If you want to build a strong online presence using a small, local business website, search engine optimisation (SEO) is absolutely essential. Most small businesses in the modern world have some sort of online presence, but they definitely don’t get as much out of it as they possibly could.
Small business SEO is usually centred around local optimisation. For example, if you are a plumber in city X, you don’t care how many people from the rest of the country visit your website – you would rather a small number of relevant people saw your content. This means that you have to target your keywords and content to both your field and your area.
The SEO Company provide some of our top local SEO tips for small business owners include:
Use online business directories:
Backlinks to your website are a great way to increase your search engine ranking. One of the best ways to get high-quality backlinks is to post your business profile on a range of online business directories. Include your business details and services, and direct people to visit your website for more information. Check Slinky Directory for a great online business directory.
Use local keywords:
There is no point targeting highly competitive, general keywords if you are aiming to get local traffic to your website. Sure, they can be useful, and they can help increase your site’s authority in the eyes of search engine crawler bots, but they won’t help you drive relevant people to your website.
Instead, you should consider using long tailed keywords which are selected carefully based on your service area. Think about the things that potential clients are likely to search for, and base your content around this.
Don’t focus solely on Google:
Sure, Google is the biggest and most popular search engine. However, this doesn’t mean that you should focus all of your SEO efforts on ranking highly with Google. If you do, you will be missing out on valuable potential clients from other search engines.
Add this to the fact that a lot of other people only focus on Google, and you will should see the value in optimising your website for engines like Yahoo! and Bing.
Make sure that you have a clear plan:
There is no point in performing haphazard SEO on your website, especially if you don’t really know what you are doing. Make sure that you first identify all of your potential service areas, any keywords related to them, and perform your SEO accordingly. If you don’t already have some sort of digital strategy that includes this info, then you need to do your best to try and develop one.
SEO takes time:
SEO does take a lot of time. If you don’t have time to spend keeping your website up to date, consider employing a professional SEO consultant to maintain it for you. Although the costs may seem high, you will reap the benefits many times over due to the increased business that an optimised website usually causes.
