What is SEO?
Search engines like Google create a large database of every website and ranks them. The search engines put web pages in order based on certain keywords.
For example, If you type in “Terre Haute restaurants” into Google, it will show you a list of websites that it believes are the most popular and most relevant to your search terms. These sites will show up in the order that Google has ranked them.
SEO is taking active steps to ensure your website ranks high for the keywords that are most valuable for you. If you run an antique store and someone in your local area searches for “Terre Haute antiques”, you want to be on the top of the list! SEO is how you obtain that higher ranking, and expose your business and services to new customers. SEO also incorporates making your website easy to navigate, ensuring it has correct and valuable content, and taking steps to properly display your site on additional platforms like mobile phones.
Why you should invest in SEO.
SEO is cost effective, and will result in more customers and more money for your business. The statistics alone speak for themselves.
43% of internet searches performed today use a local keyword (Like “Terre Haute”).
An amazing 88% of those searches convert to a phone call or visit to the physical location! In addition, inbound leads cost 61% lower than outbound leads.
This means there is a massive opportunity to drive new business (and more money) to your business by ensuring your website or business has proper search engine optimization. It is also vastly cheaper than outbound advertising like cold calls, e-mails, and direct mailers.
In present times, more and more people will “Google it” before they buy. On average, about 85% of your customers will have used a search engine within the past week to research something locally!
88% of consumers who search for a type of local business on a mobile device call or go to that business within 24 hours! With such a huge rate of success, it is hard to believe that over 90% of all small business websites are not compatible with mobile devices!
Your business needs SEO.
If you currently do not have a website, Facebook page, LinkedIn listing, or any number of other online accounts set up, your business is not preforming as well as it should.
Today’s customer base is online. Investing in proper SEO and taking steps to ensure your website and online marketing presence is completed properly will be an investment that will easily pay for itself and earn you extra money for your business.