Are you a new small business owner?
You’ve recently taken the plunge and started a small business. You want (and need) to attract as many customers to your website as possible in order to gain exposure and to start bringing in those dollar bills.
Your product or service is unique and top notch, so naturally, the customers will find you. Word will rapidly spread and total world domination will soon be yours!
No wait, that's not right. What you really need is a website that attracts more traffic and brings your website to the very top of search engine result pages. Here are 5 SEO tips for small business owners to get started.
#1: Make Sure Your Keyword Game is On Point
Search engine optimization has certainly changed over the years. Gone are the days when we could just insert our focus keywords all over every page and expect miracles. Not only are search engines more intelligent, but so are web users. Our internal spam sensors are always on high alert. When we see a poorly written website that contains an unnecessary amount of keywords, we tend to think a nasty malware hacker whipped it up it for the sole purpose of ruining our lives. This is probably the very last thing your new small business needs.
Use your keywords smartly. Expand your keywords to incorporate other popular search terms that describe your business. Make sure you're properly describing the service so that potential customers can find you.
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Be not afraid of customer reviews[/caption]
#2: Small Businesses Thrive on Word of Mouth
Don’t shy away from local business or customer review sites. Google and other search engines like it when your business shows up on local listings, such as Yelp and Facebook. Your incorrect, outdated or missing information on any of these sites will negatively impact your search result rankings. Plus, customers are consistently using these local business sites to find what they're looking for. Encourage them to leave reviews, good or bad, and take the time to respond to them.
If search engines are the customer's first exposure to your small business website, it's important to look your best. Include high-quality photos and well-written copy about your business. Don't forget to link to your website and include all the necessary information so that there's no problem finding you in the future.
(Still interested in learning more about Local SEO tips? Check out this super awesome blog post.)
#3: Create Effective Links
Some people might think that linking pages on your website to other pages on your website is like entering the vast depths of convolution only seen in the movie
Inception. But try to think of it more like closing loops and tying loose ends.
Properly linking your website to other pages on your site means you're pretty much guaranteeing traffic. Linking a page within a page ensures website fluidity (for lack of a better word), and gives your client a seamless experience that doesn't require them to press the back button every time they need to click on a relevant page.
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What you want your website launch to look like[/caption]
#4: Consider PPC for Your Website Launch
It’s no secret that many businesses use pay-per-click to drive traffic to their website. Pay-per-click is a useful yet potentially expensive method of paying for high ranking search results instead of earning them through SEO. As a small business owner, spending a little bit more at the launch of your site in order to kick start traffic to your site could be the right strategy for you. But, keep in mind that while SEO takes more time, it delivers better long-term results at a lower cost.
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Making it rain on SEO[/caption]
#5: Hiring an SEO Firm is Always Money Well Spent
According to an article in Search Engine Journal, "many companies try to take a do-it-yourself mentality to SEO implementation that ends with them sloppily stringing together popular search terms or stuffing keywords on contextually irrelevant web pages." Search engine optimization should never be something to cheap out on. Unless you have an excellent in-house SEO employee, chances are you'll have to look elsewhere. It's nice to think that you can learn the basics of SEO and that'll be enough to push your website to the top. But that's just not the case.
There are a lot more reasons to integrate search engine optimization into your small business website. If you’re interested or still need convincing, why not drop us a line? Contact us to get started on your digital marketing makeover.
