Is SEO Right for Your Business?
Are you wondering if SEO is right for your business?
Or if it will help you increase revenue and profits?
I can tell you up front, SEO isn’t a good fit for every business.
In this article, we’re going to provide a simple two step process so you can find out.
But first we need to provide some context.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
The Two Kinds of SEO
The ultimate objective of doing SEO is to increase revenue for a business.
Within that, there are two approaches:
If you haven’t already, it might be helpful to stop and read:
Get a Basic Understanding of SEO in Three Minutes Flat, where we talk about Sales and Education pages.
OK, with that under your belt, let’s proceed.
At its heart, SEO is about creating pages of website content that get traffic, leads and sales.
Sales SEO is typically done when a new website is getting launched and includes:
- Homepage
- Products pages
- Services pages
- About
- Contact Us
Education SEO is writing long-form articles every day, week and month for long periods of time.
Sales SEO is speaking to the ‘ready-to-buy’ customers.
Education SEO is speaking to the ’not-ready-to-buy’ customers.
The Kind of SEO Every Business Needs
I can say with 100% confidence, that every single business website on the internet needs Sales SEO.
Why?
Because no matter how you do your marketing, a large number of your prospective customers will look you up online, whether they tell you or not.
So, you need them to be able to find you quickly.
This is universal.
All humans want to reduce their risk when making a decision.
Perhaps your customers are senior citizens. Well their children and grandchildren will you look you up.
Not to mention, many Seniors are online regularly.
Maybe all your business comes through networking and relationships?
They look you up too, they just don’t tell you.
Case-in-point: Here’s a true story about a local business…
___________
Once there was a business leader that was respected in his industry.
He acquired all of his clients through relationships. It was lucrative.
He and his team were great at their work and they were discreet, but they weren’t cheap.
He had earned his way into a network of affluent business leaders and celebrities.
The kind of access that is invite-only and takes decades to get in.
One day, he had a great meeting with a minor celebrity that was interested in hiring his company for a project.
The sales meeting went great.
He was excited.
Later, he found out that he lost the deal.
Why?
Because the minor celebrity, tried looking his business up online and couldn’t find anything.
So, they went with another company that they did find online.
The other company may or may not have been better at their work, but it didn’t matter.
The deal was lost.
___________
If a business doesn’t have a sales website with SEO, they are losing business, because it’s harder to find them.
SEO on your sales pages, means they will find you when they search for your business.
No matter which web design or SEO agency you work with, please make a promise to yourself to get SEO on the sales pages, so you don’t lose the easy leads and sales.
The Simple Two Step Process
Given the kind of business you are in, would it make sense to invest in SEO every month?
Let’s find out.
1. Do your customers ask questions online before they buy your stuff?
If the answer is an obvious ‘yes’, then investing in monthly educational SEO probably makes sense.
Not sure?
Make a list of all the questions your customers ask during a sales call.
Do your customers try doing things themselves before they give up and pay you (the real expert) to do it the right way?
If ‘yes’, then add all those “How to” and “How do I” questions to your list.
Now pop open the internet and start asking those questions.
If you see your competitors’ websites or your industry’s association websites in the search results, then it’s probably a ‘yes’.
If you don’t, then it’s probably a ‘no’.
Monthly SEO works best if there is existing traffic on search engines.
2. Do you have the revenue or revenue potential?
Investing in SEO is more fun when you’re business makes a profit from it.
Your ticket price and monthly revenue have a lot to do with profitable SEO.
Generally speaking, if what you offer sells for more than $100 each and/or your revenue is more than $5,000 a month, then monthly educational SEO is probably a good fit.
Conclusion
To recap, ask yourself:
- Do my customers ask questions online before they buy my stuff?
- Do I have the revenue or revenue potential?
If it’s ‘yes’ to both questions, then monthly SEO makes sense and it can be a powerful way to grow your business.
If it’s a ‘no’ to either one, then it might not make sense.
The next question is typically, “What would be my return on investment from monthly SEO?”
We have the answer right here: What is the ROI (return on investment) of SEO.
Want to see SEO in action? How we ranked a local business on Search in nine days.
Want to see if we can help? Local SEO services.
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