SEO is a lot of work. I have heard this mantra from entrepreneurs too many times over the last ten days to not write a blog post about it.
Small Business SEO basically entails writing a web page about each of the things you sell that is around 900 – 2,500 words (depending on who you listen to) and then writing at least one, and maybe two blog posts per week about your keyword topics, and setting those pages and blog posts up properly.
To this “amount of work” I often hear the refrain – that just sounds like so much work. Who has the time? I am busy running my business. Basically what they are saying is that SEO is a lot of work.
But compared to what? Is SEO hard compared to struggling perpetually because you don’t have enough customers? Is SEO hard compared to direct sales like I used to do (making 300 dials per day)? Is SEO a lot of work compared to having to go find a job and work 8-12 hours per day for someone else because your business didn’t succeed? Is SEO a lot of work compared to preparing a direct mail campaign, finding the list, designing the stuff, navigating postage? Is writing one blog post harder than getting out your e-newsletter?
Well here’s the thing – chances are, regardless of what you sell, there are at least 2,000 – 10,000 people (per month) in YOUR LOCAL AREA searching Google to find what you sell. And they aren’t finding you, because keywording your web page, and writing blogs (or shooting Youtube Videos) is too much work.
So what you are saying is that having some percentage of the anywhere from 24,000 to 120,000 people (per year) who are actually out looking for exactly what you sell is too much work to do the SEO to have them find you.
The top 3 spots on Google receive 75% of all clicks.
So if 24,000 people per year search for what you sell in your local area, if you could just get in the top three spots on Google, that means that 18,000 potential people could find YOU and your business.
If you could net just 10% of those, that is 1,800 new customers that year.
But instead people put their effort into all kinds of things. Posting to Instagram or Facebook. Posting on Linkedin. Going to networking events. Cold calling. Sending blind e-mails. Sending out e-newsletters. And more! They make ALL of those efforts every day, but SEO is a lot of work?
Do you know what is different about SEO marketing versus all those other forms of marketing? Certainty!
Those other forms of marketing are all a gamble. You have no idea what that recipient is doing or thinking about at the moment they see you stuff. And your efforts have to try and get their attention.
When someone is on Google, they are literally trying to find you – and you are hiding from them. They are actively, right now, trying to buy what you sell – and you can’t put out the effort to make sure they find you?
So when you hear yourself saying “SEO is a lot of work.” Ask yourself – compared to what? Compared to being short of money all the time? Compared to dialing for dollars trying to get one person on the phone? Compared to trying to build an audience on Social Media? Just how much work is SEO then?
To me, relative to all the other things I could do, SEO seems like the LEAST amount of effort relative to the alternatives, and at least I KNOW these people are looking to buy what I sell when they find me, versus trying to get their attention off of whatever else they are doing.
Tim VanDerKamp is Co-Owner of Stay Wild Digital Marketing – a Digital Marketing Agency in Salt Lake City. They do website design salt lake city, SEO Company Salt Lake City, and SEO for Small Business in Salt Lake City.
If you need help with website design salt lake city or SEO Salt Lake City, Please email Tim Directly tim@staywilddigital.com or Visit our Contact Page.
