What Is SEO And Why Is It Paramount For Your Business In 2012 And Beyond?
Search Engine Optimization or SEO for short is the process that we use have your website rank at the top of the search engines such as Google for relevant search phrases for your business.
Consider the following scenario. Lets stay, for example, that you are a plumber in Tacoma Washington. If somebody were walking up and down the main street in Tacoma shouting out that they need a plumber and you happened to be in the area, you’d likely be able to land the person as a customer pretty easily. That person is very targeted – they are a person in Tacoma who needs a plumber.
Of course sane people usually don’t walk up and down the streets yelling for a plumber. In times past they might have used the Yellow Pages or some other phone directory. They key would be to get your ad to stand out from the others somehow so that you would get the phone calls.
Nowadays, nobody uses the Yellow Pages anymore:
82.6% of Internet users use search.
eMarketer, July 2011
The truth is that the vast majority (and it’s increasing) of people use the Internet to search for local businesses. Close to 80% of those people prefer Google. They search on their home computers, they search on their work computer, and they search on their mobile phones.
Now when people are looking for a plumber in Tacoma, increasingly they don’t turn to the yellow pages to search, they turn to the Internet. They go to Google and type in ‘plumber in Tacoma’. Which poses a problem and an opportunity for your business.
SEO Is A Problem And An Opportunity For Your Business
When you used to run ads in the Yellow Pages, you could sort of ‘game’ the system by putting an ‘A’ in front of your name (like AAA Plumbing). This would get you closer to the front of the book for your service.
The problem on the Internet (and the opportunity) is this. Roughly 80% of the searches go to the (unpaid) top 3 positions. This means that the average person searching for ‘plumber in Tacoma’ will choose one of the top 3 unpaid spots. These top 3 spots are the equivalent of being in the front of the phone book and if you want to compete in 2012 and beyond then you better be in one of those top 3 spots.
And that’s the problem. There are dozens or even hundreds of businesses competing for those top 3 spots (depending on your industry and location). Fortunately most of them don’t know what they are doing and they are doing a pretty bad job of it.
Therein lies the opportunity.
You have a chance to get ahead of your competition and claim one of those top 3 spots in Google for your product or service. We’re experts at what we do and there is a window of opportunity to get their before your competitors do. Give us a call at 1-818-937-3042 or use the contact form and we can discuss how quickly we can start implementing a sound SEO strategy for your business.
