SEO Strategies for Small Businesses
It’s not always easy for small businesses to rank for various keywords since larger companies that have more resources tend to target the same terms. Fortunately, by using local SEO strategies, even small businesses can inch their way to the top of search engine results pages.
Google owns and operates a business directory called Google My Business. The goal of this platform is to provide accurate business information for various local companies to search engine users. With that in mind, most businesses need to have a Google My Business listing within a year of starting that business. Generally, this is done automatically with the search engine learning about the business through website crawl bots. However, the issue with automated listings is that all the information available can be inaccurate or incomplete. Only when a company claims its listing can it ensure that search engine users will get the right information.
Audit
Once a company has been established in the business directory it’s time to understand the business landscape. With that knowledge companies can better understand what their market competitors are doing, so they can make the same, or even better improvements on their own websites. The most information that companies can find on market competitors is in the results that they find on the first page of search engine results pages. According to research, the first three positions on the first page account for over 60% of the click-through rates on results pages. When auditing, companies should use various tools and platforms that are going to help in analyzing the websites of other businesses, like keyword density, page elements, website structure, and the types of content the other businesses are sharing.
Keywords
When it comes to keyword targeting, it’s not always easy to select the right queries. The best strategy for targeting keywords is to get a combination of high volume and some local keywords to get the best results. It’s important to remember that companies avoid keyword stuffing and target areas within 15 miles of the business with their keywords.
Mobile-friendly website
Over 80% of shoppers have used their smartphones to conduct searches and utilized the keywords “near me”, which means local businesses need to have a mobile-friendly website to cater to those shoppers. Most of the hard work that companies need to do in terms of SEO isn’t generating more traffic, and instead, it’s keeping the traffic on the website once the people arrive. If a website isn’t mobile-friendly, then most searchers are going to leave the website in search of a competing business.
The four most basic elements that every mobile-friendly website needs to have are readable fonts, responsive page display, optimized media display, and the right text formatting. Aside from having a mobile-friendly website, companies also need to create mobile-friendly content, such as short paragraphs, summaries, images, lists, and a lot of white space. Fortunately, they can take care of most of these elements if they’re using website-building platforms that tend to incorporate mobile-friendly elements in their overlays and themes.
