Have you gone through the trouble of setting up a website for your small business? If you have, you’ve already gotten a leg up on a lot of your competitors.
Over the last few years, reports have indicated that anywhere from one-third to about 50% of small businesses haven’t taken the time to create websites. These small businesses have put themselves at a decided disadvantage by not establishing websites as part of their digital marketing strategies.
But it’s also not enough for your small business to simply set up a website. You also need to utilize SEO and website optimization to make the most of your site.
You can harness the power of SEO website optimization by creating original content for your site that is filled with the right keywords and locations. You can also do it by updating your website early and often with fresh content. This will result in Google looking upon your site more favorably than it would otherwise.
Here are some of the top reasons why SEO and website optimization are so important to your website’s success.
Puts Your Website at the Top of Search Engine Results Pages
When people use Google or one of the other search engines to look up something pertaining to your small business, you want your website to appear on the first page of the search engine results pages. Better yet, you want your website to land at or near the top of the first page so that it’s impossible for people to miss.
But your website isn’t going to land anywhere close to the top or even the first page if you don’t take SEO and website optimization seriously. You’ll need to put website optimization tools to good use to ensure your site doesn’t get lost in the crowd.
Google and the other search engines make it a point to suggest websites to people that have gone through the SEO website optimization process. If yours hasn’t, it’s going to strip you of your ability to market your small business through the use of your site.
Ensures Your Website Loads Up Fast
Most people automatically assume that improving SEO and website optimization involves adding a lot of the right kinds of content to a site. And to some degree, they’re right.
But one of the first things that you’ll do when beefing up your site’s SEO is make website speed optimization a top priority. You’ll make sure that your site loads up as fast as it can when people click on a link for it.
Why is this important? Well, studies have shown that over 50% of people will skip visiting a site if it takes more than 3 seconds for it to load up. They don’t have the time to sit around and wait for a site to load up when it’s not responding in the way that they want it to.
As a result, you need to make it your mission to speed up your site so that it loads fast. You also need to be sure that you have a mobile-optimized website so that people can visit it from any device without any issues.
Allows Your Website to Showcase What Your Small Business Is All About
When people visit your small business website, they’re going to be greeted by your homepage. This homepage is going to tell them almost everything that they need to know about your business in a matter of just seconds.
If your homepage doesn’t have the “wow!” factor, it’s going to hurt your small business in a big way. People might not take the time to get to know you any further than that.
It’s why homepage SEO website optimization is especially important when you’re creating a small business website. It’ll allow you to build a homepage that will make both your customers and Google happy.
Learn more about how homepage SEO works so that you can take full advantage of it.
Fills Your Website With Lots of Useful and Relevant Information
As we just mentioned, people are going to be able to learn a lot about your small business based solely on your website’s homepage. But that shouldn’t be the only page that is featured on your site!
You should also have:
- Product pages
- Service pages
- An “About Us” page
- A “Contact” page
- A blog
- And maybe even a “Testimonials” page
And these pages shouldn’t have a bunch of cookie-cutter content on them. Instead, they should be jam-packed with original content on your products, services, history, etc.
These pages are going to give your small business an opportunity to provide your customers with tons of useful and relevant information. You should use this opportunity to show people what makes your small business so special and unique.
You can use SEO and website optimization to fill these pages with the kinds of content that you know people will like. It should hold their attention and encourage them to buy the products and/or services that your small business has to offer.
Uses Your Website to Show Off Your Small Business’ Expertise
The content that you include on your small business website should do more than just capture people’s attention and teach them about your products and services. It should also show off the fact that you’re an expert in your specific industry.
By showing off your expertise to those who visit your site, you’ll be able to build up a stronger sense of trust with them. People will know that they can count on your small business after seeing that you know what you’re talking about.
You shouldn’t be shying about flexing your muscles so to speak as you prove that you know the ins and outs of your field. It’s going to result in people coming back to you again and again when they need to learn about your industry.
Earns Your Website Lots of Essential Backlinks on Other Sites
When you stockpile your small business website with your fair share of informative content that takes SEO and website optimization into account, your customers aren’t going to be the only ones who will notice. Before long, you’re also going to find that other sites will start to see you as an expert in your field.
With this in mind, they’ll be quick to link to the different things that you put up on your site since they’ll know that you’re providing credible information at all times. This will eventually lead to you creating a network of backlinks that will work wonders for your site as a whole.
The more backlinks that you’re able to get on other sites, the more trust you’re going to earn with Google. And when Google trusts your site, they’ll recommend it to others any time they’re searching for something even remotely connected to your company.
If you don’t mind putting in some extra work, you might be able to earn more backlinks than you’ll be able to get organically. You can get backlinks by:
- Writing guest blogs for other websites
- Agreeing to post backlinks for other websites in exchange for backlinks for your website on their sites
- Posting links to your website on social media
Backlinks will be one of your best friends as far as SEO and website optimization is concerned. You should do whatever it takes to get as many of them as you can.
Keeps Your Website Looking as Current as Possible
Just about the worst thing that you can do with your small business website is allow for it to become outdated. If your site looks outdated at any point, it’s not going to reflect well on your small business, as it’ll make you look like you’re out of touch.
This is yet another reason why you should push SEO and website optimization to the top of your company’s to-do list. As you work to optimize your website, you’ll also aim to keep it looking as current as you can get it.
The content on your website will be updated on a regular basis, which will keep it looking and sounding fresh. You’ll also adjust the photos that you use and optimize images for your website.
This will all result in your website’s appearance improving over time. You aren’t going to have to worry about overhauling your site at any point as long as you stay on top of your SEO and website optimization efforts.
Lets Your Website Hold People’s Attention for Longer Stretches of Time
You’re probably not going to be able to get people to hang out on your small business website for hours at a time. In fact, you’re probably not even going to be able to get them to hang out on it for more than a minute or two at a time in most cases.
But when you perform SEO and website optimization, you should be able to stop people from leaving your site in just 30 seconds or so, which is right around the average time that people spend on most websites. You can convince them to stay just a little longer by providing them with lots of quality content.
And the longer that you’re able to get people to stick around on your site, the greater the chances of them ordering something from you or reaching out to you with a question. You’re going to find that people will spend more time on your small business website from the moment that you optimize it with SEO in mind.
Again, this might not mean that you suddenly have people spending all day on your site. But it will mean that they’ll think twice before leaving your site, which could be the difference between them buying and not buying a product or service from you.
Gives Your Small Business a Chance to Look Its Best at All Times
Your small business website is, in a lot of ways, an extension of your small business itself. In 2021, you could make the argument that a small business is only going to go as far as its website will take it.
If you’re not happy with how far your small business website is taking your company right now, you can change that by utilizing SEO and website optimization. You’ll be able to make (and leave!) a much stronger impression on people when your website is up to par.
And the only way that you’re going to take your small business website to the next level is by optimizing it for SEO purposes. You’ll begin to get a much different reaction from people when they see how much hard work you’ve put into changing your small business website for the better.
Embrace the Importance of SEO and Website Optimization for Your Small Business
You might think that you’re doing enough by having a small business website in place. But if you aren’t making the most of this website, you could be passing up on a golden opportunity.
You can make your small business appear more trustworthy, captivate your audience, and, most importantly, increase your website’s traffic by utilizing SEO and website optimization. It’ll help to put your small business on the map once and for all and make the future look so much brighter for your company.
You should look into linking up with an SEO and website optimization company now and ask them to help you with your website. You won’t regret doing it once you see how much better your site performs from here on out.
Would you like to get some additional tips on making improvements to your small business website? Look for them by reading through the other informative articles posted on our blog.