While more business is being conducted online today than ever before, and the trend only keeps growing, many businesses still believe their online presence isn’t essential to their business. If a customer can drive past their store and see their sign, why does a local business need to worry about whether their website shows up in the search results on Google? That’s for the big businesses to worry about. Right?
Wrong.
There are many reasons search engine optimization matters to your local business. Here are five reasons SEO will be a boost to your company.
1. Your Customers Expect It
You might think the above to be a bold statement. You might think I don’t know your customers, because you don’t think they know what SEO is. That’s fair, but the statement still holds. Even without understanding how search engines work, your customers expect to find you on there. When they search for your business name, they expect to find your website. When they search for local businesses, they expect the most respectable companies will show up in the search results. Just as consumers used to open their local phone book to find information on respectable local businesses, they now trust the search results. If you don’t show up, they don’t go looking any further. Instead…
2. If They Don’t Find You, They Will Find Your Competition
Even if your customer drives by your brick-and-mortar store every day, if they go looking for you online and find your competition instead, they will go with the option on their screen. Why? Because on your competition’s website they found information on how the business works, the hours they’re open, customer testimonials, and more.
3. It Builds Trust With Your Customers
When your customer found your competition’s website and all the information they needed, your competition built trust with that customer. The consumer now knows that the business shows up in a Google search, they’ve found social proof the business is legitimate, and they’ve learned all the information they need to move forward with a purchase.
When you look at anything with digital marketing, you always have to come back to the customer experience. Your customer started with a simple search on Google and was brought through a funnel that got them ready to purchase. That’s the power of a strong user experience. That’s the power of a targeted SEO campaign.
4. Strong SEO Targets Your Ideal Customer
What is your ideal customer interested in? What kinds of things do they search for online? You can target your ideal customer by optimizing your website for these search queries. When you’ve brought them directly to your website and given them what they were looking for, you’ve captured a new lead.
This kind of targeting is more effective than telling everyone in the world about your business. While there are definite benefits to billboards, they’re not an option for every business. These types of advertisements are also focused on showing your company to as many people as possible, knowing that somewhere in the crowd will be your ideal customer. With search engine traffic, your effort put your business directly in front of the right person.
5. Search Engine Optimization Is A Long Term Investment
Search isn’t going anywhere. In fact, it’s growing. As people rely on their phones and other devices to be always at hand and offering them the information they need, they are only coming to depend more strongly on search to find what they need. The sooner you optimize your website for search engine traffic, the better. You’ll become established with the search engines, your site will age, which gives it authority with sites like Google, and you stay ahead of the newer businesses getting in on valuable search traffic.
Search engine optimization is an investment in your business. Unlike paying for a one-time advertisement, a strong ranking page can bring traffic to a website for an undetermined amount of time. Your page is always there on the search results page, ready and waiting for your ideal customers to find you, whether they’re searching at midnight tonight, or mid day three years from now.
So Why Does SEO Matter for Your Local Business?
SEO matters to your business because it matters to your customers. While there are many angles to examine that truth from, it’s truly as simple as that.