What is SEO and How Does it Work for Small Businesses
Small businesses have limited budgets, weaker brand recognition, and fewer resources, all of which make it difficult for them to compete with more prominent brands.
The emergence of SEO leveled the marketing playing field, allowing small businesses to go toe to toe with the big guns in the industry and come out on top.
I know a fair number of small business owners who aren’t using SEO in their marketing strategies and their reasons are because they don’t have the time to learn it, they don’t have the technical expertise to manage it, or there’s no budget for it.
Contrary to popular belief, SEO is not that complicated; it’s a low-cost strategy; the only skill you need to get started is knowing how to use a computer.
So what exactly is SEO?
SEO is an acronym for search engine optimization. It is the process of making your website bring in more traffic by ranking for relevant or desirable keywords and phrases. SEO involves tweaking the design and content of your site to make it more attractive to search engines so that your website will be displayed as a top result in search queries.
For example, let’s say you sell tea and you have an article about the best kinds of tea. To ensure that this content gets in front of the people you’re trying to reach; you’ll want to infuse specific keywords into your post and improve the layout and structure.
When someone searches for the phrase “Best type of tea,” your content should pop up at the top of the results page.
Some of the benefits you stand to gain from utilizing SEO for your small business include:
- Gain a competitive edge in your industry.
- Provide relevant information on a question, problem, need or challenge that your target audience has.
- Reach your target market by getting them to come to you.
- Improve your brand presence, visibility, and recognition.
- Establish your business as an authority in your industry by educating prospective customers.
- Gain access to valuable customer data.
- Foster lasting relationships with your customers.
You don’t have to be a marketing or technical genius to learn small business SEO. In this article, I’ll walk you through what you need to know about SEO, how it works, and some of the factors that affect SEO rankings, so you can better understand the role it can play in your business.
- On-page SEO: This refers to elements that are on your websites, like meta descriptions, title tags, and body content. Improving them and including keywords where relevant is one of the most efficient ways to improve your search engine rankings.
- Off-page SEO: Components outside of your site can also influence how well you rank in search results. Link building is one of the most important off-page SEO elements. The more quality websites that link to your site, the better your chances of ranking well.
- Content marketing: Content is the bread and butter of any SEO strategy. You have to constantly create and share quality information that other people find useful or entertaining so that search engines can recognize the value of your website and elevate your rankings so more people can find your content.
Reports show that more than half of web traffic and up to 40% of total revenue comes from organic search. With a little strategy, some hard work, and a bit of small business SEO, you can generate more organic traffic and muscle your way into the space occupied by your biggest competitors.
1. On-page SEO
You have total control over the elements that make up your site, and it is those elements that constitute your on-page SEO. These elements include HTML titles and tags, keywords, image alt text, sitemap, and meta description.
The architecture of your site can determine how search engines rank your pages. Use a website design that is simple, well-structured, and professional looking to make it easier for search engines to scan your pages and content.
Here are some of the most important SEO factors on the page that you’ll want to pay attention to, to improve your search ranking and boost how much traffic you generate:
- Meta description — This is what tells search engines what each page is about. It is also used by visitors to better understand what a page is about and if it is relevant to their search before they invest any more time reading its content. Your meta description should include your keyword, and a detailed summary of the kind of information readers can expect to find on the page.
- Title tag — As the name suggests, this tag is the title of your page. It tells search engines what the page is about. A good rule of thumb is to keep your title tag to 70 characters or less, including your keyword and the name of your business.
- Sub-headings — Beyond improving your SEO, using subheadings in your content makes it easier for people to read. Use H1, H2, and H3 tags to give your content structure and help search engines understand it better.
- Internal links — Search engines learn more about your website when you build internal links or hyperlinks to other content on your site across several pages. Let’s say you’re writing a blog post about the benefits of standing desks; you can insert links to the product page in your post.
- Image name and alt tags — It’s always a good idea to use relevant images on your website or in a blog post. It makes the content more interesting and gives readers something to rest their eyes on in between blocks of text. Make sure you include your keyword or phrase in the image name and alt tag. This way, search engines can index your images correctly and bring it up when users perform an image search for that keyword or phrase.
Don’t go overboard with keyword placements. You may think it’s smart by trying to stuff your content full of keywords, but you’ll most likely end up getting penalized for it by search engines.
Focus on creating content around one to three essential keywords to avoid spreading the content too thin, trying to cover too many keywords. Create internal links between your pages, develop a site map, and submit it to search engines to give them a better understanding of your site’s behavior and content.
Another thing you need to be mindful of is whether your site is mobile friendly. A lot of people access the internet on their mobile devices, so make sure that it’s easy for them to load, read, view, and navigate your website.
By doing this, your user experience and SEO will improve exponentially.
2. Off-page SEO
Even though you don’t have any direct control over off-page SEO factors, you can still make them work in your favor so that they have a positive effect on your search engine rankings.
The first step to improving your off-page SEO is to create quality content that other people will find useful and relevant, and worthy of sharing.
The more interesting and valuable your content is, the greater the chances are that others will link to your content or share it on social media. When search engines see that more and more people are starting to regard you as an authority, they will reciprocate by boosting your pages to appear higher on search results.
Some of the different SEO factors that can make a world of difference to your rankings are:
- Links — Generating quality backlinks from websites that have authority is one of the fastest and most effective ways for small businesses to build off-page SEO. Build relationships/partnerships with other businesses or brands that are creating great content and link to each other’s sites.
- Trust — If you consistently put out content that has value, people will come to trust your website. They’ll come to you when they need information on specific topics; they’ll repost and share your content, and keep coming back for more. Google and other search engines need to trust that your content is useful to others before your site can rank well.
- Social — Social signals such as shares and likes are another key off-page SEO element that can help improve your search rankings. Strive to produce top-notch content so influencers, industry leaders, experts, and consumers will be inclined to show others your content, so they too can benefit from it.
3. Content marketing
Content is what helps your business attract search engines, which, in turn, connects you to people who visit your website.
High-quality, relevant content on your website means there’s a higher chance that search engines will rank your pages at the top of the results page when people search for related topics.
Similarly, the more exciting and engaging your content is, the more likely that visitors will spend time on your website and end up buying something instead of just bouncing right off.
It doesn’t take any special magic to create content that your visitors and search engines will appreciate. All you have to do is put in the work to create an array of well-written content pieces on topics that would interest your target audience.
You’re going to have to invest time and resources into your content to ensure that it comes outright. Search engines and the people who use them love great content. Show them the kind of value that your business can provide by creating content they can’t resist.
Some of the best-performing types of content that you can explore to capture the attention of audiences and step-up your ranking include:
- Articles and blog posts
- Videos and audio recordings
- Social media content
- How-to guides and tutorials
- Infographics and other visual content
- Whitepapers, reports, and e-books
Don’t forget to weave relevant keywords or phrases into the content you create to make it easier for search engines to group and rank them.
Carry out keyword research to see what your audience is searching for, then build your content around those keywords or phrases. Remember to keep refreshing and to update your content regularly, so it stays evergreen and relevant to search engines.
Conclusion
With a little effort and dedication, you can put SEO to work for your small business to improve your rankings, drive traffic to your site, and boost your conversion rate.
Whenever you hit a stumbling block, or things don’t go as you expected, just remember that mastering SEO takes time. Keep refining your approaches and applying SEO best practices. It might take a while for you to start reaping the fruits of your labor, but the harvest is going to be bountiful when it arrives.
By focusing on creating great content that provides helpful information to the people who visit your site, you can build a strong business that’ll keep on generating new organic traffic and boosting your revenue for many years to come.
