SEO The Basics – Why SEO Will Help Your Small Business

Now that more and more users are relying on the web to find the best products and services for their needs, you are certainly missing out on huge opportunities if your small business isn’t generating online presence. Whether you like it or not, establishing online presence, especially on search engines, is becoming more of a necessity rather than an option.
Here, we’ll discuss the importance of SEO for small business and what you can do to get started.

Why SEO is important for small businesses

SEO may sound technical for beginners or may even intimidate those who haven’t come across it yet, but it actually isn’t that complicated as long as you’re willing to invest time in beating the learning curve. If you have the capital to hire SEO agencies and specialists, that is also great. But it’s really better if you take the time to at least understand how it works, so you can learn the basics of a key aspect of your trade.
Here are the key reasons you need SEO to turn your small business into a huge success:
1. SEO can help you reach more audience.
Since more and more people are using Google and other search engines to find businesses they need, it’s a shame if you don’t get to be a part of it. Getting found on search engines is important to develop brand awareness and attract more sales.

2. SEO is less expensive than other advertising options.

Sure, it may incur upfront costs, especially, if you choose to hire SEO experts, web developers, writers, and so on. However, as long as you do the steps right, the revenue and brand awareness you get are definitely worth it. Unlike outdoor advertisements that cost money but have limited reach and paid ads that may give you instant customers but won’t have lasting exposure, SEO is worthwhile as it generates the next item on the list:

3. SEO has long-term results

SEO results are more long-term than other marketing options, and you are bound to get exposed for long as long as you do the steps right. Organic reach is powerful as it’s long-lasting and essentially, widespread.

4. SEO helps to establish your brand.

Brand awareness is important in this digital world, and you can’t achieve that important aspect of online success without SEO.

SEO Basics—What You Need to Know
We will now discuss below the initial steps you can take, even with limited budget.
1. Add value to your target audience.
Generating quality content is always going to be an important part of the process. Gone are the days when people just stuff keywords into text and manage to rake in results. Today, it’s all about creating value and actually helping the readers solve their problems and help Google achieve their function.

Keyword research is still a critical step though as of course, you need to know what types of topics your audience is searching for and the actual search volume of those chosen keywords. There are many keyword research tools that you can use for free like Google Keyword Planner, Ubbersuggest, Soovle, WordStream’s Keyword Tool, and so on. Whether you’re in this with the help of an SEO team or not, you can start by listing down the target keywords you want to cover and then proceed to content creation after. Just make sure you’re not spamming keywords into the text. Use them naturally and just keep the keyword density around 1-2%.

2. Create a Google My Business profile.
Especially if you’re targeting local customers and striving to compel them to visit your physical shop, it’s a must to have Google My Business profile. Just go to Google My Business, sign up, and follow the steps. It only takes a few minutes. The important things to input are your name, address, and phone number, so potential customers can easily get in touch with your brand.

3. Encourage customers to leave reviews.
Especially if you’re aiming for Local Search SEO, you need to do your best to boost the number of reviews your brand is getting. Good reviews send a signal to Google that your business is reliable and worth the ranking. If you happen to garner negative reviews, it won’t hurt your SEO much as long as you respond to them promptly. Just do your best to make the quality of your products and services your top priority. This way, you aren’t only increasing the chances of gaining positive reviews, but you’re also forming the reputation of your brand and fostering word-of-mouth recommendations.

4. Create backlinks from other sites.
Now, this part takes more time, but is essentially the lifeblood of Search Engine Optimisation. It has been for a long time. The bigger brands spend a huge chunk of their budget to build quality links pointing to their site.

The goal is to make sure that multiple quality sites are either mentioning your brand and/or linking to your site’s page/s. This is where content marketing takes place. You can write blog articles or create other forms of helpful content like infographics, video, and so on. As long as it’s high-quality and you give them TLC by promoting your content, you’re good to go. Some link building activities you can do include guest posting, directory submission, forum posting, blog commenting, and so on.

5. Be consistent with your SEO efforts
The thing about SEO is that it’s never an overnight activity which produces overnight results. The results of SEO are lasting and lucrative as you get featured on the first page of the search results when your target audience uses the search engine with buying intent. But the price is consistent effort and dedication.

I tell all my clients to start. Even if it means just implementing the basics first so that you at least have the basics covered. Don’t have time or just simply want the experts to give you a helping hand? You can check out my packages and pricing to get an idea on whats on offer.