Does Every Business Need SEO?

The short answer is: no.

There are many different strategies that fall under Digital Marketing, from SEO to PPC to email marketing – to name just a few. The bottom line is, SEO just might not be right for your business and you’d be better off spending that valuable marketing budget elsewhere!

Surprised? Yes, SEO is considered to be the bread and butter of building an online presence but businesses aren’t one size fits all. Let’s take a look at some of the reasons why SEO may not be right for you.

• Your business is very niche, so there are very little online searches within your industry. There’s no point in reaching the #1 ranking position on Google if no one is searching for your keywords!
• There’s too much competition. SEO takes time and investment, so if you’re up against strong competitors expect to be digging deep into those pockets and waiting a considerable amount of time for good results.
• Your website is outdated and poorly constructed. We’re sorry to be so blunt, but if your website is super outdated and doesn’t cut basic SEO mustard (broken URLs, messy site structure, not mobile-friendly, duplicate content – you get the gist), then Google is going to struggle to rank and read your website at all. Take a look at web design first, and then start putting your efforts into SEO.

Saying that, of course there are always opportunities to use SEO strategically. For example, you may find a niche keyword that has low competition but still attracts searches and visitors to your website – that’s worth going for! You may also find that targeting specific locations will help you reach a decent-sized audience, without competing nationally.

There are so many different digital marketing strategies to choose from, so don’t get too excited and spread yourself thin over multiple channels. You need to make sure each channel is right for your business and you’re not just throwing money out of the window, so get professional advice or take the time to analyse your options carefully!