All businesses need SEO. It’s a non-negotiable, miracle working strategy that when implemented carefully and correctly, can drive an unbounded amount of traffic to your website. And why? SEO, which stands for Search Engine Optimization, does what its name entails – optimizes websites for search engines. And when you make a site better for search engines like Google, you’re more likely to end up on the first page of Google.
I probably don’t need to tell you what the benefits of ranking on the first page of Google are, but in case you’re feeling a little fuzzy-brained, let me give you a quick low down on the significance of acquiring such a ranking.
71% of people find what they’re looking for on the first page of Google, which means that users rarely ever even look at the second page of Google. When was the last time you clicked “next” at the bottom of the Google search results? And when was the last time you looked past the first five search results on the first page of Google? If you’re not ranked on the first page, your search result will likely never see the light of day, because search engine users have already found their answer or what they were looking for.
All businesses need SEO, but there are certain types of businesses that need SEO more than others. While some industries receive attention through social media or obtain brand awareness through television commercials, there are other industries that receive the most recognition and website traffic from organic search. Below are types of businesses that
New Companies and Startups
If you’re a new company, the best time to start SEO for your website is right away. By creating a website with all of the best SEO practices right from the start, you won’t incur the extra time and effort required of fixing technical SEO issues that older sites deal with.
As a small company or a startup, you’re likely just getting yourself on your feet. You don’t have a lot of customers and clients, brand recognition, or funding. It can be difficult to invest in social media or Google ads when you don’t have a lot of cash on hand. SEO, on the other hand, may take a little bit of time to learn, but implementing some of the core best practices can help Google understand and index your site. From there, keyword target focus and obtain links can help your company quickly climb up the search engine ranks.
Ecommerce Stores
Running an eCommerce store means that you don’t have a physical business. Although certain types of eCommerce stores, like fashion businesses, can benefit quite well by displaying their clothing and products through social media efforts, not all eCommerce businesses can be so lucky.
If you are running a large eCommerce store, it can also be helpful to invest in hiring an eCommerce SEO services to help you out. There are a lot of technical issues that arise when running an online store, such as 404 pages and having the correct structured data for product pages. An experience SEO company will know what to do with every page on your website, and how to improve the best product pages for link building, and it’s best not to leave SEO efforts to chance.
Cannabis and CBD Companies
The cannabis industry is an emerging market that is quickly on the rise. As more and more states begin to legalize cannabis, and more and more cannabis companies announce public offerings on the stock market, the novelty and notoriety of the industry continues to grow.
One huge hurdle holding back CBD and cannabis business from reaching customers is their inability to use paid ads. Sites like Facebook and Google have placed restrictions, prohibiting any ads from mentioned CBD or cannabis products or services. As many companies rely on paid ads on social media or search engines for finding new customers, it can be difficult to compete for customers over the internet.
SEO, on the other hand, doesn’t deal with paid ads, which is why cannabis companies could reap the most benefits from Search Engine Optimization. While paid results usually take the first couple positions of any Google search results page, cannabis companies are competing solely on organic search results.
Medical Professionals
If you’re a medical professional, you’re likely competing against other professionals in your area and not on a national basis. Other than word of mouth, people looking for medical services tend to start their search on Google, known for its reliable resources. If you’re looking for medical help, you want someone experienced and reliable and will do your research before settling upon a doctor. As a medical professional, getting ranked on the first page of Google tells potential patients that you are trustworthy enough to be on the front page of Google.
SEO also allows medical professionals to rank for specialized terms. Let’s say you run a dentist office in Miami for both adults and children. A keyword you could focus on targeting would be “Family Dentistry in Miami”, which is more specific than just “Dentist in Florida” or “Dentist in Miami.”
Multiple Locations
If you run a business that has multiple locations, SEO can help to rank each of these pages individually. Let’s say you run an SAT school for high schoolers looking to get ahead on their SAT test prep. You may own several, different locations even if they are all the same business. By creating a specialized page for each location, you are more likely to come up for someone searching for an SAT school in their specific area. For example, the Dallas-Fort Worth area in Texas is a large metroplex that covers a wide range of cities. If you don’t create specialized pages, you could be competing with SAT businesses in the Dallas area, rather than a smaller, select area such as Plano, Richardson, or Frisco.