Small Business SEO Stories: Quality Over Quantity & Optimizing Time

Time.

I mentioned last week how a few moves optimizing search and content led to hours saved for one small business — fewer low value/repeated calls and more time for higher priority, more impactful tasks.

Scoping down further within the stream of online users, website traffic, leads and other important metrics we can find even more areas of refinement through search – and even more areas to optimize time.

As I mention in this blog quite often, time is often the limiting factor for most small businesses; there simply aren’t enough hours in a day, week, month, etc. to handle everything as you grow, so being efficient and incredibly sharp with your schedule is vital for sustained success.

This is where the quality versus quantity conversation continues.

Quantity Can Cause “Time Leakage”

If I asked you what was the larger number: 1,000,000 or 1,000 you’d, of course, say 1,000,000.

Now if I ask what is the better number: 1,000,000 website visitors or followers or 1,000 highly engaged, in-market visitors or followers – the answer is not as easy or simple.

While volume is important — you likely need that metric to grow as your business does — volume for volume’s sake can often lead to “time leakage”.

That valuable time spent on low-quality or largely irrelevant leads can dwindle that limited time resource you ultimately can never get back. This is especially the case if you’re largely solo or have just a few contractors/employees.

Defining Quality

Measuring quality is much harder than quantity, but has to be measured nonetheless.

What exact attributes make a website visitor, social media follower and associated leads, quality?

In search, this can happen naturally – being very specific about what you do, who you work with and where you offer your service (something called alignment), search engines can line up relevant search queries with your business listings, content, website pages and social media accounts.

Taking it another step further, you can refine those parameters to aim at a more specific subset of users within that group that match those quality markers you’re looking for for your small business.

Specificity Wins In Search: A Quick Story

A recent example of this is with a client that works on a particular type of outdoor feature, very popular in the areas they work in.

This outdoor feature is so common and is made out of different materials and types — this particular client only wanted to work with the type made out of concrete.

While this was still a large portion of likely candidates, by highlighting “concrete” on their site, in their search listings and across content and social, calls regarding the other types of material dropped dramatically.

That drop in low quality “noise” meant more time for the most valuable inquiries.

The Result

Fewer, but better calls.

By isolating a few key details about not just who they wanted to work with, but additional quality markers they really wanted, it pushed them toward a healthier stream of leads, estimates, projects — and ultimately revenue (increases in the past two years).

Success depends on a many facets of a business aligning correctly, of course, but tuning the noise down on the front side can often lead to better downstream outcomes, in many cases.

Small Changes, Big Results (And Time Saved)

As is often the case in the digital world, small changes can lead to big results.

With a few simple refinement of words, some sound search tactics applied in important areas and regular feedback and reporting, that particular client has a bit more time back – and a healthier, growing network of customers.

What small changes could you add to your website, search, social and content that could increase the quality of the traffic, leads and followers you have?