When should you invest in SEO strategy?

If you're a small business owner — especially a local business — search engine optimization (SEO) is one of your most critical marketing strategies.

People won't just ~show up~ to your website — you have to find ways to send them there! And SEO is one of the best ways to increase quality website traffic.

Here's a quick primer on why you need it and when's the best time to invest.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of strategically improving your website to increase visibility on Google.

SEO helps target potential leads who you know are already interested in your services because of how they've searched on Google.

SEO is especially important for local businesses, whose target audience likely searches for services within a specific geographic area.

SEO strategy is based on research to determine how your target audience can find you through search engines.

Through this research we determine key phrases and words to strategically include throughout your site, with the goal of influencing your search engine rankings.

With these strategic keywords in mind, we organize your site architecture, create specific webpages, and write website copy & metadata.

The most efficient time to begin SEO strategy is during a website design or redesign.

Because SEO strategy will influence the architecture & content of your site, it’s best to start before you already have a website in place. Starting from a blank slate means you won’t be limited by an existing structure or design, and it will make the project more efficient and effective. 

We recommend tackling SEO in the early stages of website design, just before writing content.

But overall, the *best* time to begin SEO strategy is as soon as you’re ready.

If you already have an existing site, don’t worry! A good SEO strategist will work with you to update your structure & content without negatively affecting the design. And, hopefully you have a web platform that’s simple to update.

SEO is important, and it’s best to jump as soon as you can rather than not at all.

We offer SEO strategy as an optional add-on to our custom brand & website design packages.

If SEO is a priority to you (which it should be!), we can include SEO strategy in your custom website design project to ensure you’re getting the search engine traffic that your business needs.