Small businesses have to be strategic when it comes to their SEO. They can’t afford to waste time or money on tactics that don’t work. But at the same time, they can’t afford to miss out on opportunities to rank higher in search engines and get more traffic.
So what are the best SEO strategies for small businesses?
Here are three SEO fundamentals that every small business should focus on:
1. Create high-quality content that people will need
One of the most important SEO strategies is to publish high-quality content on your website. This is because Google’s number one ranking factor is content quality.
There are a few key things to remember when creating high quality content: make sure it is well written, informative, and relevant to your target audience.
Creating high quality content is all about delivering value to your audience. Your content should be well-researched, well-written, and offer something that your audience will find useful.
It also requires an attention to detail and a willingness to revise and improve your work until it is the best it can be.
Before you start, really consider who your target audience actually is. What do they want? What can you offer them? Understanding your audience and ensuring your message resonates is crucial when implementing SEO strategies.
2. Use keyword research to find the right keywords to target
Keyword research is one of the most important steps in SEO. It allows you to find the right keywords to target for your website and blog content. There are a number of different ways to do keyword research, but one of the easiest is to use Google’s Keyword Planner tool.
Simply enter a few seed keywords related to your business, and the Keyword Planner will generate a list of related keywords. You can then use this list to create blog posts and website pages optimised for these keywords. And if you want to take your keyword research to the next level, you can use these more advanced techniques.
3. Optimise your website for both search engines and users
Once you have a list of target keywords, it’s time to optimise your website for both search engines and users. This means making sure your website is well-organised, fast-loading, and mobile-friendly. It also means creating content that is relevant and engaging.
To make your website more search engine friendly, be sure to include your target keywords in your titles, meta descriptions, and header tags. You can also use keyword-rich anchor text to link to other pages on your website.
To make your website more user friendly, make sure your content is easy to read and relevant to your target audience.
Improving your website’s copy is an effective SEO tactic every business should be using.
What are the main benefits of SEO for small businesses?
1. Forces you to do research
Keyword research is essential for SEO. You need to find out which keywords are most relevant to your business and target audience. In other words, this research can also be used to learn more about your target audience and potential customers.
Did you know that you can also use keyword research for competitor analysis?
You can learn what phrases and long-tail keywords they are ranking for. This will help you develop a content plan.
In the long run, this research will make you more efficient and more competitive.
2. Increases the number of visitors you get to your website
One of the main benefits of SEO is that it can help increase your website’s traffic. This is because your website will rank higher in search results, which should mean more people find it.
Additionally, SEO can help attract relevant traffic. In this case, having a good SEO strategy is more likely to convert visitors into customers.
3. Boost your brand awareness
This is simply a volume gain. More traffic means more awareness. If you are creating more content that is relevant to your target audience, then more people are going to become aware of your brand. However, you need to make sure you capitalise on this. Which brings us to the next point.
4. Create a better user experience
When you hire an experienced SEO consultant, they are going to make a lot of sensible suggestions. However, one of those is going to be around user experience. It can seem like a waste of resources to make this commitment, but ultimately, you need your website to convert visitors into customers. Therefore your website must be easy to use and serve the purpose the reader expects.
Note: Structuring a blog post correctly is an important SEO tactic that every business should be using.
5. Make it original
How do you stand out from your competition? Doing SEO ensures your site is different from your competitors. This is because you need to have original content that offers real value to your audience. If you do this you stand a great chance of converting them into paying customers.
6. Keep it relevant
In addition to being original, your content also needs to be relevant to your target audience. SEO enables you to stay on trend by identifying topics that are relevant to your customers today. But, there’s another benefit. Following an SEO strategy can turn your website into an authority. Potentially, this means you can become a thought leader in your industry. Which could mean even more business for you.
7. Promote your content
Every great SEO strategy will include a content plan. This will be the list of topics that you want to cover on your website. But that’s just the starting point for multi-channel marketing.
Once you’ve created great content, you need to promote it. You could simply do this by sharing it on social media. But you’ll see a fast return on investment by paying to promote your content. Even a small budget can have a big impact.
Try these daily SEO tasks that every business should be doing.
Conclusion
SEO is a great way for small businesses to get ahead of their competitors. By following these simple tips, you can start to see real results from your SEO efforts.
