Small Business SEO Tips
Most small business owners understand that they need to put in a lot of hard work, effort, and dedication to increase their sales numbers. Much of the same can be stated for local SEO efforts for small businesses. Although these types of efforts take some time and effort, in the long run, they generate a lot of positive results for local businesses.
Business directories
There are plenty of business directories that companies can find online, and they should ensure to stake their claim on all of them. Some of the most popular ones include Google My Business, Yelp, Yahoo, Bing, and Yellow Pages but there are plenty of other business directories that companies should be checking to make sure that they’ve claimed. This is because claiming a company’s business directory entry is going to increase that company’s ranking in search engine results pages, as long as all of the information is regularly updated and constantly relevant.
Reviews
Over 80% of customers check digital reviews before they decide to make a purchase, or even visit a restaurant. That makes customer reviews a core element of any business, especially for smaller or newer companies. To generate more digital reviews from customers, companies should first ensure that there is a place where the customers can leave their reviews. This can be on a business directory, on social media, or on the company’s website. Then, it’s important to offer customers an incentive so they’ll be more motivated to leave their reviews. This incentive can be either a discount, a complimentary product, or even a coupon. Once customers start leaving the company their reviews, it’s important for the business to respond to every positive and negative review. This gives businesses an opportunity to engage with past consumers, and generate more trust with potential consumers that haven’t made a purchase yet.
Content
One of the best ways for companies to increase their ranking on search engine results pages is through creating local content and targeting relevant keywords with that content. Local content can be a news release, a blog post, or even a static web page. All of those types of content can be used for companies to highlight local offerings, business roundups, events, or even to educate the customers on the products or services that the business provides. As long as the content that a company creates for its website sounds natural, and is valuable to the target audience, it’s going to be easy to target local keywords. This strategy also helps companies establish themselves as industry experts, which is important for smaller businesses that are trying to compete with bigger household names and corporations.
