According to a recent poll of 600 small and medium enterprise owners and workers in the United States and Canada, 57% don’t even have an SEO strategy, and 23% have no intentions to develop one this year. This article discusses if North American SMBs lack SEO strategy.
Only 44% of firms now have an SEO plan in place, according to a Pollfish poll commissioned by UpCity, and 34% have made it a goal to do so by 2022.
Although the tiny sample size is worth highlighting, these findings are startling after nearly two years of a virus outbreak, economic turbulence, and uncertainty for companies.
Due to lockdowns and corporate limitations, Internet traffic rose by 40% globally in 2020. Moreover, customers’ informational requirements and buying patterns altered substantially.
Early in the pandemic, as companies fought to get discovered by clients seeking nearby options for food delivery, internet banking and medical appointments, home office furniture, and more, search interest in SEO reached an all-time high.
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SEO has maintained its popularity since it is a beneficial marketing channel and a crucial source of consumer intelligence when historical data has proven to be mostly useless.
Businesses are aware that SEO works.
Client site traffic rose for 64 percent of SEO professionals questioned during mid-2020 and mid-2021, according to the State of SEO 2021 report. In that span, 74.3 percent of SEO spending remained constant or rose, according to SEJ.
As a result, UpCity‘s discovery that a large majority of firms lack an SEO plan is concerning — at least for those companies involved.
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Contents
Pivotal Discoveries In The SEO SMB Survey Report
While many respondents use SEO methods, it was observed that many are also merging their SEO practices with PPC strategies to build resonance between the two marketing channels.
50% of small firms implementing an SEO strategy also engage in paid search advertising. This followed by 30% planning to do so this year.
The popular PPC advertising platforms are Google Ads leading with 28%. Followed by Facebook and Instagram Ads, both scoring at 17% and 14%, respectively. Along with this, Amazon Ads and LinkedIn Ads come next with an equal share of 9% each.
On asking small firms which analytics tools they employ, around 12% chose Google Analytics. Followingly, 10% of people claimed to use Google Search Console. Moreover, 7% of firms asserted that they use Answer the Public, SEOQuake, or Screaming Frog analytics tool for their benefit.
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Leading Small Business SEO Aims For 2022
On considering this survey, the most weighted goals that small enterprises aimed for are:
- Improve organic traffic.
- Convert more organic visitors.
- Strengthen domain authority.
- Triumph more featured snippets.
- Raise brand awareness.
- Boost internal linking strategy.
- Enhance page speed.
- Lower bounce and withdrawal rates.
- Create a more robust backlink profile.
- Diversify the scope of high-traffic pages.
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Conclusion
Therefore you get to know if North American SMBs lack SEO strategy. The fantastic news from this analysis is that 78% of these businesses are making SEO a top emphasis in 2022. Those that don’t plan to build an SEO campaign this year to adopt one will probably find it more challenging to be noticed online by new clients.
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