Approximately half of small businesses already invest in SEO to improve their visibility, according to The Manifest 2021 Small Business SEO Survey. Worryingly, almost 1 in 5 small businesses doesn’t plan to invest in SEO at all. Indeed, as results are not immediate with the organic ranking discipline, entrepreneurs often opt for strategies that can drive obvious short-term results, such as paid search marketing (PPC).
The majority of small businesses that focus on SEO tasks employees with SEO improvements. Unfortunately, in-house employees often lack the tools and knowledge to produce profitable SEO results. Additionally, many employees manage SEO activities on top of their roles, which means they don’t invest their full attention in search engine optimization. That’s precisely why keeping a DIY approach to SEO is a false economy. Businesses of all sizes can maximize their visibility when they entrust an enterprise SEO agency with their strategy. Indeed, working with an expert can ensure that some spend plenty of time developing SEO activities and strategies every week. In-house teams face challenges when it comes to dedicating enough time to SEO. Furthermore, SEO experts can prevent some of the most common issues experienced by in-house teams.
#1. You don’t know how to write quality SEO content
Content quality is an essential factor of every SEO strategy. Yet, producing SEO-optimized content is no easy task. It isn’t uncommon for internal teams to struggle with SEO copywriting.
Indeed, SEO copywriting must include keyword research. As tempting as it is to trust your instincts, appropriate research work will reveal which keywords your target audience actually uses. Unfortunately, small teams are sometimes prone to skip this step. To avoid skipping the vital things regarding SEO strategies, you can check out and listen to SEO speakers like Stewart Vickers
who is an expert and has a deep understanding of SEO.
Another important element of copywriting is to address the search intent, which is what the user wants to achieve. Do they want to find information? Do they want to purchase? Understanding the search intent will ensure you don’t produce a sales-focused copy for an informational intent.
Finally, the content must be written for the user. When the content fails to take the user’s perspective into account, it misses its target.
#2. Your SEO strategy doesn’t support the marketing strategy
SEO is not a stand-alone marketing activity. To be effective, it must be part of the whole marketing strategy. Search engine optimization can support many marketing objectives, including:
- Brand awareness
- Customer support and understanding
- Sales increase
- Positioning the business as an expert
Consequently, it is crucial to use SEO as part of an overarching marketing plan rather than make it a second thought. When utilized strategically, SEO activities can help business growth and income increase.
#3. You don’t capitalize on your YouTube presence
YouTube is a popular channel that can significantly drive revenue. The reasons why many successful businesses can make money on Youtube are multiple. First of all, brands can build awareness and recognition through their video content.
Influencers also use video content to attract affiliate advertising and sponsoring.
Yet, regardless of the purpose of your channel, YouTube’s success relies on a business positioning on the platform. YouTube and Google belong to the same company, which means that videos can support your SEO rankings. Indeed, videos appear in the search results and react to the same Google algorithm. Therefore, it isn’t uncommon for SEO experts to create effective strategies designed to improve ranking in search.
YouTube SEO also includes keyword research, keyword placement, and quality copywriting.
#4. You don’t know how to measure SEO results
How do in-house teams measure SEO results? More often than not, internal teams focus their attention on two specific areas: The ranking for a specific keyword and website traffic. However, SEO reporting in-house can miss important results and fail to provide the necessary improvements.
Typically, marketing reports are produced on a weekly or monthly basis, which often fails to show the bigger picture, such as the gradual improvements through SEO. SEO is a slow process, and businesses can expect to notice a high-level improvement in organic traffic over a period of one year or more.
The clickthrough rate is another important SEO factor that can often be overlooked. CTR refers to how many users clicked on the business link in the search results in comparison to the number of impressions in the SERPs. SEO experts use the data as an indication of the quality of their meta information — description, titles, URLs, snippets, etc.
Bounce rate is also a significant SEO factor, as it measures how many users leave the website without interaction. A high bounce rate affects rankings. It could indicate disparities between the user’s expectations and the page content, UX issues, technical problems such as slow load time, display inaccuracies on devices/browsers, etc.
In conclusion, while many businesses prefer to keep SEO in-house to save costs, they could be missing out on the skills and knowledge of an expert. Working with a specialist SEO agency can prevent costly and time-demanding issues from affecting your search engine optimization results.
