Small-Business-SEO-The-Definitive-Guide-to-Winning-the-Web-2

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WHY YOU SHOULD INVEST IN SEO OVER OTHER DIGITAL STRATEGIES (AND NON-DIGITAL) If you're anything like the small business owners we know (and we know a lot of them), you're probably thinking about WHY you need to go with SEO. Even the smartest business owners we know also ask us why they should choose SEO versus any other marketing strategies (digital or not). Well – since we consider you to be a smart small business owner (you are reading this wonderful guide we put together for you) – we'll let you in on why we think SEO is so valuable for you and how it compares to other digital and non-digital marketing strategies. Before we do that, let's look at some of the great benefits of SEO and compare them to the other marketing strategies you could throw your dollars at. SEO works 24/7/365 SEO (often) means high rankings, which equals a perception quality from prospects (link to study) SEO puts your company in front of prospects who are looking for what you offer (link to study) SEO is cheaper than paid search SEO is a long-term win SEO commands the lion's share (75%+) of the search volume ( link to study) Now – SEO has its faults: SEO can take time to “ramp up” (we couldn't find research on this, but our general rule of thumb is 8-12 weeks) SEO can lead to potentially unqualified leads SEO can lead to high keyword competition SEO puts your fate is in the hands' of search engines SEO can consume a lot of time if you're balancing doing SEO ( upwards of 20 hours/week) and running your business.
The list below compares SEO to each of the top digital marketing strategies our customers invest in often: 1. Pay Per Click (PPC) – Your daily spending depends on your ads, your bids, your landing page experience, and the bids of others. Without a good model, you could easily overpay for leads. You also pay for every single click: good, bad, or ugly. If your sales funnel isn't optimized, it could be a total waste of money for you. 2. Social Media – Only 6% of your followers on Facebook will actually see your posts (link). With Twitter, it's all noise. With Instagram, you could build a following, but will they convert? You can build an audience and a following, but it's getting harder and harder to turn them into buyers, especially if you're a small business. If you become one of the big boys it might be worth it. 3. Email Marketing – Requires constant updating, checking, and a system to review if your processes are actually producing leads or not. 4. Pay Per Lead Services – Some, like Home Advisor, are tough because you're competing with “Chuck in a Truck” for lowest price and fastest service. They could also lead to unqualified leads and if improperly managed, could lead to overpaying for service. We've also heard feedback from clients that Angie's List customers (and the like) are some of the WORST customers. They ask for everything and use the rating system to back contractors against a wall for the customer and for the small business. 5. Yellow Pages – Do we really need to talk about these? Yes – some of our clients (the ones who target areas dominated by customers 65 years or older) see value in YP. They're able to squeeze enough of a discount out of their rep (since everyone is fleeing YP). Is the volume there? Absolutely not. So you might get a few jobs here or there throughout the year and the cost per acquisition is right, but if you're in need of A LOT of leads, this probably isn't going to be your target channel. 6. Billboards – High cost, inaccurate tracking. 7. Direct Mail – The amount of annual budget that you'll need to make Direct Mail really work for you is so high that if you're reading this article, you can't afford it to make it work.
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Page 53 and 54: Local SEO & Off-Site Optimizations
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ADDITIONAL READING 7 Reasons Why SE
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