Tag Archives: seo

Benefits of Local SEO for Small Businesses

A bulk of revenue for small businesses comes from its local area. Businesses must streamline their marketing strategies and efforts in such a way that the local market is thoroughly covered. Local Search Engine Optimization is a reliable marketing tool that gives business a feasible option to increase sales from its local area.

A study by TMP/comScore has revealed that 61% of local searches lead to a purchase. It was also found that nearly 80% of the customers searching locally, follow up office via a phone call or in-store visit or a purchase. Customers these days are checking the details about products, particularly in their local area before purchasing.

Google, one of the major search engines, knows that customers are looking for products or services in their local area. That is why it makes sure that local results appear above the organic results. In view of these observations, it becomes increasingly important for a small business to be actively present in local searches. Read further to know more about the role played by local SEO in adding value to a small business.

Get brand recognition
Brand recognition is the degree to which your customers are able to recognize your products or services. Local SEO helps in improving the visibility of your brand before the potential customers in your local area. Frequent exposure of your brand to your customers leads to enhanced brand recognition, which may eventually lead the customer to a purchase.

Improves website visibility on local listings
Local SEO attracts potential customers to your website. This is done by ranking your business higher in their local search results. A customer finds it comfortable to deal with businesses in his/her local area. By purchasing products from a local supplier, he/she eliminates unnecessary transportation and middlemen costs. So, when you are found in his/her local search results, chances are more that your business gets a new customer.

Website traffic and leads
According to Search Engine Watch, around 60% of the clicks in Google search results are taken by the results in the top three rankings. By investing in a Local SEO campaign, a business will be promoted higher in the local search results. This causes more number of people to click on the website. With an increase in traffic coming to the website, the number or prospective customers also increases, which may lead to increased sales.

Increases earning potential
Local SEO offers a business tremendous potential to increase earnings. The revenue you generate by using Local SEO will be many times higher than the investment with which you start. The improved visibility that a Local SEO provides will help a business in maximizing sales, leading to revenue generation.

In today’s competition, having a website alone does not signify a good online presence. Businesses must take significant steps to reach targeted customers. With a good SEO campaign in place, a small business can get maximum benefits even if it is not nationally well-known. With more and more customers preferring to buy locally, optimizing your website for local searches is one such step, which can be both feasible and effective.

5 Key Reasons why SEO Should Be a Part of Your Marketing Toolkit

Wonder if first page search engine ranking is vital for your business?
Here are 5 reasons why you should ensure SEO is part of your company’s marketing toolkit:

Google-it
Everybody Googles It
Search engines in general, and Google in particular, are now the main route for researching any purchase. A proportion of your potential customers will use Google – just like you – to look for the services or products on offer. Being on the first page of the search engine results will drive more customers to your site.

91% of people surveyed said they prefer using natural search results when looking to buy a product or service online.

Even new customers that come to you through referrals will still search on Google for the services they are looking for and to see what’s on offer. You need to make sure that they see your company name when they are searching.

Shopping-around – Your Customers Are Looking Elsewhere
Even if you have a loyal customer base, or you are on a preferred supplier list, your customers are likely to be searching on your key phrases in Google. If your customers are researching the market, or even looking for a service that they don’t realize you are able to provide, do you want the competition to win the business just because they’ve invested in SEO and you haven’t?
If you are in a fairly competitive sector, you’ll need the help of an agency specializing in SEO, as there are a large number of both on-site and off-site factors to consider when you want to achieve first page rankings on Google.

Number-one = Authority.
Many people using the internet consider companies who appear on the first page of Google as leaders in their sector. 36% of search engine users believe that companies whose websites appear top of the search results are the leading companies in that field. Only 25% believe that top search engine rankings do not automatically signify an industry leader (iProspect / Jupiter Research 2006).
Further research also indicates that 62% of users click on results on the first page and 92% within the first 3 pages, with only 8% going further than the first 3 pages.

Cost Effective
Search engine optimization (SEO) and search engine marketing (SEM) overall is far less expensive than traditional marketing methods, which allows you to increases your bottom line whilst reducing your customer acquisition costs.

Conversion rates from organic search tend to be lower than the conversion rates from paid search. Achieving high results for valuable key phrases in the natural search results is a very cost effective method of driving important traffic you your site. In a recent study conducted by Hubspot, 43% of businesses reported the cost per lead for organic search marketing (SEO) as below the average cost per lead for their business.

Trust
Organic search is more popular and trusted than sponsored links. You should use SEO to get more traffic at a lower cost. Sponsored links are a cost effective way to get your business onto the first page of search engines, but normally natural listings drive more traffic to your site at a lower cost per sale. When looking to buy a product or service online, 91% of people said they preferred using natural search engine results (Tamar 2008 Search Attitude Report). The same survey also found that 31% of people actively choose natural search over paid search results as they trust search engines to give them the most relevant results.

If you want to be a leader in your chosen market, ensuring that your position in the search engines reflects your market position is an essential part of your future customers’ perception of your brand.

Article Writing Services: Combining SEO with Conversion Points

With the increasing popularity of a more global marketplace where freelancers and clients can communicate online, article writing services have become in high demand over the last decade. This certainly is derived from the constant need of high-quality content for SEO purposes, website content, reviews, etc. It is important to understand how to make these writing services work for you and your company; you may soon realize that your business will develop itself much more quickly if visitors are transformed by leads through the principles of SEO and conversion points.

Let’s start by establishing a clear understanding of what SEO and conversion points really consist of. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. In short, SEO is a more or so complex process that will increase your websites and company’s visibility on the Internet, through popular search engines. It is an established fact that websites appearing higher in Google search results, for example, will gather much more visitors on a regular basis than websites ranking anywhere else but on the first page of result. Thus, Search Engine Optimization will allow you to gain more visitors; if you are selling a product or offering a service through your website, this is a great opportunity to gain more potential customers and build your clientele.

However, once your website now yields a higher amount of visitors, it is important to understand that it doesn’t mean that all these visitors translate into sales right away. This is where ‘conversion points’ come into play. Conversion will allow your visitors to convert into a lead, subscriber, donor, etc. This is where you will actually make money and grow your business; when the leads are converted into an actual sale. This is why an SEO campaign by itself won’t necessarily change your business, or help to develop it. It needs to be combined with conversion points and other techniques in order to actually return profit to you and your company.

In order for you to structure an efficient SEO and conversion campaign, you will most likely require the services of an article writing company, or team. What this team will do for you is to provide you with high-quality content for your website, or to publish on article databases. Writers and writing team often have a strong understanding of SEO and the keyword usage, as well as how to implement convincing calls and leads to convert those visitors to sales (profit).

To make sure that the article writing team you are hiring is competent enough to strengthen your SEO and conversion statistics, you will have to establish a thorough screening process. For example, only hire a team that has a proven track record when it comes to quality and basic spelling and grammar. Your visitors have no intention wasting their time reading through poorly written content that does not provide the information needed. In the end, if you have hired the right team offering article writing services, you will establish a stronger online presence and gain the opportunity to develop your business in a whole new way.