You’ve successfully managed to launch your small business website! Now all you have to do is sit back, wait for potential customers to find you, and start seeing an increase in revenue, right?
Well, not quite. Just having a website isn’t enough. For users to find your site, you need to make sure that your website is optimized to appear in searches.
You might have heard the term SEO before, but you might not fully understand how it is relevant for your small business.
To start, you need to develop a basic understanding of what is SEO and how it works. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. When your website is optimized for SEO, you’re more likely to rank higher on Google, which allows more organic traffic to find your site. The more traffic you receive on your site, the more likely you are to gain a new customer.
Keyword research, link building, and a strong content marketing strategy are just some of the techniques you’ll need to familiarize yourself with.
However, if you’re already trying to run a small business with a limited staff, you might not have a lot of extra time to devote to SEO. Luckily, there are a few simple and effective SEO tips for small business owners anyone can use to begin boosting your SEO and start ranking higher.
If you’re a small business, there is a chance that your primary audience is your local community. As your business starts to grow, you might find yourself expanding and reaching a wider audience. However, if you have limited time, focus your attention on building your local SEO.
Local SEO catches people who are searching for things such as “restaurants near me.” If you’re a restaurant, you want to appear in those top few search results! You should make sure that you have a strong My Business profile set up through Google, get your business represented on websites such as the Yellow Pages, and respond to any user reviews on websites, such as Yelp.
The right keywords used throughout your site means that you’re more likely to be recognized by search engines as a business that appears in the top results. To do this, the first thing you’re going to want to do is to figure out what keywords your customers are using. One of the most basic ways to do this is to look at other websites in your industry and see what common words are being used.
A better way to do this is to familiarize yourself with the concept of keyword research. There are free online tools that can help you figure out what keywords are most relevant to your industry. You can then begin using those keywords strategically throughout your website or blog. The key to using keywords effectively is to naturally work them into your content, and not spam your site with them.
Once you have done some work to improve your local SEO and have an understanding of keywords, it is time to begin optimizing the content on your website to further boost your SEO. This includes going through all pages to make sure keywords are used in headers, header tags, and meta tags. It also means beginning link building, which is when you link to other authority sites and try to get other sites to link to your site (one way to do this is through guest posting).
If you haven’t done so already, you might also want to consider starting a blog. A blog is a great way to naturally include more keywords and links in your site. Just remember that you’ll need to be prepared to update your blog frequently with quality content.
Utilizing social media correctly is another way to boost your SEO. As a small business owner, one of the easiest ways to utilize social media is by regularly resharing any blogs you write, responding to user reviews, and giving general updates on what is going on with your business.
Ideally, engagement on social media means that more people will see your content. This increases your chance of someone hyperlinking to your site, which could boost your SEO.
If you’re a small business owner, the best way to begin increasing your SEO is to focus on your local SEO. Once you have a better understanding of SEO, you’ll want to start utilizing keyword research and link building. And, don’t forget that social media can also help increase your traffic.
