What is small business SEO?

Small Business SEO Guide

In a nutshell, small business SEO is the process of improving your search engine ranking so your SMB appears in prominent positions in search queries that relate to your business’ service or product offering.

This specific service offered by Business Medics reflects the ever-changing landscape of digital marketing and highlights how cost-effective, state-of-the-art marketing techniques with proven ROI can be accommodated within any business, no matter how big or small.

What is small business SEO?

Irrespective of whether you are selling products or services, investment into a programme of small business SEO work is an excellent way of getting traction and visibility for your brand and enhancing the opportunity of being found online through search queries.

There is a significant difference between small business SEO and local SEO.

Local SEO helps businesses rank in location-based geo-significant searches, whereas small business SEO is based on more generic search results.

However, they are not mutually exclusive, as some small businesses, especially those offering medical services, need to leverage local traffic, so often, a combined approach is worthy of consideration.

Importance of small business SEO

Small business SEO is instrumental in creating the platform for your businesses website to achieve:

• Increased visibility – SEO helps small businesses improve their online visibility and reach a wider audience. By optimizing their website and content for search engines, small businesses can appear higher in search results, making it easier for potential customers to find them.
• Cost-Effective Marketing: SEO is a cost-effective marketing strategy for small businesses. Unlike traditional marketing methods such as TV ads or billboards, SEO does not require a large budget. Investing in SEO allows small businesses to reach a larger audience without breaking the bank.
• Improved User Experience: SEO involves optimizing a website’s content, structure, and functionality to improve user experience. This includes making the website easy to navigate, improving page load speed, and making it mobile-friendly. By improving the user experience, small businesses can keep visitors on their website longer, reducing bounce rates and increasing the likelihood of conversions.
• Competitive Advantage: Small businesses that invest in SEO can gain a competitive advantage over their competitors. Small businesses can attract more customers and increase their market share by ranking higher in search results. Reach a wider audience.

By investing in SEO, small businesses can compete with larger companies and grow their business without spending a fortune on marketing.

Is SEO good for small businesses?

SEO is critical for small businesses as it helps you generate organic traffic without spending money on advertisements in SERPs or other channels.

When your site shows up in search rankings, you become competitive and drive more traffic, which, in turn, helps you generate engagement, make sales, and establish a solid foundation for a concrete customer base.

Not optimizing your site can mean that your competitors are the only ones showing up in results, and your target audience might not even know you exist.

SEO Strategies for Small Business

The good news is that small business SEO does not require a large team to get things up and running, nor does it require a significant budget.

Many of the steps you can take are free, and once you have been pointed in the right direction, you can take control and drive through the traffic yourself.

Key Steps

1) Conduct Keyword Research

keyword research helps you find the right words to use on your website when writing about your content, giving titles to your pages, and even picking your URLs.

You will uncover the most relevant words to use on your website when writing about what you offer and search terms that audiences use when looking for products like yours.

As a small business, your keywords should help you champion your unique offerings and stand out in your niche.

The easiest way to conduct keyword research is to use a keyword research tool, like Google’s free Keyword Planner.

2) Build A Logical Site Structure

An important factor in ranking your site highly in search engines is creating a Google-friendly site structure with schema markup and structured data.

3) Use Schema Markup Language

 Schema markup is the code you add to your website to give more information about your listings. It can help you rank higher in search results and drive clicks.

For example, you can add a star rating schema to your listing so browsers can see that you are highly rated and worth checking out.

Structured data is how you organize and tag text on your website, and it helps crawlers understand the context of the information on your site pages.

So, for example, you would use product page structured data for product description pages.

You also want your website to have a logical structure for site navigation, including internal links.

This helps Google navigate through the different pages on your site and fully understand the structure and sentiment of the message you are trying to broadcast.

3) Optimise Your On-Page SEO

 On-page SEO includes elements like meta tags and image alt text.

These things explain to Google what is on your site and give searchers more information about what they will find.

• Meta Tags – Meta tags are crucial for small business SEO. As competition for keywords can be quite challenging, using exact meta descriptions and meta tags will help Google generate the right results for queries most relevant to your business.
• Meta titles are the headings you use to describe what is on your page content. When you write them, aim to summarise the main topic of your page with a related keyword.
• Meta descriptions give a summary of your page explaining your business. This summary is only visible in search results, and when writing, aim to include your target keywords.
• Image Alt Text – Alt text describes the images on your site, giving more context to your content. Image alt text can also help you rank in image packs and image search results. Image alt text also ensures your website is accessible, as screen readers can use your descriptions to describe an image on a page.

4) Get Backlinks From Relevant Sites

A great way to build authority in SERPs as a small business is to get backlinks from relevant sites, as Google trusts sites with high domain ratings.

You also build trust with audiences if they find links to your site on pages they trust. Some key back-linking strategies include:

• List your business on related directories – submit links to directories related to your business, and ensure they are legitimate and relevant. LinkedIn is a great directory for small businesses to list on, regardless of niche, as it is a credible source with a high domain rating.
• Submit your site to local listings – if you are focused on local traffic, you must submit your name, address & phone number to local directories. Many local directories are sources of authority, so having your business on them builds credibility. Some examples of directories include : Facebook Pages , Google My Business , Apple Maps , Yelp.
• Place your link on all your profiles – if you have multiple social media accounts, place a link back to your website in your profile. For example, you can include your link in your YouTube channel’s descriptions or your Facebook or Instagram biography.

5) Technical SEO

As a small business, you might not have a lot of content on your website.

However, you still want to monitor technical SEO to ensure your site runs and is easy to navigate. Some key elements to focus on are:

• Secure Sockets Layer to signal to Google that you provide a safe browsing experience.
• Optimizing page speed by compressing images and large files.
• Ensuring your site code is not messy and has a logical structure for crawlers to navigate and learn about your site easily.
• Optimizing for mobile with responsive mobile design so visitors can easily browse and have a delightful experience regardless of device.

5) Write Good  Copy

Often something that is a challenge for small businesses – the key is not to feel you have to write a lot but ensure that your copy includes all your target keywords.

This will help with visibility as Google will iteratively learn which search queries are relevant to your business and when to surface you in results.

Business Medics Can Help You With Your SMB

To find out more information please contact us for a complimentary chat either by ringing us on 0845 257 4552tel:08452574552 or visit the following pages:

• Small Business SEO Services
• Hire A Small Business SEO Consultant
• Professional SEO Services
• White Label SEO Services