Small business SEO

One of the big advantages of the internet is that a small business using good SEO can gain market share from its much larger rivals, this has given rise to the marketing phenomenon of small business SEO where specialist optimisation companies use search engine optimisation techniques to help promote smaller companies for terms related to the items they sell.

You might think that larger companies would have an automatic advantage because of the budgets thy have available to them and for some items this is true, however the size of large companies can also work against them as they try and promote every item to everyone.

If you are a store with 100,000 + lines it is incredibly difficult to get each description for each product ranking well in the search engines.

A small business can use good SEO techniques to promote the lines they sell using the language of their market, if you were selling dog treats for example, a large company that sold everything pet related might choose to focus on the term do treats and get the traffic that way, where as a small business using good SEO would know that people are also looking for

Healthy dog treats
liver dog treats
vegetarian dog treats
treats for dogs
training treats

Along with many other related terms.

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Utilising the combination of knowing your market and good keyword research a comprehensive list of the terms people in your market are using in the search engines.

To get the most from this article you should now start making a list of the phrases you feel people would be using to find your business, you can then send that list to us using the form on the right and we can give you more of an idea of how a small business SEO company can get you more customers to your website.

Promoting a website

When promoting a website you need to think about how you want to do it, do you want to pay for the traffic or do you want to get it directly through the search engines by utilising the organic search engine rankings.

Both solutions have there advantages and disadvantages.

Pay Per Click (PPC) Advertising

The advantages of PPC

• It is fast – you can set up an ad campaign and it can be delivering you traffic within a hour or two.

 

• Targeted traffic – You choose the terms you are found for and that way you know that the visitors you get are all targeted to your product or service.

 

• You set your budget – You can decide in advance how much you pay for a term and how much you spend overall.

 

• Geo targeting – You can choose what countries and regions to advertise too.

The disadvantages of PPC

• Cost – It can be expensive if you do not set a budget or if you choose the wrong phrases then you can spend a lot of money quickly.

 

• There is a lot to learn – To get the most from your pay Per Click campaign you need to understand how to test and track results.

 

• Click Fraud – This is more of an issue with some networks than others and in some business sectors but there have been cases of people clicking on ads to either generate revenue for themselves or to deplete the budget of a rival company.

 

The organic listings

The advantages of the organic listings

• No cost – The organic listings are often referred to as the free listings.

 

• Targeted traffic – By using good Search Engine Optimisation or SEO techniques you can target specific words or phrases to get found in the search engines for.

 

• Multiple listings- Often when you optimise for one term on a site you are able to rank well for a number of other terms at the same time.

 

• More clicks – More people click on the organic listings than click on the PPC listings so if you show up well in the organic listings you will get more traffic.

 

• More credibility – If you rank well in the organic listings you are often considered by visitors to have more credibility than those that are seen to have just paid for their positions, this can result in dramatically increased conversion rates.

 

The disadvantages of the organic listings

• Time – The only real disadvantage of using good SEO practices to get ranked better in the search engines is that it can take time to show for competitive phrases.

 

I hope you can see that Search Engine Optimisation or SEO is a vital component of your marketing and website strategy.

The ebay seminars that were held at Cravenplan computers on 12th March were a great success.

Both the day time and evening event were well attended and the crowd were treated to another informative and well delivered seminar.

There were also two draws for to win a prize for all those that replied to the email invitations and the lucky winners each received £50.

There was also cake to celebrate the 25th birthday of Cravenplan computers.

There was a lively question and answer session after the seminar and as always the Cravenplan staff were on hand to answer questions.