Is SEO Worth the Investment? How One Small Business Measures SEO, AEO & AI Search Visibility
For a small business, investing in SEO can feel like a leap of faith. You know people are searching online, but how do you know whether your investment is making a difference? And as AI changes the way people find information, what does it take to stay visible?
Alisha Pate, owner of Pate Ranch Creations, recently took a closer look at her website analytics to answer some of those questions. Her findings offer an interesting perspective on the value of search visibility—and why building a business that can be found online matters.
Getting to Know Alisha Pate and Pate Ranch Creations
One of the things that makes working with Alisha so rewarding is the way she approaches her business. Pate Ranch Creations isn't simply a creative outlet; she's intentional about building a recognizable brand and establishing a place in the market.
Alisha understands her products and the customers who appreciate them. She's especially focused on the premium boot jack category, working to make Pate Ranch Creations a name customers associate with that specialty.
She's also generous about sharing what she learns, encouraging other makers and small business owners, and supporting the Texas business community.
That combination makes for a strong SEO partnership. The technical and strategic work is important, but so is having a business owner who knows her market, understands what makes her products different, and is willing to use data to guide decisions.
Alisha recently shared her own look at the numbers. Her words explain the experience better than I could, so I'm sharing her post here, with permission.
Is SEO Worth Paying Someone to Help? Alisha Shares Her Results
The following is shared with permission from Alisha Pate of Pate Ranch Creations.
Let's Talk SEO — Is It Worth Paying Someone to Help?I've been digging into some of my Pate Ranch website analytics, and I thought I'd share something with this group from a business owner's perspective. I hired an SEO specialist last year, stopped using her services January through April of this year, and brought her back in May in prep for 4th qtr. I wanted to know if I was actually getting anything for my money. Because let's face it, SEO is one of those expenses where you're paying someone every month, but you can't always see what they're doing or whether it's working. This AM I went back through my Shopify analytics, all the way into 2024, to see how things have changed.
Here's what I found looking specifically at Google search traffic:
Before hiring SEO help (Jan–Aug 2025): Averaged 161 Google visits per month.
January–April 2026 (SEO services paused): Averaged 253 Google visits per month.
May–October 2026 (SEO services restarted): Averaged 350 Google visits per month.
That's approximately 117% more Google search traffic than my original baseline!
Now, can I attribute every bit of that growth to the SEO team? No. SEO takes time, previous work continues to influence results, and there are other variables. But the long-term trend is encouraging.
Here's what really caught my attention. Over the past year, Facebook sent 6,174 visits to my website, while Google sent 3,585. But when I looked at sales attributed to those sources, Google accounted for approximately $13,768 in sales compared to $1,039 attributed to Facebook. That's a pretty interesting difference! Keep in mind that attribution isn't perfect, especially when customers discover you on one platform and purchase later through another.
Here's my takeaway: As makers, we spend an enormous amount of time creating content for social media. We're constantly posting, making reels, trying to keep up with algorithms, and hoping someone sees our work. But what about the customer who isn't on Facebook looking at our posts? What about the person sitting at Google searching for exactly what we make?
That's the customer I want to reach. SEO isn't necessarily about getting more eyeballs. It's about getting in front of people who are actively looking to buy something.
I'm also realizing that building a business that depends entirely on social media for customers is a risk. I'd much rather have customers finding my products through search, whether I posted something that day or not. I'm not suggesting everyone needs to hire an SEO agency. And I certainly wouldn't recommend paying someone without understanding what they're delivering. But I do think it's worth taking a hard look at where your website traffic comes from, who's actually buying, and whether you're investing enough in being found rather than constantly trying to be seen.
Just some food for thought as we continue working on building better businesses instead of simply becoming better content creators.
What Do These Numbers Tell Us?
SEO can feel slow, especially in the beginning when progress isn't always easy to see. It's not unusual for business owners to question the investment or give up before their efforts have had time to gain traction.
Alisha's results are a good reminder to look at the bigger picture. Her average monthly Google search traffic more than doubled, increasing from 161 to 350 visits.
SEO is cumulative. Earlier work can continue contributing to visibility over time, even during periods when active services are paused. While no single factor explains all of this growth, it shows why SEO is better evaluated as a long-term investment than by looking at one month's results.
More Website Traffic Doesn't Always Mean More Sales
Alisha's Shopify data highlights an important distinction: more traffic doesn't necessarily mean more customers.
Over the past year, Google sent fewer visitors than Facebook, but the sales attributed to Google were significantly higher.
Social media helps people discover and connect with a brand. Search can reach people who are already looking for a specific product or solution. Both have a role, but the quality and intent of the traffic matter just as much as the volume.
What Makes an SEO Partnership Successful?
Good SEO requires more than keywords and website updates. It starts with understanding the business, its goals, and what makes it distinctive.
One of the things that makes working with Alisha so rewarding is that she's an active, responsive partner in the process. She brings a strong understanding of her business, her customers, and the brand she's building. She's engaged in the strategy, pays attention to the data, and shares in the ongoing work of monitoring progress, navigating challenges, and recognizing successes.
That collaboration matters. SEO brings the search strategy, technical knowledge, and ongoing optimization. The business owner brings the industry expertise, customer insight, and firsthand perspective that help shape the direction. When both sides are invested and communicating, the strategy can evolve alongside the business.
The best partnerships aren't just about delivering monthly services. They're about working together toward meaningful, long-term growth.
Is SEO Enough? The Growing Role of AEO and AI Search
The way people search is changing. Customers still use Google to find businesses and products, but they're also asking questions through AI-powered tools and answer engines.
AEO, or Answer Engine Optimization, focuses on making information clear and useful so it can be understood and surfaced in direct answers. Related strategies, often called Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), focus on visibility in generative AI experiences.
This shift creates a real opportunity for small businesses with a well-defined niche. A smaller company may not have the marketing budget of a national retailer, but it can have something valuable: specialized knowledge, a distinct product, and a depth of experience that larger competitors may not offer.
When a business clearly explains what it does, answers the questions customers are asking, and demonstrates expertise in its specialty, it gives search engines and AI tools more meaningful information to understand. For a business like Pate Ranch Creations, that means building recognition around the products and expertise that set it apart.
AI search visibility is still evolving, and measurement isn't as straightforward as traditional website traffic reporting. But the fundamentals remain important: useful content, a clear brand, relevant information, and a website that helps customers understand what makes the business different.
Building a Business That Can Be Found
Social media is valuable, but it shouldn't have to carry the entire responsibility of bringing customers to a business. Algorithms change, trends shift, and keeping up with the constant demand for new content can become a job of its own.
A strong search presence gives a business another way to be discovered—even on days when no new post or reel goes live. It helps connect the right customers with the products and services they're already looking for.
SEO isn't a magic switch, and hiring someone doesn't guarantee a particular outcome. It takes time, thoughtful strategy, and collaboration. But when the work is connected to real business goals and what makes a company distinctive, it can become a meaningful investment in long-term growth.
A special thank you to Alisha Pate of Pate Ranch Creations for sharing her experience and allowing us to share her perspective. Her willingness to look at the numbers, ask good questions, and encourage other business owners is a great example of the thought and intention that go into building a business.
Learn more about Pate Ranch Creations.
The business statistics and observations in this article were originally shared by Alisha Pate, owner of Pate Ranch Creations, in a Facebook business group and are reproduced with her permission. Traffic and sales figures are based on the Shopify analytics she reported. Results reflect multiple contributing factors and should not be interpreted as a measure of SEO services alone or a guarantee of future performance.
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