SEO providers have been showing up in droves over the last 10 years, as more and more small businesses have found themselves online. These businesses have created a demand for SEO services, because of the increase in competition.

Businesses need to get into view. They want that coveted, above the fold visual real estate. That is the area that appears immediately in the viewport of the device being used by those searching the internet. The smaller the device, the more difficult it becomes to reach that goal.

All of this makes Pay Per Click marketing much more attractive, and almost necessary, for businesses to keep their heads above water in the internet pond.

For small businesses PPC is a great short-term plan to boost your website traffic, if you get it right. However, you will need a long-term solution to keep website traffic flowing when you're budget may not permit an active PPC campaign.

Larger businesses which have major annual marketing budgets, can duke it out with their competition in PPC bidding battles. Ongoing PPC campaigns will help keep them above the fold most of the time. This does depend on how high they are willing to set their minimum/maximum bid and how well their ads are written.

Many times smaller local businesses have smaller budgets because they operate in a smaller area where revenue generated will be considerably less than that of a business which has a larger audience. For these local businesses there are some other options to keep their websites more consistently above the fold.

For instance, at least the top two search providers offer business listings results which spend a great deal of time above the fold. Your business can maintain a business profile with Google and Bing, as their local business listings results which gives your business a better chance to appear above the fold.

You can upload images, write your own descriptive content, add your hours of operation and more. They also offer their users (People who may use your business services or buy your products) the opportunity to review businesses on their platform, as well as a means to contact your business directly.

Sometimes your business listing may not be in immediate view when the search results page loads because there may be too many PPC ads. And that can change with every click of the mouse. If there are too many PPC ads, most local users have gotten accustom to scrolling below the PPC ads to the organic results. They know that's where the local companies mainly reside.

Your business may also not be in view at that point, however, when users click on one of the listings it will open up more listings which gives your business a greater opportunity to be exposed.

Another time tested way is to add your website to reputable local business directories. Many of theses platforms have millions of users. They also offer users the opportunity to review a business, and users can contact your business directly from the platform. Many times these directories appear above the fold in search results.

SEO and online marketing isn't easy for small businesses, which may not have the budget to compete with some of the bigger organizations that are fishing in local ponds. If you're offering a local service that can only be obtained locally, that won't always be as big an issue. Unless, your local competitors have plenty of resources that out-weight yours.

If you're an established local company with a long history online, you most likely have a pretty good position in organic search results. As long as you have kept up with your web presence.

New local businesses with small marketing budgets will have a more difficult time reaching their goals in terms of SEO and getting above the fold. The older more prominent and authoritative domains that came before them will be hard to unseat, but not impossible.

Search engines have come along way with organic search results and the addition of local business listings. Modern businesses, especially local businesses have a fighting chance there, as long as they can make it through a few hoops set up by search results providers.

Organic SEO is the only viable alternative to the potential big budget option of Pay Per Click. One of the reasons being, you're building a network of interconnecting web pages that will continue to grow and direct more traffic to your website with each and every piece of content you develop.

The upfront cost is, most times, significantly lower and the end-game more rewarding, though it may take a bit longer to get there, depending on the strength of your competition.