How Does SEO Help Small Businesses Increase Visibility, Traffic, and Sales?
- Rhiannon
- Oct 24, 2022
- 12 min read
Updated: Mar 18
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) helps websites get found in organic search engine results. What does this mean? When someone searches for something in Google, Etsy, YouTube or any search engine, algorithms use various factors or signals to decide which listings or website pages appear and where. By nailing your SEO, you can help your small business website appear on the first page of Google Search results, without having to pay for ads. But how does SEO work? It's probably to main question I get asked as an SEO consultant. This article covers how search engine algorithms work and how you can use SEO to get your small business found online for free.
This Article Covers:
What is SEO?
SEO stands for search engine optimisation - so when you carry out SEO, you are trying to get your website to rank higher in the organic search engine results. The higher your website appears in the search results, the more likely people are to visit it. SEO can apply to any platform that uses a search engine, such as Etsy, Amazon, YouTube or Pinterest. However, I specialise in SEO for Google Search, and that is what this guide is all about.
Example:
An independent online retailer sells their own brand of equestrian riding tights and base layers. They would probably want their website to appear in the search engine results when people search for “riding tights” and “equestrian base layers”, for example. To make this happen, relevant pages of the website would need to be optimised for those keywords.
When you carry out SEO on your website, you are telling search engines that the website (or specific pages on that website) are relevant to certain keywords or search terms.
How Does The Google Search Algorithm Work?
Google Search uses an algorithm to decide which content to display to users, and for which search terms.
Every time you Google something, the algorithm sifts through all the website pages that mention the keywords you have used, and chooses which ones to present to you. This all happens in a microsecond, every time you run a search query!
The Google algorithm uses several factors (or signals) to determine how to rank website pages. There is much debate surrounding how many ranking signals there are, and how much weight each one carries. It's likely there are several hundred ranking signals, but you don't need to know all of them.
The key thing to remember is that Google wants to serve "helpful content" to its users - that is content that satisfies the user's query with relevant, accurate, authentic information. So, your aim when trying to SEO your website is to provide the most helpful content for people who are searching for your target keywords.
I have provided more information on how to search engine optimise your website with my beginner's guide on how to create an SEO strategy.
How Does SEO Help Small Businesses?
SEO can work very effectively for small businesses that want to get found online by their target audience when they are actively looking for information relevant to your products or services.
By information, I mean:
Answers to questions (e.g. "how does SEO work?")
Instructions (e.g. "how to tack up a horse")
Inspiration (e.g. "Cheltenham Festival outfit ideas")
Motivation (e.g. "2024 business plan" or "small business ideas")
Products or services (e.g. "equestrian base layer")
Local businesses (e.g. "plumber in Newbury")
By creating written content (website page copy and blog articles) that answers your target audience's search queries, you can help your small business get more visible online because Google's algorithm can see that your website offers helpful content.
There are 10 main ways in which SEO can help your small business:
SEO can help your business get found by high-intent search engine users looking to buy products or services
SEO can help your business get found by lower intent search engine users who are researching a subject area and looking for information
SEO can help your business get found by people looking for local products or services
SEO can help you connect with your target audience by demonstrating your real-life experience in your niche
SEO can help you connect with your target audience by showcasing your niche expertise
SEO can help you nurture your audience by building your authority as a go-to expert
SEO can help you build trust with your target audience
SEO can help you convert search engine users who are ready to buy
SEO can help you convert over the medium to long term
SEO helps you maximise your website as a revenue-generating asset that can drive organic visibility, traffic and conversions for a business that is built to last
3 Ways SEO Helps Your Small Business Get Found Online and Captivate Your Target Audience
When you carry out SEO on your website, you can target high intent "commercial" keywords, which describe products or services, and low intent "informational" keywords, which include questions. This means you can target people at various stages of the buyer journey, from cool prospects carrying out initial research, to hot leads actively looking to make a purchase.
There are 3 main ways in which SEO can help your small business get found online:
SEO can help your small business get found by people who are actively looking to buy (high intent searches)
SEO can help your small business get discovered by people who could become clients or customers later (low intent searches)
SEO can help your small business get found by people looking for local products or services
For a deeper look at how SEO can help you captivate your target audience, check out my blog post on how to increase your small business website's organic visibility with SEO and blogging.
SEO Helps Your Website Get Found By People Who Are Ready to Buy Now
Getting your website in front of people who are actively looking for the products or services you offer can help you make sales to your hottest leads. By optimising your website for commercial keywords that describe what you sell, you have a valuable opportunity to target high-intent buyers and drive sales through your website.
Examples of high-intent commercial keywords include "tweed coat", "seo services" and "dog training services". Notice how each of these terms directly describes a product or service, and would be used by someone who is interested in making a purchase or enquiring.
Targeting high-intent commercial keywords can result in a high conversion rate and a better conversion rate for your website. However, these keywords are often very competitive, so it may take much longer for your website to rank and for you to see sales. Therefore, it is a good idea to also target low intent informational keywords.
SEO Helps Your Website Get Found By People Who May Buy Later
Targeting low intent informational keywords can help you to increase your website's organic visibility more quickly, because these keywords tend to be less competitive and easier to rank for than commercial keywords.
Optimising your website for informational keywords through your blog posts can help your website get found by people who are interested in your offers and may one day become clients or customers. Examples of informational keywords include "what to wear to cheltenham festival", "how to do seo" or "how to crate train a dog". People who search for these keywords are not actively looking to make a purchase just yet, but they could be nurtured towards becoming a client or customer.
Targeting informational keywords gives you opportunities to build your credibility, nurture your audience, educate them, and inspire them. You can then nurture these website visitors towards making a purchase.
SEO Helps Your Website Get Found Locally
You can also optimise your website for local searches, which helps your business get found by people who are seeking products or (more often) services in a specific geographical location. These keywords will include either a location, such as a city or town, or "near me". Examples include "seo services newbury", "dog training near me" or "country clothing shop in Hampshire".
One advantage of targeting these keywords is that not only are they high intent, but they are usually much less competitive than generic keywords that are not location-based. So, if it makes sense for your business to target local keywords, this could be a good opportunity to get your website visible and make sales quickly.
4 Ways SEO Can Help Your Small Business Connect With and Nurture Your Target Audience
SEO is often overlooked when it comes to audience nurturing. However, SEO (especially blogging) can help you connect with and nurture your target audience, by allowing you to demonstrate your experience, showcase your expertise, build your authority, and foster trust. Below, I have gone into a bit more detail about how SEO can help you connect with your target audience.
I've gone into more depth on this subject in my guide to connecting with your target audience through blogging.
Blogging Can Help You Demonstrate Your Real-Life Experience
You can use blog content to demonstrate your real-life experience in your subject area. By including your professional and personal experiences in your blog posts, you are creating authentic content that can't simply be found anywhere on the internet. This is something Google looks for in its search for quality content. Furthermore, seeing that you have real-life experience in the subject area you are writing about will help your audience trust and relate to you.
An example of real-life expertise could be a dog trainer who features how they helped one of their clients crate train their dog. They could outline the problems this client faced in trying to train their own dog, and how the trainer helped them to overcome these difficulties. Another example could be an independent retailer blogging about what they chose to wear to Cheltenham Festival, and why they chose that outfit. Perhaps they chose a particular coat because it's nice an warm, and maybe they chose flat shoes over heels because they know it's a long day out with lots of walking and standing.
Blogging Can Help You Showcase Your Niche Expertise
When you create blog content for your small business website, you are aiming to establish yourself as the go-to expert in your niche. Blogging presents a fantastic opportunity for you to demonstrate your niche expertise, as you inform and educate your target audience.
You can demonstrate your expertise by writing blog posts that answer common questions. Many informational keywords are questions or "how to's", and you can use these keywords to educate your target audience and show them that you are the go-to expert in your niche.
For example, this blog post educates my target audience on how SEO can help their small business. I'm providing value, whilst demonstrating my expertise in this niche. An independent country fashion retailer could demonstrate their niche expertise with a blog post about what to wear shooting, or what to wear to Cheltenham Festival. These events both have specific dress codes, requirements, or expectations, so you can demonstrate niche expertise by highlighting why certain items are recommended, and why others are not.
Build Your Authority as the Go-To Expert
SEO can help you build your authority. By getting backlinks - links from other websites back to your own website - you can increase your website's authority in the eyes of Google and your audience.
Good quality backlinks can include directory listings relevant to your niche, guest articles for reputable niche websites that link back to your own website, and mentions on other reputable websites that cite your website as a source of information and link back to it.
Building your authority through backlinks is key to establishing yourself as an expert in your subject area, because people will often see "social proof" as an important trust signal.
Build Trust Among Your Audience
SEO and blogging can also help you build trust among your target audience. Building trust comes from demonstrating experience, expertise, and authority, but it also comes from having accurate and up-to-date details, information, and testimonials or reviews on your website. Having lots of 5 star Google reviews on your Google Business page can also help to improve your website's organic visibility, especially for local searches.
How SEO Can Help Your Small Business Convert and Make More Sales
Ultimately, SEO can help your small business convert browsers into buyers, and make more sales. By getting your website in front of the right people, and nurturing your audience, you can make more sales both in the medium-term and the longer-term.
There are two main ways in which SEO can help your small business generate more conversions:
SEO can help you convert high-intent search engine users who are looking to buy now
SEO can help you convert search engine users who aren't actively looking to buy now
SEO Can Help You Drive Conversions Now
Optimising your website for commercial search terms used by high-intent search engine users can help you make sales to people who are actively looking to make a purchase now or in the near future.
Being at the top of the organic search results for commercial keywords is especially important for lower-ticket items that generally require less pre-purchase consideration from the buyer. This is because consumers are more likely to make a quicker purchasing decision, without looking into the various options. Examples include small accessories, consumables, lower-ticket gifts, and impulse purchases.
SEO Can Help You Drive Conversions Later
It isn't easy to get your website to rank for the more competitive, high-intent keywords. Therefore, optimising your website for informational keywords can help you capture your audience early in the buyer journey, so they are more likely to choose you when they are ready to purchase. This is where your educational blog content comes in.
SEO Can Help You Maximise Your Website as a Revenue-Generating Asset
Finally, SEO helps you maximise your website as a revenue-generating asset for your small business, so that you can build a business to last and free yourself from marketing overwhelm and burnout. By investing time, money and effort into optimising your website for Google Search, you can increase the visibility of your small business, drive relevant, organic traffic to your website, and generate more conversions.
Choosing to invest in SEO for your small business also helps you build a business that can withstand social media algorithm changes, and protects you in the event that you lost access to your social media accounts (this happened to me).
SEO also releases you from the content creation hamster wheel, as you can focus on quality over quantity, and concentrate on building a bank of content that will continue to work for your business for weeks, months or years after is is initially published.
How To Get Your Website Onto Page One of Google
If you are trying to drive organic (free) traffic to your website from Google Search, being on the first page (ideally at the top) of the results pages for relevant search terms / keywords is key. The vast majority of clicks go to websites that appear on the first page, so being high up in the rankings does make a real difference.
But before I answer the question, it is important to understand that:
There is no single “page one of Google” - what page one looks like depends on an array of factors such as the search query, user location, user search history and more. Two people can Google exactly the same thing and be presented with different results.
So, the question we should be asking is: How Do I Get My Website to Rank Well for Relevant Keywords?
This is where an effective SEO campaign comes in. I go into more detail about how to create an SEO strategy in another article, so for now I will outline at the fundamentals you need to consider when it comes to SEO for your small business website.
Keywords: Your website needs to mention your keywords, so Google knows what your website is about. Keyword research and strategy is vital.
Relevance: Your website content needs to match the keywords you want to target. This means including your target keywords in your page headings, text, subheadings, and SEO titles and SEO descriptions.
User-Friendliness: So, you have spent ages planning and implementing an amazing SEO strategy. People are discovering your website only to be met with outdated information, clunky checkouts and links that don’t work. User experience (UX) is important to SEO for two main reasons. Firstly, Google’s algorithm can detect website issues such as broken links and slow load speed, and this will damage your SEO. Secondly, there is no point in getting people to visit your website if they then can’t buy, sign up or enquire - they will leave your website, and you'll lose the sale.
Helpful Content: Google wants to provide its users with helpful, useful, valuable content. Make sure all of your website content provides value, answers the user's question or search intent, and leaves them feeling satisfied with the answer.
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About the Author
Rhiannon is an independent marketing consultant and Associate of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (ACIM). Since 2020, Rhiannon has helped independent UK businesses across several sectors increase their visibility, traffic, and sales organically - without running expensive ads or creating exhausting social media videos! Today, she supports introverted business owners and service providers who want to grow their businesses organically, authentically, and in alignment with their values, goals, and desires.
