SEO for small businesses can be pretty challenging when you’re on a tight budget, especially if you’re a one-person or two-person SEO team. You have a lot to take note of and many options to choose from, so it is important to look for strategies that are simple to implement yet provide significant returns.
However, does SEO work for small business owners? It all comes down to prioritizing what you need and measuring your success. This mindset is the key to increasing your online visibility and saving your company money.
To help you find the SEO strategy that caters to your specific needs, let’s get started with how SEO works on a limited budget.
Hacks to a Small Business SEO Strategy
Before we get to the nitty gritty of SEO on a budget, let’s first look at how SEO works for business owners. Sometimes the best SEO software for small businesses works, but it’s worth taking note of the basics, especially when working with a limited budget.
You need to include the following essentials in your small business SEO strategy.
1. Uncover growth opportunities with competitive analysis.
Competitive analysis is a great way to improve small business SEO. Your business is not the only one competing for the exact keywords or the same customers. It is essential to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors to ensure your company’s success. This will allow you to identify growth opportunities that your competitors may be unable to take advantage of.
2. Get the best page rankings through on-page optimization.
Optimized pages will help your website convert visitors to paying customers and help your page rank higher. Your small business’ SEO growth will depend on the user experience on each page. Users will easily find the information they need when your pages are optimized to the last detail: from the on-page copy to the site navigation. It’s a surefire way to make you and the information you share more trustworthy to your visitors.
3. Focus on building links to get quality traffic.
Link building is another crucial aspect of SEO for small businesses as it is a great way to increase page views in your website. A small AirBnB looking to improve its online presence, for instance, should consider building links with travel websites. These links are relevant and high quality, bringing you quality traffic and increasing your page rank.
4. Conduct SEO monitoring and reporting regularly.
Your SEO efforts depend on regular monitoring and reporting. Keep track of your progress by generating monthly reports showing actions to increase your online presence. Reporting helps you target the right people at the most effective times, increasing your chances of converting visitors to paying customers. For example, an SEO company for small business owners can help you with reporting site visits and engagements.
SEO Tips for Small Businesses
Now that we’ve uncovered the areas that can improve your SEO strategy, it’s time to look at tips that can drive more traffic to your site, especially when working on a limited budget.
Here are six essential tips that will help you rank higher online.
1. Focus on promoting your unique offering
It will help if you remember competing with other companies to get attention from potential customers online. To get ahead in search results for your industry, look for keywords that match your market identifiers, such as unique offerings or geographic location.
Keywords you purchase as part of a pay-per-click campaign where your company’s ad appears alongside or above the search results are also subject to fierce competition. Each time your link gets clicked, you pay the search engine company. Concentrate on niche keywords if you don’t have the budget for such campaigns.
2. Avoid keyword stuffing
Google’s webmaster guidelines state that pages should be created for users and not search engines.
Don’t just sprinkle keywords on your content. Keyword stuffing only risks confusing readers and distorting the message you want to get across.
Prioritize writing content with easy-to-read text. You don’t have to use the same keyword 100 times. Instead, try some long tail keyword variations to spice up your content and help achieve that keyword density sweet spot.
3. Link to your site
Ask owners of similar sites to link to your site. In exchange for a link from your site, you can offer to link to their site. Your site will be ranked higher on search engines if more websites have links.
Pay attention to the quality of links. A single link to your website via a chamber or university website is better than dozens of links from unreliable blogs.
4. Create high-quality content, and lots of it
Search engines are designed to help people find the answers they need. Your best strategy for getting high traffic is to create engaging content, videos, or photos that provide quality information to your readers. Keep your content current by updating it often. A great content strategy can also help position you as a thought leader in your field.
5. Maximize your social media presence
Social media can be a great partner in your search engine optimization strategy, as people use these social media platforms to search for information. People will often use Facebook’s search function to find companies and products. When people search for you or related terms, your social media profiles rank high in search results.
6. Your website should be user-friendly
A clean and easy-to-use website is essential. It should be immediately evident to visitors who and what you are. To improve readability, use a lot more headings and include your keywords. Headings make you stand out in search engines and can help you rank higher.
SEO is also all about site speed. You don’t want to annoy your visitors with a slow-loading site.
Lastly, ensure that your website is mobile-friendly. Websites that are difficult to view on smartphones are now being penalized by search engines.
Build a Robust SEO Strategy With ADMS
SEO is all about reaching the right people. You can reach the right people with a targeted strategy and save money. However, one strategy may work well for one company but not another. You can deploy the best SEO software for small business owners to help your efforts, but ultimately, it is still necessary to develop custom strategies for your company.
Advanced Digital Media Services (ADMS) is a St. Petersburg SEO company for all types of business owners looking to get the most out of their SEO strategies. ADMS tailors SEO strategies to a business’s specific needs to ensure that they attract the right people.
Contact the team today and learn how it can be a part of growing your online presence at a cost that suits your budget.
