SEO: Your Edge Over the Competition in Dallas

15 Oct SEO: Your Edge Over the Competition in Dallas

Dallas is a great place for small businesses. In 2011, Dallas-Fort Worth nationally ranked seventh among the 938 metropolitan areas in the number of small businesses with 135,799. Those are businesses with one to 99 employees. What’s more, a study from 2011 found that 97% of businesses in the Dallas-Fort Worth area were small businesses.

This also means that there’s a lot of competition among small businesses. Luckily, there’s a way to get an edge on the competition — search engine optimization (SEO). Here’s what you should know.

What Is SEO?
Search engine optimization is more simple than it sounds. By streamlining a website to cater to Google’s algorithm, marketers improve the site’s search engine ranking. With an improved search engine ranking, it gets more web traffic, and ultimately more leads. Though the theory is essentially easy, the methods can be complicated, which is why it’s wise to get professional help.

Why Would You Need That?
You need to optimize your website because that’s how people find local businesses nowadays. They go online, and they search for them. Research shows that 93% of online experiences begin with a search engine, and that there are more than 100 billion global searches being conducted each month. What’s more, a study by Outbrain shows that search is the number one driver of traffic to content sites, beating social media by more than 300%. Though there’s a ton of people searching, it’s more difficult than you’d think to get traffic. See, 70% of the links search users click on are organic, so you can’t simply sponsor your results and get ahead. Plus, you have to rank well. Really well. Three-quarters (75%) of users never scroll past the first page of search results. And then, it’s only the very top results that get decent traffic. According to a study from online ad network Chitika, Google’s top organic search result receives 33% of the traffic, compared to 18% for the second position. The traffic only degrades from there.

Does It Work?
The short answer: yes. SEO is a cost-efficient marketing strategy with proven results. Studies show that SEO leads have a 14.6% close rate. Though that doesn’t sound all that great, studies also show that outbound leads — those generated by direct mail or cold calling — only have a 1.7% close rate. Best of all, SEO leads cost 61% less than outbound leads.

Dallas SEO services can help you reach the local audience you need to, and get ahead of the competition. If you have any questions, feel free to share in the comments.