Small business owners work very hard to maintain a competitive edge. One of the best ways to get a leg up over the competition is by hiring an SEO expert to optimize your website. Optimizing a website for search engine success will allow you to unlock lots of new sales leads. 

Approximately 63 percent of businesses in the United States invest in search engine optimization. The biggest mistake you can make when trying to improve your Google rank is taking on the world involved in search engine optimization alone. 

If you don’t have the right tools, experience, and lots of time to invest, having search engine success on your own will be nearly impossible. When the time comes to hire an SEO expert, you will notice some of the signs covered below. 

1. You Have No Idea About The Latest SEO Trends

Continually generating leads with the help of SEO is a lot harder than it seems. The world of SEO is constantly changing. Failing to keep up with these changes can lead to the use of outdated or ineffective strategies. If the bulk of your marketing budget is spent on ineffective SEO methods, you will be unable to get a good return on your investment. 

This is why working with an SEO expert knowledgeable of current marketing trends is imperative. Some of the most recent trends in the world of SEO include:

Using popular and current SEO tactics will help you better engage with your target demographic. Keeping up with these trends in SEO will also make your website more desirable to search engines like Google, which will help you rank higher. 

2. You Know Very Little About Your Customers

When attempting to put together a search results page, Google will look for content that aligns with user intent. The words used by a search engine user tell the Google algorithm a lot about the type of results they want to find. If the content on your website doesn’t match user search queries, you will have a difficult time moving up the search engine ladder. 

Many business owners develop new content without considering user intent. This generally leads to the development of content that isn’t helpful and will not rank well on search engines. If you are tired of developing content that never gets any attention, it is time to seek out the help of an SEO expert. 

As you start to meet with agencies and assess the SEO pricing plans offered by each one, be sure to find out more about their knowledge of user intent. Ideally, you want to work with an agency that has proven its ability to develop content based on user intent for past clients. 

3. Website Sales Leads Are Non-Existent

A business website or online store should be a lead-generating machine. If a website is constructed properly and features the right type of content, it is only a matter of time before it starts to generate leads. However, if you own a website that has been functional for years and has produced very few leads, there is definitely something wrong. 

The lack of online leads is usually due to a number of SEO and web design mistakes made by inexperienced business owners. These mistakes include things like:

  • An outdated or unresponsive design
  • The lack of a value proposition
  • No strategy to drive organic traffic to the website
  • New content isn’t being produced
  • Content lacks engagement

An SEO expert can make small changes to your website that make a big difference in the number of leads it generates. 

4. An Outdated Website Design

A website is one of the most important digital assets a business owner can have in their possession. Some business owners think that a website is something they can set and forget. In reality, the average website will undergo many changes as time passes. Failing to alter a website to reflect SEO trends and user sensibilities can be extremely problematic. 

Nearly 40 percent of consumers will leave a website if it looks outdated or cluttered. Rather than running potential customers off with an outdated website design, you need to make some changes. Finding and fixing outdated portions of your website will be much easier with the help of an SEO expert. 

An expert can update current SEO tactics, alter outdated or incorrect content and improve user experience. Once an SEO expert is done updating your website, you will notice a definite change in the number of leads it generates.

5. Your Website Isn’t Generating Traffic

The money invested in having a professional website created is worth it if the domain in question receives a lot of traffic. Inexperienced business owners think that all they have to do is launch a new website to start generating traffic. There are millions of websites on the Internet, which means you have to find ways to make your domain stand out. 

Problems that prohibit a website from generating traffic include:

  • Bad user experience
  • Slow page load speeds
  • Low-quality content
  • The use of unpopular or irrelevant keywords
  • Weak backlinks

The longer these problems persist, the harder it will be to drive organic traffic to your website. When you hire An SEO expert, they will be able to help identify and correct issues that could be holding you back. With their help, you can drive more traffic to your website and increase the number of leads it generates in no time. 

6. Google Ranking Issues

Ranking high on popular search engines like Google can unlock a number of benefits for your small business. Websites on the first page of Google receive more traffic and are viewed as trustworthy by most consumers. If you just can’t get your website on the first page of Google, you probably make several SEO mistakes. 

These mistakes typically include the use of too many highly competitive keywords, poorly written titles/meta descriptions, and slow server response times. Until these problems are addressed, you will be unable to break onto the first page of Google search or maps. Instead of trying to fix these complex issues on your own, you need to hire a trusted SEO expert for help. 

7. Problems with Your Google Business Listing 

If your main goal is to attract attention from local consumers, then your SEO strategy needs to reflect this. An optimized Google Business listing is a crucial component of a successful local SEO strategy. These listings are designed to help business owners provide useful information to people in their areas. 

Your listing should include information like:

  • A link to your website
  • Business hours
  • Directions to your physical location
  • Customer reviews

Some business owners make the mistake of leaving their Google Business profile incomplete. Making this mistake will heavily affect your ability to generate local website traffic. The first thing an SEO expert will do when hired by your business is to complete your Google Business listing. They will also work with you to get positive customer reviews on this profile. 

With a large number of positive reviews on this important online listing, you can establish trust with potential customers. Any negative reviews that are left on your profile, responding to them quickly and respectfully will show how attentive your business is. 

8. The Absence of Fresh Content

Being inconsistent with creating, publishing, and sharing your content can be disastrous. When new content is created and published on your website, Google will crawl it. This will help to keep your website on the radar of the most powerful search engine on Earth. 

However, if you aren’t publishing new content, your competitors will start to gain the upper hand. If you don’t have the time or experience needed to create and publish new content, you need to leave this important job to an SEO expert. 

How To Hire The Right SEO Expert

As you search for the right SEO expert, you will notice that not every agency is the same. Seeking out organic SEO pricing from a few different agencies is the first thing you should do. When comparing SEO companies, you need to beware of red flags. Some agencies try to increase pricing based on made-up factors like:

  • The credibility of your existing website
  • Level of competition
  • Keyword ranking difficult
  • Your target market

Agencies that charge for these things are usually staffed with really great salespeople. The main goal of these salespeople is to get your business to spend tons of money on marketing campaigns that won’t provide results. Rather than spending money with one of these predatory marketing agencies, you need to check out these Kick Ass SEO packages. 

Look for SEO packages that require no contract so you can cancel anytime. With these packages, you should get things like keyword analysis, competitor analysis, and monthly reporting. When you hire the SEO experts at Small Business SEO, we will work hard to drive more organic traffic to your website with the use of proven SEO tactics.