If you have a small business, you might wonder whether SEO is still worthwhile in 2023. SEO, or search engine optimization, is the process of improving the visibility and ranking of your website on search engines like Google.
In this article, we will discuss things to know if SEO is worth it to small businesses in 2023.
SEO: What is it?
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of directing your website to appear higher on the search engine results page (SERP) in order to increase traffic. Most individuals scan the first page of search results when typing in a query or looking for products on search engines such as Google; they rarely bother looking through the subsequent pages. They demand immediate responses, and they require them on the first page.
You need an efficient SEO plan to ensure that your website appears on the first page of the results page or at least in the top 3 results. Due to how drawn out and time-consuming the SEO process is, many people try to avoid it.
However, this is a crucial element of any digital marketing tactics. But if you’re not aware of SEO, don’t panic. Both large and small businesses engage a digital marketing company that offers SEO services to handle their SEO needs.
What makes SEO important for businesses?
SEO enables your website to appear at the top of search engine results pages, increasing website traffic and promoting your brand.
Do you still need to determine how crucial SEO is to a business? Let’s examine a few stats:
- The top page of Google receives 71% of all search traffic, and the first top result receives 28.5% of clicks.
- The top 5 SERP results receive 67.6% of clicks, whereas the bottom five only receive 3.73%.
- Moreover, just 6% of all website clicks go to the second page of its Google SERP.
That is why SEO is crucial for your business.
The benefits of SEO for small businesses
As a small business owner, one might need clarification on whether it is worthwhile to spend money on SEO. After all, so many other things are vying for your attention and limited resources. But the truth is, SEO can be incredibly beneficial for small businesses – and here’s why:
1. SEO Can Help You Get Found Online
There’s no point in having a website if no one can find it. That’s where SEO comes in. Optimizing your site for search engines can increase your chances of being found by people searching for what you offer. And the higher you rank in search results, the more likely people will click on your site.
2. SEO Can Drive More Traffic to Your Site
More traffic equals more potential customers. And while paid advertising can bring people to your site, SEO is a more sustainable long-term solution. Once you’ve achieved good rankings, you won’t have to keep paying for traffic – it will come naturally as people search for your business online.
3. SEO Can Help You Build Trust and credibility
When people see that your website is high up in the search results, they’ll perceive you as more trustworthy and credible than those lower down. This can help encourage people to do business with you, whether they’re looking to buy products or services from you or want further information about what you do.
4. SEO Can Give You an Edge Over Your Competition
If the competitors aren’t spending money on SEO, you can get in front of them this way. By outperforming them in search results, you’ll be able to capture more of the market share and grow your business at their expense.
5. SEO Can Help You Stay Ahead of the Curve
The world of SEO is constantly changing, with new algorithms and trends emerging all the time. By keeping on top of these changes and ensuring your site is continuously optimized, you can stay ahead of the curve and ensure that your business is always visible online – no matter what the future holds.
Which aspects of SEO are important?
Let’s look at the on-page, off-page, and technical aspects of SEO to better comprehend the goal of search engine optimization.
On-page SEO
On-page SEO makes your website more “crawlable” and better understood by search engines.
Researching keywords, optimizing title tags, meta tags, pictures, headings, URL structure, and improving content are all parts of on-page SEO (also known as on-site SEO).
On-page SEO refers to the blog posts, articles, or other content on your website that can improve your position in search engine results (SERP). This is where you’ll polish the content and ensure it contains all the keywords, relevant data, the appropriate structure, and other beneficial elements that truly set your website apart from many other comparable websites.
Keywords- The phrases associated with your content that consumers are most likely to type into search engines are known as keywords or key phrases. Your page has a better probability of ranking #1 in the SERP with the other relevant keywords it contains. And that is why SEO is crucial for businesses.
Keyword Optimization- To improve your website’s chances of generating more hits and organic traffic, keyword optimization entails studying, choosing, and using the appropriate keywords.
Content Enhancement- Content on your website includes the content, images, videos, and other materials you submit. You must offer them valuable and engaging content if you want people to click on your website and stay there longer.
Copywriting- In SEO, copywriting uses phrases and content to persuade readers to click on your website. Your content is much more likely to receive clicks and organic traffic if it is interesting, related to the subject, helpful, and informative.
Image Optimization– You must provide high-quality images with the appropriate layout if you want online users to click, enjoy, and stay on your webpage. You must use the proper image type (JPG, PNG, SVG, etc.), resize or compress the images to ensure they load quickly, and more to optimize the image.
To improve your chances of appearing higher on the SERP, onsite SEO concentrates on all of these factors, plus a few more.
Off-page SEO
Put simply, off-page (or Off-site) SEO is anything you do to improve your website’s search engine rankings. Off-page SEO aids in gaining a search engine’s endorsement of your website. If the off-site SEO has successfully persuaded the search engine of your web page’s value, it will likely rank the website high or feature it.
Consider the possibility of other websites promoting your website. Off-page SEO is crucial for marketing your website to new internet users.
The main focus of off-page SEO is backlinks. Backlinks are links to your website that originate from other websites. Still perplexed? Your backlink is created if a blog post or article about the “Top 10 local businesses” lists your company and includes a link to your website. Your website receives more link juice from more authoritative and relevant websites. This increases the authority of your website.
Backlinks can also be divided into two categories: manual link building and natural link building.
- Natural link-building occurs when an individual recommends your company and links to your website for free.
- Manual link-building happens when you request a backlink from another website that is relevant to yours.
Technical SEO
It pertains mainly to technical aspects of SEO, as the name implies. Technical SEO aids in enhancing the website’s backend functionality for a better user experience. You should concentrate on issues like page speed performance, indexing, site structure, tech-friendly, crawling, and many more in this section.
Page speed- Reduced page-exit rates can be obtained by loading pages quickly. A website’s bounce rate rises by 53% if it takes longer than two seconds to load!
Site structure- Organizes the website’s content to make it easier for the search engine to identify the key pages.
Indexing- In order to save and organize information so that it can be displayed on SERPs, Google crawls the website. Assisted the search engine in finding the appropriate content in the proper segment.
Crawling- When search engines “scan” a website to find fresh content like images, videos, webpages, or documents, they send out a swarm of robots to perform the task.
Meta tags- Determines how your website will appear to search engine users.
Mobile-friendliness- Because smartphones are much more practical and common, your website must be mobile-friendly to attract more website visitors. This comprises the page’s layout, usability, and speed, all contributing to a better click-through rate and lower bounce rate. According to estimates, 69% of individuals use their smartphones to aid in their shopping. Your website must be mobile-friendly to draw in more audience and visitors and boost revenue.
XML Sitemap- An XML sitemap is a file that organizes a website’s pages so that a search engine may crawl them and find the relevant information.
Why SEO is Worth the Investment in 2023
Because SEO is an efficient strategy that promotes organic growth over time, the investment is worthwhile. Approximately 66 percent of people worldwide are using the internet to research and learn about services and products, with Google dominating the search market with a 92 percent market share.
If your target audience searches for products to make the work more accessible, the proper SEO strategies enable your firm to appear at the top of the results. Your company needs to view SEO as an investment instead of an expense because it is one of the most fundamental marketing strategies.
5 Reasons Why to Invest in SEO
Here are the five reasons why you need to invest in SEO:
SEO benefits your company’s goals.
You may accomplish marketing, sales, and branding objectives by optimizing your website’s social media sites, online presence, and landing pages.
Consider Saramin, a job board with a basis in Korea that has been profiled as a kind of case study by Google Search Central. The company’s marketing team began basic technical SEO work in 2015, such as addressing crawling issues. The improvements led to a 15% rise in organic traffic. The team then focused more on SEO, enhancing user experience by removing duplicate material, using structured data, and speeding up pages. Soon after, traffic increased by 102%, with new sign-ups up by 93% more than before, and conversions rose by 9%.
ROI from SEO
Increased traffic does not always translate into higher revenue. No company makes money just because users click on a website. For a click to be considered a conversion, it must result in a sign-up or an inquiry. Conversions only represent an ROI when they result in a sale and generate income.
For each dollar spent on SEO work for an e-commerce company, the average ROI is $2.75.
How can you figure out the SEO ROI?
- Utilize Google Analytics to monitor conversions.
- Analyze conversions by channel, monitor organic search, and calculate the overall number of conversions.
- Calculate ROI; some businesses employ the following formula: Investment Return – Investment Cost) / Investment Costs
ROI on your SEO investment is not as easy to determine as ROI with any pay-per-click (PPC) spent. In contrast to PPC, SEO does not have a set cap on organic clicks. However, unlike PPC, SEO continues to pay off long after you stop investing.
Results from SEO take time to develop; it is a long-term investment. So, the first ROI measurement should be carried out every quarter or every year. Even though you might not start to see a profit from your investment till the third month, the outcome of your campaign will eventually help your business grow.
Although SEO isn’t free, it produces lasting results.
It’s not by chance that your company appears on the first page of the search engine results page. Giving your company online visibility requires a team of experts and tools that provide insight. So where did the notion that SEO was free to come from?
Some individuals may view SEO as being “free” because it generates organic traffic (that contrasts with traffic from clicking on a paid advertisement that appears in search results). When compared to PPC/paid advertisements, where your company pays a small sum for every click, SEO appears to be “free.”
You can receive results immediately with PPC because you’ll show up first in the search results, just before position 1 of such organic results. However, once you’ve stopped paying for its advertisement to display, your web traffic stops. A PPC campaign may yield an ROI of 200%, or $2 for every $1 invested in paid advertising.
However, SEO still generates traffic because your site will show up naturally in search results after optimization. Your ROI for SEO therefore grows over time. Depending on how long your keywords may rank, you could see an ROI of up to 275% over time (depending on how competitive the niche is in return). However, SEO campaigns could still produce results years after you stop paying for them. That’s what makes SEO such an affordable tactic.
You’ll still have to invest time doing keyword research, content marketing, link building, or other optimization activities, even if you choose to handle SEO work on your own rather than hire a team of experts. Additionally, you may use that time to develop relationships with your clients.
SEO strategies are already being used by your competitors.
There’s a 50/50 probability that your rivals are currently utilizing SEO. No company wants to be outwitted by its competitors. You’ll probably lose revenue if you don’t use optimization techniques because the opposition will likely optimize its website or social media pages.
If not, your company can attract customers to your website to establish a devoted following before your rivals do.
Without SEO, your brand has little chance of appearing on a search engine results page (SERPs), and your rivals’ optimized websites will rank higher. Being at the bottom means you’re losing out on the possibility of drawing visitors and making possible sales because the top 3 sites on the results page receive the majority of most clicks and website traffic, with a noticeable drop in proportion to clicks after the third result.
Mobile & local search optimization is becoming more popular.
As search engines improve their algorithms in reaction to user wants, and behavior, an effective search engine marketing strategy is updated. Since more than 60% of mobile users access the internet through mobile devices, a portion of that upgrade focuses on mobile optimization. More than 70% of mobile phone users will only use smartphones to access the internet by 2025.
However, consumers using smartphones aren’t only browsing the internet; they are also making transactions with companies.
Particularly for e-commerce companies, mobile-friendly websites are essential, given that 79 percent of customers have made online purchases using their phones. Mobile-related e-commerce revenues are expected to reach $436.75 billion in the year 2022, as well as $728.28 billion by 2025.
Mobile optimization is essential to your SEO strategies because local business searches on mobile devices are more frequent. Approximately 76% of mobile users visit a nearby business the next day after finding it online, and 28% of those visits result in purchases.
How long does SEO take to pay off?
If you’re a small business owner, you’ve probably heard that SEO is essential for helping your business grow. But what you might not know is how long it takes for SEO to start paying off.
The short answer is that SEO can take anywhere from a few months to a year or more to produce results. Of course, the timeline depends on factors like your industry’s competitiveness and your SEO strategy’s effectiveness. But even if it takes a while to see results, investing in SEO is still one of the most effective ways to grow your small business.
SEO pays off in the long run by helping you attract more organic traffic, improve your visibility in search engines, and build trust and credibility with potential and existing customers. So, if you’re patient and willing to invest some time and resources in SEO, it will eventually pay off for your small business.
Do you need SEO every month?
As we move into 2023, the question on everyone’s mind is: do you need SEO every month? The answer, quite simply, is yes. Here’s why:
1. The landscape of SEO is constantly changing. What worked last month might not work this month, and vice versa. By keeping your SEO up-to-date, you ensure that your website is always visible to potential customers.
2. SEO is an ongoing process, not a one-time event. Just like your website needs regular updates and maintenance, your SEO needs to be regularly refreshed and tweaked to stay effective.
3. Monthly SEO packages keep you ahead of your competition. If your competitors also invest in monthly SEO, you must do the same to stay ahead of them in the search engine rankings.
4. Monthly SEO allows you to track and measure results. This way, you can see exactly what’s working and what isn’t and make the necessary adjustments to your strategy accordingly.
5. Finally, monthly SEO gives you peace of mind. Knowing that your website is being regularly optimized means that you can focus on other aspects of your business safely, knowing that your online presence is in good hands.
Can a business do its own SEO?
There are a lot of small businesses out there that still believe that they can do their own SEO. And while it’s true that you can technically do your own SEO, the reality is that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to do so effectively. Not only does its algorithm change constantly, but the competition is getting tougher and more challenging. To stay ahead of the game in 2023, you must hire an experienced SEO professional.
You will likely be able to get great results from your own efforts if you are highly skilled in SEO. It is still possible for businesses without an SEO expert on staff to make improvements, but hiring a professional can help take your website to the next level.
The advantages of working with an experienced SEO professional include
- Access to better resources and tools
- More in-depth knowledge of search engine algorithms
- Better strategies for marketing online content
An experienced practitioner will also provide valuable insights that you would otherwise have no way of knowing.
In addition, a professional can create long-term plans tailored to the needs of your business. This strategy-based approach is much more effective than trying out various tactics without any real direction or understanding of what works best in the long run.
At the end of the day, it’s up to you as a small business owner to decide if hiring an experienced SEO specialist is right for you. While it may cost more upfront, the long-term benefits are worth it if you want lasting success for your website and online presence.
Why you should hire a professional for your business’s SEO
If you want your small business to succeed in 2023, you must ensure you do everything possible to optimize your website for search engines. And that means hiring a professional to help with your SEO.
Sure, you could try to do it yourself. But you won’t get the results you need if you don’t have the time or expertise. A professional SEO consultant will be able to help you choose the right keywords, create content that ranks well, and get your site in front of the people who are looking for what you have to offer.
Don’t wait until it’s too late to invest in SEO. Hire a professional now and give your business the best chance of success in 2023 and beyond.
Is SEO worth it for a small business in 2023?
No matter your business size, SEO is essential for success in 2023. If you’re a small business, SEO will help you reach more potential customers and get noticed among the competition. Investing in SEO now will give you an advantage over larger companies and help you build a solid online presence. With the right SEO strategy, your small business can not only survive but thrive in 2023. Make sure to do your research, create a plan of action, and start optimizing for success.
Schedule an appointment today.
Brooks Internet Marketing may assist if you’re looking for a skilled agency to support your business and reach more clients online. To learn more about how our team can utilize SEO and other Internet marketing techniques to expand your company and increase revenue, contact us today and ask to talk with one of the SEO consultants. Please be sure to set an appointment with us to obtain a free SEO audit immediately if you’d like to learn more about how your website currently ranks.
