If you own a small business, then your local SEO is essential to keeping your business afloat. Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to do local SEO that don’t require hiring a professional. In this article, we’re going to share five easy tips for doing SEO for your small business.
What is SEO and why is it important?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. It is the process of getting your website listed on the first page of all search engines and having it show up in the top spot when a user searches for a particular keyword or phrase.
Having your website listed on the first page of Google is incredibly important because it makes it easier for people to find you. If people can’t find your website, then they won’t know about you and your business becomes irrelevant. Relevance = $$$!
If you want your business to be relevant, it is important that you optimize your website for search engines. So what can you do? Here are five easy tips for doing SEO for your small business.
5 Easy Tips for Doing SEO for Your Small Business
1.) Determine Which Keywords are Relevant to Your Business
How do I determine which keywords are relevant to my business? You can do this by conducting a keyword research analysis of your existing website. Use a tool like the Google Keyword Tool to analyze the keywords and phrases that people are searching for when they visit your website.
There are also paid tools like Ahrefs that allow you to analyze what keywords your competitors are targeting and bringing them traffic.
Knowing what keywords your competitors are targeting is useful because it can help you determine what keywords you should be targeting. If your competitors are not bringing traffic to their website with certain keywords, then it is likely that those keywords aren’t relevant to your business.
Also, it’s worth mentioning that SEO is an “open book” test. If you want to know what you need to do to land in the first spot on Google… look at whoever is ranking in the first spot on Google! You simply need to find out exactly what they’re doing and do it yourself – only 10% better.
2.) Claim Your Google Business Profile (Formerly Google My Business Listing)
“Why should I claim my Google Business Profile?” you may ask. There are several reasons why you should claim your GBP, including: – You can use it to create an online storefront for your business.
- It’s free and easy to set up, and you can have your listing live in under a week!
- It gives you a professional, clean and reliable image to show your potential customers.
- Google gives you the tools to help your business grow, including ways for customers to contact your directly through your listing
- It’s a perfect place to gather reviews from past customers.
- And MOST IMPORTANTLY: 60-70% of all searches for local businesses go to the top 3 Google Business Profiles!!! ¹
60-70% of all searches for local businesses go to the top 3 Google Business Profiles
3.) Gather Directory Listings and Pillow Links
Directory listings are found in directories on the internet, such as Yahoo, Yellow Pages, your local Chamber of Commerce, AOL, etc. These listings are very important to get a high ranking on Google Local.
It’s very important to make sure that every single directory listing is IDENTICAL to the NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) on your GBP and your website. For example, if your website and GBP say “123 Main St. Suite F”, you don’t want your Yahoo listing to say “123 Main St. Ste. F”. This builds consistency and credibility all across the web.
How many directory listings should you get? All of them! As many as possible!
This, of course, can be incredibly time consuming but it’s highly worth it. If you don’t want to do it yourself you can find someone on Upwork or Fiverr to do it for you, or our team will gladly assist you as well.
4.) Choose a Great Domain Name (Or Keep the One You Have)
A domain name is what people type into their web browser in order to find your website.
What makes an ideal domain name? The domain name should be short and memorable. Make sure to choose a root domain (e.g. mysite.com) that is easy to remember and that can be easily shared across social media sites like Facebook or Twitter, which will help you with SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
If you already have a domain name – KEEP IT! Even if you don’t love it. The benefit of keeping a domain name that you’ve had for a long time is it’s already established. This is important, not only to your existing site visitors, but to Google. The longer your domain has been active, the more Google trusts it and you’ll more easily outrank brand new competitors that enter the market.
5.) Commit… Or Hire a Professional
Shameless plug: our team is AWESOME at Local SEO. But you don’t have to hire us! The key is consistency.
If you love learning about SEO, you’re tech savvy, you have the time to spend hours every week writing blogs, doing research, updating meta data, etc… then you have exactly what it takes to self-manage your way to Local SEO domination.
And doing SEO on your own is honestly the best way to start, especially if you don’t yet have a lot of cash flow. This will only help you in the long run when you finally decide it’s time to hire someone else to manage your Local SEO campaign.
How Will You Know When it’s Time to Hand Off Your Local SEO to the Pros?
There are 3 important indicators and circumstances that will help you to determine when it’s time to hire a professional SEO agency. These all revolve around time, money, and aptitude.
-When you become too busy with managing your business
You didn’t start a local service business so you could spend all your time doing SEO. In an ideal world you’ll be doing what you love and doing what makes you the most money.
If you’re too busy managing clients & employees, fulfilling services, and selling products, it’s better not to spend your valuable time blogging. You’ll eventually reach a point when the value of your time exceeds the cost of hiring an SEO expert.
-If the Task of SEO Seems Way Too Daunting
Not everyone is tech savvy. Not everyone has the time to learn a brand-new skill while launching a startup.
Often when new business owners fall into either of these two categories, their tendency is to skip out on SEO altogether. But don’t do that!
SEO is a means to turn your website into a powerful, money-generating machine that transforms itself into a major asset and a tremendous piece of equity!
If you ever decide to sell your business or seek out venture capital, you’ll find that the value of your business is so much higher when you can prove that your website is generating much of your business revenue organically. Organically means that you’re not paying for ads. New customers are simply finding your business on the web and handing you their money.
-You Need to Grow Quickly and Have the Funds to Do So
Professional SEO ain’t cheap. This is because there’s no way to fully automate the process. It requires a lot of human effort, and those humans like to get paid (just like you do!)
If you have the funds in place – whether from a business partner, VC, personal savings, or very proud parents – and you understand the importance of a solid foundation to your new business, don’t wait.
The sooner you begin your SEO campaign, the sooner you’ll begin to benefit and the harder it will be for your competitors to catch up with you.
There’s no way to fully automate the process. It requires a lot of human effort.
So What’s the Next Step to Starting My SEO Campaign?
Whether you choose to hire a professional or go it alone, start now by giving us a call.
Even if you choose not to hire Business Growth Management Solutions for your Local SEO needs, we’ll gladly point you in the right direction.
We even offer an SEO Kickoff service that provides a deep-dive analysis of your current web presence, local market, and competition.
With this service, we provide you with a complete SEO strategy, full keyword analysis, content planners, a manual walkthrough of your current website, a content audit of your current web presence… everything you need to get started on the right foot.
Once you receive the results from our SEO Kickoff you can then implement the findings on your own, hand it off to your in-house marketing team or other SEO provider, or you can even choose to hire us as your web growth experts.
Whatever you choose to do, we’re rooting for you and wish you every success in your new venture!
Images Used
- https://unsplash.com/photos/GFrBMipOd_E?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditShareLink
- https://pixabay.com/photos/digital-marketing-seo-google-1725340/
- https://unsplash.com/photos/bmJAXAz6ads
References
- https://www.brightlocal.com/research/google-my-business-insights-study/
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