SEO, How it relates to Small Businesses

There is a lot of material on the web related to the use of SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and so this post assumes that the reader is familiar with the basic concepts of SEO. This blog post will offer practical advice, suggestions and concepts aimed at small business owners. To learn more about basics of SEO click here.

To be sure SEO and PPC are wonderful ways to drive traffic to your website and more traffic usually means more potential customers. Be advised though that your business might have top notch webpage with all the bells and whistles, and yet do very poorly on the search engines. The reason likely lies within SEO – if your website isn’t optimized it will sit on the internet and very few viewers (if any) will be able to find it. It still has its uses but for all intents and purposes, it likely does little more for you than fill the purpose of a trifold brochure. On the other hand, the search engine optimized website will draw traffic even while you sleep, and from people you don’t know and have no contacts with.

Now, a few things should be remembered. Firstly, there is the price – Catch This! Design tailors its services and SEO packages towards small business owners but that is not always the case. You will find there are a large number of offers for online marketing/SEO/PPC ranging in figures of upwards from four to five thousand dollars. These offers may well be quality goods however, their focus is quite simply too big for an average small business owner, and thus they are too costly to be justified for small business owners.  It is not unreasonable as a small business owner to see a great increase in search engine driven traffic for as little as $500 for the first time implementation of your SEO.

Secondly, it is not uncommon to see “guarantees” of increased traffic and/or performance. This point is not to debunk that claim – the truth of the matter is that any site without SEO will have increased traffic and improved performance once it has been properly optimized. However, nobody can guarantee just how high the increase and improvement will be. This is due to a number of factors outside of your control, namely the nature of the Internet. The internet grows and changes, some websites vanish and new ones appear. There are other non web based factors at play here also, for example the current recession means some people are less inclined to spend money on luxury goods. The time of year also has an impact, periods of summer heat can offers less economic activity, just as prior to Christmas overall shopping activity increases.

Thirdly, SEO, as great as it is, cannot just be left unattended once the website has been optimized. As the internet changes, your website must change with the it. If left unattended your SEO will degrade over time but be aware that degraded outdated SEO still offers more benefit to you than no SEO at all. Leaving SEO unattended is however not a good idea as its impact will be minimized and your website will gradually slip down further and further on the search engine listings. The rule of the thumb is that the potential customer will check the search engine for the first dozen or so listed pages. Slipping under the radar will still retain some marginal benefits for you but it is preferable if you tweak and adjust your SEO on a regular basis.

For more information about our SEO services, and to find out how we can help you take your business to the next level with effective online marketing, please visit us at www.catchthis.ca or email us at info@catchthis.ca