Guest post by Kathy DalPra of The Online Close
Don’t you just cringe when you find out that a new prospect signed on with a different provider, only a week before meeting you?
Or get a sinking feeling when a friend of a friend tells you about the thousands they just thousands with someone else to get the exact same solutions you offer?
If only they had known about you one week earlier…or even one day earlier?! That client could have been yours!
At one time or another, it’s happened to all of us. It doesn’t matter whether we’re the best fit for that individual in all of cyberspace, if they don’t know we exist or can’t find us when they’re on the hunt for answers, then they’ll wind up hiring someone else and we can kiss that business goodbye.
Visibility is everything on the web. If prospects can’t find your website, at the exact moment when they are looking for your solutions, then they become someone else’s client and it’s another opportunity lost.
Being in the right place, at the right time has never been more important than on the Internet.
This is what SEO is all about. SEO, or search engine optimization, is the science (or art, if you will) of increasing your website’s visibility to search engines. It’s about landing your website a spot at the top of Google’s search results pages. Someone types in a keyword term, like “all-natural mascara” and your website appears with the exact product they’re looking for.
Since search engines are where the majority of the population goes to find solutions to their problems, it’s one of the best places your website can appear. Prospects look for answers, you show up to save the day!
But it gets even better…
Buyer Ready Traffic
Unlike Facebook or YouTube, which also get high volumes of searches, search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing! attract more buyer-ready traffic. As of today, when someone searches on Facebook or YouTube, they are mostly looking for news, education and brands they already know about. Very rarely will someone turn to these types of social media sites when they need to purchase a specific product or service. Search engines are where people go to start the buying research process, making them one of the most profitable places to market your business.
Targeted Leads
By far, my favorite benefit of search engine optimization, is the level of precision to which you can pinpoint your marketing efforts. The beauty of SEO is that you get to choose which search terms you want your business to be aligned with!
That means, instead of showing up when individuals are merely looking for information, you can deliberately appear when they are ready to buy….which makes a HUGE difference to your bottom line.
Individuals searching for how-to information and news = window-shoppers
Individuals searching for solutions = buyers
SEO allows us to weed out the tire-kickers and focus exclusively on the cash cow. What entrepreneur doesn’t love that?!
Low Cost Marketing
Of course, the icing on the cake for most small business owners is the affordability of SEO. Unlike pay-per-click ads, print advertising and direct mail, Google will list your website in its search results pages for free. Your only investment might be working with a small business SEO professional to outrank your competition. And, even then, if the SEO expert knows what they’re doing , they’ll be able to offer you some very affordable search engine optimization packages, which can be thousands of dollars less than other online and offline advertising.
Too many small businesses are missing out on massive amounts of free traffic from Google because they aren’t utilizing SEO in their online marketing toolbox. Maybe it’s time you found out whether SEO is the right fit for your business before you let even more opportunities pass you by.
Join us for a FREE class on Tuesday, July 12 at 4:00pm EST as part of the Traffic Explosion Telesummit series.
“SEO for Newbies: How to Get Google to Send You Free Traffic”
Presented by Kathy DalPra of The Online Close
Reserve your seat today.
