Small business owners have so much on their plate it is understandable that online digital marketing isn’t one of the first things on your to do list. Nonetheless, this is still something that you need to think about. It is also important to develop a strategy so you have a plan of attack.
For people who aren’t experts in the area it can be a pretty daunting task. But lucky for you, there are a lot of tips out there that can assist in getting your online marketing strategy started. The first, and most important step, is actually acknowledging that SEO it vital for the success of your business.
When you have SEO on your side you are working towards your end goal of improving visibility. This has a knock on effect as the higher your visibility, the higher the chance that people will become a customer of yours.
As per this digital marketing agency located in Sydney it is important to remember, however, that SEO is a long term strategy and do not expect your rankings to dramatically change over night. It takes continual time and effort to see results and once you have your desired results you still need to work hard to maintain that ranking as others will fight for your place.
So take a look below at the 4 main ways for a small business to work on improving their SEO. With these tactics on your side you are well on your way to seeing the results you deserve.
1. Technical SEO
It’s the section of SEO the people seem to avoid the most, because they think it is really difficult, but in realty it isn’t. To help you fix your technical SEO there are a number of online tools that can assist, one of the best being SEMRush. Now this isn’t a free tool, but it is definitely worth the money and can assist in many areas.
So before you start doing anything to flashy on your website, make sure that the roots are solid. Once you have a great foundation you can start building up, knowing that your site will stay stable no matter how big you go.
If you are looking for places to start investigating technical SEO, have a look below at some of the most common areas:
- Broken links
- Speed
- Duplicate content
- Un-optimised pages
- Poor use of canonical link elements
2. Optimise Pages
In the previous point, un-optimised pages was listed as one of the most vital aspects that need resolving when it comes to technical SEO. This point is so important that it needs to be addressed separately.
When thinking about optimising your pages, it doesn’t just mean put your target keywords on and your finished. These days there is so much more that goes into ensuring that your pages are probably optimised for all users.
One of the first things you need to think of is your content. Each different page you create should have a set of keywords you are looking to target for each of them. You should also have a main focus keyword, this should be used in the heading tag as well as in any alt text, if you are including images.
As well as this, don’t forget about your meta descriptions. This is what users see in the Google search listings and can have a big impact if users end up clicking on your site or not. Your keywords need to be including in here as well, but without keyword stuffing.
3. Customer Reviews
Customer reviews are awesome for your website and SEO. Most people these days look up reviews about a product or service before making a purchase. So if you don’t have any reviews, what does this tell your potential customers?
As well as this, when it comes to local SEO, customer reviews are one of the predominate search engine ranking factors. So you should look to encourage your customers to leave a review, and also address them no matter if it is positive or negative.
4. Google My Business
For a local business, your Google My Business profile is pretty much your lifeline. You need to ensure it is fully optimised so that potential customers in your area can find you. The best thing about it is that it is free and so easy to update!
So, if you haven’t verified your listing, you should do it now. Google will send a verification code to the business address in order for you to claim and activate your listing. It is essential that you fill out as many of the fields as you can, even including photos and videos if possible.
Also, by having a Google My Business listing, it allows another way for customers to leave reviews! As well as this, there is also a question and answer section when you and respond to any questions customers ask.