Is SEO necessary for small businesses?

You only have a small company, then it is not necessary to spend money on search engine optimization, is it? Or to invest time in this? When you have this thought, you don’t feel 100% happy. Because you miss out on potential sales.

To answer the question right away: yes, SEO is necessary for small businesses. Just as necessary as for large companies. It is true that you work with a smaller budget. That’s why it’s important to know which SEO parts are effective, and what you can leave out.

The problem with many SEO agencies is that they offer all kinds of services that he does not need. This is at the expense of your budget and your profit. Let’s take a look at what you need.

From your perspective

Of course I benefit from it when you outsource SEO as a small independent. And preferably with me. But it wouldn’t be fair to trick you into doing this. It will help me much more if you first delve into search engine optimization. After this you can always determine whether it is something for you. There are also many things you can do yourself, which saves a lot of money.

The tips below are therefore written from your perspective. I take into account the fact that you:

• Are a small business
• Have a low budget
• Want to do as much as possible yourself

Why SEO is important for small businesses

As a small business you know that there is a lot of competition online. Large competitors in particular make it difficult for you. Whether you write a blog, advertise or do something with social media, your big competitors always get more attention. This can be discouraging, making you want to quit online marketing altogether.

Still, you shouldn’t do this. Online marketing and especially SEO helps your company build authority. You attract traffic to your website and you turn visitors into paying customers. The nice thing about SEO is that you don’t spend money on paid advertising.

It’s hard to believe, but some small businesses have managed to get ahead of their big competitors with SEO. Maybe not completely, but they’re on par with the bigger guys.

Why you see it as unnecessary expenditure

Chances are you see SEO as an unnecessary expense. You assume it’s not worth the time and effort. Sometimes you also hear that SEO is dead, or at least threatened with extinction.

Nothing is less true. SEO is alive and well and expanding into new areas. It consists of creating valuable content, with the most important search terms being incorporated into it. But there are many more SEO elements. For example, URLs, formatting, navigation, backlinks and loading speed.

SEO is complex, but you shouldn’t neglect it

Despite the many manuals on the internet, SEO remains a complex thing. Because of this, small businesses tend to neglect it. But standing still is going backwards. If you do nothing, your big competitors will always be in charge. And other small competitors who do SEO grow faster than you do.

It is therefore important to deal with search engine optimization every day. This sounds time consuming, but it doesn’t have to be. For example, you can do something with optimization every week. In addition, there are many things that you can outsource without it costing a lot of money.

Image: a self-employed person who grew to more than 6,000 organic visitors per day in a year.

Focus on local SEO

For many small businesses, SEO is necessary because they operate locally. Local content adds extra value for users. Suppose you have a restaurant in Albany. You hire an SEO copywriter to have a text written about your restaurant in Albany. This is what you call local SEO.

Google loves this because your content is tailored to local searches. Local SEO gives you an advantage over the larger companies. Especially when you not only sell or are active locally, but also when you have knowledge of the local target group. For example, you know exactly what the target group is looking for. Large companies do not have that knowledge. So take advantage of it.

Of course, local SEO makes no sense if you are active throughout the America or perhaps Europe. For example, when you have a webshop or offer online services.

Pay attention because local SEO can go much further than a place like Albany. It may also concern a state such as New York, or a region. But the United States, Europe or Africa does not fall under local SEO.

Sharing valuable content

The easiest way to attract traffic and potential customers is to share valuable content. When this content also ranks high in search engines, it’s easy. The advantage of organic visibility is that it is free. You don’t have to pay for it.

Of course you can combine SEO with SEA. The latter is advertising in search engines. Let me briefly explain the difference between these two:

• SEO: optimization for a high position in the organic search results
• SEA: optimization for good advertisements in search engines

Blogs, lists, how-to articles and informative articles are very popular. The public loves this. Also consider new forms of content such as podcasts and video content. Although these forms of content have been around for a while, they have only recently become very popular.

Other things you should take into account

Some SEO agencies try to trick you into buying backlinks. Actually, you should never do this. You don’t buy backlinks, you have to earn them. You do this by sharing valuable content. In this case, the backlinks come naturally, and they are worth much more than purchased links.

Save yourself a lot of money by focusing on quality content. On the one hand, you make the audience happy with this. On the other hand, you satisfy search engines.

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