5 Ways Small Businesses Can Use SEO

You've probably heard of SEO, but what is it? And how can it benefit your small business? Well that’s what we’re talking about today! Let's start with the basics: SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It's the practice of optimizing a website so that it performs well in search engine results pages (SERPs). In other words, it's how you can get your website to show up higher in search engine results, making it more visible to potential customers.

There are a number of benefits of SEO for small businesses. It can help you increase website traffic and build your audience. If you’re getting more website traffic, you’re probably attracting more qualified leads and people who are actively searching for what you offer. If you show up high in Google, you’re getting a big competitive advantage over other businesses in your industry who are not. If you’re ranking high in Google then you’re also building brand awareness and brand credibility. If you show that you’re a force in your industry and can help customers solve their problems, then you’re going to be doing pretty well.

So… it seems that SEO is pretty important. But what can you do to improve your SEO? Where do you start?

SEO, and website work in general, can be pretty daunting if you’re not super experienced, but it doesn’t have to be. Here are five very easy things that you can do to understand and improve your SEO for your business.

1… Do Your Research

The first step in any good SEO strategy is research. You need to understand your audience and what they're looking for so that you can create content that meets their needs. There are a few different ways to do this:

A) Use keyword research tools like Google AdWords Keyword Planner, Moz Keyword Explorer, or SEM Keyword Magic Tool to find out which keywords people are using to search for businesses like yours. To get started you’ll want to write down every single keyword that’s relevant to you; make a huge list that you can use as a reference. Once you have a list of relevant keywords, start incorporating them into your website content—on your home page, blog posts, product pages, etc.

B) Look at your competitors' websites. What topics are they writing about? What keywords are they targeting? How high do their pages rank in search results? Use this information to inform your own content strategy by copying what it looks they’re doing well and capitalizing on what they aren’t doing. Exploiting keyword gaps are a fast and very effective way to gain traction in SEO.

2… Create Compelling Content

Once you know what keywords you want to target, it's time to start creating content that includes those keywords—without sounding too much like a broken record and stuffing keywords like a robot. Your content should be original, informative, and engaging—the kind of stuff that people will want to read, share, and link to. A few tips:

A) Write long-form blog posts (800+ words) on timely topics that are relevant to your business and industry. This is a great opportunity to show off your expertise and attract organic traffic from people who are looking for answers to their questions. Better yet, you can then turn this long-form content into shorter bits of content that you can reuse again and again (goodbye struggling for content ideas)!

B) If you’re creating content with images or graphics, be sure to optimize them and use alt text. Optimized images with accurate descriptions and appropriate keywords so they show up in Google Image search results are a great way to attract organic traffic

3… Use Different Content Types

People consume content in different ways and on many different platforms, so make sure you're catering to all types of learners by including both written content (like blog posts) and visual content (like infographics and videos). Remember, you can repurpose your long form content (blog posts) from the last idea and turn them into graphics, Tweets, and shorter paragraphs so you don’t have to constantly think of new content ideas. It’s also important to focus on content that you are good at (and enjoy) creating. If you really love to write, then write a lots of blog posts and share Tweets most often. If you love to make videos, then build your YouTube channel. Focus on what you enjoy doing and then sprinkle in some of the other content types as you go. There are buyers and potential audiences on every platform.

4… Know Simple Technical SEO

SEO can get real technical really quickly. While it’s not important to know every little technical detail of SEO, it is important to know the basics and make sure that your site is doing them well. Pay attention to on-page SEO factors like title tags, meta tags, and anchor text so that your pages perform well in SERPs—and make sure all of your links are working properly.

Title tags and meta data is what shows up on the search results pages. Make sure that your page titles are descriptive and unique to each page on your site. Page descriptions should be detailed and include keywords relevant to that specific website page. Google uses this data to help rank search results and potential website users use it to decide whether to click on your website or go to the next result… so make it clear and effective!

5… Keep Website Content Updated

This is probably the easiest and most important thing for your site to maintain high search rankings. Regularly updating your website with fresh content gives visitors a reason to come back again and tells Google that your site is still active. Google’s job when compiling search rankings is to give the searcher the best possible answers to their search, so it your site is up to date with the best information possible, that’s going to give you the best chance of a high search result!

Always be sure to keep basic business information current (hours, services, products, staff, etc.) and remove outdated content to minimize the clutter on your site. Less is more when it comes to outdated website content.

Wrap It Up

If you're not using SEO to increase traffic, build your brand, get more sales, or grow your audience, you're missing out on some serious benefits. By taking the time to do your research and create compelling content, you can attract more qualified leads, give yourself a competitive advantage, boost brand awareness—and ultimately drive more sales and revenue. So what are you waiting for? Start optimizing!

Need more help? Talk to us!