6 reasons why your SMB clients should invest in SEO

In the past few months, many small businesses were forced to temporarily close their brick-and-mortar locations due to COVID-19, and in turn - consumers moved online. This shift means that small businesses need to consider taking action to appear in- or remain at the top of local search results. Search engine optimization (SEO) is crucial for SMBs to compete online, and we’ve compiled six reasons why now is the right time to convince your SMB clients to invest in- and improve their SEO strategy.

1. Engage with existing customers

Social distancing has made it tough for SMBs to engage with their existing customers. A high-quality and informative website can help bridge the gap, but a website provides limited value if it doesn’t appear until the second page of search results. Investing in SEO can help your SMB clients climb to the top of search results and make it easier for existing customers to find and engage with their favorite local business.

2. Attract new customers

Being on top of search engine optimization also means ensuring that your SMB clients are visible for new audiences. This is especially important in a local context as consumers are more likely to search for the product or service instead of the company name. Again, the transition to online purchases gives your SMB clients the perfect opportunity to invest in improving the visibility of their website in local search rankings, and ultimately win them more business. 

3. Boost organic traffic 

A recent study by BrightEdge has shown that consumers resonate more with organic search results, than paid search -  meaning consumers are more likely to click on search results that rank high but are not marked as ads. Again, for your SMB clients to benefit from this, a focus on improving on-site and off-site SEO should be at the top of your digital to-do list. It will help them boost traffic, as well as sales.

4. Stay one step ahead of competitors

Small businesses are not the only ones feeling the effects of dwindling foot traffic, and competitors (whether large or small) are taking proactive measures to react to this crisis. Some businesses will be forced to cut cost by allocating less budget to their marketing efforts. Others will increase their marketing spend in order to gain more visibility online. Either way, this is yet another reason why your SMB customers can benefit from prioritizing SEO as they will stay ahead of the competition.

5. An affordable online strategy 

Besides bringing in more traffic, investing in SEO and organic search is an affordable online strategy with long-term gains - unlike SEA/SEM which require continuous spending. In uncertain times like these, many SMBs have to tighten their budgets. Investments must be affordable and not only boost their business in the short-term, but also as they recover from this crisis. 

6. Deliver long-term benefits

SEO is a long-tail game, and whether your small business clients have an SEO strategy in place or not - there is always an opportunity to improve search result rankings. While COVID-19 has brought many business activities to a slow, making an investment into SEO is an initiative that can be done despite social distancing - and will help your small business clients to increase online visibility, continuously appear in search results over time and ultimately emerge from this crisis stronger than ever. 

Ready to learn more about SEO?

The Mono Platform features best-in-class technical SEO (incl. schema.org markup) and on-site SEO can effectively be implemented across each page on a Mono Website. Want to learn more? Check out the panel on Websites, SEO & local search in cooperation with our sister company, Sunrise System, a leading provider of SEO services.