Search Engine Optimization for Small Businesses: Tips and Tricks

Online search marketing has gained popularity over the years and from being a novelty some years ago, is now a standard feature in our daily lives. Almost every business these days, however big or small has some kind of web presence and all of them are competing for top positions in search engine results pages. Larger companies and corporations have plenty of inbound links, several years of content and a dedicated stream of visitors, so it is no surprise when they manage to hog the top positions in search engine results.

Small business owners usually do not know where to begin when it comes to building links for SEO. Search engine optimization for small business is not really complicated if you can focus on a few important points. Fortunately SEO is not about volume, who has been there the longest, who has maximum inbound links or the maximum amount of good content. All you need to understand is which page or website is of relevance to the searcher. And then decide which of the several strategies you can implement to get an edge over the competition. Listed below are some SEO tips for small business owners which could help improve your online visibility and attract more visitors to your site.

Selecting the right keywords:

The starting point of any small business SEO strategy should be choosing keywords that are completely relevant to your business and which people are searching for. Limit these to 5 or 6 initially and even if you are on a tight budget you can get good results. A common mistake small business owners make is to use competitive phrases or words. Avoid it. Instead focus on keywords and phrases that are less competitive. They could be longer but more specific phrases.

Quality content:

If you want to get backlinks from leading publications and major blogs then your content has to be of premium quality. Though creating good quality content is time consuming, it has a greater chance of being linked than a standard blog post. Creating content which draws lots of links from other reliable websites is one of the easiest ways to improve your small business website SEO score. The greater the number of external websites linking to your website content, the higher the chances of Google trusting it.

Optimization:

Once you have selected the keywords create a page of premium content for each one of them. The content should be exactly similar to what people are searching for regarding that particular keyword. The first step to making your small business website SEO rank higher in search engine results would be to focus on the main elements of the web page that search engines look at to understand what the site is about. The title of the webpage should accurately describe what it is. Next, keep the URL or the web address short and crisp. Finally, use the target keywords in the first 100 words on a page. These are the words people type into the search box to find your business.

Backlinks:

Creating good quality content and optimizing it the right way will improve your website rankings in search engine results, but not as high you want it. The number and quality of backlinks is what will eventually decide whether your site will make it to the first page of the search results or not. Backlinks are the links from other websites that point to yours. To rank on the first page of search engine results, your backlinks will have to be better and more relevant than the sites which are already there.

Find out which websites are linking to the sites already on the first page of the search engine results. Ask them if they are willing to link to your business site too. Also ask friends, partners and customers to link to your site. Try and build relationships with other relevant businesses and bloggers and encourage them to link their sites with yours. This will not reflect in SEO results instantly but over a period of time your small business website SEO rankings will improve and attract more traffic to your site.  

The bottom line, eventually, is all about the customer. SEO may help you generate traffic but ultimately it is the experience you give people once they arrive at your website which will hold them to you. Your website could be the best visual treat and the most beautifully designed but if you do not have a strong small business SEO strategy, it will be useless if people are unable to find it in search engine results. For those that feel SEO is not their cup of tea, you can always seek assistance from search engine optimization companies for small business that could help you in reaching your target.

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