In today’s competitive online landscape, to make your business visible and stand out so it gets more and more traffic, a solid SEO strategy is imperative. Whether it is a local brick-and-mortar business or an emerging startup, building an online presence is the key to getting more organic traffic and enhancing visibility as a small business, paving the way to success. In this blog, we will take you through 19 tips on SEO for small businesses that you can use to propel your business to new heights.
Understand Your Audience
Understand the type of audience you will be catering to and targeting. Find answers to questions like, What interests your target audience? What kind of content do they prefer?What platforms are they most active on? Etc. These insights and information will then aid you in creating your SEO strategy.
Keyword Research
Every search query is a keyword, and they are the cornerstone of any sound SEO strategy. This is why it is crucial to research the types of keywords you need to incorporate into your plan. Research to find insights like search volume, competition, and high-intent keywords to help you optimise your content accordingly. And remember, keywords are just as important for a Local SEO strategy as well.
Focus on Title and Description Tags
The title and description tags are essentially the only things visible on SERPs. This means they easily translate to more organic clicks. Start with keyword research; the key to creating titles and descriptions that generate clicks is to incorporate the right keywords. Look for keywords that can help you create an interesting copy and are proven to generate clicks.
Set up a Google My Business Account
A Google Business account is important, especially for small businesses looking to improve their online visibility in local search results. Simply head to the GMB website and log in with your Google account. Next, enter all business information, business location, category, and other required formalities, and you are good to go. A GMB account is the most preferable option for increasing your local presence and showing up when a neighbour is searching for what you have to offer.
Build Quality Backlinks
Over 96% of content receives zero traffic from Google, and around 66% of it is because the pages have no backlinks.Backlinks are an integral part of your off-page SEO strategy. It is the process of acquiring links from reputed websites back to your own. And how do you go about it? For starters, simply create highly valuable content and promote it on as many platforms as possible. Other than that, guest posts on other websites and directory listings also work wonders.
Write Highly Linkable Content
In all fairness, the usual run-of-the-mill blogs and articles filled with keywords are just as important a part of your SEO strategy. But, once in a while, deliberately create a piece of content that is highly linkable. This means writing on a topic that is broad enough to attract your target audience and is relevant to your industry or niche. In turn, giving your post the ability to be worked into guest posts or other linking possibilities creates effortless backlinking.
Ensure the Website is Mobile Friendly
In a time when the majority of people are online and on their phones, your priority should be to ensure your website is mobile-friendly.That being said, Google has been testing a new algorithm called ‘Mobile First’ that will base your desktop rankings on your mobile website, which is crucial to having a mobile-friendly website to rank better on SERPs.
Increase Your Social Media Presence
More than half of the world, or approximately 62% of the world’s population, is on social media as of today. Which makes it the biggest platform for any business to gain visibility and traffic from. To increase your presence, ensure you are posting content regularly. Along with that, interact with customers and answer queries as quickly as possible. Regular updates and active conversations will help you foster healthy relationships with your audience and create conversions.
Create Proper Internal Links
Just like backlinks are an important aspect of your SEO strategy, internal linking is also crucial. Interlinking is nothing but the process of linking different pages within your website through a hyperlink. Internal linking enhances the user experience and helps reduce bounce rates. By linking relevant pages together, you encourage the user to navigate your website more efficiently while strategically increasing the time spent on your website.
Local SEO is Important
Statistics suggest that local searches amount to 46% of all Google searches, while 75% of offline conversions are led from local searches. This means that as a small business if you have a physical store that you want to attract attention to with a higher rank on local searches, Local SEO is imperative. An optimised local SEO strategy will include a GMB account, local citations from online directories, location-specific keywords, and positive reviews.
Provide a Stellar User Experience
The kind of experience a user has on your website can make or break your reputation as an online business. It is all about allowing your users to have a positive and hassle-free experience starting from the moment they land on your website. A stellar user experience would look like intuitive navigation, clear call-to-action buttons, fast loading times, and mobile responsiveness.
Use the ‘First Link Priority Rule’
When creating internal links, it is important to remember the ‘first link priority rule’. A principle in SEO suggests that a search engine prioritises the first link to a specific page on a website when multiple links to that page exist on the same page. This simply means that crawlers only give more importance to the first anchor text and the context encountered by them. In short, use keyword-rich anchor texts and link the first one to pages you want to rank for that keyword. The same theory applies to external links as well.
Avoid too many Keywords
Granted, content helps you target specific keywords when you are smart with them and integrate them skillfully into your content. But the biggest mistake you can make is to use too many keywords in a single piece of content. This creates keyword stuffing and can affect the credibility of your website.
Optimize Images
Images contribute to the visual aspect and provide valuable context to the search engines. Which makes them a crucial part of your SEO strategy. To optimise your images, start by choosing the right one, then optimise the file name and description with keywords that make it descriptive, optimise the size and format of the image, and specify image dimensions for the best results.
Encourage Customer Reviews
Statistics suggest that nearly half the entire consumer base, or approximately 49% of consumers, trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations from a friend. This is why you must encourage customers to leave positive reviews, respond to negative feedback quickly, and resolve issues to create a positive customer experience.
Fix Technical SEO Issues
Technical issues involve aspects like site speed, mobile-friendliness, URL structure, and crawlability. Fixing technical issues is crucial for ensuring that your website is accessible, indexable, and optimised for search engines.
Implement Schema Markup
Schema Markup implementation provides search engines with additional information about your content, enabling them to better understand its meaning and relevance. This helps search engines interpret your website’s data accurately. This results in the generation of rich snippets that enhance your visibility and attract more clicks by displaying additional information directly in the search results. This exhaustive list of 19 SEO tips masterfully covers all the aspects of On-page SEO as well as Off-page SEO, which, when implemented properly, can work wonders for your small business.