SEO, That Ugly Word For Small Business Owners

SEO isn’t easy for any company. Many small business owners in fact don’t even have a clue what SEO is or why they even need to understand it. Sadly, in this technical day and age, search engine optimization and organic rankings is essential for marketing and branding of your business. So here are some basic tips that I found and we use. This will help you in getting a grasp on SEO and how you can improve your visibility on

1. How Do You Help Customers?

How, when, and where do customers determine they need your product or service? Is it away from home, using their cell phone? Is it at home using a desktop computer or tablet? Is it caused by a disruptive event like a home or personal issue?

These questions and the answers to them can help you understand how your customers will find your business. This information will drive your keyword research and content creation, among other tasks.

2. Fix Your Website
Your small business website might look fine on the outside – with great graphics, colors, and fonts. But if there are technical problems it will likely impact your rankings and traffic. If you have coding problems, html issues, have your webmaster fix those before moving forward. You need to have the behind the scenes working so search engines can properly crawl and index your webpages. Some of the most common technical SEO problems have to do with:
·        Speed.
·        Duplicate content.
·        Broken links.
·        Un-optimized pages.

3. Optimize Your Pages

On-page optimization is more than just putting keywords on the pages.  Use the right keywords that will expand your reach! You must also use the headings. A
·        Titles
·        Meta Tags or Descriptions
·        Body content.

4. Optimize Google My Business

Google My Business is a must for any small business. It’s free, easy to update, and can make a big impact. The first step toward using “Google My Business” is claiming and verifying your small business. Do that here: https://www.google.com/business. Be sure to fill out as many fields as you can and include photos and videos to enhance your listing. Also, check out Google Analytics. Your category selection is super important. Be sure to choose the correct categories for your business. If you want to get more advanced with Google My Business, take the time to create questions and answers. What does that mean? In local search results, there is now a section where people can ask questions and get answers. As a small business, it is important that you stay on top of these questions. Create your own questions and provide the answers.

5. Find Out What Your Competitors Are Doing  

Your completion in the virtual world might be different than the competitors within your local area. For SEO purposes, we are the most concerned with the websites that are showing up in the top 5 to 10 positions of Google search results for your targeted keywords. Those are the competitors you want to analyze and then try to one up them with your own business.

6. Manage Local Business Listings & Citations

In addition to Google My Business, you need to control the accuracy of your local business data. Consistency is crucial.

7. Get Links from Websites in Your Local Area

Most small business owners never think about links. However, getting links to your site can help improve your rankings. That can mean more sales and more customers.

8. Focus on Getting Reviews

Getting positive reviews of your business is important. You can improve your conversions by putting effort into getting reviews and feedback from your customers. You can encourage customers to leave reviews on the major online review sites.

9. Create Videos & Images and Engage with Competitive keywords

Websites need content, which means words, so that search engines understand what they are about. Content goes beyond words, though, and should include images and videos. In fact, if you are struggling to show up for competitive keywords, why not try a properly optimized video or an image?

10. Mix Paid with Organic ads to Launch Your Business Marketing and Branding

If you’re just starting out with SEO, it can take a while to see results. SEO is a great long-term play, but sometimes you need to start generating leads right away. That is where paid search can really help. While you are building up your SEO work, set aside a budget for paid, so that you can keep the leads coming in. Even after you have a steady flow of organic traffic to the website, you might still consider running a paid search campaign in conjunction. Be selective on your social media advertising on line. Not all platforms may reflect your business's identity. Different age groups use different platforms. Watch those demographics, especially in your local area.

Summary

I hope this helps you with your SEO strategy. There is a lot of information out there on SEO and how to make it work. Depending on your business, some things may be more important than others but if I were to summarize this article, I would say Google My Business, Google analytics and using video along with the keywords. 
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-Roy 

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Tags:  #seo #branding #marketing #contentmarketing #socialmedia