Quick Study Guide To SEO For Small Businesses

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Getting Google to notice you may seem harder than hiking the Grand Canyon, but being a top search result can position your brand above the rest (literally).

SEO has a bad reputation of being spammy, but today, search engines are smarter than ever. If you want to appear in search results, you must create genuine, helpful content that gets attention. This encourages organic traffic that is FREE!

Wondering what you can do to attract organic search?

CREATE COMPELLING + INFORMATIVE CONTENT.

It’s not enough to put random words up on your site. Your content needs to be compelling, informative, and strategic.  

Think about it this way: 

If you're selling wedding consulting services and you create a blog post comparing two "out of the box" wedding ideas for brides on a budget, you'll catch the attention of those doing research, who in turn might hire you. Your audience might search “weddings on a budget” and be led to your site. 

But creating compelling content isn't as easy as slapping words down on a screen. It can sometimes be a challenge to keep things interesting.

If you're a wedding consulting, that doesn't mean you limit yourself to ONLYwedding related content. Instead, you might be able to create content that your audience and potential customers would find helpful.

For example, we offer local search engine optimization, content marketing and social media support to small businesses, but we also create free resources for small business owners who are simply looking for day to day business support.

TIPS FOR CREATING COMPELLING CONTENT:

  • Write for people. Imagine you're writing to your best friend. Would they find it convincing?
  • Don't hire an intern to write your entire website. If you honestly can't do it yourself, hire a professional writer.
  • Tell stories– make your audience laugh, cry, get angry, nod their heads, take action – something!
  • Use eye catching visuals and formatting to make it scan-able and easy to read.
  • READ. Read everything you can get your eyes on. Read your heart out. Find what you like and analyze why.

APPROACH OTHERS ABOUT LINKING TO YOUR SITE

If others link to your site, you'll get traffic, but you'll also acquire SEO value. The higher the value of the site that links to you, the more power it has - which impacts your page's value.  Create resources that people want to link to.  Pitch the media and authoritative blogs for guest posting opportunities.

Sell it! There are tons of things you can do.

HAVE A FAST, WELL-THOUGHT OUT, PROFESSIONAL WEBSITE

SEO is another good reason to have a fast and professional website. The quicker your site, the more Google will like it. A spammy-looking, shoddy site is unlikely to be the favorite of any search engine.

Here’s what looks good to Google:

  • Easy navigation (make sure your links aren't broken)
  • A responsive site that looks good on a range of devices (not just a computer with a huge screen!)
  • Site speed. If it takes a long time for pages to load, visitors will drop off and so will search engines. 
  • Building and leveraging social media. By staking your claim on social networks, you prove to search engines that your business is legit.

GET YOUR SEO ON!

If you want to get noticed by Google (and trust us, you do!), it’s time to learn about SEO. It’ll take a bit of work, but the benefits are worth it. Even a small amount of knowledge can make a big difference. 

If you're just getting started with SEO, we highly recommend taking time to understand how search engines work, why search engine marketing (SEM) is necessary, and how to do keyword research.

You can also schedule a complimentary consultation to discuss leveraging local seo and content marketing for your business.