Why Investing In SEO Can Give You a Competitive Edge & Long-Term Benefits
According to the latest research from PRNewswire published on April 20th a meager 63% of small businesses are not investing in SEO despite the lucrative long-term benefits that they can harness by optimizing for the search engine algorithms.
This indeed means that there are a lot of scopes for the new small businesses to gain a competitive edge and fast-track their business goals if they start prioritizing their SEO endeavors and devoting a substantial amount of time and resources to strategizing their SEO strategies.
According to the 2022 Small Business SEO Report compiled by visualobjects.com, almost half of the business owners don’t prioritize search engine optimization (SEO) efforts for their businesses.
While 79% of the small businesses are confident about their understanding of SEO, only about 25% of them are planning to adopt SEO strategies in 2022. Lack of willingness to invest in SEO strategies leaves the long-term benefits gained from SEO strategies unharnessed.
The delay in SEO investment is attributed in particular to the intricacy of SEO strategies and the lack of the immediacy of results from SEO efforts.
The survey by Visual Objects involved 1,003 small business managers who wished to examine current SEO trends. This report reveals not only the preferred SEO software tools and overall SEO strategies for small business owners but also gives them enough points to analyze why investing in SEO may not be about instant gratification but it certainly is about enticing long-term-benefits and can do a ton of wonders in terms of optimizing the brand visibility and reputation over a period of time.
Why the Small Businesses Need to Understand That Investing In SEO Is a Long-Term Ball Game
Recently, there has been a movement to bring back the small business. Their buying power is greater than ever before thanks to the internet and they’re making it increasingly easier for anyone to get their products sold worldwide by cutting out all of the middlemen.
When it comes to investing in SEO, it’s a long game. If you invested in SEO marketing, or Search Engine Optimization services, you need to know that it takes time before you see positive results.
When trying to rank a website for competitive keywords, it is inevitable that your site will be competing with sites that have been in a specific niche longer than yours. That does not mean that you cannot be successful in the long run. Just learn how to market your small business online and make sure your small business has an online home (your website).
For a long time, the main goal of most business owners especially those who own small businesses is to rank high on the search engine results pages and drive a huge amount of traffic to their site. This is true as this really can generate revenues for the business overnight. But how good is it if it doesn’t last long?
The SEO experts strongly advise businesses to never stop working on their SEO efforts since time is an essential factor in creating strong and sustainable positions on search engines and taking advantage of this leads to the consequent increase in traffic and sales.
It is important to know that SEO is a long-term strategy, and the success of any SEO campaign is dependent on many factors – keyword competitiveness, on-site optimization, content relevance, and several other factors outside the control of the SEO agency. SEO puts your company in front of customers at a moment when they are looking for you. It’s not too late to begin investing in SEO for your small business.
Since Google is the leading platform for most web users, it would be better if your online business showed up there when people are searching for your products. This could bring a lot of potential clients and customers to your website. If a customer landed on your website and like what he saw there, it could give you the boost you have been looking for.
What SEO Tactics Are Popular Among Small Businesses During This Point of Time?
The Visual Objects survey of 1,003 small businesses reveals the SEO confidence levels for small businesses and which SEO strategies are popular among them; here’re the top 3:
a) Keyword Research – According to the report, 43% of the businesses prioritized ‘Keyword Research’ as an important SEO strategy.
Small businesses should focus on creating and optimizing website content that focuses on keywords. Keyword research can help you determine what your customers are searching for and how it relates to your products and services. A thorough keyword analysis will give you the tools you need to create targeted content for your website or blog.
b) Technical Optimization – The second most popular technique of SEO optimization among the small business owners after ‘Keyword Research’ is ‘Technical Optimization,’ which is preferred by 40% of the businesses.
Technical Optimization is an easy way for your small business to save money by removing wasted resources. For example, adding a proxy server to handle specific devices such as printers at night can save money in the long run through web filtering, bandwidth savings, and overall cost reduction.
c) Local Search Optimization – The third most popular technique of SEO popular among small business owners is the local search optimization preferred by 37% of the business owners.
Over 60% of searches on Google — the most popular search engine used worldwide — are local. This means that when people search for businesses and services, they’re likely doing it from their neighborhood, and they’re likely looking for something nearby. By optimizing your business information in local search engines like Google, you allow yourself to rank for these local searches.
Key Findings from the Visual Objects 2022 Small Business Survey
The 2022 Visual Objects Small Business Survey emphasized the following main points:
- Almost half (47%) of the small businesses right now are not investing in SEO. In 2021, over a quarter of small businesses (27%) began investing in SEO & 25% plan to invest in 2022
- Small businesses cite keywords (43%), technical SEO optimization (40%), and local search optimization (37%) as their key SEO strategies
- 21% of small businesses (21%) believe that website engagement is their most important SEO success tracking metric
- Over 40% of small businesses use in-house SEO software and tools instead of hiring a third-party
- 79% of the businesses are confident in their understanding of SEO best practices despite not harnessing SEO to the fullest potential for their businesses
As search engine algorithms become more complex, small businesses have to be creative to get the attention of new customers. In an interview with Small Business Computing last year, Aaron Gray, co-founder of NO-BS Marketplace, an SEO platform, encouraged small businesses to focus on prioritizing when it comes to SEO.
Gray said, “SEO has a massive scope…make improvements one at a time,” Gray said. “By focusing your efforts on just one pillar of SEO, such as technical development, you can end up with a site that is faster, more mobile-friendly, and easier to index or you could improve your on-site SEO by making incremental improvements to your keyword usage and meta-tagging.”
About Visual Objects
Visual Objects is a sister website of the leading service provider searches B2B platform, Clutch. Visual Objects features a database of creative design and marketing agencies from around the world to help you find and vet quality service providers. Their goal is to help you find the best providers for your project based on ratings and reviews from people like you, down to the very pixel of their creative masterpieces.
Visual Objects connects you directly with those businesses through its visual content. Each post features a project by an outstanding service provider. The images we pull reveal the work our featured service provider has done for their clients as well as how they approach their projects. Leveraging visuals allows you to see who we’re showcasing on Visual Objects more effectively than if they were positioned through text-based content alone.
