Category: SEO

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

Before we start off with the reasons first let’s dig deep on the mindset of a small business. 

Any small business with a strict budget would naturally hire an inhouse SEO resource or a freelancer to get things done. All is good if the hired resource is good. If messed up the scenario is different. With the thought of getting results, they would wait and wait and wait till a year or two only to be disappointed. As SEO is a long term process they convince themselves saying ”Good things take time. Let’s do it for six more months. We will definitely rank and orders will start pouring”. And finally end up wasting time and money realizing “OMG! I made a mistake. Should have hired an agency”. If you have been there, Sorry! And if you have a plan like this, stop it right now. Please save yourself from falling into the trap and thank me later!

Now let me tell you why an agency?. A successful digital marketing agency has a team of SEO experts well trained and experienced. The perk is not just one resource but an actionable workforce is working on your business website to rank you in the 1st page of Google’s SERP. Your goal is not just one person’s work but an agency’s work. The goal which you could not achieve in 2 years will be on your table in 6 months. The choice is yours now. To give further insights let me break down the truth in detail below.

So as discussed, having a strong online presence is more important than ever before. However, with limited resources and tight budgets, small business owners often struggle to develop and implement effective SEO strategies on their own. That’s why professional SEO services are essential for small business growth. In this article, we’ll explore five key reasons why small businesses need professional SEO services to increase visibility, attract more customers, save money, and gain a competitive advantage.

Introduction: The Importance of SEO Services for Small Businesses

Having a website is not enough to attract customers to your business. This is where Search Engine Optimization (SEO) comes in. Here is how SEO services for businesses can help them stand out in a competitive online marketspace.

What is SEO and Why is it Important for Small Businesses?

SEO is the process of optimizing your website and online content to improve your search engine ranking and attract organic traffic to your site. For small businesses, SEO is essential as it helps them reach their target audience and increase their online visibility. SEO can also provide a high return on investment (ROI) and save businesses money compared to traditional forms of advertising.

Increased Visibility: SEO Helps Businesses Stand Out

How SEO Improves Your Search Engine Ranking?

One of the biggest advantages of SEO is that it helps improve your search engine ranking. By optimizing your website and online content, you can increase your chances of appearing on the first page of search engine results. This increased visibility can lead to more clicks, website traffic, and potential customers for your business.

How SEO Attracts More Customers to Your Business?

By optimizing your website and online content for the right keywords your audience engages with, ensures that your business is visible to potential customers actively searching for products or services that you offer. Moreover, the readability and credibility in your title and description of your webpage increases the clickthrough rate. This generates more qualified leads and ultimately drives sales for your business.

Targeted Traffic: SEO Brings Relevant Customers to Your Business

How SEO Helps You Reach Your Target Audience?

SEO helps businesses reach their target audience by using multiple types like longtail, short tail and many more keywords to optimize your content for specific search queries. This results in attracting potential customers who are more likely to be interested in your products or services. This targeted traffic can lead to higher conversion rates and ultimately drive more revenue for your business.

How SEO Leads to Higher Conversion Rates?

In addition to attracting more customers to your business, SEO leads to higher conversion rates by improving user experience and making it easier for the customers to find what they’re looking for. This can lead to higher engagement and ultimately result in higher conversion rate for your business.

Cost-Effective Marketing: SEO Saves Small Businesses Money

How SEO Provides a High Return on Investment (ROI)?

One of the biggest advantages of SEO for businesses is its cost-effectiveness. Unlike traditional forms of advertising, SEO can provide a high return on investment (ROI) as it targets potential customers with real necessities who are actively searching for your products or services and are likely to convert quicker than usual. This can result in a higher conversion rate and ultimately drive more revenue for your business.

How SEO Helps Businesses Compete with Giants?

SEO helps businesses compete with larger companies by leveling the playing field in terms of online visibility. By optimizing your website and online content, you can improve your search engine ranking and attract potential customers who may not have otherwise found your business. This can help you compete with larger companies in your industry and ultimately drive sales for your business too.

Competitive Advantage: SEO Helps Small Businesses Compete with Larger Companies

Businesses either small ones or starting new often struggle to compete with larger companies that have established brand recognition, larger budgets, and more resources. However, with professional SEO services, any businesses can level the playing field and even outperform their larger competitors.

How SEO Levels the Playing Field for Small Businesses?

SEO allows small businesses to rank higher in search engines, making them more visible to potential customers by optimizing their website and content for relevant keywords, and small businesses can attract more traffic to their website and increase their online presence. This increased visibility can help level the playing field with larger competitors who may not have optimized their website for search engines.

How SEO Helps Small Businesses Outrank Larger Competitors?

Small businesses that invest in professional SEO services can outrank larger competitors by targeting niche keywords and providing high-quality content. Unlike larger companies, small businesses can be more agile and adapt to changes in search engine algorithms more quickly. By staying up to date with the latest SEO strategies and best practices, small businesses can improve their rankings and attract more customers.

Improved User Experience: SEO Enhances Your Website and Engages Customers?

SEO not only helps businesses rank higher in search engines but also improves the user experience of the website. By implementing best practices for website design and navigation, businesses can engage customers and keep them on their website for longer.

How SEO Improves Your Website’s Navigation and Accessibility?

Professional SEO services include optimizing website navigation and accessibility to improve the user experience. This makes sure that the website is easy to use and users find what they are looking for quickly. By providing a user-friendly website, businesses increase engagement and reduce bounce rates.

How SEO Enhances Your Website’s User Experience and Engagement?

SEO involves optimizing content for user engagement and not just search engines. This increases the time users spend on the website.which also includes creating high-quality content that is valuable to the target audience and incorporating multimedia elements like images and videos. By providing a positive user experience, businesses can build brand awareness and increase customer loyalty.

Measurable Results: SEO Provides Data-Driven Insights for Businesses?

By tracking website traffic and various KPI metrics, businesses can see the impact of their SEO efforts and make adjustments accordingly. Professional SEO services provide data-driven performance insights that aids businesses make informed marketing decisions.

How SEO Provides Analytics and Metrics for Measuring Success?

SEO professionals provide analytics and metrics that track website traffic and performance, including Domain Authority, Keyword Rankings, Organic Traffic, Conversion Rate, Click Through Rate(CTR), Load Time and Bounce Rates. This data informs businesses to understand which strategies are working and which ones need to be adjusted.

How SEO Helps Businesses Make Informed Marketing Decisions?

Optimizing SEO strategies, like targeting different keywords, fixing page speed, quality meta title and description and other best practices gives different perspectives of data to analyze. By analyzing the data provided by SEO services, businesses make informed marketing decisions to improve ROI and grow their business.

Conclusion: Invest in Professional SEO Services for Business Growth

In conclusion, Success ratio for SEO services is higher with SEO agencies in comparison with individuals. Moreover, professional SEO services provide businesses with a cost-effective and efficient way to improve their online visibility, attract more customers, and stay competitive in their industry. By partnering with a reputable SEO agency, business owners can focus on running their business while leaving the technical aspects of online marketing to the experts. 

Frequently Asked Questions

What is an SEO Audit?

SEO Audit is the process of evaluating the website on how well the website is optimized for search engines. SEO audit is performed to find opportunities or errors to improve site’s performance over search engines. In simple terms, seo audit is a complete health checkup of the website.

Although there is no one-size-fits-all method for conducting a SEO audit, there are certain fundamental issues that site owners or SEO professionals should address during the process.

Check for Manual Actions

In cases of manual actions, Google’s human reviewer determines that your website fails to adhere to their webmaster guidelines, resulting in the exclusion of some or all of your site from being displayed in Google search results.

A manual action is typically only issued if there has been a significant violation, making it a rare occurrence. Nonetheless, it is recommended to prioritize checking for manual actions because they can render your website virtually invisible in search results, even before you begin your SEO efforts.

To check for manual actions, go to the Manual actions report in Google Search Console. 

Check for Organic Traffic

Search algorithms at Google are continuously updated, with many of these updates focusing on particular areas such as link spam or content quality, etc

It is crucial to examine any drops in organic traffic that align with documented Google updates, as these fluctuations could indicate particular problems like mentioned earlier link spam or content quality or any other issues.

For example, Health, fitness and medical sites failed to demonstrate their expertise, authoritativeness and trust (E-A-T) due to which the sites were largely affected after the Core update in Aug 2018. Hence we need to check for sudden drops in organic traffic and make sure whether our website is flagged because of Google’s algorithm update or not.

To evaluate your organic traffic pattern, you can utilize Google Search Console at no cost. Navigate to the Search Results report and adjust the timeframe to the previous one or two years. You just need to compare Google’s algorithm update release date and sudden drop of traffic in your website. If both matches then there is a chance your website might have been penalized with the specific update.

Check for Duplicate Versions of Your Site

Verifying that Google is only indexing a single version of your website is crucial. Your website may exist in multiple URL variations, depending on factors such as the presence of “www” in the domain or the use of HTTPS.

From a search engine’s perspective, each of these variations represents a distinct version of the website:

• http://www.yoursite.com
• http://yoursite.com
• https://www.yoursite.com
• https://yoursite.com

Operating your website on multiple URL versions can lead to a variety of problems related to crawling, indexing, and ranking, as Google may interpret them as duplicates.

Check for Indexing issues

For a website to have any possibility of ranking, its pages must be included in Google’s index, which consists of a database containing hundreds of billions of web pages.

Excluding pages from Google’s index that hold little value for searchers is equally critical, as failing to do so can lead to SEO complications. Although indexing problems can become intricate, fundamental issues can be easily identified with a simple check.

To begin, examine the Indexability report in Site Audit for any warnings related to “Noindex page.”

It is important to verify that the pages displaying this warning are not ones that you wish to have indexed by Google, as they will not be indexed while this warning is present. If you do want these pages to be indexed, it may be necessary to modify or delete the meta robots tag.

Additionally, it is recommended to review the report and examine the quantity of URLs that can be indexed in the same report.If the number appears unusually large, it is advisable to conduct a more thorough investigation.

Check for mobile friendliness

Since Google transitioned to mobile-first indexing in 2019, mobile-friendliness has become a crucial ranking factor across all platforms. You can quickly check for mobile-friendliness by accessing the Mobile Usability report within Google Search Console, which highlights any URLs with mobile usability issues.

If you lack access to Google Search Console, you can evaluate any page on your website using Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test tool. Typically, the outcome should be relevant to the majority, if not all, of your website’s pages, given that they share a consistent design and layout.

Check for page speed

Desktop page speed has been a minor ranking consideration since 2010, and mobile page speed since 2018. Nonetheless, there is no officially defined benchmark for the optimal page loading speed, and a bewildering range of metrics may serve as a proxy.

Google’s page speed insights OR GT Metrix OR Ahrefs webmaster tool can be used to assess page speed of the website.

As a general rule these tools will also highlight the areas where page load speed can be improved, you just simply need to work on those factors and then you are good to go ahead with the page load speed.

Check Core Web Vitals

Google utilizes Core Web Vitals as metrics to assess user experience by measuring a page’s load time, interactivity, and content stability during loading.

Although they currently carry little weight as a ranking factor, it is still beneficial to evaluate your site’s performance. To accomplish this, examine the Core Web Vitals report accessible via Google Search Console.

Check for broken pages

It is never ideal to have broken pages on your website, as any backlinks directed towards such pages become ineffectual since they lead to non-existent content.

Broken pages can be identified using seo audit tools like SEMRush or Ahrefs or Index Coverage Status Report in Search Console

Check for Sitemap Issues

A sitemap provides an index of pages that you intend to be indexed by search engines. It is important to exclude elements such as redirects, non-canonicals, or obsolete pages, as these can send conflicting signals to Google.

Sitemaps issues can be identified using seo audit tools like Ahrefs or SEMRush.

Check for Content Duplicacy

During the content creation process, it is possible to inadvertently produce material that closely resembles existing published content. It is wise to utilize plagiarism checkers to verify that your content is viewed as original. Numerous free tools are available for this purpose.

Below are some excellent tools that are free and can be utilized to check for duplicate content.
Copyscape
Plagspotter
Duplichecker
Siteliner, etc.

Check for Technical Issues

Numerous technical problems can impede your website’s rankings. Hence, it is worthwhile to employ tools such as Ahrefs’ Site Audit to crawl your site and identify any additional SEO issues.

The Additional technical issues are as follows:

Keyword Cannibalization
Redirect Issues
Redirect Chains
Duplicate Meta Data
Missing Alt attributes & Image File names
URL Structure optimizations
Broken Internal Linkings
Missing Title Tags
Missing Heading Tags
Missing Meta Descriptions

Check for Site Architecture

Site architecture is a crucial aspect that many audits tend to overlook, which is a significant blunder. Most websites are not created with SEO considerations in mind, but this is not always negative, as many firms design their website based on user preferences. While maintaining a user-centric SEO approach, it is still essential to cater to the search engines as well. A robust site architecture can satisfy both users and search engines. While evaluating site architecture, consider the following queries:

Is the navigation simple or cluttered? 

Are the internal links employing appropriate anchor text?
Can the navigation be enhanced to improve the user and search engine experience?

Final Thoughts:

Conducting an SEO audit provides you with three actionable items to enhance your SEO:
1. Resolve technical SEO issues to improve your site’s search performance

2. Address on-page SEO issues to increase organic clicks, and pursuing

3. Content opportunities result in higher page rankings and more keywords

Google uses a network of hundreds of thousands of computers, each of which process billions of queries. The array of servers and the vast computing power is mind boggling. 

With the first page of the SERP, even with the first result Google tries to answer the question of the person behind the search. They generally try their best to get the most relevant results to the searcher. So at times you may find there are images from a blog post pointed at you. At other times, you get videos and search snippets.

Google’s the only one that can consistently answer the question that you ask.

Google offers the best answers because it has:

An amazing algorithm that has gotten more and more complex since the time it began to piece the web together.

Google is not the Google that you remember from high school. 

So when we do SEO we have to start with Google. And wrap some of the complexity in our approach that it has.

The content strategy for your blog and outside are both important.

Make sure that your site is optimized for search engines. Google’s algorithm is more complex than just a simple calculation. Figuring it out will lead to you many big wins.

So here’s what you need to do:

• Optimize On-Page SEO
• Do Keyword Research
• Content Marketing
• Use A Social Media Strategy 
• Off-Page SEO
• Off-Page SEO Checklist

Optimize On-Page SEO

Specifically, you want to optimize these elements:

1. Your site’s title tag

There are two important things to remember when using your title tag:

• Make sure you’re consistent – the title is the most important part of your page. Make sure that your title has the keywords you’re targeting and want to rank for. That’s not to say you can keyword stuff. 
• Make sure it’s readable – the title should be easy to read. The title should also be short. Keep in mind that Google is reading the title tag – the key phrase inside the title tag – is the most important.

The title tag is surrounded by the <title> </title> tags.

2. Meta description and other tags

This is followed by using h2 headings at the right places inside your content.

Finally for blog posts and pages use a meta description that tells search engines what the page is about. It’s debatable if meta tags are useful in this time and age but I’ve found it to be a great way to provide direction to search engines. If it seems complex hire an SEO company to do the heavy lifting.

Also, the ideal length for the meta description is between 155 to 160 characters and for meta title tags the ideal length is 60 characters.

The above two are some of the most important factors. In addition, take care of these factors as well.

3. Image Optimization

Search engines cannot read images the way they read textual content. So it’s important you add a title to your images. Plus add alt tags that describe what the image is about. Images aid comprehension. They bring diversity and oomph to your content and increase dwell time. Studies indicate that increased dwell times translate to higher rankings.

Finally, content optimization is important which we will discuss below.

Do Keyword Research

A common process for marketers and SEOs alike is keyword research. Using tools such as Ahrefs or UberSuggest, or even Google Keyword Planner, you can search for keywords that are related to your products and conduct keyword research. 

The longer and more content you create, the better. However, identifying the wrong keywords will overpower the intent of the search engines and confuse them. You want to create the right tone for your brand with the right content.

Let’s say you’re a premium VPN provider and you write a post about free VPNs. From a business perspective, ranking for this keyword doesn’t do you any good. Not a single person is going to convert.

This is where user intent comes into play. When someone types a particular word or phrase into a search engine, they’re not interested in just anything. They might be looking for something they heard about, or for information about that topic. Your content should be different. Instead of simply writing about your product, you should write about the problem that your product solves. Write about the reasons customers use and the unique features of your product. 

You should write about how your product solves your customers’ problems.

And when doing keyword research consider this. The keyword should be easy to rank for. The keyword should have volume and finally, it should be relevant and bring conversions for your site.

With a free tool like Ubersuggest or Keyword Planner, you can search for many relevant keywords.

This is the search volume for SEO. Look at the keyword difficulty of 72. Even though the term is lucrative it will require some serious marketing chops to be ranked for this.

Content Marketing

Once you have your keywords, create content. So that you can give this to the right people. You need to make sure that they are getting it in the right hands, through the right channels, in the right place. You’ll find that there are many ways to do it. 

Every business knows it must produce content, but they have no idea where to get started.

Here’s how to start.

The first kind of content is blog posts. You can write blog posts after doing keyword research as we discussed in the section above. Your content should be rich with keywords. Blog posts are geared towards driving lots of traffic. What length should be your blog posts? Google is increasingly preferring long-form content. Take your content length from a mere thousand words to over 1500 or above. This helps it rank.

The second kind of content is white papers, e-books, guides, and other kinds of content that act as bigger and deeper guides. This content is geared towards lead generation.

Even if you’re good at writing, you may be surprised by how many people won’t subscribe to your email list or give you their contact information. It’s not that easy. 

The next thing is to use content to create videos. Videos are a more efficient way to promote content than blog posts. Videos, in particular, are a great way to explain a concept, teach something, or tell a story. I’ve found that people love watching videos or listening to audio files, as in podcasts but you’ll probably need to do more research than with a blog post. Videos are the best for explaining what you’re talking about.

If you don’t want to spend a lot of time and effort you can use free infographic tools like Visme. With such tools, you can turn blog posts and other complex ideas into easy to understand and colorful infographics.

I’d also advise you to use different types of content when you’re not just creating blog posts, such as white papers and e-books.

Finally, once you have a good social media presence and are collecting emails do this. Get feedback.

Because to make content really great you need feedback from your readers. They tell you what kind of content they want to read.

Use A Social Media Strategy 

There are a lot of benefits to using social media. I don’t know if you know this but social media signals are a crucial part of the core ranking algorithm. The more social signals you have, the better it is. Google sees you as an authority website and ranks you higher.

You can share content directly to social networks, send and receive comments, and leverage these marketing channels to your advantage. Social media is also a great way to expand your reach and build your brand. It’s as easy as sharing your content to all your social profiles. You can also use it to reach a larger audience. Just be sure you’re not doing anything that jeopardizes the presence of your brand. Also too much isn’t always better. If you’re sharing content to 10 different profiles, it’s going to become confusing to understand where to post and how to respond in a timely manner. It’s worth knowing that social media is not only about posting content. It’s also about being personal.

You can also use social media to interact with customers on a more personal level. This is where many e-commerce stores get it wrong. They focus on selling to their social followers instead of building a relationship with them. They often miss the opportunity to use social media to build a relationship with their audience. This is where the engagement you’re creating with relevant posts can prove to be very beneficial. This can prove to a game-changer later down the road.

Off-Page SEO

No off-page SEO is complete without a discussion on backlinks. You may have the best content, but it won’t move the needle until and unless you build enough links to it.

When it comes to building links, the single best strategy that has worked for us and countless clients is guest blogging.

Sites accepting guest posts are ready to post your content provided you give them quality content.

Do a research like this keyword + “write for us”

You get scores of sites accepting guest posts.

Here’s an example.

Link-building is the single most important facet that decides your ranking period.

I know it’s tough. I know you would have liked a way around it. There’s none.

Off-Page SEO Checklist

• Make sure your site is indexed to Google and that Google knows where it is.
• Build links to your site. Link to your site. Build links. Build links. Build links.
• Don’t forget about social media. You need to do it right. There are so many social media tools to help you.
• Look for broken links on authority sites to build links to your site. You can use broken links. You can use a tool like Dead Link Checker. 

Concluding thoughts

Finally, check for on-site search optimization. You’ll never know what people are looking for if you don’t do a good job of researching. Use the tools above to figure out what people are searching for. Also, create an awesome user experience. If you have a poor user experience, you won’t be able to convert people.