Just like we all need to be centered in life, SEO is what provides the center to all social media efforts and your social media marketing effectiveness.  SEO should be your primary focus whether you are new to social media marketing or have a long standing online presence.

I had a rude awakening a few months ago when I realized that my own blog had absolutely zero search engine optimization.  I actually thought someone was doing it for me…Oops, that wasn’t the case.  So I threw myself into learning SEO and it made all the difference in the popularity of this blog.  Suddenly I was being found, not by my own social media efforts, but via the search engines which sent lots more people my way.  What a great thing to have happen!

In this day and age businesses must take advantage of search engine optimization.  Here are 3 vital reasons why businesses, especially small businesses, need to be on top of their SEO:

1.  With small marketing budgets SEO can make or break a small business in today’s local search marketing mentality.  You can bet others in your niche are making the most of it and are getting found online via SEO.  And, they’re getting found online without potential customers knowing their business name or that their business even exists.

2.  It’s brings you FREE traffic and the marketing reach is phenomenal.

3.  Your entire social media marketing program centers around your SEO efforts via your keywords and tags.

A big question I’m asked often is “Is it OK to outsource your SEO?”

If you are a small business and trying to do everything yourself, it certainly is fine to outsource SEO and in the long run it could be the most cost effective way for you to operate.  If search engine optimization is not your “thing” and you’re trying to do all aspects of your small business yourself, then by all means, don’t wait – get someone doing your optimization ASAP.

“More” is what it’s all about – more customers, more leads, more sales.  Search engine optimization can bring “more” of everything to your website.  So if you’re not sure about SEO – outsource it and get your website really working for you!

The bottom line is – the better your SEO, the more centered your online efforts are and the better your website will be.  Search engine optimization provides all the necessary online elements you need to create success for your business.  When done properly your small business will attain higher visibility and by that you will receive much “more” traffic to your website.

If you would like to learn about SEO, please visit www.allthingssocialonline.com  where you will find a list of SEO terms and definitions which will help you understand what SEO is all about.  Here’s a big disclaimer though – I am a partner in All Things Social Online, which is a social media marketing agency.  As I got this blog going, had success with social media and started being asked to do more online marketing contract work, All Things Social Online seemed like the next natural step.  Please check out the site and I hope that it, along with this blog, will continue to give you lots of valuable information as you market your own business both on and off line.