Could Your Business Be Doing Better?
Web-based businesses are increasingly finding that not doing SEO is like ignoring the elephant in the room.
The search engines are changing the way they do things, and if you're spending all of your time focusing on how to get more leads through other channels (like paid search), then it's easy to neglect one area where there has been less change – search engine rankings. However, if you neglect them for too long, it will become increasingly difficult to optimize your site effectively and get back into the good graces of Google.
SEO is no longer just about technical optimization – optimizing images, ensuring that your website loads quickly on desktops and mobile devices, making sure that you have a mobile website, etc. Google is looking to create the best user experience for its users – if your site does not have good content or engaging images, it's likely that you are going to get left behind in terms of rankings. This is because Google wants quality sites with relevant information to rank highly on their results pages so that they can provide the best experience for their users.
Continue reading to know more details on what happens if you don't do SEO. One fun fact about SEO is that the average person who searches for something via Google probably ends up clicking on one of the first three search results, meaning it's important to look at SEO from a variety of perspectives, including the search engine's results pages.
Niche Businesses Lose Traffic
Small businesses that focus on being very niche run the risk of getting lost in Google's search results – if you only have one or two locations, this is particularly worrisome as you're going to be buried by local competitors.
It's important to keep in mind that there are many ways to search for things – some people look at the map listings right away, and others search by typing in the full address. If your site only comes up on the map listings (and you don't have a high enough click-through rate on those listings), it's likely that people aren't going to find you, even if they're looking for your location.
This is where SEO can help small businesses – as long as they focus on the user experience (not just keyword optimization) and provide valuable content, it will be much easier to gain traffic in organic search results.
Get Left Behind By Big Brands
Search engines are looking for quality over quantity – which means that if you're doing SEO for your brand, there's no better time than now to catch the search engine's eye. By gaining more visibility in organic search results, small businesses can make sure they're not getting lost behind their larger counterparts.
If you've decided to run your website without SEO, that means that your site is just barely clinging to the first page of Google's SERP for your keywords – if a large corporate competitor decides to start doing SEO, it will only be a matter of time before they outrank you.
It's important to plan ahead in order to avoid this fate!
Cheap Marketing Tactics Don't Work
It's true that if you want to build links, there are plenty of tactics that will work – but not all of them are going to be effective. Even the low-hanging fruit has started to disappear as search engines do everything they can to combat spammy link building. The important thing to keep in mind with SEO is that it's the only marketing tactic that is not likely to fail.
If you're not getting any traffic from SEO now, that means it's time to take a step back and figure out where your campaign is going wrong. It's important to remember that if you want to avoid being left behind by the competition, your site needs to have top-notch SEO. Sharp Tack Media is here to help with our expertise in search engine optimization and online marketing as well as a team of professionals who are happy to chat about what we can do for you. Give us a call so we can get started on putting together the perfect plan for your company – today!
