Today’s small business owners have a lot to worry about. Massive corporations can make life very tough for the smaller fish, and many of those behemoths are leveraging technology in a way that small businesses may struggle to keep up with. The technology can get confusing, too, and there are constantly new buzzwords flying around.
If your small business is not, itself, a technology business, then why do you need to know about stuff like “SEO?” Like it or not, your business needs to pay attention to technology — especially when it comes to SEO. From big businesses to small ones, and from nationwide chains to local spots, SEO matters to everyone.
Getting ahead in SEO can mean the difference between success and failure. But what is SEO? Let’s explore the topic and see how it is relevant to your business.
Defining SEO
First things first: what is SEO?
SEO stands for “search engine optimization”. Search engines, of course, are those sites like Google and Bing that allow users to search for keywords and find relevant websites. When we talk about SEO, we’re not talking about optimizing Google or Bing — those are big sites run by big corporations, and they can take care of themselves.
What SEO means is that we’re optimizing our end of the bargain: we’re making our web presence as friendly and attractive as possible to Google, Bing, and the rest of the search engines. We want Google to look at our websites and put them in the top results for popular queries. And, as we’ll soon see, that’s very, very important.
Why SEO matters
SEO matters because Google and Bing get a lot of searches: Google alone fields 3.8 million search requests per minute. And some of those folks are looking to spend money on goods and services.
The phone book is a thing of the past. When your customers need to find the services that you offer, they’ll do a web search. You need your business to come up if you are going to compete. These days, you can’t even rely on foot traffic — mobile browsing and search statistics have gone through the roof, and folks use apps like Google Maps to find nearby businesses even when their options are right around the corner.
Fail to rank in these searches, and your customers could walk or drive right by you on their way to the competition. It may be “location, location, location”, but these days, the location you need is at the top of the search engine results page.
Getting SEO services
So your business needs SEO. Does this mean that you need to learn everything that there is about search engines? No, of course not — while you should know some basics, you don’t need to be an expert in SEO any more than you need to be an expert in payroll taxes or IT. Like other tasks that fall outside of your core competency, SEO is something that you can outsource.
In fact, trying to handle SEO yourself is probably not a great idea. After all, the big sites like Google are always tweaking their search algorithms — which aren’t disclosed to the public, by the way. This is a complex business, and something that you really need to focus on full-time in order to succeed at. You have more important things to do for your business.
So partner with experts for local SEO agency. Share your goals and dreams, and let them help you bring your business to the attention of more potential customers. With the right experts in your corner, your business will benefit.