Why SEO is Important for Small Businesses in 2023

why seo is important for small businesses

One of the biggest challenges for small businesses is having a regular stream of traffic, leads and customers coming through the door.

And with so many traffic channels available to us, it’s hard to know which one to choose.

But a channel that I believe is essential to the growth of any business, whether small or large is Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

And working as an SEO consultant has allowed me to see first-hand the benefits of this inbound lead-generation marketing channel.

So I thought I would take this opportunity to give you my top 10 reasons why SEO is important for small businesses.

And here they are…

10 Reasons Why SEO is Important for Small Businesses:

1. Organic search is the primary source of website traffic

Most of the time people find websites through search engines such as Google.

This type of search is classed as ‘Organic’.

In other words.

An organic search is a query made using a search engine, that returns a list of results that are not paid adverts (PPC Ads).

This means that the results that show up are from websites that have been ranked by the search engine as being the most relevant to what was searched.

If a user clicks one of these results, this visit becomes classed as Organic traffic to that website.

The reason for the website appearing within the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) is due to the owner investing in SEO.

According to Smart Insights:

Organic search results count for 40% of all traffic to a website. This is compared to 20% coming from Paid Advertising.

The rest of the traffic is made up of direct referrals and Social Media Marketing.

This shows that organic search is still the main source of website traffic today!

Organic search results count for 40% of all traffic to a website

2. SEO can help small businesses reach potential customers

Your customers are out there.

In fact, they’re searching for your products and services right now!

So how do you reach them?

Well, this is the best bit.

If you have a proper SEO strategy in place, you can carry out keyword research to find out what your customers are searching for.

This means that you can optimise your pages for these popular queries so that they appear in the SERP when searched for.

Just think how powerful that can be to your business.

You have the ability to put your company in front of customers for things they actually want!

It’s the equivalent of them walking into a sweet shop looking for sweets!

3. SEO builds brand awareness

We can all relate to the importance of being high in search results.

Just ask yourself, when was the last time you clicked a link on the second page of Google?

Exactly!

The higher the ranking, the more likely people are to find the website.

There are many factors that go into ranking in the top 3.

And it can be a complex and time-consuming process.

One of these factors is relevance.

Google wants to give its customers the best results it can for what they are searching for.

If it didn’t, you would stop using Google, wouldn’t you?

Imagine searching for a blue pair of shoes and getting results for men’s hats.

It matters more than ever that the results we are shown are relevant to our search intent.

So, if a business’s website gets lots of clicks and traffic and they find what they are looking for on that website.

Google can only assume people like it – or in other words, it’s relevant and they trust it.

Knowing this.

If your website appears on the first page, your potential customers are more likely to trust your brand over others that don’t have a strong web presence.

Graph showing the pattern of trust vs position on search engines

4. Good SEO can improve your Users Experience (UX)

SEO can improve your user’s experience by making it easier for them to find the information they are looking for on your website.

When your website is optimised for search engines, it will appear higher in the search results.

And as we’ve learnt, this increases the possibility that users will click on it.

As mentioned above, to appear higher in the rankings, your website needs to be trusted and popular with customers.

In order to gain this popularity, customers need to not only visit your website but spend time on it and return again and again.

For this to happen, they must have a good experience when using it.

It must answer their questions, it must solve their problems and it must fulfil the search intent.

bad example of this would be an eCommerce website that you need to click 7 times before you found your product.

Good SEO in this case would allow a user to find the information they are looking for in fewer clicks, ideally 3 or fewer.

5. Local SEO is a must for small business

Local SEO focuses on optimising a website for a specific area, such as a town, city or region. This allows people to find you quickly.

Below is an example of the Local 3 Pack or Map Pack shown by Google when a local search is made in your specific area.

This search is for an architect in Barrow-in-Furness.

google local 3 pack

As it is locally focused, it’s important to gain customer reviews and ensure all mentions of your business within directories (citations) are kept consistent.

Setting up and keeping up-to-date a Google Business Profile is a must for any successful Local SEO strategy.

Below is an example of the GBP profile when logged in to your Google Account.

Google Business Profile

6. It’s important to keep up-to-date with Algorithm changes

Google Algorithm updates are changes to the way Google’s search engine works.

These updates can be small, like a change to the way a certain type of search is processed, or they can be major, like a new way of ranking websites.

Google makes hundreds of algorithm changes every year, but not all of them are announced or even widely known.

Some updates are designed to fix specific problems, like security vulnerabilities, while others are meant to improve the overall quality of search results.

As an SEO Consultant in Cumbria, and with a second base in Lancaster, I can apply the required SEO techniques and changes to help improve a website’s rankings, but it can’t stop there.

SEO Company in Barrow

As search engines constantly change their algorithms, so must our websites.

This ongoing work is what makes SEO hard work and a continuous process.

The result of not keeping up-to-date with algorithm changes can be disastrous for small businesses.

At worst, depending on the update, it could lead to a Google penalty.

manual action from google

7. SEO keeps you up-to-date

Linked to the above section, keeping up-to-date with your SEO can also help you understand the World Wide Web in general.

As SEO is a changing subject, we must keep up-to-date with it to ensure successful results.

This means we will also be expanding our general knowledge of the Internet.

Which will never be bad for our businesses.

8. SEO can be affordable

Don’t get me wrong, SEO requires an investment, it’s not free – far from it.

However the value it adds to a business makes it invaluable.

There are cheap SEO packages available, but avoiding these might be the best approach.

However like most things, the more a business can invest generally means the more likely it will see bigger results.

9. SEO gives you insights into your customers’ buying patterns

When you have enough traffic coming to your site, you can start to look into Google Analytics and find visitor information such as demographics, where they are located and age groups.

With this information, you can then use it to help develop or adapt your marketing strategies.

If you know more women than men use your website, you can change graphics to suit this.

If you know you have a lot of German visitors, you may look to implement a translation widget so that they can browse your website in their language.

This type of information is vital to a small business.

Understanding your customer base can make all the difference when trying to grow your business.

10. SEO is a long-term strategy

SEO can provide amazing results to any business no matter the size if they are willing to invest in a professional service.

Even in the first year, results can be noticed and sales increased. 

The chart below shows how I was able to improve a client’s organic traffic in the first 10 months, by 1,751%, increasing users from 179 to 3,313 each month.

Over the course of the year, their website users increased from 422 to 19,237. 

client result increasing traffic by 1,751%

However, the work doesn’t stop there.

SEO is a long-term strategy that shouldn’t stop as soon as you start to see results.

This is a common mistake people make when working with SEO professionals.

It takes time for results to show and there is a delay between the changes you make to your website and the moment it shows within your analytics.

An example of this is changing your Title Tags to increase engagement.

You can make the change today, request indexing by Google and you might see them change in the SERP in a couple of days.

However, you won’t actually see if they have increased engagement within your analytics for weeks, sometimes months.

The point is.

Don’t stop your SEO because you’ve not seen any results in a few days.

SEO requires patience and trust in the process.

Make changes, monitor and continually adapt to results.

Graph showing the delay in SEO results

Why SEO important for small business – next steps

I hope this article has provided you with some value and explained why SEO is important for small business. 

By understanding best practices, user experience, and monitoring performance, you can learn how to drive traffic to your website.

I work with businesses to achieve organic growth by increasing traffic to your business, which converts into sales and revenue.

If you are tired of your competition always being higher on Google.

Or not having a consistent stream of leads coming in.

Book a FREE consultation with me and let’s discuss how we can dominate your competition.

P.S Why not take advantage of our FREE Website Audit to see how your site is currently performing?

 

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"A really professional service throughout. Highly recommended if you’re serious about driving more traffic to your website"

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Andy Johnson
Andy Johnson
I am an SEO Consultant with over 16 years of experience in the digital marketing industry. I achieved 'SEO Expert' status from the globally recognised Gotch SEO Academy and gained further accreditation from the UK Insitute for Data & Marketing in SEO and PCC marketing. My knowledge and passion for Search Engine Optimisation drive me to get results for my clients.