By John Eberhard
According to surveys, here are the biggest concerns small business owners have regarding SEO, search engine optimization.
Here’s a summary of the most commonly reported concerns.
- We’re not showing up on Google
Visibility is a major concern.
- Nearly 60% rate their search visibility as only poor or average.
- Yet 63.6% say showing up in Google is very important or critical.
This creates a clear frustration:
“Google matters—but we’re not getting found.”
Solution: If a company website is not showing up in Google, that is usually an indication that no SEO has been done in the past. Or it could be an indication of heavy competition in that industry. Either way I would recommend investigating SEO actions you can do that are effective and affordable.
- SEO is important, but we’re not investing
This contradiction appears repeatedly.
- 72% believe SEO significantly impacts their business.
- Yet 55.6% don’t invest in SEO.
- Only 17.3% invest consistently.
- “SEO costs too much.”
36% of SMB owners said cost is preventing them from investing in marketing, including SEO.
Solution: SEO costs don’t have to be prohibitive, but it is something that you have to do consistently over a period of time to get results. Work with a company to come up with a strategy you can afford.
- “I don’t know enough about SEO.”
Several surveys point to a knowledge gap:
- 54% handle all marketing themselves.
- Nearly 25% of business owners admit they are only vaguely familiar with SEO or not familiar at all.
- 57% of in-house marketers say lack of SEO skills is their biggest hurdle.
Many owners simply don’t know what they should be doing.
Solution: Find a company you can trust that can educate you on what is needed for effective SEO.
- “SEO agencies don’t deliver.”
Among businesses that hired SEO providers:
- 44% switched because they weren’t seeing business results.
- Only 30% would recommend their current SEO company.
Solution: Once again find a company you can trust, and who will give you monthly reports showing the progress being made. We send monthly reports to clients showing how their site is ranking on search engines for the keywords they are targeting, and website traffic. If we are doing our job well, those statistics will be consistently improving.
- “Local SEO is confusing.”
BrightLocal uncovered several surprising findings:
- Only 35% have claimed their Google Business Profile.
- Only 17% actively use business directories.
- Only 15% actively use review platforms.
This suggests many owners don’t understand the basics of local SEO.
Solution: Local SEO is one important aspect of SEO, which is how well your Google Business Profile listing is showing up in the map section on Google. There are specific actions that can be done to improve this and keep your listing appearing high.
Addressing Concerns
One other thing that I think is common is that business owners don’t necessarily understand that SEO takes time to get results. It isn’t something you do for one month and then abandon it because nothing happened. It takes 3-6 months to start getting results and 6-12 months to really get significant action.
I know that’s frustrating and you don’t know if your SEO guy is actually doing anything or if he knows what he is doing.
That’s why I think it is vital to have a monthly report that not only lists the actions being done, but also gives a grid showing the targeted keywords and how high your site is ranking for them on Google, Bing and Yahoo. Then we summarize how many keywords you have in the #1 position, in the top 10, top 20 and top 50. We also include site traffic numbers, and the number of links to the website.
If you’d like a free consultation on SEO for your business and getting your site to come up in search results, contact Real Web Marketing at 661-441-2429, or fill out a form here.
