The Importance of SEO for Small to Medium Sized Business

• This article focuses on the importance of SEO for small and medium-sized companies and presents a simple SEO program most business can and should implement to improve their results with search engines.

More and more Internet users rely on search engines to find local businesses. A Nielsen//NetRating WebVisible Study: Measuring a Website’s Ability to Drive Offline Purchases for Small Businesses, indicates that more local business are experiencing offline conversions due to local search. adidas gazelle This is the first Internet survey of its kind designed to measure the ability to drive offline conversions for local service advertisers.

Accordingly to this survey, the most commonly searched sites are:

• 36% medical service
• 32% automotive services
• 26% home or office repair services
• 23% financial services
• 9% landscaping services

Other studies and surveys have also indicated that local intent is behind up to 40% of all online queries, even if the searcher doesn’t explicitly indicate location. Some of the most popular local queries include searches related to

• car sales
• restaurants
• hotels
• florists
• landscaping
• and other service providers

All the researches and surveys proof that more and more people are going online to find local information. It also shows that the big yellow book or newspaper classifieds are being used less and less.

When you combine this increasing Internet user behavior and the fact that Google, Yahoo, and other sites now offer local search in their main page results, local/regional businesses and nation wide chains all can take advantage when people search for local information.

A Different Path in Advertising

With the increasing importance in SEO and its ability to drive qualified traffic to your website and your local store, it’s regrettable the most local business owners are unaware of it and not taking fully advantage of its advertising potential.

Conventional advertising is a concept every business person is aware. Women Air Jordan 6 Most businesses take full advantage of the familiar yellow pages and newspaper print ads and have relied for year on these forms of advertising. sac a dos kanken fjallraven SEO is an altogether different path, involving new marketing methods and specialized knowledge.

Different search engines use different criteria for local searches. Most marketing experts readily admit they don’t know quite as much about search engine marketing not mentioning geo target search marketing — mostly because they don’t have experience with SEO/SEM.

Local Search Drives Phone Calls and Store Visits

Search engine users might even be already familiar with your business. billig nike air norge They may enter your company name trying to find a phone number, address, hours of operation or to learn more about your products and services. In other situations, users are looking for something more specific, such as a particular service, product, or brand, but they don’t know your company.

Regardless of branding, specific local search is one of the most qualified customer inquiries that will drive not just visitors to your site, but to your business address. Adidas Gazelle Heren For example, if you’re a landscaping company located in Kelowna, a search for “landscaping design Kelowna” represents a much more qualified inquiry than a generic, search for “landscaping.” Specific, geo-target searches certainly will drive new customers right to your door.

It is common for businesses that operate locally not to sell online. nike air max homme pas cher The desired Web site call to action is mostly a phone call, a faxed order, or in-store visit. Regardless your desired end result, SEO should be part of your marketing strategy. air max pas cher It increases the phone ringing and the door opening with new customers.

Your next customer might be searching online now.

Recommended Local SEO Program

There are three steps every local business should take to improve search results:

• Develop or update website
• Optimize Web pages for local queries
• Increase local Web site popularity

Develop or Update Web Site

You certainly will need a Web site. New Balance 574 Pas Cher To start, you need a domain name, hosting company and a Web site design company to develop a professional (and hopefully) a search engine friendly site. Marcus Mariota Oregon Jerseys Your logo is very important on this step, so take advantage of the Web site design to give your company’s logo a face lift. nike air max 2016 heren Don’t forget that your site should be user friendly with good Call to Action placement.

Optimize Web Pages

Geo target SEO follows basic optimization principles.

Categories: SEO/SEM