5 SEO Tips for Small Business
Posted by Beth Hrusch on Fri, May 21, 2010
Do search engines really care that you don't have a big marketing budget? Are they concerned about your lack of personnel, or the fact that you're short on resources? These conditions don't bother the bots and they shouldn't bother you, either. If you're a small business owner looking to get a bigger piece of your market, don't get discouraged because you think you have no chance against your larger competitors.
Your SEO efforts can level the playing field and help you grab market share from those who have far more resources than you. It's being proven out every day, by those who are using SEO and content marketing to get better ROIs than corporations that spend more money on less targeted campaigns. So, really, it's not the size of budget, it's how you use it.
How do you, the small business owner, achieve the results you want with SEO? First, think of your efforts as a strategy. Plan it out before you act. What are your goals? Be as specific as possible, as this will determine your course of action. Do you want to see XX increase in sales within six months? Are you looking for XX amount of new leads per month? A certain percentage of return on investment? Staying on track with your goals will keep your focus on the right things.
Once you have established your goals, follow these tips for using SEO to market your small business:
1. Content and more content- It's everywhere. It's even lurking in your desk drawer. What's that, you say? I have no content in my drawers! Well, check again. Your company produces content almost every day. There's no need to come up with new stuff all the time, when you can repurpose
and reuse existing material. Just take your interviews, product descriptions, meeting notes, internal memos, etc. and put them into another SEO optimized form such as ebooks, blogs series or videos.
2. Get personal-
As a small business, you have a marketing advantage that larger companies often do not have. It's called personality, and you should take full advantage of it. There are many ways to personalize your SEO marketing efforts. SEO articles and blogs are terrific vehicles to showcase your individual style while educating people about topics in your industry. Social media is another really effective tool that lets your market see who you are. This builds trust, which builds consumer relationships.
3. Focus on local search- According to eMarketer, 54% of Americans use the Internet instead of the phone book to find local services, and over 40% of all searches are for local businesses and services. Odds are, much of your business comes from your local area, so be sure to optimize your content for your local market. Long tail keywords can help you reach the people most likely to want to buy from you. Sometimes, it's as simple as adding your city and/or state name to your keywords.
4. Write for humans- Only humans can link to you, so write for them. They will not link to you if your content was obviously written for search engines. Search engines will not buy anything from you, nor will they provide you with inbound links. So, remember to use your SEO powers wisely. Don't use your keywords too often in your text, make your content sound natural and make it useful to people.
5. Add internal links- Whenever you post new content to the web, take the opportunity to
link to other content you've created and posted previously. Readers enjoy being able to click to get more information about your topic. How convenient that you have a link right there! And, it gets your other content a lot more exposure. Every click-through means greater search engine visibility for your company.
SEO, when done right, is a cheap and effective marketing tool that small businesses can use to gain online visibility and increase sales. With a little time and a lot of great SEO content, you can keep up with just about anyone, and compete with even the big guys for your share of the market. And who knows, maybe someday SEO will turn you into the big guy!