10 SEO Tips for Small Businesses

Take control of your online presence with these SEO tips for small businesses

1. Start with the basics

Understand the basics of SEO.

• How does SEO work?
• What are search engines?
• What is a “search engine optimization” (SEO) strategy?
• What is on-page and off-page SEO?

Use SEO tools.

You can use free or paid SEO tools to help you with various aspects of your business' marketing campaigns. Some examples include keyword research tools, link-building tools, social media monitoring tools, and local business listing management software.

Some popular options for these types of services include Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, and Ahrefs respectively.

2. Audit your website

If you're a small business owner, it can be hard to find the time to keep up with all the latest changes in SEO. But if you don't take the time to audit your website regularly, you might be missing out on some great opportunities to improve your rankings, which could mean more customers and more revenue for your business.

A good website audit will include several different aspects of your site—on-page SEO, mobile optimization, social media presence, and more.

Here are some tips for getting started with a website audit:

1) On-Page SEO: This includes analyzing the content of your site and checking for any errors or issues that might be holding back your rankings. For example, does each page have a title tag? Is the content optimized for search engines? Are there any duplicate pages or sections?

2) Mobile Optimization: When Google first started ranking sites based on their mobile-friendliness, many businesses were caught off guard because their websites weren't optimized for mobile devices. If you don't have a mobile version of your site yet (and even if you do), it's important to make sure that every page is mobile-friendly before launching an audit.

3. Know what your customers are searching for

A good place to start is by using Google Search Console or another analytics tool to look for keywords that customers are searching for.

You can also use Google Trends, which tracks the volume of searches for different keywords over time, and will show you popular search terms in your industry and how they're trending over time.

For more research-based keyword ideas, try running a search on a free keyword research tool like Google Keyword Planner or Ubersuggest.

You'll get a list of relevant terms that can help you get a better idea of what your audience is looking for online.

4. Focus on great web design

Design is the first step in search engine optimization, customer experience, brand building, conversion, and sales. It’s also a crucial part of customer acquisition.

Design plays a role in all of these areas because it has such an impact on how people interact with your business online.

• What do you want your website visitors to feel when they visit your site?

• How do you want them to engage with what they see there?

Design will help guide that interaction and create an emotional response from visitors that leads them down the path towards taking action (whether it be purchasing from you or just leaving).

Design isn't just about colors and fonts though -- it's also about usability which is something we'll talk more about later!

5. Use local keywords

Search engines can be more accurate in their results if you use local keywords. It’s a good idea to include these in your title tags and meta descriptions, page titles, URLs, internal links (including anchor text), image alt text, and video titles.

6. Focus on great content

Content is king.

It’s the heart of your website, and it’s what your customers want to read. Content helps your customers find you, and it also helps you rank in search engines and attract links from other sites.

Writing good content isn’t impossible—you just need to follow some basic guidelines:

• Write an attractive title and meta description. Make sure it’s interesting and makes people want to read the content. Include your top keywords or related words.

• Write readable, well-structured content with natural (not forced) use of local keywords.

7. Increase your online reviews and ratings

Online reviews and ratings are the best way to ensure your business is front-of-mind when customers are ready to buy.

When potential customers search for a product or service you offer, they will likely see the stars (if not a rating) right next to it.

So it’s crucial that your company has more than one or two reviews: you want to make sure yours is above average, at least.

How can you encourage customers to leave reviews?

Here are some tips:

• Make it simple for customers to leave reviews: include links on your website and in confirmation emails.
  
  
• Follow up with customers who have had a positive experience and ask them to write a review.
  
  
• Respond quickly—and politely—to negative reviewers, addressing their specific concerns (but don’t offer compensation).
  
  
• Get involved in the community: A great way to raise awareness of your business is by getting involved in the local community. This could mean sponsoring a little league team, advertising at a school play, or donating products or services to charity auctions. There are many creative ways you can get involved; just make sure whichever route you choose aligns well with your brand identity.

This matters because online reviews and ratings are one of the most important factors that potential customers use when choosing a business.

8. Engage in social media marketing and optimization

Social media is a great way to get your business in front of new customers, interact with existing customers, and build brand awareness. You can also use it as an opportunity to build customer loyalty.

If you're not already using social media marketing to boost your business' visibility online, then you should consider doing so now.

9. Ensure mobile optimization

Mobile traffic is exploding, and your small business needs to make sure it’s ready for it.

Just about every major search engine now has a mobile-friendly algorithm that will favor sites with good mobile performance over those that don’t.

If your site isn’t optimized for mobile, you could be missing out on an enormous portion of web traffic and potential customers.

10. Include internal links

Internal links are a great way to connect different pages on your site and provide more context for visitors.

It's wise to include internal links throughout your site (especially if some pages are more important than others) so that users can easily navigate from one page to another.

Conclusion

Small businesses are a vital part of the American economy.

Unfortunately, many small businesses struggle to get noticed online by customers searching for products or services.

This is where SEO comes in: if you want to be visible on Google and Bing, then you need an effective search engine optimization strategy.

Looking for a few more tips on how to optimize your website for search engines? Check out our blog, where we'll be posting regular updates on how to do just that.

If you're looking for more information about the kinds of services we offer, or if you'd like to schedule a free website audit and consultation with one of our local SEO experts, please reach out today.