You’ve probably heard the term SEO. It’s a common talking point whenever website presence or digital marketing come up. But how does the average business owner know when they need SEO services? Is it just a given? What are the signs?
When You Need SEO Services
There are several clear and important ways that you can tell your SEO (search engine optimization) is lacking.
Your Website is Getting an Unsatisfactory Amount of Traffic
If you aren’t meeting your business goals with the amount of website traffic you’re getting, or you see figurative tumbleweeds in your analytics reports, people aren’t finding your website because your SEO isn’t up to par.
It’s also important that organic search results are bringing you the most visits. If all of your visits are coming from ads, your website traffic isn’t sustainable or cost-effective.
You Have Traffic, But It Isn’t Leading to Sales
A crucial part of the success of a website is called converting. This is when people perform a desired action when they visit your website, such as call your business, fill out a form, place an online order, etc. There are several SEO-related issues such as usability and content that could cause people to visit your site but not convert.
Your Website Doesn’t Rank For Your Main Keywords
When you search your business name and/or the main keywords you’ve targeted, you want your website to appear on the first page of Google results. Otherwise, it is unlikely that anyone will see it. People rarely go beyond the first page of Google.
Your Competitors Are Doing Much Better
If your competitors are ranking and you are not, or they are simply much higher on the page than you are, you need a strong SEO strategy to help you compete. You’ll need to discover what they’re doing and how to do something comparable or better.
Your Business Isn’t Showing Up On Google Maps
You need to appear on Google Maps to be competitive because people frequently use this service. The problem comes from not having claimed and optimized your Google My Business page.
You Want To Be Sure You Are Getting The Most From Your Website
Running a website is an expense, and you’d like to make sure you’re getting your money’s worth. You can hire SEO services for an audit, every year, whenever you make an important change, or whenever you are wondering about your website’s performance to give you peace of mind.
Common SEO Issues
Less than optimum SEO can be caused by many things:
- A website that isn’t responsive to mobile devices.
- The website is slow.
- Your website isn’t secured (reading HTTPS in the URL).
- A lack of regular, quality, and keyword-optimized content.
- Duplicate content.
- A lack of landing pages.
- A lack of quality backlinks.
- A robots.txt file that blocks search engine access to a portion of or your entire site.
- Not having an XML sitemap.
- Poor user experience.
- No or little social media presence.
Hiring SEO Services
If the list above is daunting or makes you feel like saying, “I don’t want to do all that,” that’s perfectly understandable. You’ve got enough on your plate running your business. You don’t have time or energy to learn and do all it takes to optimize your website.
You can attempt to DIY if you want to cut costs, but it probably won’t go very well and you’ll waste a lot of time (and money) that you could be spending on other aspects of your business. It’s less stressful and better for your finances to hire an expert to do it for you.
Just make sure you do your research and get someone who is worth the money. SEO experts can perform more services and provide you with more quality information.
Increase Your Brand’s Visibility with Capstone Digital Marketing
We provide SEO audits, search engine optimization, and website development that will help you reach your business goals. If you aren’t sure what you need, feel free to contact us to get started.
