Since its advent in 1997 (yep, you read that right— it predated Google), businesses eager to meet their customers where they live have harnessed the power of search engine optimization, aka SEO.

But small business owners might wonder if it’s worth fighting big companies for the top spot on the search engine results page, or SERP. 

Say, for example, you want to buy a new pair of running shoes. You Google “running shoes for women” only to find the top half of the page crowded by sponsored ads by big-name shoe companies with big ad budgets. Nike spends $150.4 million of their $4.06 billion ad budget on social media marketing alone. It’s no surprise they have the money to ensure they rank high on any Google search involving shoes. 

How can you compete with that? Is it worth incorporating SEO into your digital marketing plan? 

In a word, yes. There is ample opportunity for small businesses to leverage SEO techniques to build brand awareness, establish authority, and organically promote their business for next to nothing. 

Whether you decide to engage the help of a search engine optimization agency or go it alone, here are some of the benefits of SEO for small businesses. 

Benefit #1: SEO Attracts New Customers to Your Site

You can offer an amazing product or service, but if your prospective customers don’t know it exists, you’re dead in the water. 

Today, when a person is shopping for something, whether it’s the new running shoes we mentioned above or a new accountant for their business, they turn to a search engine— most often, they turn to Google. (We use “google” as a verb now for a reason!) 

SEO brings these searching customers to you by ensuring your website ranks high on SERP. The higher your website, the more likely that prospects will click on your page. 

In fact, if your site sits at the top organic spot on the SERP in your particular niche, you could see click through-rates (CTRs) as high as 39.8%. In other words, almost 40 out of every 100 viewers click the link to view your website. 

Links further down the page drop significantly, with the second-ranking result getting 18.7% CTRs and third-ranking seeing only 10.2% CTRs. The really precipitous dropoff happens when you move to the second page of the search– fewer than 1% of searchers bother to click on the second results page. 

How do you ensure you rank high on the page? Get creative. If you’re selling running shoes, using the keyword “running shoes for women” isn’t necessarily going to help your cause. 

Instead, get specific. Consider a long-tailed keyword like “running shoes for wide feet with high arches,” and build content around that keyword. 

Benefit #2: SEO Doesn’t Just Attract, It Converts

Ok, SEO will bring people to your website. But will those people click around and move on, or can good SEO practices actually convert these folks into customers? 

SEO doesn’t just attract prospects using organic search keywords, it can propel users to learn more about your company, everything you have to offer, and how they can engage with you to meet their needs. 

Whether they’re just browsing or ready to make a purchase, getting consumers to your website is a significant part of the battle for conversion. SEO manages this task organically, with little expense to you. 

Leads generated by SEO have a 14.6% conversion rate. When you consider that the average lead conversion rate stands between 6%-9%, this should really make you take a second look at the power of SEO. 

Benefit #3: SEO Establishes Your Credibility and Increases Brand Visibility

One of the major advantages SEO brings to small businesses is credibility and visibility. If your site ranks in the top three organic spots on the search page, it makes you look like you know what you’re doing— and what you have to offer is better than the companies listed on the second or third page of the search results. 

As you implement SEO, content is going to be an important part of your plan. While AI has become a valuable tool for creating content, it’s important to note that Google has updated its guidelines to reward original content created by a human. 

E-E-A-T was established by Google to help their algorithm determine content quality. E-E-A-T stands for: 

• Experience
• Expertise
• Authoritativeness
• Trustworthiness

Google’s prioritization of experience means that they’re placing a lot of emphasis on personal involvement or practical familiarity with the content topic. AI just can’t provide the insight that comes from the experience your prospects are seeking when they’re searching for answers. 

Creating content that judiciously uses appropriate keywords will help it rank high on the SERP, ensuring that prospective customers come to view you as an authority in your industry. 

When they consistently see your company offering answers to their questions, you’ll be at the top of their list when it comes time to make a purchase.

Benefit #4: SEO Provides Long-Term Results

If you’re looking for a quick win, any search engine optimization agency can tell you that SEO probably can’t deliver that. But if you’re looking for a low-cost method to get long-term success, SEO is the most effective way to meet that goal.  

How long will it take to see results from your SEO endeavors? That depends on what you want to accomplish. 

If you want to improve your ranking with low-competition keywords, you’re likely to start seeing results in a few months. 

If you want to see conversions from visitors to your page, that’s likely to take a minimum of six months.

SEO is all about quality, not quantity. The best way to get the results you seek is to craft high-quality content and focus on building high-quality backlinks that get more visitors to your website. 

Bonus? You can always refresh existing content on your site to make it more SEO-friendly. If you have a blog post that you feel hasn’t gotten the love it deserves, take a pass through it and thoughtfully insert keywords. Hopefully, you’ll have that post ranking in no time. 

Bottom line, consistency is the key to SEO success. If you are creating top-notch content on a consistent schedule and regularly optimizing your website, you’ll see the results you want before you know it. 

Ready to Tackle SEO for Your Small Business? 11outof11 is Here to Help! 

If you’re ready to implement SEO, but you’re not sure where to start, consider tapping a search engine optimization agency to get the ball rolling. 

At 11outof11, we can conduct a SEO audit to make sure your website is operating at peak performance to bring you the SEO results you seek. 

Contact us for a conversation with one of our marketing experts. Let’s start your SEO journey today!