How serious is your commitment?
More often than not, most small business owners know very little about small business seo. Many think the process can be finished in a couple of weeks. This is a misconception that is perpetuated by many “low rent” SEO service providers who are out to take any dollar they can get their hands on. Regrettably, ranking for any search result for any substantive period of time will take more than a few weeks worth of work.
For the local small business website, local SEO will necessitate a minimum of three to four months of concentrated service as a good beginning point. In very aggressive industries, 6 to 12 months of service will be needed. The time it takes depends on your competition and the number of search phrases you want to rank for. The websites that come up on Google’s first page for any search result are not there by accident. Those sites have optimized for that search and you can guarantee that most will know your site should you make it to that first page. You should expect to need some repeated SEO maintenance to keep your page one listings.
What Is Required?
SEO for any of the major search engines today is a process of link building. On page SEO is a ingredient but a very small component. It is the inbound links pointing to your website and the link text of those links that tell search engines what your website is about and what it should rank for.
We have all seen links that say “Click Here”. Although click here may be one of the best call to action phrases on a web page, it does not say anything about the page you will visit when you do click. A better link text might be “Chicago Plumber”. This link provides the visitor chance to visit the website and also tells the search engines that the site linked to is about a plumber in Chicago. Point enough of those links toward your website and soon search engines will begin to show your site in a search for “Chicago Plumber”.
Obviously the more competitive a search phrase is, the more links it will take. Also, needing to rank for more than one search phrase will add to the time and expense required but in the long run, the benefits will greatly outweigh the time and cost.
What Are The Benefits?
The most obvious benefit is the increased website traffic. Ranking for search phrases that your customers use to find goods and services they need means they are more likely to find your business and do business with you. People search online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, so being listed in a search engine provides the opportunity to do business or promote your business no matter of your true business hours.
More and more businesses are turning to search traffic for their main source of revenue and business growth. Telephone directory use is slumping with many small local businesses due to the cost and the fact that a growing number of people now use search engines like they once did the old phone book. Local small business SEO is a very affordable and very effective way to not only obtain new business but to also offer a way for your customers to find you in the future.
