Is SEO worth it for small businesses?

While there is no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to growing a business, SEO should be strongly considered as a growth driver for small businesses. For a small business, SEO can be a lasting and scalable solution in terms of raising brand awareness and getting more website visitors – that also costs less than a temporary endeavor on other marketing channels, like paid ads.

With all that being said, SEO is not the right fit for all small businesses. In order for an SEO campaign to be successful, the answers to the following questions must be, “YES”:

1. Is there meaningful search volume existing for your service/product?
   1. In other words, are many people actually looking on search engines for what you sell?
2. Do you have the bandwidth and expertise to execute an SEO strategy that will realistically allow you to compete for this search volume?
   1. In other words, do you as a small business have enough capacity and resources to start pursuing search terms your competition is ranking for?

SEO Strategists like those at Fire&Spark start every discussion with potential clients with an assessment to determine the answers to these two questions. If the answer to one or both questions is, “No,” then we suggest that SEO might not be the right channel for the business to grow.

If the answers to these questions are yes, then your SEO strategist would develop a custom strategy tailored towards helping your small business scalably grow organic traffic—and, more importantly, organic revenue—for years to come. In these cases, SEO is very much worth it for small businesses, and becomes one of their most reliable means of taking their companies to the next level.

If you feel like bandwidth and expertise are your limiting factors, hiring an SEO agency may be the right decision.

A strong agency partner will be able to help train your team, get your SEO off the ground, and serve as additional bandwidth for as long as you need it.

For a small business, investing in any marketing endeavor without knowing what the realistic return on that investment may be is risky. Get our no-cost Opportunity Analysis, and we will let you know whether SEO is something you should prioritize.