SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) is probably one of the most important factors contributing to the success of a small online business.
Building a wonderful website that will leave the customers absolutely starstruck is kind of pointless if they can’t find it in the first place.
Hence, in order for any small business to succeed online, they need to optimise their website for search engines.
Now, if you’ve got a little budget, you can acquire the services of some very affordable and high-performing SEO Northampton firms like Novus Digital.
However, if you wish to execute the SEO campaign for your website yourself, we’re going to help you every step of the way. In this article, we will discover what is SEO and some simple but awesome tips on SEO for small businesses.
What is SEO?
While a lot of our readers might have a good idea about what SEO exactly is, there might be some who do not. Therefore, let us give you an overview of this amazing concept that has revolutionised the way we grow our businesses online.
Search Engine Optimisation is simply a way of making it easier for your target audience to find you on search engines like Google, Bing or Yahoo.
This can be possible with the help of various SEO techniques like keyword optimisation, search engine optimised content, technical SEO and so on.
When executed properly, SEO can help you appear on the top of the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages), driving more organic traffic to your website and thus boosting sales.
Now that you know what is SEO, let’s take a look at a few tips on SEO for small businesses.
7 Simple SEO Tips for Small Businesses
When you Google the words, “SEO services for small business” or “SEO company for small business,” some SEO firms in the area will show up on the page.
These SEO companies are the ones that have optimised their websites efficiently and are hence, visible to their customers.
Now if you wish to make the same thing happen for your business, you are going to need an exceptional SEO agency to help you. However, with these brilliant tips, you can also execute it yourself.
Now let’s find out how you can do that.
- Efficient Keyword Research
Keyword research is one of the core SEO practices that effectively influence a website’s SERP rankings. Efficient keyword research can greatly help you achieve your SEO goals and grow your business.
However, most people are unaware of what keyword research is or what keywords are for that matter. Well, let us tell you.
Every time you’re looking for a particular product or service on a search engine, there are a set of words that you type into the search bar in order to find it.
Those set of words are keywords for that particular business. Let’s say you’re in the business of beer mats. Your keywords would be something like pub beer mats, rubber beer mats, custom beer mats, beer mats UK, etc.
Now, for a business, looking for these keywords is made pretty easy with the help of some amazing keyword research tools. All you need to do is type a few keywords that come to your mind and find out all about them on the tool.
Not only do these tools help you search for new and precise keywords but they also provide you with very important information about every keyword. This includes the average number of people using a keyword, the top-ranking sites for various keywords and so on.
Using these keyword research tools, you can list down at least 50 keywords for your website and then use them in your content strategically. Something we’ll explore later in this article.
- Highlight Your Key Selling Points
When it comes to SEO, the fact that you’re competing with almost every similar business in the world can be worrisome. Hence, a way to stand out is to highlight your key selling points.
These key points may be as complicated as an absolutely customisable product or a unique service, or as simple as your geographical location.
Now we’re sure you’ve heard about local SEO. It refers to optimising your website for a particular geographical location. In comparison to every other business in the country, your geographical location is a key selling point for the audience in your area.
Therefore, you need to use a few techniques to boost the local SEO for your small business in order to rank better.
Moreover, for a special service that only you provide, you can also use keywords similar to custom beer mats and personalised beer mats in order to rank easily and boost sales.
- Elegant Content Quality
While using the right keywords in your website’s content is essential, it is also very important to maintain the quality of your content.
The first goal of any search engine is to be as convenient as possible, which means providing the simplest answers to a user’s questions.
Therefore, if your content isn’t able to provide exactly what the users want in an elegant way, the search engine might tank your ranking.
Hence, whether you’re creating content for a blog post or a landing page, you need to make sure that your content is compelling.
One of the most common ways to attract organic traffic to your website is to publish quality content that provides correct and concise information to the readers.
However, while maintaining the quality of your content is important, the strategic use of keywords is also essential. Without keywords, the quality of your content is almost worthless, which is why keyword placement makes all the difference.e
- Exceptional Content Quantity
Content quality and keyword strategy are key, however, it needs to be backed by a whole lot of content. You really can’t expect to defeat the entire internet with a few really good articles, right?
That’s exactly why your content quantity matters. While you publish quality content with excellent keyword placement, you also need to post a lot of it.
Additionally, it is always a good idea to go back to older articles, and edit them in order to stay up to date with the latest information. This can work wonders for your website’s ranking.
- Avoid Black Hat SEO and Keyword Stuffing
Black hat SEO is a term that is used for SEO practices that are against the search engine guidelines. This includes techniques like using invisible text and stuffing irrelevant keywords into the website content.
Not only will these practices get you penalised by the search engines but may also result in your website being banned from said search engines.
Black hat SEO techniques are intricately designed only for search engines and do not consider the human audience whatsoever. Hence, these practices are regarded as unethical and should always be avoided.
- Link Building
If you ever search for “SEO services for small business” on the internet, you will certainly come across link building services.
This is another very helpful SEO practice that has been used by SEO experts to increase their domain rating for years.
Link building falls under off-page SEO and refers to building virtual links between two websites. Simply said, it entails requesting various domains to link a certain page from your website to theirs.
This way every time a user clicks on your link on their website, a “Link Juice” passes between the two domains which can result in a higher ranking for your website.
When it comes to SEO, the more links you build, the more chances you have to rank higher on search engines. This is because according to the search engine bots, this means that more and more trustworthy sites are vouching for you.
Therefore, the quality of your links makes all the difference. Having links from reputed websites directed to yours can effectively enhance your domain rating and search engine ranking.
- Pay Attention to the UI and UX
An easy-to-navigate, user-friendly website can majorly affect your search engine rankings for the better. As we mentioned before, a search engine aims to provide its users with the best experience.
This means that if your website is hard to navigate and doesn’t provide a very good user experience, you’ll probably be pushed way down the line.
Creating a responsive website is key because a large number of users today often log on to the internet through their mobiles and tabs.
What’s more, you also need to keep the site speed and page load time in check to enhance the user experience and thus your sales.
Conclusion
By using these simple tips on SEO for small businesses, you can effectively optimise your website for search engines. However, SEO is a full-time job and requires constant monitoring and work.
Therefore, if you find yourself not being able to manage this while you also take care of your business, we suggest you acquire the services of an affordable yet brilliant SEO agency and let them do the work for you.
