karyn patch: Why SMBs Need SEO Consulting Services

Small businesses today have the hardest time getting exposure in the search engines, and this is one of the most important marketing vehicles for small business survival, especially for local marketing and driving more foot traffic to the brick and mortar business, and certainly for any new online or eCommerce business.

Marketing for small businesses today has changed dramatically and the more people reached, the better the business has for survival. But this takes a great deal of work, unfortunately, on the part of the small business owner, who is occupied with running operations and little time to do the footwork.

An SEO consulting service can help small business owners with many aspects of online marketing, including:

Designing the best website for optimum search engine placement
Local search engine metrics and rankings for industry keywords
Online promotions that reach mobile and other Internet shoppers
Social media marketing setup and promotions
Local online business directory listings and Google Maps

Tapping into the online marketplace is essential for any business owner today. If you are not online and taking advantage of local or national SEO opportunities as well as many other search engine and social marketing programs, you could be avoiding an entire set of demographics.

Here are some interesting online marketing statistics to take into consideration:

In the U.S., online shoppers are expected to increase by 15.4% in 2012, becoming a $209.3 billion marketing vehicle by 2013.
7 out of 10 Americans search for products and information on businesses online, about 43% in the U.S. now using mobile devices such as smarphones and tablets to access the Internet.
Global internet traffic is growing at an average of 29% per year. The U.S. expected to grow 20% each year.
60% of consumers in the U.S. shop online, the largest demographic being ages 31-44.
73.19% of Facebook users visit at least one product page.
50.7% of smartphone users check store hours or locations.

SEO consulting services today should offer more than just organic search engine optimization and take the approach of ?marketing? a business just as effectively as direct, traditional sales and marketing teams have in the past, before the Internet.

Google has placed its stance on the natural sharing of business websites and eCommerce sites, so heavily manipulated or SEO tricks are no longer accepted as a viable means to gain rankings in search engines. A reputable SEO consultant can ensure you are conducting best practices when you embark on your search engine marketing venture.

It?s important to note that SEO has become a more holistic profession and encompasses many areas of the web marketing channel, enabling business visiblity in social media and search engine spaces.

If your store needs more traffic, whether your online or offline, you?ll need to consider that your competition has effective SEO consulting services and online marketing programs in place. To compete or even survive in the post-recession economy, all businesses will need to stay on top of the online consumer trends in the marketplace.

Resources:

http://www.internetretailer.com/trends/internet/

http://www.emarketer.com