SEO for Small Business

Search engines, especially Google, are the primary way people in Sydney search for a product or service. It’s a fantastic way to put your business front and centre of potential customers wanting to buy. But, SEO might not be for everyone ( probably the exception than the rule).

When it comes to SEO for your small business, you MUST consider the following:

• Realistic budgets. SEO can be expensive, especially if you’re in a competitive niche with existing companies spending a fortune on their SEO. Read more about SEO pricing and what you can expect to pay for SEO. If your business is in a super competitive space, you might be priced out of SEO unless you have deep pockets and are willing to spend.
• Urgency. SEO is a long term stratgey. You certainly can’t rush SEO or try to spam your way up the rankings. If you need quick wins ( and I’m talking less than 120 days ), SEO might not be the best option. Many SEO companies will promise immediate gains and impressive rankings, all backed up by a guarantee, BUT these are the type of agencies you need to avoid. All they do is buy cheap backlinks 100% against Google’s Webmaster Guidelines that give you a temporary push in the rankings only to be followed by a Google penalty. You have been warned! If you have a product or service that needs immediate exposure on Google, then Adwords is the better option. You can start the SEO campaign now and wait for the rankings to happen, and in the interim, Adwords will give you lots of exposure on Google ( if you can afford the cost of Adwords ).
• Competition from Adwords. Ads now occupy a lot of real estate on Google. They take up the first four spots, and so many people click on these ads. The organic listings do get the most clicks. Getting to these positions can take time, especially in a competitive space. Have you got the budget and patience to get there?
• Big players. Many search terms ( keywords ) are very competitive, and it can be a huge roadblock for many small businesses to go up against these more prominent brands and well-known names.

While organic visibility on Google is a great thing, it’s not always a viable option for your business, especially if you want fast results in a competitive space. Go for other marketing options like Adwords or Social Media. In most cases, we suggest a combination of PPC and SEO. PPC will give immediate results and be scaled back once your SEO starts kicking in and producing results.

You can try to do your SEO, but there are some serious issues & consequences with this.

Do you have the time to read up about SEO and implement it yourself? The SEO landscape is constantly changing, and it’s a full-time job for us. How are you going to keep up with this when you have a business to run?

Do you have the technical expertise to read into Google’s algorithmic changes – as they happen daily?

Your competition is most likely paying an SEO agency in Sydney to secure decent rankings and web traffic. How are you going to compete if you take a DIY approach to your SEO?

There are so many scammers in the SEO space trying to sell you dodgy backlinks. If you buy any of these, you are going to cause harm to your rankings. We know what links to purchase and what to avoid. Do you?

Why wouldn’t you pay for a professional service that’s going to bring in business? You don’t fix your teeth or do your legal work? So, let the professionals handle your internet marketing!

All SEO campaigns need well over 12 months? Your SEO should be a continual process, and you need to be in it for the long haul. Many factors determine how long it will take to rank your website.

These include:

The competitive nature of your niche: if your industry is very competitive and you want to cover the whole of Sydney, this can have a significant impact on timings.

Your SEO budget: small unrealistic SEO budgets will kill your chances of rankings.

The age of your website: the older the URL, the quicker the rankings,

The previous SEO work carried out on your website: many small business owners will have left their SEO in the hands of agencies that will have built toxic or low-quality backlinks, which hampers SEO efforts. You will have to undo the work they have done will have to be reversed.

The ability of your current SEO agency: SEO can take a lot longer if your SEO agency is not up to speed with Googles changes or is not doing its job correctly.

The state of your website: what’s the content, user experience and link structure? In some cases, you will need a new website to make it Google compliant. 

SEO is for all businesses that rely on Google for sales leads and new customers. Every small business in Sydney needs customers, and the best way to get this is from Google. If you are one of the thousands of small companies competing online for customers, you need SEO.

Types of small businesses needing SEO:

Trades: plumbers, carpenters, bricklayers, cleaners, electricians – basically anything to do with home maintenance and repairs all need some online presence.

Professionals: Accountants, lawyers, cosmetic surgeons, web designers, market research, financial planners, home loan brokers, commercial business loans, PR agencies, engineers… the list goes on. All professional services looking for customers need SEO.

SEO prices can vary for small businesses but expect to pay anywhere between $1500 to $5000+gst per month.

Many factors will impact the cost, but we can run these by you with your free SEO audit.

Some of these factors include:

• The competitive nature of your industry
• How quickly you want to see results
• Past SEO work
• How many keywords you want to optimise

If you have a small budget and expect miracles and fast, sustainable Google rankings for your small business, this will not happen. When it comes to SEO, you have to set aside a realistic budget and be aware of the timings. Be on the lookout for any SEO agency that promises you speedy rankings backed up by guarantees, all at low prices. 

Here are some SEO prices you can use as a guideline:

Local SEO campaign = $1500+gst per month

Sydney wide campaign = $2000+gst per month

National SEO campaign = $5000 – $10,000+gst per month

SEO is a continual process of building trust and authority to your website. In this way, you start to climb up the rankings. SEO is not for the short term. You have to continually work on your website with adding new content, blogs, refining and tweaking current page copy, and maintaining a robust backlinking campaign which is the only way you can retain top rankings.

An article in Forbes states that: If you can’t budget for 6 to 12 months of SEO, you might be better off putting that budget somewhere else. Paying for just a few months of SEO is, in many cases, no better than throwing your money away. SEO is a long-term marketing tactic. 

I would go even further and say that SEO has to be going as long as you are in business. Stopping SEO is like cutting off your marketing and relying on word of mouth. I advise all my small business clients that as long as you see a great ROI, why would you stop your SEO? Keep it going to maintain solid Google rankings.