Essential Small Business SEO Tips
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) can be an expensive endeavour for small business owners who choose to outsource this marketing function. However, there are some steps you can take to bring many of the elements in-house and reduce your agency or consultancy fees. These include:
Taking Control of Your Site Content
If you have a 5 page website, don’t expect to rank number one on highly competitive key phrases any time soon. Search engines love new content, so “flat” structured sites, featuring no deep content, rare updates, and poor internal linking structures will not perform well. The most successful sites on the web often feature thousands of pages, so you need to put in place a plan to develop your content on a weekly, or better still, daily basis.
Set Yourself Realistic Objectives
If you’re launching a new website about mortgages, don’t expect your site to rank on page one for the keyword “mortgages” in any short period of time. It can take many months for businesses with very large marketing budgets to achieve page one results on competitive terms such as this. Instead, try and identify your niche. What kind of mortgages are you offering? What age group of demographic are you targeting? Whereabouts are your customers based? These questions will help you to inform your keyword research.
Target the Long-Tail
The long-tail can be defined as those keywords which have low search volumes with high intent for sales. Targeting these keywords can be a very effective SEO strategy for small business owners. Long tail keywords are generally 4 or more words long. An example would be “mortgages for over 50s”. At the opposite end of the tail are your head keywords which are normally 1 or 2 keywords long. An example would be “mortgages”. Using keyword research tools to identify high intent, long-tail search terms will help you to define the right strategy for your niche.
Add as much Relevant Content as Possible
Keep generating lots of content featuring both your long-tail and head search terms. By doing so on a frequent basis you should secure page one results for your long-tail target keywords with 2 to 3 months (so long as your site is engineered efficiently and you combine this with other SEO work such as link-baiting or building). If your content is good quality, over time google will identify your site as an authority on your topic making it a likelier possibility for you to eventually rank on your head keywords. Remember, this requires consistency and can take months or possibly even years of content development work, dependent upon your budget.
Target Local Search
Use keyword tools such as Word Tracker, or try running a google AdWords campaign to identify the kinds of keywords people use to locate your products or services on a local level. If you run a locksmith in Haywards Heath, try targeting the terms “locksmith Haywards Heath” or “locksmiths in East Sussex”. You’re much more likely to achieve a result on these terms than you are on the generic term “locksmiths”.
Install a Blog on your Website
Blog publishing platforms such as Word Press are very search engine friendly and can be customised easily by adding SEO plug-ins. Blogging about your services is another great way to target the long-tail and once your blog is “trusted” by the search engines it’s not unusual for your posts to be indexed in a matter of minutes. This is because search engines love new content.
Install Analytics, Learn and Be Patient
Make sure you install google Analytics or other web analytics software. You need to keep a close eye on the bounce rate of your landing pages (where users visit your site and leave immediately). If your bounce rate is too high your landing page content is clearly low in relevance, credibility or quality and you need to do something about it. Sites with high bounce rates will not perform well in the search engines in the long term. Use web analytics to help you optimise your website performance and engage your site visitors. Use these tools to learn, keep implementing the necessary changes, be patient, and over time you will see improvements. The essence of effective small business SEO is to take control of your content and its performance.
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