SEO Marketing Guide for Small Business
Are you about to start a SEO marketing for a small business? Before you do, let’s go over the basics first and then delve into the structures of SEO through this guide laid out for you.
SEO elements: on-page SEO & off page SEO
To come up with an effective SEO marketing strategy for your small business and adapt to the constant updates in Search Engines you need to understand the ins and outs of on-page SEO & off-page SEO.
This illustration by Andrew Chorny paints a clear picture of the difference between On-page SEO and Off-page SEO which we will go through in more detail in the following sections.
On-page SEO
On-page SEO is the process of optimizing a site’s content for search engine visibility.
The power of on-page optimization in SEO marketing is to strategically strengthen keywords and phrases within the body text, titles, or pages themselves. This can be done by combining work such as optimizing your site map with other options like keywords into your page content. With this, it will show up higher when Google looks at them for their ranking calculations.
This technique creates not just an aesthetically pleasing webpage but also makes it easier than ever to get traffic from search engines.
Although on-page SEO is not complicated, there are several factors you need to know when you do an on-page SEO:
Keywords
Keywords are the lifeblood of any website in SEO marketing especially for your small business. They’re what allow users and search engines alike to find your site. The keywords you use will help people know your site by addressing their needs with content that is relevant. It should also be simple enough so everyone can understand what’s being asked without having too many technical terms thrown around.
To rank high in search engine results make sure to use relevant keywords. Choosing keywords as part of your SEO marketing that are considered “low hanging fruits” will give you an upper hand.
With so much competition in internet marketing today it’s important to outsmart your competition in any way possible.
That is why using Keywords that are not that “popular” or what we refer to as “low hanging fruits” is a good strategy when you do on-page SEO.
Title
A title tag is one of the element of your web page, but it’s an important part. It should reflect the content and follow character limits while also being SEO-friendly so users can find you online.
The key is to use keywords in your content so that it shows up when someone searches those terms. Not only it keep things interesting with an engaging title tag, it also narrows down your audience target. Using keywords in these descriptions will help improve their ranking with the appropriate Use Of Title Tags For SEO.
For example,
You could have an article about how “Emojis Have Started Being Used More Than Text Message Emoji” which would then be summarized by having its title tag state “New trendy emoji is all the rage right now!“
The better your title tags describe what content it is about and include relevant keywords, the sooner or later people will click on that link.
Description
Meta descriptions are important for on-page SEO marketing because they tell search engines what your website is about. The meta description is not only important for SEO purposes. It also provides a short blurb of text which appears below the URL bar on every web browser when people visit your site.
You can use keywords targeted toward someone searching for what you have available or create unique descriptions. You can do this by including relevant words related specifically to those interests. This will help attract more traffic since they’ll know exactly where their attention needs to be focused when viewing results.
So use keywords wisely, but also create compelling copy that will appeal not only to search engine users (who are usually looking for specific info) but to anyone.
And lastly, before we move on…
It’s important to remember that when including keywords in your description, add them in a way that does not appear spammy or artificial.
Remember, your goal should be to create compelling content for searchers who click on the result they want without listing every single one of those words out loud!
Anchor Text
The anchor text is what you use to link back to your website or blog posts.
Hyperlinks are the lifeblood of SEO marketing. Although they’re not always easy to spot. One popular use for this technique would be using the word “anchor.” They’re used as clickable hyperlinks attached in various points throughout each web page. This gives the readers easy access and navigation through all areas related directly or indirectly to the topic they’re viewing.
These “anchors” are the keywords that you use in your links to direct people back and forth from one source of information to another. It’s an essential part of SEO because search engines will certainly take notice of this.
How?
Linking with an appropriate keyword in this instance can boost search engine rankings because Google likes it when its users click on pages with relevant content!
Content
Original content will always be more effective than recycled work when doing SEO.
It acts as a catalyst in driving traffic to your website. It does this by increasing views, which in turn drives more traffic to the website. By doing so, it creates a vicious circle that can lead to a significant increase in traffic.
And a great way to get people interested in what you have written is by making it engaging enough. Keeping your audience interested so they don’t feel bored after reading one single word! This includes putting high-quality images that are related to your post. The content of your site cannot possibly be ready for SEO without an engaging and high-quality visual representation. High quality visuals that are related to your content will keep your readers interested and engaged to go with your original content.
Having an original content in your webpage is one of the most effective SEO marketing strategy for a small business.
Site Map
A sitemap is a blueprint for search engines to find and index all of your website’s content.
Creating a sitemap for your website is one way of making sure that your content is found by search engines. It provides an easy way for people who use third-party software like Google’s Webmaster Tool or Bing Site Explorer to access your website. This makes viewing information about each page on your entire site much easier without knowing the fine print behind it..
To elaborate this even further,
Think of your website as a house with all the rooms labeled and ready for guests. A sitemap organizes this space. Making it easy to find what you need when you do SEO marketing or just check up on things from time to time.
The sitemap is the ultimate way to make sure that your website content stays up-to-date with search engine standards. Helping search engines find and index all of the content in your business website.
Internal link
Internal linking is an SEO optimization process of creating links within the website pages.
This helps search engines determine when and where you want your site’s primary web page. As well as other related content on that same topic. Internal Linking makes navigation easy for visitors while also helping Google rank your sites better. It does this by giving searchers more information about what type of topics can be found in your website. Thus saves searchers from endless hours of trying to find the answers themselves with traditional methods.
A great way of creating good quality internal links would be through the use of anchor text. This will result in natural-sounding headlines for users who visit your pages via keyword searches. This is because you are using a language suited to the different queries made on Google.
Off-page SEO
Off-page SEO means optimizing your website to rank higher on the search engine results page (SERP). The goal of this SEO marketing strategy is to have your site seen by as many people as possible. You can do that by using various channels including social media, search engines, and more.
There are a lot of different ways you can do this, but some off-site SEO techniques include creating quality content for external links and making sure that none of those pesky spammy comments show up on pages ranking high with Google’s algorithm.
Here’s a nifty little guide detailing some factors aimed at improving your off-page SEO strategy for your business:
Link Building
Link building is an important SEO strategy that can help you rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs).
The link-building process involves creating backlinks (i.e., links from another website to your own) and then submitting these for approval by webmasters at sites where they would be useful additions. This might include blogs, forums, etc. The link-building process helps you build bridges from another website so that they point towards yours. This way you can increase your traffic flow as well!
The more links you have, the better. Not only will this help with your rankings but it also makes sure that Google won’t penalize or demote those sites for doing too much spammy content as they do if no external sources are linking back to yours.
Bookmarking in Social Media Platform
The idea of social bookmarking is to make it easy for anyone with an internet connection and some free time, or those who don’t have the luxury to.
Bookmarking websites in this way allows you not only to add your link but also to share what’s on that site. Whether it’s news stories related directly to them — or even just stuff like photos someone took while traveling. You can be sure other readers will enjoy seeing whatever interesting things happen across these digital borders.
By doing this you can share related information or videos from other sites to create content for people who want more of what they’re passionate about.
..all while getting the exposure your business needs in the process.
Social Media
Social signals play an important role when determining where your site appears within organic searches. This because consumers use them while deciding which product/service advertisement should appear next. So it is important to keep up with what exactly triggers engagement. Being knowledgeable in this aspect can help you optimize exposure by modifying your SEO strategy to these trends.
Social Media Signals are quickly becoming one of the most important factors for ranking on SERPs. Google and other companies have recognized this trend and adjusted their algorithms accordingly to adapt and utilize new online platform.
If your business doesn’t invest in improving its online presence by utilizing all of those trendy social media platforms available, then you could be missing out on a huge market for your business.
Guest Content
Guest content is a great way to increase your site’s SEO ranking. It works by having you writing articles and blog posts that are published on other websites, which then brings the traffic back to yours.
Fantastic news for businesses who want more customers: guest blogging can be an extremely effective SEO marketing technique – fetching all of its advantages plus some extra perks too.
However, it’s important that you are very strategic when posting guest content on another site. Since some of these may not be trustworthy and appropriate for the target audience you are after.
Article Submission
To get a higher ranking on Google’s Natural Search Engine Optimization (SEO) rankings you need to do article submission SEO technique. This will help improve your rank in certain key terms and phrases related specifically to what people are searching for online at any given time. This means they’re more likely than ever before to find exactly who or things like “insert product name here” if you make sure their searches end up helping you sell your products instead!
Guest blogging is one way of submitting your articles or posts. Writing guest posts will will let build your authority, reputation, and valuable backlinks for your website. It is an opportunity to target new audience, increase subscribers, build relationships with other niche influencers.
There are also websites that allow you to submit your posts for free. But stay clear from “in your face” websites made for the purpose of SEO.
Make sure what you are posting is valuable/not spammy and the site you are using is relevant, high quality, authentic and a decent traffic.
SEO Techniques:
The SEO process involves making sure that all content and pages are optimized with keywords to rank them high up when someone searches those terms online.
This process involves three ways:
Black Hat SEO
Black-Hat SEO refers to an unethical SEO marketing practice that restricts the terms of service for search engines to improve your site/page rank. This means that black hat SEO techniques don’t follow Google’s ranking guidelines. If crawlers identify that you’re using these tactics, they will take action by de-indexing your page on Google’s search engine results page (SERP).
Here are several Black Hat SEO techniques to stay away from:
Cloaking
The concept of cloaking was first introduced to help improve search engine rankings. The idea behind it is that you want your content or information portrayed in a different way for the audience. Except for crawlers such as spiders and bots so they can index everything more easily. In other words, you provide different results to users than they expected.
This clever technique has been used by companies all over the world – including Google! This simple yet effective approach allows users access to an improved version of your webpage while still providing exactly what was expected from them.
Cloaking can be a powerful tool to boost your rankings in SERPs. But if used incorrectly, your site will get penalized by Search Engines such as Google.
Copied Content
Copying content sounds like the easier solution than consistently creating fresh content for your page. But plagiarizing other people’s work is a copyright infringement that can get your site disabled. Google identifies plagiarized content quickly. It always identify it unless you remove all reference points from the source with perfect fidelity (which would be almost impossible).
Creating your content is a lot of work but in SEO marketing, nothing comes second than providing original content that meets the needs of your potential customers. Doing this will not only let you build your credibility in your chosen niche but will make you stand out from the pack.
Keyword Stuffing
The best way to avoid a Google penalty is by not stuffing keywords on your page. Instead of flooding your page with random keywords, place them strategically in your content to maintain the quality and readability of your page for your audience.
Example of keyword stuffing: “Keyword Research is essential for SEO. If you don’t do keyword research, then your site will rank lower in the SERPs. So, you need to do relevant keyword research to rank higher. You can use keyword research tools free of cost to do keyword research.” — 6 Black Hat SEO Techniques You Should Avoid Using In 2020
White Hat SEO
This SEO technique helps your business rank up in SERPs without disregarding the guidelines of any Search Engine. Compared to the underhanded tactics used in Black-Hat SEO, this is a better SEO marketing strategy. Although it adheres to the guidelines it does not offer quick results. It’s because this tactic relies on organic traffic depending on the demands of quality in business websites. But practicing White-Hat SEO will ensure your clean record in Search Engines yielding long-lasting results that will benefit your business in years to come.
Quality Content
You’ve probably read the phrase “Content is King” so many times in articles related to SEO.
And it’s true.
There is nothing more valuable than creating quality content if you want to do SEO in your business. Search Engines serve users by giving them the most relevant results that meet their expectations. So as a business, having optimized quality content on your web pages will increase your chance of being noticed by Search Engines and rank up in SERPs.
Website design
Google has a lot of power and can direct searchers to any site they want. If you don’t provide them with their needs, then those visitors will go back into the search engine results pages. They will end up clicking the other many options available – increasing your bounce rate as result. The higher your bounce rate, the less likely it is that people will click through and view other pages on your site. This can lead to a drop in rankings for certain keywords which will negatively impact the traffic flow and your SEO ranking.
As a countermeasure, strategically designing your business website will make it easier for visitors to navigate will ensure that these people stay and find what they are looking for in your site.
The core take away for this element is; making sure that your website design can be easily navigated by your potential customers. If your website design is “customer centered,” the more beneficial it is for your business.
Keyword Research
The keywords that your competitors are ranking for can be an important piece of information. You should know what they’re targeting and how you compare to them as not to miss out on opportunities. You can use keywords that are considered low-hanging fruit and aren’t used by others. Reverse-engineering their keyword strategy is also an effective tactic to outsmart them.
The key in getting ahead in your chosen niche is knowing what you are up against. By checking the website of competitors, it will help you get more data and serve you with hints on keywords they are focusing on. With this newly gained insight, you will be able to repurpose your keyword usage and frame it to rake more traffic to your site.
Titles & Meta
Putting important titles are the first step in SEO marketing strategy, making your website appear professional.
Maintaining proper meta description on all pages will ensure that search engines can easily identify what content belongs where. This helps deliver relevant results for any given query in Search Engines.
It is important to ensure that your page titles are a true representation of the content on each webpage. This way, when someone goes looking for information about “worms” or other topic-related in-depth details by searching with their keywords, they will quickly know where to look. Not only that but also because those words may have been used specifically within article headings and throughout webpages. Making it accessible to the audience than before.
Grey Hat SEO
Grey-Hat SEO is a type of black and white optimized (SEO) marketing strategy that uses both legal techniques and shady ones. It’s the next step beyond traditional ‘ole’ networker bidding strategies like backlinks or domain visitors. Those work for sure but there may be times when you need more authority on your site than just organic traffic – which can be tough without costing an arm & leg!
However, it is still important to be cautious of employing this tactic because it may venture into Black-Hat SEO territory and result in search engine penalties.
SEO Marketing Components: A closer look
Keywords
Keywords are words or phrases that your potential visitors use when they search for something on Google or Bing.
In other words, these terms define your business’s target audience and what products/services you offer them. They determine where your website will rank in any search engine like Google, and they’re what people use when looking for information on a webpage (or even just within its header).
If any searcher uses keywords that match the ones on your site, you will get a higher chance of appearing in the SERPs. The right keywords can result in a significant increase in new visitors, which will lead to improved brand awareness and an amazing boost for your sales. Don’t just keywords that have a high search volume, it will be harder for you to rank up because of the high competition saturation.
Do your keyword research first to find the sweet spot that will help you increase your chances of ranking up in SERPs.
Content
Again,
In SEO, Content is King.
People all over the world are searching for new information every day. To attract these people to visit your website, creating good quality content is key. It’s important to stay on top of the latest trends in your industry. If you have already written about a topic or subject before and it has thousands upon thousands of articles related, then avoid repeating any more content on that very same topic. Instead, write about something that hasn’t yet been covered in depth, or explore an unused angle of a well-known topic.
Using websites like Answer the Public is great cheat that can get you started on what topics you should be writing about for your next content.
Site Setup
With the decreasing importance of a website in SEO marketing, it’s more important than ever to ensure your business site is up-to-date with all the necessary features and functions. These days people are searching for products or services on their own time so having an attractive design won’t be enough. You will need something user-friendly too. A poor-quality site will only hurt your efforts and even make it difficult for people to find out what exactly they need from your services or products.
To sum it up, to be a true champion of your customer’s needs, you need to focus on things like fast loading times, mobile-friendly design, and safe connections. This will produce satisfied visitors leaving your site with the potential of revisiting it again!
User-focused Design
Landerapp.com talked about the importance of integrating the voice of your customers in any decisions made in your business. Always putting your customers first and meeting their needs will boost your website’s performance.
For example:
The number of mobile users has been increasing, and now accounts for half the internet population. To accommodate this change in browsing habits, a website needs to be tailored specifically toward being viewed on smartphones or tablets. So visitors can enjoy their experience no matter what type of device they are using.
Using tools to develop and make your business website customer-centered will gear up your business for more traffic.
EAT (Expertise, Authority, Worthiness)
Illustration courtesy of Setupad Article on EAT SEO
Google is always on the lookout for well-designed websites that meet its guidelines. One of these, EAT (existence as a term), ensures your business website will be found by Google’s search algorithm and rank higher in results.
To learn more about EAT and learn how to integrate it into your SEO marketing strategy, ahrefs wrote up a complete guide that is easy to follow even for a beginner.
SEO Analytics
SEO analytics is a process of examining your site to see how well it’s currently optimized. If you want the best possible results, then check that all links are correctly specified and all images have alt text information associated with them. This will help search engines better understand what they’re looking at when someone searches on Google or Bing for similar terms relating specifically towards our product(s).
It may take some time but eventually, these adjustments should pay off big-time as more people start visiting more.
SEO analytics is a game changer that can help you strategize and make changes in your marketing plan to rank up in SERPs or drive more traffic to your business website.
It will get you several steps closer in having a business website that drives traffic and with higher conversion rates.
SEO Marketing FAQs
How will optimize web page content in SEO?
Using tools and websites will make optimizing your website much easier. But for small businesses, it can be daunting to spend money on online tools and such. So here are some tips that you can do to optimize your web page content:
- Always do keyword research
- Identify your target audience
- Do Title Tags & Meta Descriptions
- Add internal/external links
- Make your content and website design mobile-friendly
- Use visuals like images or videos
Not only will optimizing each piece of content with an SEO strategy help you rank higher on search engines, but it also increases the quality and quantity of traffic.
How can a website be hurt by a lack of professional SEO?
Can I do my SEO for my business?
This question has been asked several times, especially for small business owners.
Yes!
You can certainly do your SEO.
For this reason, it will help you understand the areas you should polish to encourage growth in your business. But if you want exponential progress then getting a specialist to do the work for you would be the smarter choice.
After discussing important elements in SEO, it would seem like an easy task. But there will be things that you would mess up without your knowledge.
Final thoughts…
With the ever-changing updates on search trends, you will need an expert who knows the ins and out of SEO.
How often should content be updated?
Frequently.
More content = more traffic
SEO can be a lengthy process. You need to make sure that your content is updated and fresh so you don’t rank lower than other companies.
Don’t let yourself get stuck in an old rut when it comes down to ranking higher with search engines like Google or Bing. Through consistent posting of high-quality articles tailored towards specific keywords associated with related topics you can raise your SERPs ranking.
You should always run an update whenever your article starts going down the ranks or when a competitor posts something new.
Conclusion
It doesn’t matter what kind of business you have, building your online presence is a must. SEO is one of the most effective marketing strategies today that you should get started on as soon as possible. Make sure to understand that there is no shortcut in SEO. You have to put in the work and continuously improve your skills. Otherwise, you will quickly fall behind and your rankings will suffer.
Invest time in strategizing and modifying your marketing plans to reach your goals. Take time to study so you can improve your website. Never shy away from hiring an expert if that will help you get to your objective faster and effectively.
What SEO marketing strategy do you have in mind for your business?