You may think that your small business can\u2019t compete with the big dogs when it comes to placing high on the search engines. You may think that because you only have a brick-and-mortar store in your hometown that small business SEO is a waste of time. You may think that a traditional store only needs traditional marketing strategies.<\/p>\n
No offense, but you may be wrong.<\/p>\n
Whether you have a big or small business, a physical or ecommerce store \u2013 a strong online presence is important. When potential customers are looking for your product, they\u2019re turning to search engines. So you need to make sure your local business is turning up there, too.<\/p>\n
Small business SEO doesn\u2019t have to cost you big dollars and can help you extend your reach to a whole new target audience. Plus, with a little know-how it\u2019s not so hard to get started. Let\u2019s get you on your way.<\/p>\n
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SEO means search engine optimization. Meaning \u2013 in simple terms \u2013 building a search engine algorithm-friendly website to better increase your chance of being seen.<\/p>\n
Local SEO means optimizing your website to appear in search results that are region specific \u2013 i.e. near me, or Youngstown, OH. Large businesses and small businesses alike may use local SEO tactics to attract potential customers to their physical locations.<\/p>\n
As a small business owner, you may have a physical store or you may just have an ecommerce site. Either way, small business SEO can help you get higher conversion rates \u2013 and without the big time budget of corporate competitors.<\/p>\n
First things first \u2013 you need a website. So, if you haven\u2019t launched a website for your small business<\/a>, the time is now.<\/p>\n Without a website, you\u2019re not going to be appearing on the search engine results pages (SERPs) which means you\u2019re massively missing out. Eighty-one percent of customers prefer to read about a company online<\/a> before making a purchase. That\u2019s a huge chunk of your potential customers never coming to your door because you don\u2019t have a web presence.<\/p>\n So \u2013 step \u201c0\u201d is to build a web page. After that, you get started on SEO.<\/p>\n Relevance is a big ranking factor for Google and other search engines. So to develop your small business SEO, you\u2019re going to need to do relevant keyword research.<\/p>\n You want to generate a list of keywords related to your business that your target audience will be entering as a search engine query. For example: \u201cdigital marketing,\u201d \u201cSEO services,\u201d or \u201cSEO tips.\u201d These would be called short-tail keywords because \u2013 well \u2013 they\u2019re short.<\/p>\n They\u2019re often used in queries, and they\u2019re very easy to put on your webpages. This means a lot of companies are gunning to optimize for them, which does make them slightly harder to rank for.<\/p>\n There\u2019s also long-tail keywords which are \u2013 you guessed it \u2013 long! These are more specific \u2013 they also tend to be searched for a little less. However, less companies may optimize for them. With long-tail keywords it’s a little easier to achieve a high ranking on the SERPs. Examples of long-tail keywords are \u201chow digital marketing works,\u201d \u201cwhat\u2019s the difference between local SEO and small business SEO,\u201d and \u201cdoes my small business need a website?\u201d<\/p>\n If you\u2019re struggling to come up with keywords to suit the algorithm, there are tools available from companies such as SEMrush<\/a>.<\/p>\n Now you have your search term keywords. Great! But don\u2019t go wildly slapping them on your small business\u2019 website all willy-nilly just yet. You want to make sure you\u2019re taking care of your technical SEO.<\/p>\n You see, site performance, user experience, and structure are all search engine ranking factors, too. Technical SEO takes care of these aspects. You want to make sure your site speed isn\u2019t bogged down by images or plugins, and that the search engine algorithm can easily scan your webpage to see that it’s relevant.<\/p>\n This means each web page should have high-quality headers, subheadings, title tags, alt tags, and relevant meta descriptions. Meta descriptions aren\u2019t exactly a ranking factor \u2013 but they do help website traffic by tempting your potential customers to visit your site.<\/p>\n In the headings, you want to place relevant keywords so that the search engine algorithm can easily pick them up as they crawl your webpage.<\/p>\n Now to keep boosting your keyword ranking and organic traffic, you need to build up your on-page SEO<\/a>. Long story short, on-page SEO is any optimization you do on your webpage to make it rank higher on the SERPs.<\/p>\n A great way to build up your on-page SEO is to develop a content strategy that makes use of your target keywords. This means regularly publishing relevant content \u2013 such as a blog \u2013 answering questions that searchers may be looking for. This SEO marketing strategy not only helps you place higher in the local search results, but also has the added benefit of increasing your brand awareness.<\/p>\n But remember \u2013 it\u2019s got to be high-quality content. Not just a jumble of keywords! Write for your potential customers as much as (if not more than) you write for the Google search results glory.<\/p>\n Those three steps alone are a great start to your budding SEO strategy. But let\u2019s say you want to take it further \u2013 and why wouldn\u2019t you? Here are four SEO expert tips you can follow to boost your SERPs ranking even higher.<\/p>\n As you produce content, you want to be link building. This includes links to reputable websites (kind of like a citation) to boost your credibility, as well as links to your own relevant content on your own web pages. If you want to check how reputable a website is, you can use this free tool from Ahrefs<\/a>.<\/p>\n This is an off-page SEO tool you can use to boost your business. (Pssst \u2013 off-page SEO means anything you do that isn\u2019t directly on your webpage to boost your SERPs ranking.)\u00a0 Google My Business\/Google Business Profile<\/a> places your business in local search queries and directs visitors to a landing page on your website (the first page they visit after clicking a link).<\/p>\n It\u2019s also helpful to place your physical address and phone number here, as most potential customers use this tool to find products near them.<\/p>\n Having a strong social media presence isn\u2019t a direct search engine ranking factor, but it does help build brand awareness and encourage people to share links to your website and content. This will lead to organic traffic gains that will help increase your ranking in the long run.<\/p>\n An SEO audit is helpful to identify what is and isn\u2019t working for your SEO strategy. It\u2019s great to perform an SEO audit when:<\/p>\nStep One: Keyword Research<\/h3>\n
Step Two: Optimize Technical SEO<\/h3>\n
Step Three: Produce On-Page SEO Content<\/h3>\n
Pro SEO Tips:<\/h2>\n
Backlinks<\/h3>\n
Google Business Profile<\/h3>\n
Social Media Profiles<\/h3>\n
SEO Audit<\/h3>\n