The short answer? Yes!
But of course, you expected me to say that - after all, I run a whole business doing SEO for small creative businesses. So at the very least, that shows you that there is definitely interest in SEO on behalf of small businesses - otherwise I would be a hungry person.
But wondering "Does SEO really work for small business" is interesting because in many ways, it's not the right question. It's not specific enough, and has too many possible interpretations of what the question is actually asking.
For example, if the question is "Can a small business do the same SEO as a big business and have the same outcomes?" - then the answer is no.
If the question is "Will SEO help a small business compete against a big business?" - then the answer is no.
If the question is "Are there SEO strategies that will help the website of my small business gain more traffic?" - then the answer is absolutely yes.
SEO Requires Strategy
Much like any business decision, in order for SEO to have an impact there must be a strategy. For example, a terrible small business strategy is to try to copy the same thing that a big business is doing - from the product to sales to marketing, you simply can't compete against the economy of scale of a big business.
But I would wager that your business has been formed around unique selling points (USPs) that differentiate it from corporations. Knowing the USPs of your products and targeting to the audience of people who specifically want to buy that exact type of product is a smart small business strategy - especially when it comes to marketing and SEO.
A solid SEO strategy should work hand-in-hand with your marketing efforts, because it's all about focusing on what sets your products apart from the competition. To do so, you'll be talking about the specifics of the product - whether that's the materials, manufacturing methods, design style, sustainability factors and so on.
SEO Strategy Doesn't Have to be Complex
Having a successful SEO strategy for your website, or for Faire SEO, isn't so much about the complexity of the strategy, more about the consistency of the strategy. Choosing keywords for the different collections or products on your website should be fairly simple - they're basically just the product type or service you sell. You can use resources like the Ahrefs keyword generator tool to check the different search volumes of keywords if you're feeling fancy (or book a chat with me for help doing so). Once you've chosen them, using the keywords consistently is the key.
Just Do It
Developing a strategy and knowing what you need to do is just the foundations. You need to actually DO the implementations of your strategy in order for it to work. This means using your keywords in your:
- SEO Titles
- Meta Titles
- Alt Texts
- Urls
- Text
- Product Names
- Innerlinks
These things are all super easy to access in most CMS, and literally writing anything in there is going to be better than nothing. So the reality is that answering the question "Does SEO work for small business" is impossible, becasue the question is incomplete. Creating an effective SEO strategy for a small business is absolutely going to work, and help increase visibility and traffic.
If you've read this far and know you need help with your SEO strategy or implementation, please don't hesistate to book a free consultation with me, and I can kickstart your journey with some expert advice.
