How to Make the SEO Case to Small Businesses

Small business owners are often overwhelmed with the amount of information they need to know to market their company. One way that can help is by understanding SEO. With the right SEO consulting strategy, small businesses can reach more customers and increase sales.

In this blog post, we’re going to cover some basics on how you can make an SEO case for your business and why it’s important.

What is SEO?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results. It can immediately impact your business, boost visibility, drive targeted traffic to your site, increase online sales, and more.

What is SEO Case?

SEO case is a plan that your business can use to convince its executives, marketing and sales professionals and other decision-makers that investing in SEO will help improve their online presence.

It includes mentions on:

• The return on investment of an effective SEO strategy for this business type
• Strategies to implement to make a business case for SEO
• The return on investment in their industry

What Benefits Can My Company Get from Starting SEO?

Within one year, your website can be ranking on the first page of Google – which means more traffic to your site. This will lead to an increase in conversions and eventually result in increased sales.

SEO is a long-term strategy that doesn’t have an immediate impact on your business, but it can bring you better visibility on the web, improve your online presence and build trust with potential customers. It is also search engine friendly and adapts to changes in search algorithms.

Build Trust

Search engines such as Google rank sites higher that have high-quality content, and one way to make sure your site has this is by writing about topics related to your industry.

Provide Expert Insight

Your company can use the web as free real estate for thought leadership and position itself as a subject matter expert in its industry. By educating potential customers about an industry problem or trend, you are offering value to your visitors.

Gain Visibility

When search engines see that people are actively visiting and interacting with your website, it’s more likely to surface higher in the search results when people search for keywords related to your business or industry. When you have a high-quality site, greater visibility will eventually lead to more traffic.

Increase Online Sales

If your website is well optimized for search engines, you are more likely to have a higher conversion rate when people find you through search results. You’ll also improve the rankings of any product pages or services pages on your site related to the keywords people use when they find you through search – which means this will be easier to find on Google.

Increase Traffic

By making your website more visible, your website is going to get more traffic. This is because search engines are sending more people to your site when they use the keywords you optimized for in their searches – so organic traffic will grow over time, too.

How to create a successful SEO case plan?

The first step is to sell the idea internally and have buy-in from key decision-makers.

• Presentation: Create a presentation for your executive team that clearly outlines the SEO opportunity and how it will benefit their business
• Pitch Deck: Draft a one-page pitch deck that covers all the basics (and benefits) of SEO
• Business Case: Write a short, compelling business case document that explains your company’s return on investment from investing in SEO.

Include only the most pertinent information that speaks to the opportunity and benefits of an effective SEO strategy for this business type, along with a strong call to action.

Factors to consider:

• What is your goal? 

Write down a specific, measurable goal for what you want to accomplish with the SEO Case.

1. Increase traffic by 5% in 3 months
2. Grow organic search visibility by 15% in six months
3. Improve sales by 10% this year over last year

• Which stage of the buying process are you entering?

1. Research stage
2. Information gathering stage
3. Pre-purchase stage
4. Purchase decision stage

• What do you want your target audience to do when they find your site?

1. Call the company for more information or a quote for services 
2. Request a demo of a product
3. Purchase a product online
4. Learn more about your company or industry

• Whom are you competing against?

1. Start with the top 3 competitors in the search results for relevant keywords and look at their strategies to see what is working well. Don’t mimic them, but use them as inspiration for building a creative, effective SEO plan for your company.

• What has worked well for others in the past?

1.  Look at the sites that currently rank for keywords related to your business and analyze what makes them successful.
2. Speak with industry leaders and ask what they’ve done to be so visible online and which tactics have been most successful.
3. Look at case studies of successful SEO strategies from other companies in your industry for inspiration for what to do and not to do when planning your own strategy.

• What kind of budget can you work with?

In order for this strategy to be effective, you need a sufficient budget that will allow you to hire a team or consultant to carry out the tasks necessary to accomplish your goals.

The best way for companies to benefit from SEO is through an ongoing, well-planned strategy implemented as part of a larger digital marketing plan.

Why should you care about SEO?

Consumers are now doing research online before ever leaving their homes. In fact, most consumers use a smartphone to access the internet and conduct product research from their homes during a typical week.   

By optimizing your website for search engines, you put your small business ahead of these shoppers right when they’re looking for a business like yours.

You can make a case to your customers by using the following points:

1. Customers are using search engines first to find products and services online. Optimizing your website allows you to rank high in organic searches, giving you more visibility than your competition who aren’t optimizing their sites for search engines.

Since search engines are the first place many consumers look online when searching for products or services, you need to have a strong SEO strategy if you want to be found by new customers.

2. SEO is a long-term investment in your business that will continue to work for you month after month, year after year. It’s not a good idea to rely only on the “sale of the day” for your revenue. When you combine SEO with a well-thought-out content creation strategy, it will solidify your place as a long-term leader in your industry.
3. The more traffic your site gets from search engines, the more customers you will have coming through the door of your actual store.
4. Search engines are an excellent source of highly targeted traffic for your website. If you’re not running ads on other websites, you want to get in front of this search traffic that is actively looking for businesses like yours online.
5. Most importantly, your customers want to get the best value for their money, and they like a choice. This is one way you can give them what they want and get it right on your website where they’re already shopping.

Don’t wait another minute to start investing in SEO consulting services. With the right SEO strategy, your small business can reach more customers and increase sales in a big way.

Conclusion: 

In order to make a compelling argument to small businesses, it’s important to start by understanding your client and their business. Every industry has specific terms and strategies for SEO that must be understood in order to create a successful strategy.

Once you’ve gathered the necessary information on your clients’ industry, then you can begin building them a case with points like the ones discussed above.