Priority Pursuit

Is SEO Worth It for Small Businesses?

• Treefrog Marketing • Episode 167

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SEO might seem technical, often relegated to the back burner, but it's one of the most powerful marketing tactics you can employ. 

In this episode, I break down why SEO should be a top priority for your small business. I discuss its cost-effectiveness, how it drives organic traffic, its role in reaching ready-to-purchase customers, and how it can significantly boost your local business visibility and credibility. 

If you're feeling unsure about where to begin, I also provide simple steps and helpful resources to get you started. Tune in for practical advice on making SEO a key part of your marketing strategy!

Specifically, this episode highlights the following themes:

  • The cost-effectiveness of SEO for small businesses
  • How SEO helps you reach active and ready-to-buy customers
  • Building credibility and gaining long-lasting results with SEO

Other Mentioned Links & Resources

Episode 153: The 5 Most Effective Things You Can Do to Improve Your Small Business’s SEO
https://treefrogmarketing.com/most-effective-things-improve-small-business-seo

Explore Treefrog’s Done-for-You SEO Service
https://treefrogmarketing.com/seo-services-small-businesses/

Listen to The Priority Pursuit Podcast SEO Episodes
https://treefrogmarketing.com/category/seo-website

Get this free PDF guide: How to Use Keywords to Improve Your Small Business’s SEO:
https://treefrogmarketing.com/how-use-keywords-improve-small-business-seo

Receive 50% Off Your First Year of HoneyBook:
https://www.treefrogmarketing.com/honeybook-coupon-code

Book a Strategic Marketing Coaching:
https://treefrogmarketing.com/marketing-consulting-small-businesses

Join the Priority Pursuit Podcast Facebook Community: https://www.facebook.com/groups/179106264013426

Follow or DM Treefrog Marketing on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/treefroggers

Follow or DM Kelly Rice on Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/treefrogkelly

Follow or DM Victoria on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/victorialrayburn

Victoria Rayburn [00:00:00]:
You see, once your website ranks well and you maintain that ranking by continually producing helpful, credible content, SEO keeps working for you. By driving regular, consistent traffic to your site, your ideal customers will be able to find you every day in their search results. So to put this in perspective, SEO drives 1000% more traffic through organic social media. Social media posts come and go, but a well optimized, highly ranked website and content can continue to attract prospects for years. Hey there, you're listening to the Priority Pursuit podcast, a podcast dedicated to helping small business owners to find, maintain and pursue both their personal and business priorities so they can build lives and businesses they love. I'm your host, Victoria Rayburn, and today I want to answer a question that I get asked regularly, which also happens to be a question that, according to my keyword research, people are googling on a yemenite regular basis, which is is SEO worth it for small businesses? Now, friend, I get it. As a small business owner, your to do list is never ending. So when SEO comes up, it might feel like another overwhelming task that you just don't have time for, especially considering this marketing tactic seems very technical and difficult to understand.

Victoria Rayburn [00:01:14]:
Now, for the record, it probably isn't nearly as complicated as you think. But if you're like most small business owners, SEO is something that regularly gets put on the back burner because, well, it feels like an impossible task. But friend, here's the thing. SEO is not just another to do. It's one of the most effective marketing tactics you can use to grow your business. So long story short, is SEO worth it for small businesses? If your ideal clients look for products, services or content like yours on Google or on other search engines, then yes, absolutely. But let's break down why and why SEO should likely be one of your top marketing priorities. First of all, let's talk about cost.

Victoria Rayburn [00:01:58]:
One of the biggest advantages of SEO is that it's cost effective. Heck, if you handle your own SEO, as opposed to working with an SEO strategist or an agency or copywriter to develop your content for you, SEO can cost you no more than whatever you pay to host your website. That said, it will take you time to learn SEO and to implement and maintain your strategy. So you have to weigh the cost of time versus money, which is going to look different for every small business and it's going to look a lot different season to season. Probably. But anyway, SEO focuses on improving your website and businesses organic rankings and search results, while running ads on Google or other search engines requires an ongoing investment. You don't have to pay to rank well organically. And when you rank well organically, meaning like your website appears at the top of Google search results.

Victoria Rayburn [00:02:47]:
When prospects are searching for product, services or content like yours, you can essentially reach your ideal clients for free. Now, with this in mind, SEO is a much more cost effective strategy or tactic than a majority of advertising options, making it particularly beneficial for small businesses. Now, another reason the SEO is worth it for small businesses is because SEO helps you reach potential clients and customers who are actively actively searching for your products or services or content like yours. Now think about it. People don't search for things on a whim. Like they don't open up Google and just Google utter randomness. Whether they want to solve a problem, get an answer to a question, or find specific information, they search with a goal or an intention. And that goal or intention may very well be to find a product or a service like yours.

Victoria Rayburn [00:03:41]:
So as a result, SEO can help you reach prospects who are first of all actively looking for exactly what you offer, and then also are likely ready to make a purchase. Like they're doing the research, they're just looking for the right product or service to buy. So 59% of shoppers actually use Google for purchase research and more than half use Google to discover new brands, products and services. On top of that, 90% of consumers who search for local businesses make purchases within a week. Y'all, that's huge. Basically, SEO can enable you to stop chasing business. Instead, some of your strongest leads are gonna start coming to you through Google while you focus on other important aspects of your business, while you enjoy life outside your work, while you sleep, or do whatever else it is that you want or need to do. Now, if you own a small business, if you want a small local business, that is, meaning you have a physical location or a service area, SEO can truly be a game changer.

Victoria Rayburn [00:04:41]:
You see, 97% of people use Google when they're in need of a local product or service. 6% of all searches have local intent, meaning nearly half of searchers are looking for something near them or in a specific area. As a result, local SEO can do huge things for your small business because it allows you to target customers and the community you serve. So when people search for something near them or look for businesses in Google's local pack, which are the business listings you see on a map at the very top of Google search results, it's those three listings. And you know, if you click on them, you get to see more. But yeah, that's the local pack of. But when you're one of the first businesses they find they're going to be so much more likely to purchase from you. In fact, like we already discussed, 90% of consumers who search for local businesses make purchases within a week.

Victoria Rayburn [00:05:26]:
If you own a small local business, meaning you have a physical location or service area, SEO can drastically increase your foot traffic, increase your inquiries, and increase your sales. So to learn more about how you can improve your local SEO, specifically, I want to encourage you to tune into episode 153, the five most effective things you can do to improve your small businesses SEO, which you can find in the show notes or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Natalie Franke  [00:05:54]:
What would you do with an extra 45 minutes every workday that would save you 16 hours a month or roughly eight days a year. And over the course of your career, we're talking about over one year of your life. Saved all that time back? Well, many independent business owners spend far more than 45 minutes a day on administrative tasks, and with honeybook, you can get that time back and then some. Honeybook lets you easily manage projects, contracts, invoices, scheduling and client communication, saving you time and allowing you to better serve your clients. For a discount on your first year of Honeybook, visit honeybook.com and subscribe with the code priority Pursuit. 45 minutes a day adds up quickly. Use it to focus on what matters most.

Kelly Rice [00:06:39]:
Many small businesses don't have an effective marketing strategy, and because of this, they try one tactic after another without seeing results. This not only prevents consistent business growth, it makes managing marketing efforts more difficult than it should be. As a marketing agency for small businesses, we understand how frustrating it can be when hard work doesn't deliver the results that you want. Because of this, Treefrog has developed a proven four step marketing system that will help any small business grow. On our website, you can also schedule a 30 minutes discovery call to discuss working with Treefrog to build a marketing strategy that will allow your small business to finally see the growth you've been working so hard to achieve.

Victoria Rayburn [00:07:17]:
Additionally, ranking higher in search results also builds credibility and trust with potential customers. This is because when your business ranks well, customers are more likely to trust you because they associate top search results with authority and credibility, and that trust leads to action. It's going to drive them to make purchases, to check out your content, to get in your sales funnel, to follow you on social media, and to build a relationship with your business and brand. And this is only going to lead to business growth. Now, one of the biggest advantages of SEO is that most small businesses don't make it a priority which makes me sad, but according to PR Newswire, as many as 70% of small businesses don't have an SEO strategy. Now, why is that? Well, in my opinion, and I mean according to research, biggest reason is simply because SEO can feel really overwhelming and technical, which causes many small business owners to shy away from it altogether. They feel like they can learn how to create Instagram reels, but SEO just seems like this really scary technical thing that they would like to stay far, far away from. As a result, you, my friend, have a unique opportunity.

Victoria Rayburn [00:08:27]:
You see, if you make SEO part of your marketing strategy, you can gain more visibility and reach potential customers that your competitors are missing simply because they're letting SEO intimidate them. While SEO might not be as simple or as straightforward as social media, just as an example, SEO is one of the most powerful ways for small businesses to reach and attract their best customers. As a result, the businesses that prioritize SEO are often the businesses who reap long term rewards and experience successful, consistent growth. Last but not least, SEO provides consistent, sustainable results. Now, SEO is a long game strategy. There are a lot of moving parts to a successful SEO strategy and you won't see results overnight. At the minimum, you are likely looking at six months from strategy implementation for your Google rankings to improve. And that's if you implement a solid strategy in full and commit to regular content development like blogging.

Victoria Rayburn [00:09:23]:
Your results are also going to depend heavily on your competition. However, good things. Just as a reminder, good things take time. And honestly, that is what makes SEO so powerful. You see, once your website ranks well and you maintain that ranking by continually producing helpful, credible content, SEO keeps working for you by driving regular, consistent traffic to your site. I mean, your ideal customers will be able to find you every day in their search results. So to put this in perspective, SEO drives 1000% more traffic through organic social media. Social media posts come and go, but a well optimized, highly ranked website and content can continue to attract prospects for years.

Victoria Rayburn [00:10:06]:
And y'all, when you think about how people use search engines versus how they use social media, this really isn't surprising if you know you need a product or service. If you have a specific question, more often than not you're going to go to Google as opposed to going to social media. So while it takes time to see SEO results and you won't necessarily get the rush of serotonin you get when you say post real, that gets a lot of engagement. The payoff of SEO is long lasting and can be significantly more impactful than other marketing strategies. Now remember, the higher you rank, the more sustainably and consistently you can grow your business. So is SEO worth it for your small business if your prospects are searching for products, services or content like yours on search engines? Yes. But how do you get started with SEO? Because again, there are a lot of moving parts to a successful SEO strategy. Now first, we discuss SEO tactics on the priority Pursuit podcast all the time, so we will be sure to link to those episodes in the show notes.

Victoria Rayburn [00:11:07]:
You can also find them at priority pursuit.com and then if you look in the sidebar, you will notice an entire SEO category. Feel free to explore those episodes. However, if you want to improve your search engine rankings, one of the first things that you're going to need to do is optimize the main pages of your website with strategic keywords, and we have a guide that will teach you how to do exactly that. If you visit the link in the show notes or go to treefrogmarketing.com keywords, you can download the keyword guide how to use keywords to improve your small businesses SEO that said, I know your plate is full. If you don't have time to handle your own SEO, please know that we are here to help. In fact, this is something that our team would love to do for you. With our done for you SEO service, we will create an SEO strategy for you based on your business goals. Optimize your website for search engines and provide you with the resources instructions you need to get to the top of search results and stay there.

Victoria Rayburn [00:12:03]:
To learn more about our done for you SEO service, visit the link in the show notes or go to treefrogmarketing.com to explore the service page and schedule a discovery call. Again, as a small business owner, I know you don't have time for one more thing, but SEO isn't something you can likely afford to put on the back burner. The longer your website doesn't appear at the top of Google search results, the more business and opportunities you are missing out on. SEO can do huge things for small businesses, so don't wait. Whether that means learning SEO yourself or investing in SEO services, make SEO a top marketing priority so you can stop chasing business, generate consistent leads, and experience the sustainable growth and success that SEO can provide. On that note, friend, be sure to check out the show notes or visit treefrogmarketing.com to find all mentioned resources. And thank you so much for tuning into another episode of the Priority Pursuit podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, I hope you'll take a moment to share it with your small business friends to leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and that you'll join us next week for even more marketing boundary and priority driven tactics you can use to build a life and small business that you love.