Small businesses don’t have massive budgets to spend when it comes to marketing their brand. That’s why they have to be cautious with every plan and strategy they create.
Spending money on paid ads is not something most small businesses can afford. So, the best way is to invest in SEO marketing. SEO is a strategy vital to help build a successful business online.
When it comes to small business SEO, the most important goals are to build brand awareness and be visible to the target audience.
Since most businesses have shifted from brick-and-mortar shops to online e-commerce sites, small business owners have their own websites to run. That’s why they also need time to optimize their website.
But with everything you have to handle on your business, website optimization might be the last thing on your mind. So, you might as well pay for ads to promote your business instead of building organic traffic. But are paid ads the solution to everything? Maybe not.
So instead of spending thousands of dollars on paid promotion, here we have provided the best SEO marketing strategies for small business owners.
What is SEO marketing?
SEO or Search Engine Optimization is an online marketing strategy that increases a website’s visibility on search engines like Google, Bing, and more. SEO marketing aims to push content and product pages on top of the Search Engine Result Page (SERP) to bring organic traffic to the website. The higher your website ranks on any search engine, the more exposure you get, which increases traffic and sales.
SEO strategy doesn’t require any form of payment to get sales. It relies on organic traffic/ sales.
Small Business SEO Marketing Tips
Search for the Right Keyword
You have a website, and you know what your business is all about. So, you have to give your audience what they are looking for that your products and services can provide for them.
The keyword is the most vital element of SEO marketing. Without keywords, SEO wouldn’t work. That’s why you have to know what are the right keywords for your brand. Think about the words your audience will type on a search engine when looking for your product.
Try to make a list of keywords related to your business, and search them on Google AdWords or other tools like Ahrefs or SEMRush. Check how frequently your keywords are being used when searching online. You can also narrow down the competition with these keywords by becoming more specific. Use long-tail keywords to target a group of consumers.
Use the keywords you have on every page of your website, SEO content strategy, meta description, and so on.
These keywords will be one of Google’s bases to rank a page or website higher on their SERP.
If you want, you can use the said tools, together with Moz, to check on your competitors’ keywords. You can use their keywords or find out what they are not using and take advantage of those keywords.
But remember not to overstuff your pages with keywords. Your sole intention is to use keywords to bring traffic to your website, not impress the search engine bots. After all, people are the ones who will decide if your business is worth a try.
Create High-quality Content
Content is crucial in SEO strategy. But it doesn’t mean that you can post anything you want, and Google will place it on top of the search engine. No, it doesn’t work that way.
Quality is the most vital element of content creation. It must meet Google’s EAT criteria, which mean Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. Whether you plan to create a blog, video, or post an image, make sure that the content is relevant to your niche and adds value to your readers.
Content that adds value to your readers should answer their questions, be easy to grasp, contain data, and link with reputable websites.
Optimize Your Website and Your Content
The first thing people will notice when they land on your website is how it looks. Does your website include a lot of content? Is it hard to navigate through different pages? Does it look attractive?
You need to make sure your website looks pleasing to the eyes of your viewer. Choose a clean and easy-to-navigate theme. Try colors and fonts that are eye-catching and promote brand awareness.
Besides the look of your entire website, make sure that the content is optimized. It should be readable, meaning it has to contain headings, shorter sentences, and words that are easy to understand. Add internal and external links relevant to the topic.
Optimizing content means using your main keyword in the title, heading, meta title and description, and the body of the content. Furthermore, make sure the image is optimized too.
Also, check the speed of your website. One reason some websites have a higher bounce rate is due to the loading speed of their website.
Don’t forget to optimize for mobile devices. Make sure your website can fit any mobile device’s screen.
Optimize for Voice Search
The number of smart speakers and voice-enabled devices is increasing as more people invest in it. In a survey by PwC, 65% of the population ages 25-49 years old uses voice-enabled devices once a day.
Voice searches are becoming popular, as it allows users to multitask without the need to look at their screen. That’s why there are plenty of voice assistants such as Siri, Alexa, and Cortana.
As people move to screenless browsing, Google prioritized websites that are optimized for voice search. Also, voice searches increase a business’s revenue by 30%, according to Gartner.
However, it is crucial to know that voice searches don’t focus much on short keywords. Instead, they are more into the conventional topic. You need to answer How, What, Why, When, and Where questions to help your audience.
Work on Link Building
Starting your website requires a long time to build credibility. But it is not impossible to speed up the process. Google will credit a website as reliable and authoritative if it gets high-quality backlinks.
Link building is a strategy you have to implement for your small business to grow online. Research and connect with high-quality websites to get quality backlinks. You can contribute to their website or ask them to link back to your website.
If websites with high domain authority link back to your website, Google considers your site a credible source.
But make sure that your website doesn’t get linkbacks from websites with questionable credibility, as this could affect your domain authority. You can get rid of spammy links by disavowing the links.
Optimize for Local SEO
If your small business does have a physical store, you need to invest highly in Local SEO to drive more customers into your shop.
Local SEO helps small businesses gain exposure and visibility in the local market. Since 50% of Google searches are conducted locally, local SEO can put your business in front of the game. Therefore, optimizing your website for local SEO should be part of your SEO strategy.
A quick overview on how to optimize for local SEO:
- Claim My Business Page on Google
- Add Schema Markup
- Update or add business name, address, and phone number
- Add business to local directories related to your business
- Ask people to leave a review on Google
- Use local terms and keywords when creating content
Share Content on Other Platforms
Creating quality content to rank on Google is great, but it takes time. You can speed up the process to increase traffic to your website by sharing them on other platforms.
Social media has been the go-to platform for small businesses and marketing professionals when sharing website content and building brand awareness. Social media is an excellent tool for further exposure because it’s free and reliable.
But don’t just stick to the usual platforms like Instagram and Facebook. You can try other social media networks like TikTok, Pinterest, Quora, Reddit, and more. Also, learn about other search engines and optimize your business for them.
Measure Results of SEO Marketing Strategy and Campaign
Checking how your campaign works online is as important as creating one itself. With the help of tools like Google Analytics, SEMRush, AHREFS, and more, you can measure how your content is performing and if your strategy is meeting your goal.
Measuring the result of your campaign helps you determine if you need to make adjustments, change strategy, or fix some issues.
Don’t forget to run an SEO audit on your website. It is to make sure that every page is optimized.
Conclusion
Small business owners need to work hard to promote their business by not spending as much as large enterprises do. That’s why SEO or organic marketing is the best option they can choose. Implementing effective SEO strategies for small businesses can help gain more traffic, increase visibility, and boost sales.
