Search Engine Optimization (SEO)—it’s one of those things people say is important for your business but may often be left untouched, especially within small businesses.

If you’re wondering whether implementing best SEO practices will benefit your small business, here are a few things to consider before investing your time and resources.

Consider how your customers find you

When determining if SEO is worth it for your business, consider the overall dynamic of your customers—what are their demographics? Are your customers more likely to go online and search for businesses like yours? As a small business, you may discover that most of your business comes by word of mouth and that is completely OK! It is important to note, even though you may not have the resources to implement SEO now, SEO is most definitely necessary for local and brick-and-mortar businesses even if you’re simply implementing the bare minimum.

Consider the time commitment & cost

Unfortunately, there is no “one size fits all” SEO from business to business. It takes months to develop a specific strategy that works well for your business. That being said, consider how much time it will take to develop your successful SEO strategy and weigh the cost. Do you have someone within your business who can dedicate time to your SEO efforts? Can you afford to hire someone to take care of it for you? Time and money are the #1 things that make it harder for small businesses to do SEO. Hiring experts will save you the time but will cost you. 

Consider the specs of your site

Lastly, before considering if SEO is right for your business, determine if your website is already set up to sell. If your business has a website, measure the number of visitors your site gets against the amount of sales. If sales are low, then the best place to start would probably be with tidying up your site. Your business won’t benefit much from SEO if the traffic your site gets doesn’t convert to real sales.

If you’ve taken all of this into consideration and are ready to get to work on SEO, reach out to TIC today!