Why Your Online Presence Now Can Determine the Growth of Your Business Next Year
One of the most common mistakes of many companies is slowing down their search engine optimization (SEO) during the end of the year, it is actually detrimental to their business growth having a smaller online presence when business activities start to pick up after the second week of January. In fact, a better practice is to increase local SEO during the busiest shopping season of the year and use that momentum to have an advantage at the beginning of the new year.
You may be thinking that you are so busy promoting your products and services through other channels during the last quarter that you do not have time to focus on SEO. However, it is precisely because more people are actively searching online during the fourth quarter that you should at minimum keep your SEO efforts focused and on-track at this time. The fourth quarter offers many lucrative opportunities for businesses, yet only if businesses know how to take advantage of them. SEO is one area that should not be neglected. If you do neglect it, you will begin the New Year needing to start the momentum up from scratch without the boost you could have gotten from end of year efforts.
Your Online Reputation
Reputation is always influential in business. Offline, we maintain our reputations by how we do business, seeking to interact positively with customers and solve problems quickly. However, the business executive who is the most vigilant at polishing his offline reputation may not realize the influence of an online reputation. Online reputations are built through online reviews on sites such as Yelp, conversations on Facebook and videos of people in action on YouTube. You may have customers who report you to the Better Business Bureau or other industry organizations.
You can manage your online reputation by seeking online reviews from your customers on a consistent basis. Let them know that you are on Yelp, and to tell people about their experience. Post surveys on your site and on Facebook that allow for customer interaction. And do your best to work out problems with customers when orders go south. It is inevitable that problems will occur. Document them thoroughly, but preempt vitriol by maintaining an ongoing positive presence online.
Testimonials, third-party surveys and customer feedback that is posted online will help sway potential customers when a bad review gets posted. There are many examples online that show how customers’ feedback can either make or break a business. Sometimes negative feedback brings out the support, while other times it is a death knell.
The Value of Local SEO
Miami For small businesses and often larger businesses, local SEO can bring in their bread-and-butter business. In other words, the day-to-day regular sales that you need to stay afloat. Whether you use a local SEO company or hire your own internal SEO, your knowledge of the local area and what your customers are looking for will draw in the business you need. A Miami SEO company can find the perfect niche or niches to market your small business. They can research the ins and outs of your particular industry and company to determine the keywords that your prospects are searching for. It is this intimate knowledge that you can use to your advantage in local SEO.
You can geo-modify your keywords to attract locals. For instance, if you own a Mexican restaurant, you could use “Mexican restaurant Miami” as a keyword. When locals or visitors search for a Mexican restaurant in Miami, your store will come up. Of course, you can go even more local than that by adding suburb names, and neighboring town names to your keywords. Other uses of this technique can include more detailed information, such as “best tacos in Miami,” or “best margaritas in Miami.” Anyone looking for a margarita to celebrate with will find your location.
Other unique features of local SEO include creating a page on Google’s local search engine for your brick-and-mortar location. These pages are highlighted in local search through images and other Google widgets that they test out. Knowledge panels and carousels are methods that Google has used. Google is working to present the best user experience they can for local searchers, and you can use this situation to highlight your business to them. Look for widgets on the top of a local search page to see which method Google is currently using in your regional area.
Why Continue to Push SEO during the Holidays?
Business is cyclical, and many companies bring in the most revenues during the fourth quarter of the year. In fact, companies often work the entire year to position themselves for fourth quarter sales. However, in reality people do not live one year at a time. Time marches on, and your business can take advantage of the buildup during fourth quarter to jumpstart the next year, or you can rest on your laurels and start over each year.
The problem inherent with the second manner of thinking is that each year presents new challenges that we cannot foresee. It is a better business practice to continue to market to your customers through Christmas to start at a higher position in search in the next cycle. You will potentially build to a new high in the successive year, or you will prevent a low that comes later from unforeseen obstacles. The Internet itself stretches the holiday season because it is accessible 24/7. Your ability to reach out to your holiday customers, and offer them a January and February coupon, for instance, can start with ongoing SEO. Or you can market to the thousands of people who travel after the holidays to get away from the weather. They plan their vacations well in advance of the trips themselves, and start searching for activities, restaurants and accommodations before they come to town.
If you do your research well, you can really boost your business long after the holiday season is over, and extend it into the next year preventing any loss or slow-down. However, you should also understand that SEO efforts do take lead time, and if you allow your current efforts to stagnate over the holidays, you will not get the same results when you start up again. You will have to wait for the results to appear.
Comparing the ROI of SEO to Other Marketing Techniques
What makes SEO such a good bet when it comes to marketing techniques? To answer this question, you must first understand how people shop and research online. A person enters their search query into Google for their desired item. By using specific words to narrow down their request, they can find companies that sell what they are searching for. For larger purchases, the shopper will use the Internet to compare pricing, stock availability and answer other questions long before they step into your showroom. Depending on the complexity of what you are selling, they may search 10 or 15 websites before they are ready to contact you.
They are doing their research without any way for you to influence them directly. Therefore, you need to work to have your company appear in the top 10 results for their queries.
The cost of SEO is much lower than most other marketing and advertising channels. As a comparison, a 30-second local television commercial can cost in a range of $4000 to $45,000 in a top market. Radio spots cost $200 to $1000 for a 60-second slot. Direct mail includes the cost of paper, printing and postage all for a very low response rate. However, SEO costs in the range of $15,000 to $75,000 per year with an extremely high response rate. The response rate is high because customers are already looking for what you offer.
Combining SEO with Other Inbound Efforts
SEO marketing on its own can provide a consistent stream of new prospects to your business. This marketing effort is a year-round project that should not slow down during the fourth quarter. You can increase your success rate with SEO by combining it with other inbound marketing channels such as email marketing, social media marketing and careful examination of website analytics.
With knowledgeable management of SEO, partnered with the actual results from your marketing campaigns, you can continue to tweak and improve your ROI as your campaigns continue. Fine-tuning your graphics, text and keywords based on the analytics will net your company an ROI that you will love along with higher revenues and profits.
The SEO push in the final months of the year will bring in new business that gets the New Year started out with prospects ready to buy, instead of a sluggish, low-profit first quarter. Why not continue to use the tools that you have at hand to keep your business in the green, and start the New Year out right?
