“Are SEO companies worth it? In this article, we explore the possibility of SEO for small businesses. Read on to learn what SEO is and how your small business can benefit from SEO.
It is obvious for you to be apprehensive about whether running an SEO campaign will benefit you. Is SEO worth it when most consumers are on social media today? Or is it worth the money to invest in your website when buying the top spot on search results is seemingly easy with Google Ads? When you run a small local business, you must ensure that every penny you spend is a worthwhile investment.
There is no doubt that SEO is necessary for businesses and a sensible investment as long as online marketplace and search engines exist. SEO aims to make you visible and discoverable by sending the right signals to search engines. With an effective SEO strategy, your business can see results such as more traffic to your website and a higher conversion rate. But as a small business owner, you might have questions and doubts, “Is SEO worth it for small business?” It is quite justified as the job involves significant investments and efforts. Here the question may arise whether the same is true for small businesses too.
So, “Is SEO worth it?” let’s delve deeper so that you can find a satisfactory answer and have absolute clarity before investing your hard-earned money in it.
If you have a small business mainly focused in the local area, then these facts are enough to motivate you:
- As per statistics, four out of five people find local business info using Google.
- 76% of consumers search on smartphones for a nearby visit or service.
- 28% of nearby searches for products or services turn into a purchase.
Getting Started With SEO
Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is a process that optimizes your website so that search engines find them easily. SEO helps your website rank in the top search results for targeted keywords. For a roofing service provider, that might be “roofing service in San Francisco” or “roofing service near me.” For online retailers, it could be “best sports trousers” or “buy carpets online.” SEO has evolved from a decade ago and is no longer the same today. Search engines have gotten smarter, and ranking websites is no longer easy.
Today SEO is a complex process involving certain on-page and off-page factors. It is not just about keywords. Today’s SEO campaigns involve a lot of things like the overall quality (website speed, design, content quality) and the quality and quantity of links pointing to your website from other websites. The process encompasses so many things that thousands of small business owners find it convenient to hire a professional agency to do the job. Therefore, with a question like “Are SEO companies worth it?” the answer would be positive, with customized SEO campaigns empowering small and local businesses.
How Can A Small Business Benefit from SEO?
Driving Potential Consumers to Your Website
With an effective SEO strategy, you can attract customers actively searching for the same products and services you offer. These people have already made up their minds and are ready to buy. Thus, SEO fetches more targeted traffic for your services or products.
Free Additional Traffic
SEO does not work like Google Ads, which stops getting traffic when you stop paying. Once you make an initial investment in an SEO campaign and you are ranking, you can choose to keep it on hold for an off-season or a slow season. You would still get search traffic as the background job is still in play. Yet, to stay ahead in the competition and sustain your ranking over time, you must put in effort and investments. But, unlike Google Ads, SEO does not shock you with dire drop-off traffic as you stop paying.
High Conversions
Well-strategic SEO helps you rank well, and potential consumers find your business credible. The business credibility you achieve by ranking higher on search engine results helps you gain the trust of more consumers. It leads to brand awareness and recognition, which is priceless for any business.
People tend to spend more time on your site; there are lower bounce rates and more conversions. To ensure higher conversions, your website needs to be well-structured and uncluttered. Rather than a clutter of messy pages, it should be categorized clearly and easy to navigate. Websites with minimalistic design and entertaining content attract more users.
Return on Investment
When it comes to ROI, like other digital efforts, SEO too can show you results that you may sometimes find tricky and doubt. “Is SEO worth the money”?” But, as you analyze your traffic and conversions, after SEO and before SEO, you will have a good idea of whether it is a worthwhile investment for you. Most of the time, it shows significant results with well-designed strategies tailored to your business needs.
How Much Does SEO Cost?
The cost of professional SEO services depends on a variety of factors (described below) but typically begins around ~ $750 per month (for competitive markets) and can go up to more than $6500 per month. Various other factors are also there to determine the SEO costs, like
- Your goal(s)
- Target location(s), do you serve 1 area or various? Are you looking for national campaign or local?
- Target keyword(s)
- Total hours worked
- Amount of blog article(s)
- Overall scope of work
- Size of your website and the number of pages needed to be optimized
- Quantity of new content (blogs) needed to create per month
- Your industry’s competitiveness online
- Number of technical problems needed to resolve
- Setting up or optimizing business profile listing
- Number and quality of backlinks you currently have
- The competition that’s targeting your desired keywords and how you currently rank to them
Professional SEO agencies offer full-fledged services customized to your small business requirements focusing on what you want to achieve from your SEO campaign. It helps gain higher momentum and generates more results. SEO campaigns are affordable and absolutely within a small business’s budget, but with a higher budget, you get more work done every month.
How Long SEO Takes to Show Results?
As a client, the most common question to your SEO team would be, “When can I see results?” SEO isn’t instant noodles or the quickest way to get traffic and results. It is an organic process that takes time and requires patience on the part of a client. That can sometimes be difficult and make you wonder, “Is SEO worth it?” But careful observation and analysis would prove it to be worth giving a try. The time taken for SEO services to show results depends on factors like your competitors’ strengths and how dedicatedly you optimize your on-page and off-page web presence.
If you have a new website and have just started with SEO, it usually requires 6 to 12 months to see significant results. However, there are instances where strong results have come up faster, even within 3 months. It happens when you have low competition in the market. On the other hand, if you have an established website but have never optimized, SEO service can produce significant results faster within 3 to 6 months.
This is why, before investing in SEO services, you need to prepare yourself for making a long-term, ongoing investment for at least 6 months. This is needed to stay ahead of your competitors and give you a good return on your investment.
Local SEO for Small Businesses
For small businesses which are mainly focused on local areas, local SEO techniques can bring great results. Apart from those broader SEO techniques, local SEO also uses some unique tactics that are highly effective for local businesses. These include optimizing profiles of local businesses and requesting reviews from customers.
You may wonder, “Is SEO worth it for small businesses?” But as you consider the fact that when it comes to local search, there are more chances of conversion to sales as traffic has a higher buying intent in local searches. You are more likely to generate an ROI from local SEO because most local businesses have high average customer value.
Another important factor is unlike national searches. Local searches have lower competition (depending on your industry). Therefore, finding results and improvements with local SEO is a tad quicker than National SEO Campaigns, and you can earn valuable revenue by investing in local SEO.
The Final Takeaway
SEO services will drive traffic to your website by optimizing it with the most popular search keywords and help people to solve their problems using your products or services. As long as your potential customers are looking for what you sell or do and as long as your business is offering solutions to problems they are searching for, SEO proves worthwhile, and magic happens. When the question is “Is SEO worth it for small business?” the answer will be a definite “yes”. SEO is an investment in which the sooner you start, the higher your ROI. Therefore, if you have yet to start your SEO, wait no more. It’s time to start it now.
A prime SEO agency in San Francisco Bay Area, Cyrusson Inc. is a dedicated provider of all your SEO services, including local SEO for small businesses. With a highly talented and experienced professional team, we implement effective strategies to maximize your online business exposure and get your small business at the top of SERPs. The SEO professionals at Cyrusson Inc. provide you with the necessary SEO tools and services to help you get more traffic and increase your conversion rates. Whether you are a small business owner or a large enterprise, you can achieve your business goals with us in no time. Call us at 415-228-9969 to schedule your Free consultation today, and let’s get started!