that we need to answer. How does optimizing your web content for SEO translate into business growth? Below are eight ways SEO can help you meet your goals. Take some time to go through the points below; you should get a better understanding of how important SEO is in business and how you can use it to grow your business.

SEO increases your online visibility

We've already touched a bit on this earlier. SEO puts your website and business in front of more people online. SEO's impact on the visibility of your business is enormous. Google alone processes over 3.5 billion searches every day, that’s more than 40,000 per second. Over half of these searches are organic because people turn to search engines for help answering all sorts of questions. If your business or web content accurately answers or gives the right solution, it shows up near the top of search results.

SEO gives you access to the right audience

The foundation of SEO lies in its accuracy, so it doesn't help you show up for just any search queries. The key to nailing your SEO strategy is to provide accurate and relevant answers, so your content shows up for the keywords your potential customers are searching for.

The best way to accomplish this is to conduct research and determine which searches your potential customers perform. So, for instance, if your business sells organic baby food, you could target keywords such as "is organic baby food better for my baby," "how to choose the healthiest baby food," or "where to buy organic baby food near me."

SEO channels qualified leads to your website

SEO allows you to get visibility and reach people who have already shown an interest in your business, products, or services. It also links you to people who have expressed an interest in something related to your business. So going back to our vegan pizza example, if someone types “vegan restaurant near me," they might be led to your business even without typing the phrase "vegan pizza."

Search engine users who select your website via organic search are more likely to turn into qualified leads. This means they are likely to become paying customers. Additionally, organic SEO leads have a high conversion rate — 14.6% compared to just 1.7% for traditional marketing.

SEO leads to high conversion rates

Keep in mind that SEO's primary focus isn't converting leads. Still, many good strategies for SEO are also suitable for increasing conversions. Search engines like Google want to rank high-quality content that users like to boost your rankings if you make the right changes and improve the user experience. Many of these changes can also improve your conversation rate.

For instance, if you work on improving your website's design and usability, you can increase your rankings and encourage your web visitors to stay on your site longer. These changes may also result in website visitors finding your content more trustworthy and eventually making them comfortable enough to purchase.

SEO helps with brand awareness

Because SEO brings you more visibility and puts your website and company name in front of more eyes online, it may increase brand awareness. The more often people are exposed to your brand name in search results, the more familiar they'll become with it. Even if this doesn't make them click on your website the first time they see it, it will eventually feel familiar to them to the point where they may click through. Suppose potential customers are already familiar with your brand from an ad, social media post, or other marketing channels. When they see your website appearing on the top search results, they are more likely to click on it.

SEO increases credibility and builds trust

One of the significant advantages of SEO for business is that ranking well on SERP might make people view your brand as more credible and trustworthy. Because Google wants to rank high-quality content from authoritative sources, people have trusted the high-quality results produced by Google searches.

Suppose potential customer sees your site ranking well. In that case, they're more likely to view your site as authoritative, credible, and trustworthy, and therefore worth their time. This is especially true if people see your website at the top for several search terms related to your industry. Eventually, they'll start to see you as an authority in your field.

SEO gives you a competitive advantage

If you're not investing in SEO, it's most likely that your competitors are. That should be enough motivation for you. A good SEO strategy will help you beat out the competition, especially if they are ranking above you in search results. The higher your competitors rank, the more likely they get the website visits and customers you may have won. 

Having a good SEO strategy and sticking to it is essential to staying competitive in a world where 'googling' is the number way people find information, goods, and services. Moreover, search results themselves are also highly competitive, so a smart SEO strategy will give you a competitive advantage over your competition in the SERPs.

Lastly, statistics show that having a good SEO strategy gets you top rankings. In fact, 95% of search traffic goes to the top listings on the first SERP and 68% to the first five results.

SEO has long-term value for your business

SEO is not a quick fix; it is more of a long-term strategy that will continue to deliver returns long after your initial investment. Your web content can continue ranking well in search results long after you first create and optimize it. All you'll need is a small amount of upkeep. This is entirely different from other marketing strategies, such as paid advertising, which is short-term as ads stop appearing when your campaign ends.

Some SEO basics: Strategies for driving growth
So now that we know how SEO helps you grow your business let's discuss the strategies you can employ to see that growth in your business. While there are several factors to consider when it comes to using SEO for business growth, it's essential to know the basics first.

We’ve gathered some of the most fundamental things you need to do to start experiencing the benefits of SEO for your business.

Conducting keyword research

Keyword research is the process of figuring out the keywords your potential customers are typing when looking for information related to your business, industry, products, or services. These are phrases and words you'll want to target with your SEO efforts.

To find the best and most competitive keywords, you'll need a list of basic keyword ideas of terms relevant to your business or industry. The best strategy is to use the Google Search Console. This allows you to see the terms users searched for when they find your site organically and browse competitor sites for ideas.

Once you have a list of some keyword ideas, there are plenty of keyword research tools like KeywordsFX, Ahrefs, or SEMrush that you can use. These tools will provide you with a list of related keyword ideas.

Creating high-quality content

Once your list of keywords, the next crucial step is to develop content that uses those keywords. So, for instance, if you sell outdoor painting supplies, one of your keywords might be "the best paint for outdoor furniture." You'd have to write a how-to article or video for this specific keyword.

Another accurate keyword might be "types of outdoor paint." For this keyword, it might be best to create an informational blog post, video, or infographic explaining the various kinds of outdoor paint. You must invest time ensuring that your content is high-quality to appeal to both search engines and users. Make sure that your content offers valuable and accurate information. Your audience finds it easy to gravitate to you as a site of authority. The content must also be easy, enjoyable to use, and go through.

Integrating target keywords

Integrating your keywords into your content and web pages is another crucial step in implementing SEO for business growth. Here, you'll want to include a primary keyword in your content, as well as several variations of that keyword and some related keywords. Say, for instance, your main keyword is " outdoor furniture paint ." You'll need to use this keyword more frequently than other keywords and integrate it in the most important locations in your content.

You might also use variations like "types of furniture paint" and " white outdoor paint" as well as related keywords like "best paint for outdoor furniture" and "types of outdoor paint textures." Some of the most critical areas to place keywords are your:

• Title tag
  
• Meta description
  
• URL
  
• Headings
  
• image alt tags
  
  You’ll also need to include your keywords a couple of times throughout your main text. However, avoid using your keyword too much as it might feel forced.
  

Earning backlinks to your site

Another important ranking factor is the quantity and quality of your page's backlinks. But what is a backlink? Simply put, a backlink is a link from another website to yours. The more links your content has from well-known websites, Google views your site as more authoritative, improving your rankings.

You can earn these links naturally by creating quality content that others want to link to. Having in-depth content, infographics, and statistics in your content performs exceptionally well in this area. Another great way to build links is to reach out to other content creators within your industry. You can suggest that they link their content to one of your pages as a way to add value to their content. It's best to focus on how that link will enhance their content.

Improving user experience

What do popular websites have in common? They have a great user experience which is vital for rankings since it improves the quality of your content and encourages visitors to spend more time on your website. This is a positive signal for Google. There are other areas of user experience that are important for SEO:

Mobile-friendliness: In today's world, mobile-friendly websites get tons of visits. In fact, Google now uses a mobile-first index, meaning it evaluates and ranks pages from a mobile user's perspective. So make sure that you use responsive design to ensure your website displays and works correctly on all types of devices.
Page speed: Noone likes a slow website, and neither does Google. There are several page speed optimization techniques that you can use to improve your pages’ load speed. Examples include; Google PageSpeed Insights and Sematext.
Website design: Lastly, your website's design should be visually appealing and user-friendly. Make it easy for users to find navigation tools and more enjoyable to use your site.

Improving technical SEO

Technical SEO refers to the backend of your website, i.e., everything that goes on behind the scenes, from servers to databases, and much more. In a nutshell, a website's back end is everything the user doesn't see.

While they are invisible to the user, they are crucial for SEO. A part of technical SEO involves ensuring that search engines can crawl and index your pages. You'll need to check that you're not accidentally blocking search engine crawlers with your robots.txt file or through other methods.

Also, ensure that you create an XML sitemap, which is a file that lists a website's essential pages, making sure Google can find and crawl them all. It also helps search engines understand how your website is structured. You want Google to crawl every essential page of your website.

Other aspects of technical SEO include; duplicate content, site security, and URL structure. Lastly, page speed and mobile-friendliness are sometimes considered part of technical SEO.

Tracking your SEO results

One essential part of any marketing strategy, including SEO, is tracking your results. Gathering data about your results helps you evaluate that data to use what you learn to improve your SEO performance.

You must determine which metrics you'll track and how you'll track them before launching an SEO strategy. The following are some helpful metrics you can use:

Organic traffic: The number of visits your site gets from organic search results.
Keyword rankings: How high you rank in SERPs for relevant keywords.
Click-through rate: This is the percentage of users that visited and clicked through to your website after seeing it on a SERP.
Top site exit points: The pages from which your website visitors mostly quit looking through your site.
Conversion rate: The percentage of site visitors you convince to take the desired action. This could be making a purchase, submitting a quote request form, signing up for a newsletter, or contacting your business via email or phone.

Some helpful tools you can use to track SEO performance include:

• Google Analytics
  
• Google Search Console
  
• SEMrush
  
• Ahrefs
  
• MarketingCloudFX
  

Conclusion

Growing your business using SEO has become a necessary investment for modern business. We hope this guide has given you some basic information on getting started with SEO. While it might seem complicated at first, mastering SEO is simple once you use the right tools and strategies. 

About Salt Creative:
Salt Creative is a full-service creative agency, specializing in web design, marketing, SEO and graphic design services for businesses of all types and sizes. We are passionate about small business.

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