A lot of new businesses might have a basic understanding of what SEO is and why it's important, but many established businesses or more traditional business owners may not see the value in it if they've never had to use it in the past. With the search landscape and digital marketing in general changing so often, it's not hard to see why it's sometimes avoided. I mean, who has the time?
So what exactly is SEO? SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and it literally means what you'd gather from that terminology: the optimization of your website to perform well on search engines. If you do a search on Google, the top sites that pop up are probably the better optimized of the lot, and have a higher value (for various reasons) in the eyes of the Google bots, and are therefore prioritized.
While a lot of businesses gain new clients and customers through word of mouth, there are 5.4 million Google searches per minute (Internet Live Stats, 2021) and many look to Google for a quick read on what businesses can serve them. We have short attention spans so whatever we find that's closest to us or pops up on that first page of results will likely be what we choose. You want your business to show up into their instant consideration set, and SEO efforts can help you get there.
So before you completely write off SEO, look into it a bit more and maybe you can increase your website traffic (and maybe actual foot traffic) with a few simple tweaks.
Follow along and learn more about SEO and how you can increase your visibility and grow your business.