Recent Study Shows SEO Is STILL The Best Way to Get More Traffic

Still on the fence about putting more marketing effort into your business website? If you have a local business or an ecommerce store, this news might change your mind.

A recent study of 87 million website sessions has shown that  Google organic is still the largest source of online traffic and revenues,  providing 43% of traffic on average, and 42% of revenue. (source) This is not to be taken lightly, and it means SEO services are your best bet!

Although the study was primarily focused on Ecommerce businesses, this also can be applied to local service businesses. According to Yelp, 85% of consumers use the internet to find local businesses.  With what we know about online revenues in Ecommerce stores, we can see that with 85% of consumers searching for local businesses, local service revenues are likely tied to search just like other websites!

So, how can you take advantage of this and get your share of search?

1. Make sure your website has been optimized properly

This may seem like a no-brainer, but if you have a website that was built by someone without an SEO background, and you haven’t had an audit performed since going live, it’s likely you’ll need one. If you’re hoping to have great rankings without a professional audit, you’ll be hoping for a long time!

Simply making sure your business website is optimized for search is the absolute best way to increase your rankings right now. Simple wins are what it’s all about.

I’ve been optimizing and ranking websites for 20% of my life (no joke!) – don’t hestitate to get in touch  if you’re unsure where to start with your website

2. Check your local information to make sure it’s consistent and correct

Brand new explorers to local SEO will know that it’s essential to have a consistent NAP (Name, Address, and Phone #) across the web for your business.

When your onsite optimization has been perfected and your NAP is listed across the web consistently, the two tie together to give Google the strongest signals about where you are and what you do. This instantly helps you rank higher to get more business.

3. Make sure you have all the reviews you can get on Google and Yelp

In my experience, reviews are another high priority that business owners can help to boost themselves.  Don’t be afraid to ask for feedback!

The more reviews you have on your Yelp and Google listings, the higher you’ll likely rank. Google looks at both the number of reviews and the ratings, as well as the words used in the reviews. So in addition to making sure you have a solid review-requesting strategy, you’ll want to make sure you’re guiding the reviewer to use the right words.

One way to do this is to request that they state where their service was performed, and what the service was. (Ie “I had my dog trained by this business in Los Angeles, and they were great! etc etc”). This will help the reviewer add keywords without even knowing it.

Did you know? Review acquisition strategy is part of every Local SEO plan I offer. Be wary of SEO providers who only want to throw links at your site – reviews are essential and require a bit more hands on creativity to work into the process!

There you have it – search is still the most important provider of traffic and revenue for businesses online, and there are tons of things you can do to boost your rankings (and your bottom line!)

If you have any questions at all about implementing these tips, I’m happy to provide a free evaluation. Just request a quote anytime. 
Happy ranking!!