Table of Contents
While marketers try to adapt to COVID-19 by limiting outreach and lowering expenses, now would be an ideal moment for small companies to begin implementing search engine optimization (SEO). According to a study of over 500 small companies in the United States, these are the top five SEO tactics for your small businesses in 2021.
Why SEO?
Interested in learning more about SEO marketing as well as how to put it into action for your own company?
We’ve put up this easy tutorial to help you learn more about SEO, including what it is, how it works, and why it is important.
It is possible to define your SEO strategy and produce long-term results with the help of this resource.
Search engine optimization, often known as SEO, may be daunting for companies that are just getting started with their website or who are going through a website makeover.
However, this does not have to be the case.
You may convert a basic SEO description into a process that produces long-term success by following the steps shown above.
If you don’t have a skilled in-house SEO partner, you may still make some beneficial adjustments to your website that can assist boost your search engine ranking.
Without any SEO expertise under your belt, you’ll be well on your way to increasing the search engine position rating of your company in no time.
The next section will offer an answer to the question – what exactly is search engine optimization and how does it work?
The Meaning of SEO, the Definition of SEO, and How SEO Marketing Works
What is search engine optimization and how does it work?
We’ll start with the fundamentals of SEO definition and meaning in this section.
The companies that achieve the highest search engine rankings are all aware of the significance of learning all there is to know about SEO optimization.
First and foremost, small business owners needed to grasp the fundamentals.
SEO is an abbreviation for Search Engine Optimization.
Organic search engine traffic (also known as unpaid traffic) is the outcome of optimizing your site to appear higher in search engine results pages.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Definition
In other terms, search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of making specific modifications to your website’s design and content in order to try and make your website more desirable for search engines.
You do this in the expectation that search engines will recognize your site as a top result mostly on search engine results page and show it prominently.
Although SEO semantics and SEO marketing may seem to be complicated owing to the many variables that can influence your ranking, they are not.
How Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Works
Search engines strive to offer their users with the best possible service.
Specifically, this implies that the search engine results pages should include results that are not just of good quality, but are also relevant to the searcher’s search query.
Consequently, search engines will examine (or crawl) various websites in order to get a better understanding of what the site is all about.
The information they gather helps them provide the most relevant results to individuals who are looking for certain subjects or keywords.
Additionally, browsers will analyze the site to assess how simple it is to browse and read, rewarding sites that are easy to use with better ranks on search engine results pages (SERPs).
A website’s search engine optimization (SEO) is the process that businesses go through to ensure that their website ranks better in search platforms for appropriate keywords and phrases.
Consider the following scenario: you have a how-to article on how to construct a birdhouse online.
This is something you would most likely do in order to have your article in front of the appropriate individuals.
You will make every effort to enhance this blog entry so that it appears as the first search result for anybody who queries for the term “build a bird house.”
What SEO Can do for your Small Business
There are many advantages to using SEO for your company.
- Identify potential consumers
Marketing should result in new consumers, and search engine optimization is no exception.
While search engine optimization (SEO) is mainly concerned with increasing your position in search engine results (SERPs), you must have higher ranks in order to receive more visits in order to gain new clients.
Increased visitors to your website as a consequence of higher positions in search results should result in increased sales for your company.
- Identify potential consumers throughout the exploration phase
Finding new clients is not always simple, but by concentrating on SEO, you will be more likely to locate consumers during the discovery phase.
People who do searches on Google and other search engines are trying to learn more of what they need or about the options that are available to them in order to make a decision.
You should take advantage of this opportunity to get your company in front of people. It’s possible that they’re particularly looking for what you have to give. However, if you are not ranked, how will these others discover you? They aren’t going to do it. They will visit many rivals’ websites and choose the one that best suits their needs. People doing these searches will not be able to find your company since it will not seem to exist.
It doesn’t matter if your company has the ideal response to certain search keywords and you provide them with the finest solution, if you aren’t getting the most out of SEO, you will simply not appear on Google’s search results page.
You must adhere to all SEO best practices in order to guarantee that Google takes your company into consideration for the important search keywords you wish to rank for.
- Increased traffic
While you don’t want traffic just for the purpose of having traffic, attracting people to visit your website is an important part of digital marketing.
Nobody will convert if your website isn’t getting enough Google traffic. Even if your page is flawless and provides everything customers want, it will not get any traffic from Google.
By increasing the amount of traffic coming from organic sources, your chances of converting that traffic into sales increases. Even if your conversions are very poor, increasing your traffic by a factor of two may more than double the amount of inquiries and/or purchases your company receives.
- Increased traffic that is more focused
In theory, if your SEO is executed properly, you should be generating more relevant visitors to your site than you now are.
This implies that you’ll be targeting keywords that have the appropriate search context behind them – that is, individuals who search for these terms will be seeking for a product or a service that is similar to what you are offering. Because of this, consumers are much more likely to convert than others who search for less relevant keywords.
- Increased conversion rates
More conversions occur as a result of increased traffic, particularly focused traffic to certain landing sites.
This implies that the total conversions of your website will increase, as will the amount of inquiries and purchases that you get.
Ultimately, if visitors to your site are sincerely interested in whatever you have to provide, they’re more likely to convert than if you target a more general audience of potential customers.
- Increased consumer awareness of the brand
Anyone looking for keywords that are related to your small business are more likely to discover your company while doing searches.
The more often people see your company’s name appear on the search engine results pages, the more familiar they get with your brand. Consumers will be more inclined to visit your website and consider you in the future even if they do not do so right away.
- Get ahead of your competition
For many companies, there will be that one rival that is number one for keywords that they believe they are better equipped to compete against. But how can you hope to reach number one if you haven’t made any investments in SEO?
By climbing through the rankings and, ideally, taking their place in the ranks, you have the opportunity to steal traffic and possible purchases from your competitors. Consumers who were previously going to their website will be more likely to come across your brand instead, according to the study.
Similarly, if your competitor isn’t ranking, but they’re still a major player in your business, this is an excellent chance to more easily compete with them.
- Marketing that is cost-effective
While the major companies in your sector may be able to outspend you on marketing, search engine optimization (SEO) may be a highly cost-effective type of digital marketing that can be won on certain fronts.
Pay-per-click advertising, as well as other types of advertising, may be more easier for large corporations with large budgets. However, with a good SEO plan, you will be able to compete on an equal footing with the major search engines.
SEO offers a very high return on investment (ROI) since the potential for rewards is almost limitless if you obtain the proper visitors, and if your website is performing well, you won’t need to spend money on paid advertising strategies as much. You must continue to manage your SEO, and you’re not required to pay for advertising space.
- Improved usability
Not only is user experience important for driving conversions, but it is also important for SEO.
Essentially, the goal of most SEO strategies is to improve the whole experience that customers have when visiting your website. Google is primarily concerned with providing the greatest experience possible to its own users. That is the premise on which it bases its ranking of websites. Which website is the most appropriate for this search? It is only that we are providing Google with the information it’s really seeking.
Google is pleased whenever a user finds what they are looking for on a well-designed website.
By concentrating on increasing your search engine optimization, you will be boosting overall usability of your web page. As a bonus, by making your site more user-friendly, your seo ranking will increase as well. It is a win-win scenario for everyone involved.
- The impacts of SEO are long-lasting
If you spend on online advertisements or print advertisements, the effects will only endure as long as you’re willing to spend more money on them.
While you will need to sustain the SEO efforts long haul, once your website begins to rank, it will remain at the top of the search results for a reasonable length of time. Again, there is no absolute guarantee, however as long as your rivals don’t outrank you and your website isn’t damaged, you should be OK for an extended period of time in the search engine results.
- Increasing the number of consumers to help your company flourish
The whole purpose of your website, as well as marketing in general, is to generate prospects or purchases, which will eventually help you expand your company.
SEO Strategies for Small Businesses
Keywords should be researched and targeted
Understanding what searchers are searching for via keyword research allows companies to improve their websites so that they appear in the most relevant searches for their target market.
Keyword analysis and targeting are used by the vast majority of small companies that spend in SEO (70 percent).
70 percent of small companies that utilize SEO do keyword analysis and target their customers with specific keywords.
According to Moz, keyword research is the act of studying and discovering terms and phrases that customers use when looking for a certain result.
Identifying keywords and using them within your website content is a simple method to improve your website’s search engine ranking.
In the beginning, if you are unfamiliar with keyword research, begin by entering subjects relevant to your company into Google. For example, a natural skincare business could employ keywords such as “skincare regimen,” “self-care,” “face,” “sensitive skin,” and other similar phrases to promote their products.
When you search for the term “skincare routine,” you will see highlighted items and long-form information that will assist prospective consumers in learning how to properly utilize particular skincare products and equipment.
Searching for keywords allows you to discover what phrases your rivals are ranking for, which is useful information. This will assist you in narrowing down the scope of your keyword search.
For example, the search engine results page (SERP) for the term “skincare regimen” displays items from the cosmetics brand e.l.f. as well as an article from the skincare shop Dermstore’s website.
Make use of online services like google Ads to discover which terms have a large number of searches but just a low to moderate degree of competitor activity.
You should begin by integrating these keywords into the following important areas of your website after you have determined the phrases you want to target:
- Title tags, as well as headers, inform search engines about the content of your website.
- Image alt text, informs search engines about the content of your pictures.
- Searchers can determine whatever your page is about by reading the meta descriptions that appear on the search engine results page (SERP).
If you’re a small company just starting with SEO, Patrick Ambron, founder and CEO of brand management service BrandYourself.com, recommends that you keep in mind that you should aim to rank for your brand identity.
“Make certain that your business name appears on the top of Google searches,” Ambron said. “When things are unclear, individuals should do their due diligence,” says Ambron. It is important that when customers look for your brand, they discover your webpage, social media accounts, and favorable testimonials.
Atlanta-based Little Barn Apothecary, a luxury skincare business, is the top-ranking search result for the company’s name.
Individuals doing a Google search for “Little Barn Apothecary” will discover the webpages at the top of search results page, along with links to its social media sites. As a result, the business is regarded as dependable and trustworthy.
Fundamental keyword research for important search keywords, including your company’s name, is essential for laying the groundwork for a long-term search engine optimization plan.
Make your website more visible in local search results
The results of a Google search engine vary depending on where you are. As a consequence, small companies such as restaurants, eateries, photographers, and local craftsmen will see an increase in the importance of their localised search engine results pages.
Upwards of half of small companies that employ SEO (53 percent) make use of local seo techniques to target better ranking based on where the company is situated.
Small companies who use SEO improve their websites for local search results, according to a survey conducted by Search Engine Land.
Google offers criteria for appearing in local searches, and these guidelines should be followed to the latter. Google My Company, Google’s business directory service, allows small companies to boost their local results by adding their products and services.
When certain keywords are searched, Google My Business profiles show next to the search results.
The following is SERP for the term “Little Barn Apothecary,” which includes an image of the business’ Google My Business profile.
Google My Business profiles consolidates the information about a company’s location, address, contact information, website, and reviews into a single handy place inside the search engine results page (SERP).
Among the particular recommendations provided by Google on how to utilize Google My Business to better local search results are the following:
- Making certain that your company’s data is accurate
- Obtaining confirmation of your location
- Google reviews are managed and responded to in a professional manner.
Google calculates a business’s local ranking based on the relevancy, distance, and importance of the company. Google determines a company’s “prominence” based on more conventional SEO criteria, such as links to the website.
By maintaining an up-to-date Google My Business page, small companies may demonstrate their relevance and proximity to a particular area.
Small companies will benefit from appearing higher in local searches since they will be able to contact individuals in their immediate vicinity.
Make Your Website User-Friendly on Mobile Devices
Search engines, as well as Google, place a high importance on well-designed websites that provide reliable information fast. Small companies should make an investment in high-quality webpages that load quickly and are mobile-friendly.
Google started indexing mobile-first in July of this year. The crawlers, or bots, that Google uses to examine website code in order to assess SEO value, will now review sites as they display on mobile devices first, rather than how they appear on desktop computers.
It should come as no surprise that the majority of small companies who employ SEO (51 percent) invest in websites that are mobile-friendly.
Searches conducted on mobile devices account for over half of all Google search traffic. Mobile-friendly websites for small companies improve the user experience for the vast majority of people who use mobile devices to access the internet.
Fortunately for small companies, Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test makes it simple to determine whether or not a site is optimized for smart phones.
Google displays the results of the tests with a picture of how a web site appears on a mobile device. According to the results of this test, the Website is mobile-friendly and simple to use on a mobile phone.
Small companies can also consider investing in website builders to help them create their websites rather than seeking to design a website from the ground up.
Companies like Squarespace and Wix provide cheap website builders with simple-to-use software that allows companies to quickly and easily construct high quality websites.
Founder and CEO Bill Joseph runs Frontier Blades, a tiny e-commerce business that does not engage in conventional paid advertising on Google or other search engines. Instead, he depends on search engine optimization to drive traffic to his website.
There are two benefits to using a website builder. According to Joseph, it increases website loading speeds and solves technical SEO problems. Shopify is the website builder of choice for e-commerce businesses. It’s simple to set up and enables users to personalize their website for search engine optimization by changing unique meta headers and meta details for each product.
Metafields are bits of information that allow companies to add custom fields to particular Shopify components, such as goods and orders, by storing the information in a database.
It is possible to modify metafields and add keywords that you wish to rank for on Shopify. Metafields and other webpage components are scrutinized by Google or other search engines. The use of keywords can aid in the improvement of your SEO.
Web frameworks such as Magento and WordPress also offer resource guides devoted to improving websites for search engine optimization.
Small companies with limited in-house development expertise may find it difficult to optimize their websites for search engine optimization. When working on the backside of your website, get the advice of a professional to ensure that it works correctly for both visitors and search engines.
Produce Content of Superior Quality
Content on a company’s “About Us” and “Home” websites goes beyond the text on those pages. Small companies should focus on creating high-quality, helpful content for their customers in order to enhance their search engine optimization (SEO).
In order to assist their SEO strategy, almost half of small companies (45 percent) produce high-quality content.
High-quality content is used by 45 percent of small companies to assist their search engine optimization efforts.
Small companies aren’t restricted to long-form written material when it comes to marketing.
When brainstorming content ideas, look at the search engine results pages (SERPs) for the keywords you’re targeting. The kinds of material that show in the search results pages provide insight into the types of information that your target audience is looking for.
For example, a skincare business like Little Barn Apothecary may wish to offer information on how to utilize serum products as part of a normal skincare regimen on their website.
According to the SERP, the term “skincare serum” will bring up listicles and how-to instructions for customers who are interested in purchasing in a serum.
The “People also ask” section on the search engine results page is also a great tool for creating article inspiration. By clicking on each recommended question, you may discover similar subjects.
In order to come up with content ideas, small companies can make use of their corporate blogs, which may address audience queries and offer answers to frequent problems.
The creation of content to address customer issues aids in the development of authority among your target audience and Google.
When it comes to creating content, small companies do not have to employ experienced writers. Teammates from throughout the organization may add their knowledge to a corporate blog and assist with SEO efforts.
Concentrate on technical SEO
In technical SEO, the act of improving the design of your website’s pages so that crawlers can correctly scan and analyse your site is referred to as optimization. Assuming that the crawler is a human, the objective is for the crawler to visit your site and conclude that everything is safe and that the pages load quickly, the links all function, and it’s all secure. I have no reservations about endorsing this particular piece of information.
Even if your content is excellent, issues regarding technical SEO will prevent your site from ranking well in the search engine results pages (SERPs). So, before you start producing new content to attract new consumers, assess the quality of the existing material from a technical standpoint.
Leaving certain issues to engineers is a good idea, such as ensuring your data encryption methods remain up to date, site performance improvements, and data structure. If you don’t have that kind of technical experience, you might attempt the following:
- Generate a sitemap and submit — Based on the tools you used to construct your site, you may be able to utilize a plugin to generate an xml sitemap and submit it to Google. Yoast SEO is an example of a WordPress plugin that creates a sitemap dynamically and maintains it up to date when new material is published on your site. You may upload the sitemap to Google via Webmaster Tools, which is a free tool provided by Google to assist you in managing your presence online in Search Engine Results (search results).
- Remove old pages that aren’t doing well – If your website has a large number of pages that aren’t getting any visitors, your rankings will suffer as a result.
- Resolve broken and outdated links – If you repeatedly direct your readers to obsolete or broken links, the search engine robots will penalize your content. In a recent research, it was shown that directing visitors to high-authority outbound links is seen positively by Google’s search engine ranking algorithm.
- Optimize the quality of your photographs — Make use of relevant pictures and captions that are suitable for the situation. In addition, you should provide a summary of the picture in the “alt text” part of the document.
Best SEO Tools That Are Totally Free
If you’re new to SEO or just want to improve your results at no expense, here are some of the finest free Seo services you should be utilizing.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a priceless resource that is practically essential for any digital marketer concerned about search engine optimization.
It offers a wealth of useful information on websites, including the amount of site visitors, traffic sources, and demographics by area.
Digital marketers may fine-tune their content strategy based on comprehensive data from Google Analytics and determine whatever works and what doesn’t.
Google Analytics is among the finest free SEO tools available and should be used by every digital marketer.
Google Trends
Google Trends allows you to track the popularity in a specific keyword from as recent as an hour to as far back as 2004.
Sort by category, country, and search type. Consider similar subjects, regional popularity, the most recently most commonly searched keywords, and comparisons to other terms.
Backlink Checker
Utilize our Backlink Checker to learn everything about the backlinks pointing to a certain URL.
View the number of referring websites, the amount of inbound links, the domain and URL scores, and the domain’s Ahrefs Rank, which indicates the domain’s place on Ahrefs’s list of the most powerful sites.
Semrush
Semrush is an amazing keyword analysis SEO tool that makes it simple to determine the keywords for which any website on the web ranks.
It includes comprehensive information about those terms, such as their position in the search engine results pages (SERPs), the URLs towards which they direct visitors, and traffic patterns over the last 12 months.
Semrush now provides premium plans with more features and unrestricted access.
While they are not inexpensive, you may begin with a 14-day free trial to evaluate the premium features.
Ubersuggest
Ubersuggest is a straightforward keyword research service that pulls data from Google’s Keyword Planner to provide term suggestions for a given keyword.
Additionally, the program provides useful statistics for each term, such as search traffic, cost per click, and degree of competition.
Ubersuggest 3.0, a newly upgraded version, now allows you to enter URLs and obtain domain data.
Final Thoughts
If you want to build long-term brand recognition, broaden your target audience, and increase income, SEO is critical.
