What Is SEO And How It Works For Small Businesses in 2020? [FAST]

What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of enhancing your business website so that it can attract more organic traffic from the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). During SEO, multiple changes are implemented upon the content and design of your website so that it becomes more attractive to visitors as well as search engine indexing programs known as spiders.

Fundamentally, the main goal of SEO is to make your website appear among the top results whenever a visitor searches for a product or service that your business provides. The logic behind SEO is straightforward but its strategies can be complex because SEO is a combination of activities performed upon your website and its satellite pages. Some examples of these activities include:

• Strategic keyword and keyphrase placement
• Content marketing
• Social media promotion
• Google AdWords
• Backlinking
• Image optimization 
• Digital marketing

Together, these activities contribute to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and make this website enhancement effort a continuous process.

Read Next: How to Learn SEO 

Advantages of SEO

1) Wider online brand awareness

SEO makes your website appear higher in the results, more often in social media and feature prominently in strategic niche websites. In doing so, SEO makes your business more popular on the Internet. This expands your online brand by exposing your enterprise, products and services to more people. This increases your chances of attracting visitors, converting them into customers and gaining repeat consumers. For a small business, a wider online brand awareness means more revenue and opportunities for profit. 

2) Better quality website

According to the May 2020 Core Update performed by Google, websites will be ranked more on the quality of their content than ever before. Thankfully, SEO promotes the quality of your website dramatically by enhancing the relevance of your textual content and the attractiveness of your multimedia. 

SEO also improves the placement of keywords in your website so that indexing programs can find it quicker. Furthermore, this process creates a network of internal and external links that deliver more visitors to your website. This creates more organic traffic and boosts your chances of conversion. Through these strategies, SEO enhances the overall quality of your website.

3) Higher revenue and profit

Having more visitors to your website directly translates to higher chances of converting them into customers. SEO delivers more visitors to your website by enhancing online visibility and a higher rank in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). By delivering enticing content and a smooth consumer funnel in your site, you’re able to convert visitors into repeat clients. Through this method, your small business can attain higher revenues and a better bottom line. 

4) Quicker loading time

Internet users hate waiting for a page to load and often move to the next option if a website takes too long to open up. They also tend to drop out of a website if the internal pages take too long to activate. This is known as bouncing and is measured using a bounce rate. SEO enhances the underlying code of your website resulting in quicker loading times. As a result, your web pages load blisteringly fast and satisfy your visitors. In this way, your site will have a very low bounce rate and a higher conversion rate than ever before.

How it works for small business?

SEO has a notable impact upon small businesses in the following ways:

1) A better, faster and more user-friendly website

SEO is a process of optimizing your website into a form that loads faster and delivers a higher quality experience to your visitors. Your website becomes more attractive through procedures such as content enhancement and the implementation of optimized images. During SEO, your internal links are organized strategically and the consumer funnel is enhanced. As a result, your website becomes more user friendly so visitors can make orders in an easier way. Best of all, your website loads faster and delivers your visitors to the landing page quicker thus enticing them to make a commitment or purchase.

2) A higher rank in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs)

The higher your website ranks in the search engine results, the more attractive it is. A high rank indicates excellence in your niche and translates into more visitors. When you have a steady stream of people visiting your site, it becomes easier to inspire commitment through subscription or revenue through purchases. SEO can help your site to rank high and bring about these business benefits.

3) Higher revenues and opportunity for profit

Through SEO, your business website becomes more popular, ranks higher and attracts more visitors. As a result, you can expect more purchases of your products or services directly translating to higher revenues and profit. Seeing as a business website reaches millions of people across the globe, the profit potential is enormous. In this way, an SEO optimized website is a fantastic asset for small businesses.

4) Wider brand awareness

A huge part of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is online promotion so you can expect your business to experience a much wider brand awareness. This is especially optimized through social media promotion. Promoting your enterprise on social media helps it to become more popular resulting in more visitors and clients. 

FAQ

1) What is SEO?

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the technique to get targeted traffic for a website from a search engine’s organic ranking.

2) How exactly does SEO help my small business?

It increases your website’s attractiveness leading to more customers and higher revenue.

3) Can I do the SEO myself?

Yes, you can. However, it is better to enlist the services of a professional company so as to benefit from their expertise and experience.

4) How long does SEO take?

It is a continuous process whose results are visible very soon after commencement and last for the lifetime of your enterprise.

5) Is SEO expensive? 

The cost of SEO depends on the professional who you pick to perform it for you and it is always worth the investment.