Curious about how SEO stacks up against social media, email, or paid ads? No matter your business type, size, or location, a well-crafted SEO strategy can yield significant benefits. Even with limited time and resources, you can start optimising your small business for search engines today.
First things first, what is SEO?
SEO stands for ‘search engine optimisation’. It is a powerful marketing strategy, designed to increase your business’s visibility on search engines. It involves enhancing your website and online presence to attract more relevant visitors from search engines like Google and Bing.
It is also the most misunderstood marketing strategy by its very nature.
Commonly associated with ‘keywords’ and ‘search phrases’ alone, the complexity and speciality that SEO demands isn't always fully appreciated. Technical factors, alongside ongoing changes to search engine algorithms, mean that a commitment to an SEO marketing strategy is an ongoing process that requires a long-term vision and equally, commitment.
But when done right, your business can truly thrive. A strong performing SEO strategy means low cost per acquisition (CPA) of new customers and higher ROIs.
Why Should Small Businesses Invest Early in SEO?
Investing in SEO early allows small businesses to establish a strong online foundation, tailored to their unique needs and constraints. By prioritising SEO from the outset, small businesses can build their online presence incrementally, ensuring they attract customers who are actively searching for their products or services.
Early investment in SEO helps small businesses gain a competitive edge, create lasting brand awareness, and set the stage for sustained growth by consistently bringing in organic traffic without the need for ongoing ad spend.
Benefits of SEO for Your Small Business
▪️ Increased Brand Awareness: Showing up higher in search results makes more people aware of your services, creating potential business opportunities.
▪️ More Traffic: Optimising your online presence drives more traffic to your website and social media pages, giving you more chances to convert visitors into customers.
▪️ Early Audience Engagement: SEO helps you connect with your target audience early in their buying journey by providing valuable content that addresses their pain points.
▪️ Competitive Edge: Higher search rankings can help you compete with larger businesses and strengthen your market position.
▪️ 24/7 Availability: A well-optimised online presence ensures your business is accessible to customers at any time.
▪️ Cost-Effective Marketing: SEO is a low-cost strategy compared to traditional marketing, offering long-term benefits for your business.
Step-by-Step Guide to SEO for Small Businesses
Embarking on the journey of SEO can seem daunting, especially for small business owners who may not have a background in digital marketing. But fear not! This step-by-step guide is designed to break down the essentials of SEO into 10 manageable, actionable steps.
By following these steps, you’ll learn how to enhance your online presence, attract more customers, and compete effectively in your market.
From setting up crucial tools to optimising your website and creating engaging content, this guide will equip you with the knowledge and confidence to implement a successful SEO strategy for your small business.
Set Up Google Analytics and Google Search Console Why: Google Analytics and Google Search Console are free tools that help you monitor and evaluate your SEO efforts, providing insights into traffic patterns, user engagement, and website performance. How: Fortunately, Google offers these solutions at no cost, and they seamlessly integrate with your existing website through a few lines of code, which is straightforward to implement.
Create a Google My Business Profile Why: A Google My Business Profile significantly influences how your business appears across Google Search, Google Maps, and Google Shopping. Essentially, it functions as a profile you can create on Google to facilitate users in finding and understanding your business. By establishing a Google My Business Profile, you can enhance your search visibility, manage and respond to reviews, and disseminate essential business details such as contact information and operating hours. When users search for terms related to your small business, they will find your listing prominently displayed. Furthermore, Google Business Profile accounts offer analytics and data insights, including profile views, calls, messages, and search frequency. This data enables you to optimise your profile effectively. How: Sign up for a free profile via your Google Account. Add your business details, and optimise it with photos, reviews, and regular updates.
Perform Keyword Research Why: Identifying the right keywords helps you understand what potential customers are searching for and how to attract them. Keyword research forms the cornerstone of any small business SEO strategy. It informs content ideation, page optimisation, website structure, and even the curation of your Google My Business Profile listing. Keywords represent the words and phrases users input into Google search. They are vital for SEO as they reveal precisely what people are searching for and the language they use. By leveraging these keywords, you can optimise your website to signal to both Google and potential customers that your business offers what they seek. How: To conduct keyword research, compile a list of terms you anticipate people would use when searching for a business like yours. Use tools like Google Keyword Planner to find relevant keywords and incorporate them into your website content.
Conduct Search Engine Results Page (SERP) Competitor Analysis Why: Understanding your competition helps you refine your strategy and discover new keywords. Analysing your SERP competitors enables you to uncover supplementary keywords, comprehend the content preferences of your audience, and obtain a comprehensive view of the online environment relevant to your business. But who exactly are your SERP competitors? These competitors are the websites competing for visibility alongside you when searched. They may not necessarily be your direct offline competitor. How: When examining SERP competitors for your target keywords, consider the following: ▪️ Determine if they are ranking their homepage or a dedicated landing page ▪️ Examine how keywords are utilised on their page ▪️ Analyse the structure of their websites ▪️ Evaluate the types of content they feature ▪️ Identify their target audience or demographic focus. Analysing SERP competitors correctly is an important step in optimising your website.
Evaluate Your Website Structure Why: A well-organised website makes it easier for search engines and users to navigate. Your website structure encompasses the organisation of your pages and content, influencing how both search engines and users navigate your website. It includes your header and footer menus, URL structure, and internal linking system. A poor website structure can result in low rankings for your pages and make them difficult for users to locate, which is detrimental to both SEO and business objectives. Conversely, a well-structured website facilitates easy navigation, ensuring users and search engines can access every page within four clicks or fewer. How: Ensure your pages are accessible within four clicks, use clear menus, and create a logical URL structure. To assess your website's structure, put yourself in the shoes of a user seeking specific information on your website.
Optimise On-Page Elements Why: Improving on-page elements such as titles, meta descriptions, and headers offers your small business a rapid path to SEO success. How: Craft compelling and keyword-rich titles and meta descriptions, based on search intent, and use headers to structure your content.
Incorporate Schema Markup Why: Schema markup helps search engines understand your content, enhancing visibility in search results. Schema markup is a specialised data format that you can integrate into your code to furnish search engines with supplementary details about your page. Utilising schema markup can enhance your visibility in unique results known as rich results within the search engine results pages (SERPs). These rich results not only benefit users by offering more relevant information but also afford your content more space on the SERP, potentially increasing clicks. Although schema is considered an advanced SEO technique, implementing it on your website can also be simplified through third-party tools and plugins. How: Use tools and plugins to add schema markup to your website.
Create Engaging Content Why: Quality content attracts visitors and encourages them to stay on your site. Generating content is a potent method to boost website traffic, attracting potential customers and converting them into patrons. The goal is for users to discover your content in search results, engage with it, and remember your brand when making a purchase. Understanding your target audience through your buyer persona and keyword research is an important part. Promoting content on social media and other channels amplifies its reach. Engaging content not only drives initial traffic but also sustains ongoing engagement. How: Write blog posts, create videos, and share valuable information that resonates with your audience and helps solve their problems or achieve their goals.
Identify and Fix Basic SEO Issues Why: Technical issues can hurt your search rankings and user experience. Numerous technical aspects of SEO have the potential to hinder your rankings and visibility in the SERPs. These include: ▪️ Pages inaccessible or untraceable by Google (also known as crawling and indexing issues) ▪️ Web security vulnerabilities ▪️ Broken links ▪️ Sitemap discrepancies ▪️ Sluggish website speed ▪️ Duplicate content ▪️ Schema implementation errors. Addressing these issues can be challenging for your small business constrained by time and resources. Even if you cannot address everything immediately, any improvements you implement will enhance your SEO and search visibility. How: Use your Google Search Console to regularly check for broken links, slow page speeds, and other common problems, and address them promptly. Given the highly technical nature of this component of SEO, it's recommended to engage a specialist. Reach out to us if you are interested to learn more.
Monitor Your Rankings Why: Tracking your performance helps you measure the effectiveness of your SEO efforts. Monitoring your rankings and performance for necessary keywords is essential for accurately assessing your SEO endeavours. Continuously monitoring your ranking data allows you to track trends over time and make necessary SEO adjustments to pages that are underperforming relative to your needs and expectations. How: Use tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console to keep an eye on your keyword rankings and make adjustments as needed.
Success in SEO requires clear goals and open communication with your team. By prioritising the right strategies and working closely with experts, you can align your SEO efforts with your business objectives.
If you're a small business owner looking to learn more about SEO and more broadly, your marketing strategy, you can book a free 30-minute chat with me to discuss your business needs.