7 SEO Secrets for Small Business Websites you Must Know!

Running a small business is no easy feat as resources, staff and time is limited for marketing. Several businesses, hence, just focus on the running of the business instead of giving too much relevance to promotion. However, having a small business does not mean that you need to have a small online presence too. A website, while being low cost, can help promote your business through online marketing. To make an impact in the industry, you need to utilize SEO marketing. SEO or search engine optimization helps drive traffic to your site by improving your rankings.

Most people hire a small business SEO consultant to promote their brand. But there are plenty of small business SEO tips which you can implement on your own to take your business to the next level.

Listed below are some of them:

Keywords:

Conduct a survey amongst employees as to which words would help people find your website on search engines. The overlapping words or terms are the ones most likely to be searched first. Then conduct a search with those words and see which rank your site stands at. Before you incorporate these into your site you need to know which keywords people search for when looking for your product or service. One of the most reliable ways is to use Google AdWords. This tool is invaluable and should be used before every small business SEO campaign. 

Contact details:

It is important to make it easy for people to contact you. We often come across websites that do not have contact numbers on their sites, and instead just a contact form, sending out a message that they are a business who want to communicate with customers only on their own terms. When designing your SEO for small business you need to ensure that every page has your phone number, e-mail address and if possible even your physical address so customers do not need to scamper around your website looking for contact details.

Dedication and regular updating:

There is always some urgent business to attend to and a website could be the last thing on your mind. But if you do not maintain the site and update it regularly then it will do nothing for you. The old saying ‘’as you sow, so shall you reap’’ is very befitting when it comes to websites. The more time you spend on it, the bigger the benefits for your business. Keep this in mind when you plan the SEO for small business websites as regular and interesting content is what will help in taking your rankings higher.

More than 300-400 words per page:

Merely graphics or a well-planned and aesthetically appealing website will not benefit you much. A small business SEO requires meaningful and thorough information on every page. For search engines to gather enough information in order to rank it, it requires adequate content. With less content, search engines will have lesser material when considering ranking your site for a page one result. Hence it is advisable to have at least 300-400 words on every page.

Placing keywords appropriately:

The fact that you have sufficient keywords and are aware that you need to use 1-4 keywords in every 100 of your written content is not sufficient in the SEO for small business websites.  What is relevant is where you use them. Keywords should be incorporated into the title tag of your blog or article, in the subtitle and the rest should be spread out evenly throughout the article. This way search engines will notice that your content is highly relevant to the keyword since it is used not just in the header but throughout the content.

Fresh content:

Apart from the relevance of the content in the SEO for small business it is also important to ensure that it is current. Search engines like to see that the information posted is up to date and will pick a more recent article over an outdated one. In order to stay ahead of the competition you need to keep writing new content based around your keywords. Find subjects that are related to your product or service and write new articles which give information about them.

Use pictures:

To break the monotony of the written word and to capture the reader’s attention, use pictures which convey the same message. It is important to use pictures that are relevant to the subject. Try and use keywords in the image URL and the caption of the picture. So, if customers do an image search with a keyword, you will have an additional method of luring them to visit your site. If you are uncertain of how and where to place the pictures hire the services of a small business SEO consultant.

The main component of any successful small business marketing strategy is to be able to place your brand effectively on search engine results. Through simple and effective ways you can control the visibility of your small business and ensure it ranks high on search engine results. Surveys and research shows that SEO for small business websites is one of the major factors for the ranking of your website. Hence it is imperative that small businesses give priority and a thoughtful approach to their SEO strategy. Reach us to devise an online promotion strategy for your small business website!