Should Dubai’s Small Businesses SEO Their Websites?
If you own a small business or you are thinking of starting one in today’s economy, SEO or Search Engine Optimization needs to be part of your early marketing investments.
In today’s 21st century economy, if you are running a business, an online presence is imperative, no matter where in the world you are located.
So, to answer the question of ‘Should Dubai’s small businesses SEO their website?”, the short answer is YES. But here is a more in-depth analysis of the importance of SEO and how it can enable a small business to compete with the mega-corporations.
#1 You can rise above the competition
For small businesses, competition generally comes from three directions:
- Competition with other small businesses vying for a piece of the local market
- Competition with big corporations using bigger marketing budgets
- Competition among purely online businesses that have lower overhead costs and more innovative features
According to this Statista report, 56% of the global population in 2019 uses the internet. In Dubai alone, 9.38 million people are connected to the internet. This is a huge audience you are missing out on if you are not on search engine rankings.
#2 SEO attracts more customers
Optimizing SEO as part of your marketing strategies enables your website to stand out from the competition. A highly visible, SEO optimized website increases your customer base, enabling you to grow twice as fast as businesses without an SEO-optimized site.
#3 SEO is a highly efficient marketing strategy
Incorporating SEO into your marketing is an extremely efficient and affordable marketing strategy for small businesses. Some of the elements that make a highly optimized site are simple and easy to implement and they bring in customers who are actively seeking your business or service to solve their pain points.
#4 You get targeted traffic to your site
Spending a few hours, a day, investing a little bit of energy and a small amount of money on SEO optimization will create a sustainable search engine marketing for your website. Not only will you be able to widen your customer base, but it will also help bring in targeted traffic- the people who are looking for the kind of solutions you provide.
#5 Higher conversion rates
In Dubai, small business SEO benefit from a website that is SEO optimized. An SEO optimized website is also a website that loads faster. It also has a straightforward UX/UI that makes a customer’s purchasing process easy. An easy to navigate website increases a customer’s experience on your site, subsequently increasing their trust in your business and increasing your brand’s credibility. Trust and credibility are the key ingredients of converting a customer and turning them into loyal, returning customers.
#6 You get to build better brand awareness
Higher rankings mean better brand awareness. Potential customers are more likely to trust a business when they appear on the first page of major search. This is an important factor for small businesses that do not have the budget capacity for advertising or large-scale marketing. Instead, invest a little in building your SEO and you will gain top rankings for the keywords related in your business.
#7 SEO optimizes your social media marketing
Social media marketing is another cost-effective solution for small businesses trying to bring the right crowd without spending too much on marketing efforts. In Dubai, there are 9.52 million active social media users. Having social media popularity is great for SEO purposes as it will increase your site’s visibility.
Final Thoughts
There is a lot to gain for small businesses when they incorporate SEO into their marketing strategies and all it takes are simple solutions such as using the right keywords, featuring useful content, high-quality images and user-friendly navigating, just to name a few. By investing in search engine marketing, your business has a lot more to profit from compared to businesses that do not practice SEO.