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Do you want to know the secret to success for a small business?
It’s simple. While you build a strong foundation for your business, never ignore Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
SEO plays an integral part in the success of a business and helps extend its reach to a broader audience.
A business website with poor SEO can be compared to a TVC that airs on an unnoteworthy channel in the middle of the night. The ad is difficult to find, even if it stands high on the creativity meter. In short, useless!
Likewise, you may have an astounding business idea. But, your customers will never find you if Google isn’t showing your website in the search engine.
When you do SEO the right way, you can witness a significant rise in website traffic, brand visibility, and revenue.
If you are stuck right now and have no idea where to get more leads and convert them via a sales funnel, you have landed on the right page.
Below, I have jotted down seven amazing small business SEO strategies that can work for any industry. Implementing these SEO strategies on my own website and for clients, I quickly grew several businesses.
To scale your business, you need a website that sits on top of the search engine results. And for that, you should never overlook the following tips. I must include the fact here that nothing happens overnight, but you won’t have to wait for very long either.
So, let’s begin.
1. Get listed on Google My Business
Have you claimed your Google My Business account?
If not, what are you waiting for?
Click here to start your free account right away!
According to a 2015 local search study of Think With Google, almost one-third of all mobile searches are location-based queries like “Coffee shop near me.”
But that was back in 2015, which means five years ago. We have to keep in mind that the user’s behavior changes dynamically from time to time. Comparable search queries without terms like “near me” have grown by 150% in the last two years.
Google automatically prioritizes results according to people’s intent. Local results are automatically relevant to their location.
Setting up a Google My Business Profile, therefore, is an integral part of local SEO.
Firstly, claim your FREE account, and fill out information like your local phone number, address, opening and closing time, and other info that may be useful. This information will show up on the Google Map results.
The most significant advantage of Google My Business is that your customers can easily share their feedback via Google My Business review feature. Whenever you get a review on your Google My Business, you will get an alert in your registered email. You can respond to that review and start a conversation. That way, you can convert that reviewer into a loyal customer.
The second paramount feature of Google My Business is the question and answer section. According to a study, most people don’t want to call directly and prefer talking via messaging or getting the answer themselves.
After creating a Google My Business account, don’t forget to add your business in other local directories like Yelp, TripAdvisor, etc. These types of directory submissions can expose you to new customers.
2. Optimize your website
On-page SEO is a lot more than putting keywords in a title and on the rest of the page.
You have to create high quality content, and include the main keyword, LSI keywords, and other related keywords as well.
Do keep in mind that excessively adding the targeted keyword will harm your ranking rather than improve it.
You have to optimize your targeted keyword in the following sections:
- Title
- Description
- Body content
- Image
While optimizing your page for local search engines, don’t forget to add specific terms and location names that your audience might use when searching for your business.
For instance, you will more likely use the term “wedding photographer in Washington” instead of only “wedding photographer” if you are looking for a wedding photographer in or around Washington.
3. Fast loading and mobile-friendly website
Your small business website might look amazing with a spectacular design, inviting colors, and fonts.
But, if it doesn’t load fast enough, your ranking and traffic will definitely be affected.
Before you begin the link building campaigns or content development, you have to put effort into increasing the site speed.
A fast loading website and a solid website structure will help search engines properly crawl and index your web pages.
Having said that, it is also essential to fix any other technical problems that may come up.
For instance:
- Duplicate content
- Duplicate Title & Descriptions
- Improper website sitemap
- Broken Links
- Un-optimize images
- Improper use of canonical tags
- Improper image size
You need to do proper research and will need help from tools like SEMRush for these problems.
4. Schema code (structured data)
Local schema markup sends signals about the components of a web page to search engines, such as:
- Business Name
- Business Located Address
- Business Phone Number
- Service and Product Rating
- Business Opening and Closing Time
- And so on.
For local SEO, JSON-LD markup is preferred. You can see the Schema Structure preview within the SERP below:
You can create a schema markup code for your business here: https://schema.org/LocalBusiness
After creating the Schema code for your small business website, you can check that schema code in Google structured data testing tool.
5. Submit your business to directories and local profiles
Local business relies heavily on the accuracy of your contact data, such as the Name, Address, and Phone Number (NAP).
Keeping your NAP information accurate and consistent for all the citations that you build is essential, as Citations are online mentions of your business that drastically improve its presence.
Proper citations will not only improve your Google My Business Listing ranking but your own website as well.
The best and most hassle-free way to build good quality Citations is to sign up for a service that will distribute your business NAP information.
6. Content optimization
No one can deny what Bill Gates said about content; it really is the king!
Content marketing is undoubtedly the best way to promote your business to a broader audience. However, it is a fact that most small businesses have limited resources to promote their business content.
Small business owners can follow these tips on content marketing:
Typically, creating and promoting a video is much faster than writing a blog post. According to a study, most internet users are video consumers. Hence, creating video content is a good idea to appeal to most of your audience.
- Leverage Social Media and Other Distribution Channels:
Depending on a single audience source is not a good idea. Local marketing will be tough to ace if you focus only on one channel. Instead, share your content across all social media platforms. A higher number of audiences can be targeted if you choose a relevant distribution channel to post your content.
7. Build authority links from your local area websites
Getting links from other high authority websites can work wonders to improve your ranking on search engines. Still, most small businesses don’t focus on this strategy.
For link building, you need to adopt outreach strategies to reach bloggers, local newspapers, event pages, and other mediums where content related to your area is frequently published.
A great way to collect potential backlinks is to find out where your competitors are getting them from. Tools like SEMRush and Ahrefs can help you find that very easily.
Parting thoughts
An organic audience from search engines is the best approach to get sales and conversions. To get a top ranking in search engines, you need to adopt the strategies mentioned above and see the results for yourself.
Guest author: Hey, I am Zara Humaid, the founder of zarahumaid.com and inflatic.com. I am a passionate blogger by heart. I started zarahumaid.com blog to share the lessons I have learned in my blogging journey. My goal is to create content that will help you not only lift your blog from the ground but also make it successful.
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