Increases Sales for your Local Businesses with Richmond SEO

Did you know that you can get “free” traffic to your website by leveraging the power of search engines like Google and Bing?  When you employ a practice known as search engine optimization, or SEO, you can get your Richmond business on the first page of Google, placing you in front of thousands of people searching for your services or products.  When you use SEO as part of your marketing campaign, more consumers will connect with you and your sales will increase. Call Big Oak SEO at 804-741-6776 for more information.

Your Website as an Extension of Your Business

Search portals like Google, Bing, and Yahoo are used by your potential customers (and even your past customers) everyday.  They use these search engines to find local businesses, phone numbers, products, services, locations—you name it.  That is why you must think of your website as an extension of your business in an online environment.  Being found in search engines like Google is the equivalent to being found in your local yellow pages. To learn if SEO is the right solution for your business needs, give Big Oak SEO a call at 804-741-6776 or email us.

Search Engine Optimization or Yellow Pages?

Businesses always need to be savvy about where they spend their marketing dollars. In days gone by, advertising in the Yellow Pages was a must.  These days though, more people turn to search engines than they do the Yellow Pages when they need to look up information about businesses.  In fact, the Yellow Pages is fast becoming a relic.  Just ask Microsoft founder Bill Gates.  At the Microsoft Strategic Advertising Summit in May of 2007, Gates declared, “…within five years, yellow page usage amongst people under age 50 would drop to near zero.”  What this means is that the age of the business directory is swiftly coming to a close.  So, if you’re a business, the question you ought to be asking yourself is, “Should I spend more of my budget online or continue to pour it into print publications that people have stopped reading?”

Considering where the trend is heading, the answer to that question should be obvious.

Local Search Engine Optimization

When you employ SEO techniques, you have the ability to laser-target the words people would use to find your business.  For example, if you run a local company that sells patio covers, then people would find your business by going to Google and typing in keywords like “buy patio covers in Richmond,” “Richmond Va patio covers,” or “best deals on patio covers in Richmond.”

By using different types of keywords, you have the potential to attract different types of customers, all looking for the different types of products and services that you offer.   You can build various pages on your website, each with a different focus.  When you target the right kinds of terms with SEO, you can deliver customers to your website who will contact you, buy from you, and build long-lasting relationships.  Instead of throwing hundreds of dollars at a single Yellow Page listing that fewer and fewer people will see with each passing year, consider diverting that money toward SEO campaigns so that you can grow your business by focusing on a wide variety of keywords.

How Can You Tell if the SEO Tactics are Working?

Various tracking tools exist to help businesses see the positive return on their investment from their SEO campaigns.  Free online analytics tools like Google Analytics can help you see how many visitors your site is getting from search engines, what your most popular pages are, how many orders you are receiving through your online shopping cart, and what pages can be improved for better results.  Contrast these types of measurements with what you receive when you buy an ad in the Yellow Pages.  Most businesses are unable to determine if they are receiving any increased sales from their Yellow Pages ad because they have no tracking system in place.  Sure, some may place a special phone number in the ad so they can tie sales to it, but when you compare that analysis to the kind you can run with an advanced SEO campaign, the SEO approach is more scientific and therefore superior.

When you optimize your website for local search results, your company:

1. Attracts local, Richmond consumers.  You’re going after customers who are in the Richmond area and want to buy, not people in Wyoming or Pennsylvania.
2. Targets customers who are looking for exactly what you’re selling
3. Constricts the competition. You’re competing against other local or national businesses who are selling in your precise market, not every company in the country that sells the same products as you.  When you reduce your competition, you see results in a more timely fashion and keep your expenses low.

Whether your business is B2B, B2C, service-oriented, or consumer-based, SEO is the right solution for you.  Don’t hesitate to call Big Oak SEO in Richmond at 804-741-6776 or email us at RichmondSEO@bigoakinc.com

Be Found Around the Web Too

The potential of the Internet is unlimited.   When you employ SEO techniques, you ensure that your website will not only be found by search engines, but by other blogs and websites as well.  If you maintain a company blog, then your blog posts can be found by people when other bloggers link to you, and if you create videos about your products and post them on Youtube or Vimeo, then people can discover your company through social media.  Indeed, there are many ways that your website can be found online.  If your local business is reviewed in the paper, and that review is then posted online, then people will learn about your existence.  If you sponsor a charity or sports event, and your sponsorship is mentioned by the event organizers on the event’s website, then people will learn about you online.

A small investment can be quite significant in the online world. If you’d like to learn more, then don’t hesitate to give Big Oak a call at 804-741-6776.