What is SEO or SEO Marketing?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a powerful strategy that has become increasingly important for businesses of all sizes. With the help of SEO, businesses can reach wider audiences, increase their visibility, and ultimately, grow their business and add more profit. Specifically, talking about small businesses in Canada in 2023;

What does utilizing SEO mean for small businesses in Canada in 2023?

This paper seeks to answer this question by exploring how SEO can be used to benefit small businesses in Canada in 2023, particularly with regard to the sale of a product that sells close to a range of $500 apiece. This paper will provide an overview of the current state of SEO in Canada, discuss the benefits of SEO for small businesses, and provide a case study of how a small business can use SEO to increase its visibility and ultimately, its profits. Also, this paper will analyze the key challenges that small businesses face when it comes to SEO and offer suggestions on how those challenges can be addressed.

Background of SEO Strategies

SEO is an umbrella term that refers to a range of strategies used to improve a website’s visibility in search engine results. SEO is an important tool for businesses of all sizes, but it is especially important for small businesses since it can help them reach wider audiences, increase their visibility, and ultimately, help them grow their businesses. SEO is an ever-evolving field, with new strategies and techniques emerging all the time. In Canada, SEO has become increasingly popular in recent years, with the number of businesses using SEO growing exponentially. According to a 2020 survey by the Canadian Internet Registration Authority, here are some interesting facts;

• the number of Canadian businesses using SEO has grown by over 25% since 2018
• the survey found that 73% of businesses reported an increase in website traffic
• the survey also found that 64% of businesses reported an increase in sales as a result of using SEO

So certainly, SEO is a beneficial set of tools. Let’s discuss little more in detail.

Benefits of SEO for Small Businesses

The benefits of SEO for small businesses are numerous. SEO can help businesses reach wider audiences, increase their visibility, and ultimately, grow their businesses. SEO is cost-effective and can be used to target specific audiences.

1. SEO can help businesses reach wider audiences by increasing their visibility. By optimizing their websites and content for search engines, businesses can ensure that they appear higher in search engine results, which increases their visibility and reach as they are more likely to be seen by potential customers.
2. SEO can be used to target specific audiences, enabling businesses to focus their efforts on those who are more likely to be interested in their products or services.
3. SEO can help businesses build backlinks, which can help them improve their search engine ranking and increase their visibility even further.
4. SEO helps businesses to grow by building trust and credibility, as it can help them establish themselves as an authority in their field.
5. Ultimately SEO helps to increase business profits!

SEO Case Study and some suggested SEO actions

To illustrate how a small business can use SEO to increase its visibility and ultimately, its profits, this paper will provide a case study and some action suggestions of a small business that sells a product that sells at $500 a piece.

• The first step in the process is to optimize the business’s website and content for search engines. This can be done by ensuring that the content is well-written and optimized for relevant keywords, as well as by ensuring that the website is user-friendly and mobile-friendly. Users should find what they are looking for!
• Second, the business should ensure that its website is properly indexed, which can be done by submitting a sitemap to search engines.
• The third step is to build backlinks. This can be done by creating high-quality content and submitting it to relevant websites, such as industry-specific blogs and directories.
• The fourth step can be to reach out to other businesses and websites in its industry and ask them to link to its website.
• Fifth, the business should ensure that its website is optimized for local search. This can be done by submitting the business’s website to local directories, as well as by creating content that is optimized for local keywords.
• Finally, the business should ensure that its website is properly listed on Google My Business, now known as Google Business profile which will help it appear in local search results.

Ensuring these steps will increase the online visibility of the business, more traffic on the website and then more interested prospects in the product. From this point on, it becomes very important that the business handles all such incoming prospects/inquiries in a professional manner, replies to them promptly and uses a CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system to properly fulfill the prospect’s requirements.

Challenges to implementing SEO tools and strategy

Although SEO can be a powerful tool for small businesses, there are also challenges that must be taken into consideration. The most significant challenge is the time and effort that must be invested in order to ensure that the business’s website and content are properly optimized for search engines. Furthermore, SEO is an ever-evolving field, which means that the strategies and techniques used must be regularly updated in order to remain effective. Additionally, the cost of SEO can be prohibitive for small businesses, as it often requires the expertise of an SEO specialist.

To check the SEO cost and ROI, let’s run through an example with some numbers;

1. sale of the example product in a month without SEO: 30 pieces ($500 a piece or $15000/pm sale)
2. Invested in SEO for 6 months: $2000 a month, makes the amount $12000 for the first 6 months
3. The sale of the product in a month with SEO in 7^th month increases by 25% of the original sale of 30 pieces – 7 pieces increase or $3500/pm increase. After the SEO expense of $2000, now there is still $1500/pm extra revenue
4. Avg sale of the product increases to 50% of the original sale of 30 pieces from 12^th month – 15 pieces increase or $7500/pm increase. After the SEO expense of $2000, now there is still $5500/pm extra monthly revenue
5. As SEO starts performing, the sale numbers are assumed to be growing faster with no other marketing expense

With this example, the 7^th month to 12^th month will actually bring the first six month’s $12000 investment back. The max ROI time is 12 months and the start of ROI is 7^th month. After 12^th month, if done right and maintained right, SEO will bring in more and more sales without adding more SEO expense!

If you are in a business for a long time and have doubts about how to use SEO as a profit strategy, this example should clarify.

And usually, SEO doesn’t cost $2000/pm for small businesses in Canada! If you have questions regarding using SEO as a profit strategy in Canada, contact us!

Conclusion – Can you use  SEO as a profit strategy?

In conclusion, SEO can be a powerful profit strategy for small businesses in Canada in 2023, particularly with regard to the sale of a product that sells around $500 a piece.

SEO can help small businesses reach wider audiences, increase their visibility, and ultimately, grow their businesses. However, it is important to take into consideration the challenges that small businesses face when it comes to SEO, such as the time and effort that must be invested in order to ensure that their websites and content are properly optimized for search engines, as well as the cost of SEO, which can be prohibitive for small businesses. By taking these challenges into consideration and making use of the strategies outlined in this paper, small businesses can ensure that their websites and content are properly optimized for search engines and ultimately, increase their visibility, reach and profits.

Marvel Websites is based in Edmonton, Canada. We are happy to answer any of your questions regarding SEO, covering all 4 types of SEO in Canada. (On-page, Off-page, Technical and Local). Contact us here.