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Why SEO is important
Why SEO is Absolutely Important for your Business
Many businesses today know (or think they know) SEO is important for the growth of their brand. However, with some businesses regarding SEO as some sort of alchemy, the importance of this invaluable tool has been watered down especially in the marketing space. Many are still uncertain about the importance of SEO for businesses.
SEO will definitely improve the overall visibility and searchability of a website, but is that all there is? Why is SEO so important for today’s savvy business? The following reasons will offer some insight into the significance of SEO for any business, regardless of the industry.
SEO Works
SEO is not a mere marketing buzzword. It is not dead. SEO really works. With the right SEO strategies, you can drive consistent and even endless traffic to your brand’s website. While Google algorithm updates ensure the most cutting edge SEO strategies are constantly evolving, this will hardly be an issue so long as you continue to provide value and work with the core elements of SEO practices.
Although you can still hire a knowledgeable and experienced SEO provider for your brand, this is great news for business owners with shoestring budgets. The core elements of SEO today are same as ten years ago – complying with them in combination with Google’s constant updates can bolster your search engine rankings.
Customer Insights
As earlier stated, SEO generates valuable web traffic. Google Analytics helps to track this traffic, providing insight into how your target customers search, how they browse, their most active days, their location and language, and the technology they use. This is an invaluable tool for your business as it can help you make more informed decisions concerning your business and marketing strategies – online and offline.
Trust and Credibility
The goal of every business is to establish an authority in their industry and with the services they provide. SEO can help you achieve this goal – both online and offline. At least 80 percent of web users today prioritize organic search results over paid ads. Hence, by investing in SEO and getting high ranking from search results, prospects and consumers are more likely to discover your brand.
More importantly, establishing authority with search engines like Google literally passes a vote of confidence on your brand. While customers may not consciously realize it, high search rankings make you appear more credible. In fact, statistics have shown that 75 percent of users will never scroll past Google’s first page.
SEO Delivers High ROI
No form of online or offline marketing effort is more rewarding that SEO – and the reason for this is simple. As an inbound marketing strategy, SEO allows you reach people specifically searching for your products and the services you provide. You do not need to take up space on a news article or even interrupt their favorite show on TV. You just show when they need the services you offer. No, you do not have to convince them they need the products or services you offer; you only need to convince them you are the right business for them. In other words, you would have won half the battle by using SEO for your business.
There is no denying that SEO is crucial to the success of your business today. When done correctly, it not only boosts your brand’s web presence, but gives you the platform to outdo any competition and continue to grow.
Google Adwords
So you would think Google AdWords is pretty simple right? You can run ads to generate more leads and revenue. You can sell more products online. You can bring more traffic to your website. But, unfortunately, it’s not that straight forward. There are other things to take care of. We’ll discuss that in another chapter, however for now, let’s discuss the benefits of Google Adwords as an advertising platform.
While the prospect of investing money on Adwords might seem like a daunting task, the results that come in are almost instantaneous and transparent. Which is why it is worth every penny that you spend on it.
Adwords works faster than SEO
The topmost benefit of Google AdWords is that it works faster than SEO. Both SEO and Google AdWords are search engine marketing strategies to generate more traffic and leads. But, a well optimized AdWords campaign can work much faster for a business to get the much coveted first spot in search.
Here are some reasons why it’s faster and more effective
- You can focus on multiple keywords at a time.
- You can turn the campaign on or off whenever you want to.
- Ads which appears on the top of the page get immediate visibility.
Of course, this does not mean that you should ignore organic sources, as they have more long-term benefits. But with AdWords, there is a better chance of driving more traffic and leads instantly. Additionally, the platform is more transparent, and you know exactly what is happening with the ads.
On the other hand, search engine optimization, though very beneficial, is a long-term process. To rank for any keyword, it requires a lot of perseverance and a lot of well-written articles, and backlinks. And even then, it takes a while for them to gain the necessary authority.
Simply put. ads give you instant visibility at an instant cost, whereas SEO would give you long term success, depending on the effort you put on the quality of your content.
But, I am not here to debate one strategy’s benefits over the other. You need to use both simultaneously, but be realistic about the success time frame, and the effort/money that would be needed for both.
Increase brand awareness
Google AdWords, in addition to boosting traffic, clicks, and conversions, is also an efficient way to tell people about your brand. To verify this, Google partnered with IPSOS to run a study across 12 verticals, right from automobiles to retail. It was discovered that search ads lift top-of-mind awareness by an average of 6.6%
Measure your performance consistently
It is very difficult to measure the outcome of traditional advertisements like newspapers, radio, broadcast television, cable television, outdoor billboards, brochures etc. Also, they are much more expensive than Google AdWords. You can’t control your own budget and spend. Additionally, you wouldn’t know the source of the leads coming from these media, unless your customer chooses to divulge it. As a result, it would be very difficult to calculate ROI from traditional media.
But, AdWords, on the other hand, would tell you exactly what happened with the campaign. You would know:
- Who clicked on your ad.
- How many leads have been generated.
- How much traffic you have got from AdWords to your website.
- Which keyword generated the most traffic and leads.
- How much does it cost you per lead.
This would help marketers understand what worked and what didn’t. Using this information, you can then tweak your campaigns until you achieve optimal results.
Explore more using your ads
Confused with the title? As I said, there is a lot more to explore when you link your Google AdWords account with your Google Analytics account. AdWords is a great platform but it won’t let you know what people do after clicking the ads. But, Google analytics would help you understand,
- How long a visitor stayed on a page
- How many pages have been visited
- Bounce rate of your landing page
- Details about new visitors and returning visitors and much more.
By linking them together, you will have a lot more data in your hand. An advertiser can measure the complete performance of the Google ads. He/she can pause the non-performing keywords/campaigns/ads and try different variations to boost your results. This data would also help in writing more articles/posts using keywords that performed best for your business. Using those keywords you can rank better for organic search as well.
Importance of SEO
If you want to get an edge on the competition in 2019, then you need to know the latest facts a. This year, the majority of marketers plan to use SEO as a key tactic to increase website traffic and leads. Most are using blogs, rich content, responsive websites, photo and video to capture the attention of prospective customers and leads. As a business owner or small business marketer, need to understand the SEO for small business to jump on this important opportunity.
Importance of SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) increases both the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through unpaid search engine results. A variety of factors contribute to this as search engines evaluate the health and helpfulness of your website to serve up results. The stronger your website content and design, the higher you will rank on search engine results over time. Catering to Google, as the most popular search engine, dominates most SEO practices.
So, most SEO techniques revolve around pleasing the Google algorithm to achieve a higher ranking. If you run a business website, regardless of whether you do business online, your ranking is important. It allows customers to find you, either in a brick-and-mortar building or for online services.
Small businesses must compete with three distinct entities for market share. First, they compete with other small businesses in the local market. Second, they compete with big corporations that use their vast reach and reputation to saturate the globe. Third, small businesses compete with online-only options with low overhead and innovative features. With all this competition, smart small businesses owners are always looking for ways to gain an edge.
Why SEO is important for small businesses?
SEO remains one of the most cost-effective ways to engage customers or clients. The only cost is to generate content. Whether you do the work in-house or outsource, the dollar value far exceeds traditional marketing methods. You have the chance to meet users at the ideal time in their decision-making process. You can provide helpful information that answers their key questions and pain points. Then, they are more likely to choose your business as the brand they trust.
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Why a Franchise
- WHY A FRANCHISE AND THE ADVANTAGES
A Franchise represents a unique proven investment and business opportunity. Upon investing in a franchise you are immediately associated with a proven concept with access to business expertise.
- Experience in trading, product and service is immediately and readily available.
- Operational systems are in place right from the start.
- Training and consulting form part of any well operated franchise operation.
- You do not have to go through the trial and error stages.
- Your investment will grow as the brand grows. You become a business partner striving to a mutual goal.
- The success rate with franchises is considerably higher than other small businesses.
- A franchise reduces the initial start up risk and will increase the probability of success.
- Manage your time to make a success of your business
WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES OF FRANCHISING |
Buying into a proven turn-key operation Reduction of risk Start-up assistant On-going support Group Benefits Being part of an established brand |
- PROFILE – (Of the ideal Franchisee & of a Franchisor)
The qualities that we expect to find in a franchisee are essentially the same as those that would make a good business operator in any type of business: Honesty, Integrity, determination, commitment and the absolute will to succeed.
However, this overview below will give you an indication if you are suited for a franchise and also the qualities that will have to look for in a franchise and a franchisor.
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Franchising is not for everyone – from whether you are suited to franchising to the controls that the franchisor imposes on your business. Although most franchisees have an element of entrepreneurship inherent in them, most are former employees, from corporate backgrounds, or are the victims of mergers or downsizing, or are on the verge of retirement.
On a personal level you should ask yourself the following questions…
- Are you a confident, outgoing type of person that is not afraid of tackling challenges and problems head-on?
- Are you a people-orientated person, able to interact with people on all levels?
- Are you the type of person that can handle stressful situations, are comfortable with taking risks and are prepared for a total change in your lifestyle
- Are you in a position to support yourself through the initial stages of setting up a business?
- Do you have enough qualifications or experience to handle things like managing finances, doing sales and marketing?
- Are you customer service orientated?
- Are you the type of person who takes direction willingly or are you known as a “buck-the-system” type of person?
- Do you like and enjoy people in general?
- Can you lead and manage people?
- Do you have the support of your family?
- What do you like to do?
- What are your interests and what type of occupation would be most compatible with those interests?
- Do you think you will enjoy operating your business of choice?
Introduction to Franchising
Introduction to Franchising
Who haven’t thought of owning your own business or franchise. In the current unsure economical and political climate many clear headed people have decided that it is in the best interest of themselves and their families to start their own business.
You might argue that this is a big step and a risk, irrespective if this is for yourself or a wife / husband or a child. It is for that reason the owners of a Franchise decide to put their business knowledge, knowledge of the specific industry and skills together through the concept of a franchise to create opportunities and to grow there brand.
Owning your own franchise opens a whole new world. Franchising is one of the most exciting and could in the long run prove to be more affordable than going at it alone.
The word “franchise” in French means “privilege” or “freedom” – in essence giving an individual the “right” to something – in this case the right to operate a business or licence under specific conditions.
Franchising is, without doubt, the most “public” of business formats. You recognise a franchise because it carries a strong brand, has a distribution mechanism that reaches far and wide and provides a uniform product, service and image to the public. The word franchising, however, can apply to many “rights” – from the franchising rights of cartoon characters like Mickey Mouse or movies like the Matrix to the franchise “rights” of soccer clubs like “Ajax”.
Business Format Franchising is defined as a distribution network operating under the shared trademark or trade name with franchisees paying the franchisor for the right to do business under that name for specified period of time. In exchange, the franchisee is able to use the franchisor’s business system or format, including the name, goodwill, product and services, operating manuals and standards, marketing procedures, systems and support facilities. The franchisor, in turn, is obliged to give initial and ongoing services and support.
Product & Trade Name Franchising is characterized as a sales relationship between a supplier and a dealer, product and trade name franchises can be found most commonly in car dealerships, petrol service stations and cold drink bottlers. The dealer is granted the right to sell its products in exchange for fees and royalties and has an obligation to sell only the franchisor’s products.
Get the Facts on Franchising
On a more basic level; franchising is really just an extremely good distribution method. The “franchisor” or person, who starts a company or develops a concept, uses others (franchisees) to duplicate his concept and distribute it on a large scale. This inter-dependency forms the basis to the business format and its success lies in the effective implementation of certain basic but clearly defined business principles. The juxtaposed relationship between franchisor and franchisee needs to be fully understood and accepted for the overall business to succeed.
The responsibilities of each side include:
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The word “franchise” in French means “privilege” or “freedom” – in essence giving an individual the “right” to something – in this case the right to operate a business or licence under specific conditions. Product & Trade Name Franchising is characterized as a sales relationship between a supplier and a dealer, product and trade name franchises can be found most commonly in car dealerships, petrol service stations and cold drink bottlers. The dealer is granted the right to sell its products in exchange for fees and royalties and has an obligation to sell only the franchisor’s products. Get the Facts on Franchising |