SEO or Search Engine Optimization is an important factor that’s not typical given proper consideration by small to medium size businesses when they are building a new site or revamping an old one.
“Build it and they will come” …NOT!
Did you see field of dreams with Kevin Costner? I know technically the voice whispered “Build it and HE will come” but the whole concept of just putting up a baseball field in the middle of nowhere and at the end of the show, people will magically show up and make all your financial woes disappear. This is something I often compare to those who think they can just put up a website and make a million dollars.
Because it’s there doesn’t mean it can be found
I am not saying that you cant make a million dollars putting up a website as its been done many times. But putting up a website without consideration for SEO is definitely going to make it much harder, if not impossible. It may be “OK” if you are already an established business and you get all of your business through reputation and word of mouth. Your existing customers probably already know your web site URL or company name and they are not going to “search” for you in a manner where you will need to “compete” with other businesses for search raking. Chances are, that if you’re “The Web Design Company” in Charlotte NC and your site is indexed by google, then your customers are probably going to find you fairly easily if they search for the phrase “The Web Design Company in Charlotte NC”.
But if you are “The Web Design Company” in Belmont North Carolina.”
I’m no longer focused on just “Web Design” where I will probably get my butt kicked on SEO ranking by the giants. Because they can afford to focus on rank high with just “Web Design.” But by adding “Belmont
North Carolina” I have omitted the rest of the world and I am now only competing for “Web Design in Belmont North Carolina.” What are the chances that the big companies have bought adwords for those “specific” keywords? Not very likely.
But let’s take it even further, you really want to work with “small to medium” businesses (hmm,…wonder who I am talking about here?).
As you can see I have even further specified an audience “Web Design”
small to medium businesses” what I am actually doing is focusing on what’s called “Long-Tail Keywords.” There is no way I can compete with the big giants out there, I just don’t have the budget and my guess is you probably don’t either. Instead I would rather focus my efforts in a very specific niche area where I am more likely to get the business and customers I am looking for, hence my conversion rate will hopefully be better because people are looking to get service for exactly what I offer.
Now I am in no way telling you to limit yourself and reduce your customer base. I am just showing you how being specific can help you target your ideal customer while keeping an eye on the purse strings. Using the specific method above is just for illustration.
Conclusion
The conclusion here is that even though GOOD SEO can get you viewed by millions of people, I would rather have SPECIFIC SEO that can get you viewed by relevant and potential customers.
