How Any Business Can Benefit From SEO

By Kara Taylor

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a hot topic these days. It seems every time you turn around someone is talking about SEO and how it is essential for any company that wants to make a go of it in today’s business world. But what exactly is SEO? And does your business really need it?

Well, SEO is a marketing strategy that is intended to give you a stronger, larger web presence. And with consumers turning to the internet more and more for their product and service needs, SEO is, indeed, a key part of finding new customers and increasing the visibility and profitability of your business.

Site Optimization

Optimizing your web presence can only be a positive thing. After all, how can people know how amazing your company is if they can’t find you? When looking for a product or service people are more apt to turn to the Internet, particularly the search engines than the yellow pages. If you have a poor ranking and a minimal web presence, then potential customers won’t be able to find you online. And that can mean lost sales.

You may think that only large business need and can afford to utilize SEO as part of their marketing strategy, but this couldn’t be farther from the truth. In fact, a smaller business can sometimes benefit even more than larger companies who may already have a solid web presence.

SEO Strategy

While both large and small companies can benefit from SEO, there is a difference in how it is applied to each. Other things besides business size that need to be taken into consideration when developing an SEO strategy is whether or not your company is local or global and if you deal with products or services.

It goes without saying that a larger company will have more money available for marketing and therefore more money that can be allocated for SEO. On the flip side, larger companies will need a larger SEO strategy in order for it to work.

Larger companies will most likely also already have an established web presence with a high traffic website. Their SEO strategy therefore should be geared towards tweaking the existing website and making it more efficient in drawing traffic by implementing more and better keywords in product and service descriptions, emphasizing competitive pricing and delivery service.

Small Businesses

Smaller businesses may have newer or smaller websites and not as high a volume of traffic as larger companies. While keyword placement can help to direct traffic to the site, a much better option is to use link building in order to increase the website’s ranking and direct traffic.

Increasing your online visibility will help increase your sales and put your business on the map, even if you are a local company without global aspirations. Local people turn to the Internet for their information also. The proper linking and keyword use will put you on top of the game.

Link Building

If your company’s website is new, link building is essential regardless of the size of your company. You want to make sure that you are listed when people search for your product or service on a search engine. And, in order to be recognized and indexed you need to use link building.

The right link building will also ensure that your website is high up in the search results. The higher you are ranked, the more people will be able to find you. Think about it: when you search for something online, how often to you click past the first page of results? Not very often.

Your Strategy

SEO doesn’t just benefit the big chain companies. Smaller companies can also get use out of SEO. The key is to make sure that the SEO strategy is personalized and geared towards your business whether you are selling a product or providing a service.

Author Information

Kara Taylor is an experienced blogger and a specialist in SEO, social media and website content. She uses her knowledge to give expert advice on a variety of topics on a Q&A site. When she is not blogging, she loves to learn new recipes and cook for her family.

Photo Credit: Sachin Ghodke

Sizzling Summertime Musings

Nope, I’m not going to talk about the weather. There is nothing that I can add to the conversation that will make you feel cooler…just be thankful for air-conditioning!

I will, however, chat about making the most of your summer months, a time of the year where we tend to want to operate at a different pace although that doesn’t always mean we have fewer gigs on our plate. I’m very grateful that my workload is full, but I’m just as grateful that I can adjust my schedule when needed.

Summer Schedule

One thing I am not doing this summer is reading…books, that is. I’ve never been one to read much outside as the sunlight just hurts my eyes. And, with the need to be more flexible I’m concentrating on research projects that can be started well in advance of when an article is due. Still deadline driven, but not deadline consumed.

To give myself some flexibility, I have chosen to do the following this summer:

New Customers — Generally, I am not taking on new customers except for press releases through my new site, PRBeam.com. Even then, I had to turn one potential client down whose deadline clashed with other work I had pending. I expect to crank this end of my business up eventually, but not until after Labor Day.

My Websites — Balancing what customers need with what I manage on my own can be a challenge. That is one reason why I’m selling Auto Trends, as I plan to consolidate my work to a handful of sites. When it comes to who pays me, client work prevails. That means my work here will be mostly hit or miss until I get the rest of my stuff in order.

Flexible Schedule — Generally, I avoid evening work and working on weekends. Sunday is out: church and family time, but on some Saturday mornings I find it beneficial to write ahead in order to allow me to stop early some days or start later on other days.

Social Collaboration — I’m still using StumbleUpon and Twitter, but have cut back on using those social networking sites for now. I’m finding that the return on time investment doesn’t justify using these sites at least right now. I’m also limiting the number of guest articles I’m writing, but still accepting a few across my blog network. Again, this activity will ramp up after Labor Day.

How about you? Are you doing things differently this summer or are you maintaining the status quo?