How SEO Can Benefit Your Small Business

If you’re a business owner, especially a small business owner, you are probably searching for ways to get people to purchase your product or service. It is, after all, what keeps you in business! To target new audiences to visit your website, you need to make it stand out, and get as many hits as possible. This is where search engine optimization, commonly referred to as SEO, comes into play.

How can SEO services benefit your business? It’s simple, in theory—lace your website with keywords that will draw people to your website. In practice, however, it’s a little more complicated, and hiring a specialist in SEO can truly benefit your business. The goal is to get on the first page of any search and having keywords that facilitate that end result is the point of SEO. For instance, if you own a flower shop in Des Moines, Iowa, which keywords will people use to search when they are looking for flowers? You can use the words flowers, blooms, roses, and the like and if someone is specifically looking for roses, your website will pop up, but getting it to show up as one of the first websites is the key, since people are more likely to use one of the first websites they see. Being on page fifteen of a search isn’t going to garner the kind of traffic you want and need to stay in business, so using someone who can get you on page one—an SEO specialist—is worth the cost.

Years ago, B.I.—before internet—businesses would advertise in the phone book, affectionately known as The Yellow Pages, because the yellow pages were designated for businesses. These books were distributed to all the local households so that whenever someone needs a plumber, all they had to do was turn to the “P” section and start searching for names of local plumbers. Back then, it was advantageous to have your SEO company OKC name start with the letter “A”, as in AAA Plumbing, so that your company would be one of the first names and numbers viewed. Generally, unless someone was searching specifically for your company, they would start calling the first few companies listed in the book. Essentially, the internet and its search options are the newest incarnation of the phone book, with several added benefits over its predecessor. First of all, the search is instantaneous; thousands of businesses can be found at the touch of enter button. Secondly, your website is your calling card; whereas The Yellow Pages consisted of names, addresses and phone numbers, your website can feature photographs of your product or service, testimonials, blog entries—anything you want to entice the customer to choose your business over your competitor’s. Having a well-crafter, user friendly website can be the difference between a potential customer selecting you versus someone else! Since websites are not listed alphabetically, the algorithms used to jockey for that first page spot are based on search engine optimization. Consult an SEO specialist to see how search engine optimization can work for you!