If you're a small business owner, you know how difficult it can be to compete with large companies.
Big brands have money and manpower to spend on advertising, so they have a huge advantage over small businesses when it comes to getting their name out there online.
While some might think that's an insurmountable challenge, it's actually not as bad as it sounds: there are several things you can do to improve your SEO (search engine optimization) so that search engines like Google rank your site higher in their results pages.
It all starts with learning what works best for your industry and knowing how best to achieve the results that make sense for your business goals—and then following through on those ideas until they start working for you too!
FURTHER READING: An Essential Guide on Using SEO for Lead Generation →
Understand the basics of SEO.
Use SEO tools.
You can use free or paid SEO tools to help you with various aspects of your business' marketing campaigns. Some examples include keyword research tools, link-building tools, social media monitoring tools, and local business listing management software.
Some popular options for these types of services include Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, and Ahrefs respectively.
If you're a small business owner, it can be hard to find the time to keep up with all the latest changes in SEO. But if you don't take the time to audit your website regularly, you might be missing out on some great opportunities to improve your rankings, which could mean more customers and more revenue for your business.
A good website audit will include several different aspects of your site—on-page SEO, mobile optimization, social media presence, and more.
Here are some tips for getting started with a website audit:
1) On-Page SEO: This includes analyzing the content of your site and checking for any errors or issues that might be holding back your rankings. For example, does each page have a title tag? Is the content optimized for search engines? Are there any duplicate pages or sections?
2) Mobile Optimization: When Google first started ranking sites based on their mobile-friendliness, many businesses were caught off guard because their websites weren't optimized for mobile devices. If you don't have a mobile version of your site yet (and even if you do), it's important to make sure that every page is mobile-friendly before launching an audit.
A good place to start is by using Google Search Console or another analytics tool to look for keywords that customers are searching for.
You can also use Google Trends, which tracks the volume of searches for different keywords over time, and will show you popular search terms in your industry and how they're trending over time.
For more research-based keyword ideas, try running a search on a free keyword research tool like Google Keyword Planner or Ubersuggest.
You'll get a list of relevant terms that can help you get a better idea of what your audience is looking for online.
Design is the first step in search engine optimization, customer experience, brand building, conversion, and sales. It’s also a crucial part of customer acquisition.
Design plays a role in all of these areas because it has such an impact on how people interact with your business online.
Design will help guide that interaction and create an emotional response from visitors that leads them down the path towards taking action (whether it be purchasing from you or just leaving).
Design isn't just about colors and fonts though -- it's also about usability which is something we'll talk more about later!
Search engines can be more accurate in their results if you use local keywords. It’s a good idea to include these in your title tags and meta descriptions, page titles, URLs, internal links (including anchor text), image alt text, and video titles.
Content is king.
It’s the heart of your website, and it’s what your customers want to read. Content helps your customers find you, and it also helps you rank in search engines and attract links from other sites.
Writing good content isn’t impossible—you just need to follow some basic guidelines:
Online reviews and ratings are the best way to ensure your business is front-of-mind when customers are ready to buy.
When potential customers search for a product or service you offer, they will likely see the stars (if not a rating) right next to it.
So it’s crucial that your company has more than one or two reviews: you want to make sure yours is above average, at least.
How can you encourage customers to leave reviews?
Here are some tips:
This matters because online reviews and ratings are one of the most important factors that potential customers use when choosing a business.
Social media is a great way to get your business in front of new customers, interact with existing customers, and build brand awareness. You can also use it as an opportunity to build customer loyalty.
If you're not already using social media marketing to boost your business' visibility online, then you should consider doing so now.
Mobile traffic is exploding, and your small business needs to make sure it’s ready for it.
Just about every major search engine now has a mobile-friendly algorithm that will favor sites with good mobile performance over those that don’t.
If your site isn’t optimized for mobile, you could be missing out on an enormous portion of web traffic and potential customers.
Internal links are a great way to connect different pages on your site and provide more context for visitors.
It's wise to include internal links throughout your site (especially if some pages are more important than others) so that users can easily navigate from one page to another.
Small businesses are a vital part of the American economy.
Unfortunately, many small businesses struggle to get noticed online by customers searching for products or services.
This is where SEO comes in: if you want to be visible on Google and Bing, then you need an effective search engine optimization strategy.
Looking for a few more tips on how to optimize your website for search engines? Check out our blog, where we'll be posting regular updates on how to do just that.
If you're looking for more information about the kinds of services we offer, or if you'd like to schedule a free website audit and consultation with one of our local SEO experts, please reach out today.
If you want to improve your website's visibility and search success, we recommend starting with the basics first. Request your free website audit now to discover possible issues holding your site back from reaching its full potential!
How visible is your business online? Find out in our free 360 degree snapshot.
Fredrick Media LLC provides affordable web design and digital marketing services to help small businesses grow online.
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