We all live in a world where technology is ever-evolving. Small businesses or macro businesses are the heart of the economy. These types of businesses play a huge role in the country’s economy and are the largest producer of jobs, GDP and taxes.
However, the harsh reality is that they are the ones that find it hardest to grow. Growing a business is not at all an easy feat. There are a lot of challenges that one is likely to face, like the competition and the market size.
The budding entrepreneurs also have to grapple with countless pain points every day. Digital marketing is a field that has a lot of potential, but it is the hardest to grasp. A majority of entrepreneurs started as experts in their niche where marketing is a necessity to complete the job.
Below are the common SEO pain points one can address –
1. Where there are fewer resources and money
It is a common notion that you have to spend money to make more money. Many companies spend money on marketing and advertising because they deliver ROI. However, sometimes there is a tipping point. Many small businesses did not see ROI from PPC until they raised their daily spending.
If one is not able to devote more money to your search engine optimization efforts, you can see better returns. More prominent companies tend to have bigger budgets. They can also allocate towards hiring more employees. They can also invest in meaningful content and great web designs if they have more money.
2. You have less time
Time is indeed money, and if you have less time, you have less money. If there are fewer heads on the marketing team that are working on the website, that means everybody is juggling multiple tasks, and nobody can focus 100% of their time on SEO. Some businesses are so small that they have just one or two people doing everything.
It makes SEO exponentially harder. Real SEO takes a lot of time. One should be able to create helpful content and promote their assets, and secure links. However, none of this is easy. Small businesses end up rushing into things that result in under-optimized sites with poor rankings.
3. Something else always comes first.
When you are short on resources, the SEO-related tasks always seem to get pushed to the bottom of the list. There are various examples, such as blogging and content creation. It is crucial to decide what your priorities are, and you should always work on them.
4. Keep up with the changes.
A typical SEO specialist who breathes searches has ample time to follow the industry publications and also keep up with the rapidly changing search landscape. They will immediately know if Google has released a big algorithm change or other significant updates that could affect your rankings and strategy.
They will also hear about various new techniques and judge what is worth trying. The marketers are too busy trying to keep up with their industry vertical to spend any extra time following the twists and turns of SEO. One should be ready to expand horizons and adapt to the changes this industry offers.
5. Google favours brands
It is the ultimate truth that every search engine favours brands that are already established. Google ranks the big brands higher in the search results as they have user behaviour data which indicates that people click more often on recognizable brand websites.
If one wants to compete on a keyword that more prominent brands are going after, you will have to work much harder to prove that your marketing blog content is relevant and worth the user’s time. One should be able to keep up with the changes in the market and adapt to them like a professional. It takes some time to build your brand but sustains you in the long run.
6. Bigger businesses have been at it longer.
Every big business starts small first before it becomes significant. Big companies have been around longer. You have an advantage if you’ve been operating as a small business that is doing well.
But the harsh reality is that many small businesses haven’t been around for that long and they also have not accrued authority and a great link profile yet. This is why it is harder for new websites to rank on competitive keywords. Google like older domains and big brands have been doing SEO longer, so the odds are in their favour.
Many people use SEO audit services which are the services provided by the SEO agencies, and they include an inspection of your website to find problems or issues that hold your site back in the organic search results.
7. Your website is smaller
If you are a new person in the field of SEO and you own a small business, the chances are that your site is not just newer, it is smaller too as compared to the other sites. You could have less content and fewer pages overall. It amounts to fewer keywords you can target and it also targets fewer opportunities to rank.
Big websites get more traffic as there is a sea of search queries and they have a potential to rank. The big brands have bigger websites as they have more resources to funnel towards creating content. They also offer more products and services.
8. You have fewer tools and those are less powerful
Enterprises can afford to invest in great softwares. The in-house SEO at any big company has various kinds of tools at his disposal that automate away the most time-consuming tasks involved with search marketing.
These companies can also afford to buy up for better analytics, better reporting tools and better conversion optimization tools. The small companies are stuck with free tools which makes it very hard to gain a competitive advantage. Manual work also takes more time.
9. You have less clout to leverage for the link building and media coverage
The big sites and the brands with great reputations tend to get links without even trying. It helps them a great deal to have some weight behind their name when the target audience actively reaches out for the links.
If these big sites actively seek media coverage in a big publication, it helps tremendously if the people have already heard of them. However, the smaller SEO businesses are less likely to have brand recognition on their side.
10. Not maintaining a positive reputation online
In any type of business, reputation is everything. Many customers claim that online reviews heavily influence their buying decisions. It is very important to maintain a positive reputation of your business online. Critics are everywhere. However, one should know how to deal with these critics and turn them into your customers.
11. Losing focus
There is so much going in the business and digital world. The SEO small business owners are likely to jump across every opportunity they come across. A lot of these opportunities maybe just be distractions or potential pitfalls. It is very important to keep an eye out on a good opportunity that comes your way. Setting definite, attainable goals is crucial. It’s crucial to maintain concentration and prevent getting distracted.
One should allocate time, money and resources to make sure that they reach these goals. No matter what the size of your business is, it is very important to build a loyal customer base and keep everyone in your company on board with what you want to achieve. You should also know that most aspects of your business depend on successful marketing. No business is without its pain points. It is also important to make bold moves to help you out in the long run.
12. Not measuring KPIs
The KPIs or the key performance indicators. It is a flexible system to measure how well you are achieving your business objectives. There are five KPI groups for evaluating your success across all types of marketing platforms. TheseThese categories include lead generation, paid advertising, website and traffic metrics, social media tracking and lead generation. It is also important to measure your success and analyze your campaigns against these data and best practices so that you can get better outcomes.
13. Not being able to create effective content
Content marketing approach is the approach that levels the playing field for businesses. They are the sure-fire way to deliver the most valuable content marketing that both the customers and search engines will love. Marketing across various digital mediums requires a solid content strategy.
Conclusion
Small business SEO is always changing and developing. We gave you the fundamentals of SEO so you can begin to get your website ranked, but we also advise company owners to keep up with current events so they can stay abreast of evolving SEO tactics. To stay current on effective SEO techniques, business owners are advised to read industry blogs and follow thought leaders on social media.
Following the implementation of some of these initial methods for your website, it is crucial for business owners to monitor their SEO performance using tools like Google Analytics so they can identify what is effective and what needs to be improved. You will be well on your way to ranking your website and attracting new clients by adhering to these SEO suggestions.
