I’m not sure I can stress the importance of establishing an online presence enough. Right now many small businesses are not even able to open their doors. This makes small business SEO more important than ever.
Being Seen Online Takes Time.
Your website is a tool. How you use that tool determines how effective you are at ranking with search engines and therefore getting customers online. You can normally count on waiting 3-6 months or more (Depending on industry and competition) before you start to see much change in your search rankings.
Think about how fast it has almost became a necessity to make money online for many business owners. Business models had to change overnight just to make it the next 6 months. Imagine what can change in the next 6 months. It doesn’t make sense to wait any longer to build your online presence and search engine rankings.
Diversify Your Investment
With so many avenues to increase your customer base, only focusing on your physical location is the small business equivalent of putting all your eggs in one basket. So many business owners rely on traditional advertising and wait for people to walk through the door. With a website and proper SEO you open yourself up to a much wider audience that will then have the chance to learn about and interact with your product/service and brand before they even leave their house.
Your competitors are going online
I have been noticing a huge trend toward online focus by small businesses. It’s not very hard to see the benefit of being online when you don’t know if your doors will be able to open to the public. If your competitors get too big of a head start it will be costly and time consuming to catch up in the future. Save yourself the time, money, and headache later by building your online presence through SEO now.
Where do I start for local SEO?
To get to where you are going you have to know where you are at. Many SEO companies (myself included) offer a free SEO analysis and consultation. I would recommend taking advantage of these. Get 3-5 of them and see what information keeps coming up. Mix that with who your gut tells you is going to be the most honest. SEO people tend to throw out a lot of big words and charge a lot for the fact that they learned them. Don’t pay for words, not even mine. Pay for a plan that is solid and precise and a person you can trust.