Why It Is Important to Optimize Your Website for SEO

Written by Adam Stetzer at HubShout

It is hard to believe that small business owners still do not know about the importance of search engine optimization. The digital revolution is well underway, and many businesses have taken advantage of the inexpensive lead sources made possible by internet marketing. Yet many have not and have a minimal web presence, or an unoptimized website, leaving all the traffic for their competitors.

Do You Need More Business?

Perhaps it’s possible that these business owners simply have enough business or are incredibly satisfied with the new leads they are currently generating from traditional marketing. However, this seems very unlikely. Ninety-five percent of small business owners I’ve spoken with have the same complaint: “We could be growing our business if we only had more leads.”

What Is Search Engine Optimization?

In the beginning, search engine optimization was a technical exercise that was applied to a website to make it more readable by the spiders. Yes, Google has named their computer programs that call out to digest the content on websites “spiders.” Especially in the early days, the Google spiders encountered errors when the code on the website was not configured just how they needed it to be. As a result, search engine optimization included changing the web code so that Google could easily understand what any particular web page was about.

Traditional search engine optimization techniques include optimizing for keywords in the title tag and the body copy of a web page. However SEO has come quite a long way as the competition for page one rankings in Google has increased many-fold.

Today, SEO and content marketing are closely related activities. While you still need a website that is well tuned for the search engines, this is no guarantee that you will actually rank. You also need excellent content that users want to read.

Google Is Picky

As small business owners have evolved their website to meet Google’s needs, they’ve learned that Google has once again raised the bar. In other words, the algorithm that is used to decide what websites are displayed when a user types in a search query is updated nearly daily.

Google has shown a propensity to display websites with blog posts that are at least 1,700 words in length. As a result, many SEO professionals have shifted their blogging strategy to produce longer-form content and advise clients to get busy writing.

Of course, small business owners are busy running their businesses and don’t have time to create lengthy blog posts. Furthermore, the blog posts need to be well-researched or Google will detect users bouncing off the site and we will refrain from sending further traffic.

Backlinks Are Required to Rank

Making matters more complicated, a page one ranking now requires backlinks to specific content on the website. Several studies have demonstrated how well-ranked blog posts all have deep links to that specific page with keyword rich anchor text.

Again, small business owners are unlikely to have the time and patience required to secure highly relevant and authoritative backlinks for these long-form blog posts they don’t have time to write.

A strong agency or web design company will do these activities for you with great efficiency.

SEO Can Explode Your Business

Why go to all this trouble to build in-depth content on a well-optimized website and secure backlinks? The fact remains that SEO is one of the most efficient means for acquiring new customers. Email is consistently ranked as the least expensive method for client acquisition due to the low cost associated with email marketing. But many shy away from email due to the spam can laws and the general damage that can happen to your reputation if it is done poorly.

Search engine optimization, when done correctly, can explode your business with new customers. According to Adam Stetzer, Ph.D., CEO of HubShout.com: “Once we achieved page one rankings on the right keywords, we saw hockey-stick growth and started hiring staff like crazy.”

Competition Is Fierce

Your competition is aware of how valuable a page one ranking is on the right keyword. As a result, they have probably completed an SEO optimization of their website, commenced content marketing, and have hired a team for backlink acquisition.

Likewise, if you have a page one ranking, you need to be slightly paranoid about the people in positions two, three, and four who are jealously watching your position and scheming ways to knock you down.

This may all sound a bit depressing as most small business owners start to realize that SEO is no longer a one-time project but rather a line item in their marketing budget that is not likely to go away. We would recommend a different viewpoint, however.

Many small-business owners are comfortable with an advertising budget or a line item for their PR firm to do regular press releases and other publicity-related activities. It’s time to view search engine optimization in the same light and realize that it may provide an excellent source of lead generation.

Conclusions

Small business owners who have not tuned in to search engine optimization are missing a huge opportunity for business growth. What started as a technical exercise to tune a website has grown into a full-blown marketing channel that many businesses view as vital for their continued growth.

Written by Adam Stetzer at HubShout