Yes, small businesses should focus on trade shows and business strategies, but if all they’re focusing on is external pomp or clever planning, they’re missing out on something equally important: SEO.

If business strategies are what keep businesses running smoothly and if trade shows are what keep businesses in the limelight, SEO is what helps capture the attention of prospective audiences. It’s what makes your target audience out there aware of your existence—and it does so much more.

Forbes says confidence is the “key ingredient” to building a successful business—but we’re going to disagree with Forbes here. While it’s true that start-ups and entrepreneurs and people of that sort will battle under-confidence and all of that, even if they’re over-confident, things won’t just work out for them. Unless they’re reaching out to their target demographic, maintaining their digital presence, are talked of on social media as well as are confident in what they’re doing—they aren’t going to succeed.

And that’s where SEO comes in.

The Key Ingredient to Succeeding as a Small Business: Standing Out

So while we disagreed with Forbes above, here’s what we agree with: small business optimism is growing. And this is an effect that has taken not just the United States by storm, but most of the world. With so many young people in business schools coming up with their own ideas and building their own enterprises, there’s something else that is growing other than small business optimism: competition.

With big businesses—let’s say the classic rivalry between Coke and Pepsi—people have to focus on one and only business rival. Mega businesses that have long been established, that have a well-known global franchise, have a far easier time: they just have to fight one major competitor in the market. Now let’s say your business is a pizzeria in Chicago: you’re competing with dozens of rivals, all of whom offer the same product as you. Chicago is the country’s top pizza city after all, and a simple search on Eater will reveal more than 40 pizzerias around town—and these are only the leading ones.

So, what should do you, as a newly minted pizzeria in Chicago, to succeed?

You stand out. And you employ SEO strategies to help you do this.

How to Stand Out as a Small Business

So why is standing out so important, especially for small businesses? Let’s take a look at cosmetics and skincare lines: when Kylie Jenner and Millie Bobby Brown launch their skincare brands, people know about it. Since people know about them and their brands with little effort on their part, people will naturally gravitate towards their products.

The operative word here is know. How do you, a small-town entrepreneur with a new and small business and big dreams, get to the same—or similar—level of popularity?

You work towards being present. And we mean digitally present. The United States alone has 312 million internet users, but they aren’t all your concern. You just need to focus on the people interested in exactly what you’re offering. These people will be looking for you on Google and various other search engines. These people will be talking about your products and services in various social media groups and forums. These people will genuinely want to read blogs about what you do.

These people exist, and your business exists—so how do you let them know that (a) you’re providing what they’re looking for and (b) that you’re good at what you do?

You do SEO.

And here’s why.

Targeted Traffic

When the content on your website are optimized to perfection, your pages will end up showing in Google search results. So, if you’re selling pizza in Chicago and you’ve got everything on your website right—from the headings to the URL to the schema mark-ups to the H1 and H3 tags—you’ll show up if a person in Chicago Googles this: good deep dish pizza place in Chicago. Let’s say your pizzeria is located in Ravenswood Gardens, and that you have added this information in your Google Business listings, as well as mentioned the keyword “deep dish pizzeria in Ravenswood Gardens” in your website, your pages will definitely show up if a person in Ravenswood Gardens is looking for pizzerias in Chicago.

These, for example, show up on the topmost Google results when we look for deep dish pizza places in Chicago:

Notice how at least two of these pizza places—the one on Sunnyside and the one on Montrose Ave—are in close proximity:

Customer Retention

So now that you have the right customers finding your website, you’ll have significant local traffic on your pages. But traffic, of course, isn’t enough. Getting people to see you is the first step and getting people to know you is the second. Through SEO strategies that include video marketing and regular blogs updates, live chat bots and newsletters, clean web design and easy navigation, your website works towards making sure that the potential customers who have made their way to your website don’t leave—or at least don’t leave without making a conversion.

The idea is to retain customers. You don’t want them just looking. You want them actively engaging with your representatives, reading your content, watching your videos. Not only does this ensure that they’ll share their digital discovery with friends and colleagues in person and on social media; it will also ensure that Google knows your website has a lot of traffic. The algorithm will pick up the cue: growing traffic means people are looking for you, and your pages will show in even more first pages/top results.

It’s the loyal customers that will eventually bring regular traffic to your website. You want to nail this part by:

• Optimize knowledge base
• Focus on frequently or potentially asked questions
• Monitor consumer behavior and incorporate that information into your content
• Use Google snippets
• Be active on social media

Only about 10% of small businesses make it to 10 years of service—and if you’re focusing on SEO, you’ll live to see the next 10 years for sure!

You can also read: 

• How Story telling and moving Images can boost SEO ranking
• How factors for UX affects SEO
• The Ultimate Guide to Content SEO
• Unlock the Power of Voice Search Optimization: 7 Strategies You Need to Know 
• Keyword Research Reimagined: Using Reddit, Wikipedia, Seed Keywords, and Creating Your Own for SEO Success
• How to Rank with Local SEO
• The Key Elements of On-page SEO

About the Author

Joseph Dyson specializes in small business SEO and content marketing. An SEO enthusiast and a close observer of the rise and fall of small businesses in the U.S., he has helped several small businesses and startups make headway in highly competitive markets.

Related: SEO strategy