SEO is a great way to reach your target audience online. It is an important marketing channel with multiple benefits for all types of niches. Below, you will read about five top benefits of SEO for your small local businesses.
1. Find new customers
An obvious benefit of SEO is that you can find new customers for a small local business. This is the main reason why so many companies focus on SEO.
Your target audience and many of the existing customers of every business are already online. They use search engines to find information about products, services, and businesses before buying something.
While it's possible to reach customers and get traffic to a website with other marketing channels, this is the only way to reach people that use buying keywords in your niche. These keywords can request instructions, reviews, and other information about a business.
Many potential customers use their mobiles to search when they are in the buying process. "Near me" or "close by" type searches grew by more than 900% in the previous years. It is very simple for people to pick up their mobile and use Google to find products and services near them.
There are two ways to get ranked for local keywords. The first way is to build a website and optimize it for Google. There are a few ranking factors that you need to follow if you want results. Building a website and invest in SEO are the best long-term investments you can do for your business in 2020.
The second option is to submit your business to Google My Business listings. Google will use your information to add your business to featured snippets of the search engine and Google Maps.
2. Brand Awareness
If your business has a good presence on Google, it will increase brand awareness over time. When you are not visible, people just do not see your brand.
The internet is an easy way to get information about anything you want, and 97% of people prefer to learn more about a local company online than anywhere else. Your target audience will make some buying decisions based on the available information on the internet.
If you get good rankings, it means that you offer positive user experience and have a nice website. These two elements are enough for your potential customers to create the right image of your brand. The chances are that you will get ranked for many keywords if you optimize your website and not only for one.
This is an opportunity for more brand awareness and more traffic. People that see you on the first page of Google consistently assume you are a big player in your niche. Even if they don't visit your store from the beginning, they will remember your brand name.
3. Win Your Competitors
Some small businesses are online, but others lose the opportunity to use the internet for leads and sales. Internet marketing is already a big thing, and your competitors will figure it out sooner or later. SEO creates a new opportunity to get more customers than other businesses in your niche.
When a potential client searches for a product on Google, the search page will give them relevant results. They will use these results to visit stores and buy products. Every click you get from search engines, it is a click that a competitor will not get.
The benefits are greater in the long-term when it comes to competition. If they can see your brand in different keywords, they will remember your brand. The recognition from the target audience will give you results on social media and word-of-mount marketing because people follow and talk about brands they like.
4. SEO Is A Long-Term Strategy
If you start from zero with no website and no online presence at all, you need to know it will take time to get ranked on the first page of Google. It depends on your niche how much it will take.
Most SEO professionals and experts focus on the long-term. They build backlinks, add content, and submit their businesses on relevant directories regularly. Websites that already have an online presence don't have to build everything from zero, but it will take time to get ranked for important keywords as well.
However, if you get ranked on the first page of Google, you will stay there for years or forever. Once Google learns and trusts your brand, you need small improvements and updates to keep your rankings. You can think of it as an unlimited source of traffic and clients over the years.
5. Better Conversion Rates
SEO has the best conversion rates than any other type of free traffic. If you use it right, SEO leads have a conversion rate of up to 14.6%. This is a best-case scenario that can be lower on many niches. Traffic from social media has conversion rates lower than 1%.
The best part is that local SEO has even better results. A study has shown that 88% of searches for local businesses on a mobile device either call or visit the business within 24 hours. It means that you don't need a lot of traffic to get more customers from SEO.
The reason for these results is the high buying intent of users that search for local keywords. When a person wants to find a business or a product in their area, he searches something like "product + near me" or "product + city." They are already ready to buy and just look for the right place on Google. When they find your business, they take action right away.
Conclusion
These were five benefits of SEO for a small local business. It can become a source of traffic and new customers for years if you follow a good strategy. You can also have brand awareness benefits because it builds trust and credibility with your target audience. Brand awareness can generate results in other marketing channels like word-of-mouth marketing. So, SEO is a great long-term investment that will help your business survive and overcome the competition.
If you’d like to discuss how we can help you increase your targeted PPC traffic, conversions and revenue, contact us for a no-obligation quote. https://www.a16studios.com/contact
