There are many myths surrounding SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) which can make it difficult for small business owners to implement effective methods for improving their website visibility. In addition, many SEO agencies and consultants charge fees that are outside of the average small business marketing budget. However, there are several things that you can do as a small business to improve your chances of ranking on Google without having to incur colossal consultancy fees.
Small Business SEO – Big Business Website
Many small business owners approach SEO consultants looking for advice as to how they can get their 5 page website onto page one of Google for highly competitive search terms. The short answer is that you won’t (or, at least, it’s highly unlikely that you ever will). One dimensional websites featuring no deep content that are rarely updated with new content and have poor internal linking structures rarely perform very well in the search engines. Search engines love new content, so websites that are seen to be constantly expanding and updating will eventually perform better in the search results than websites that just stick with 5 pages of static content. Small business owners should therefore “think big business” if they want to succeed online. Some of the world’s most successful sites feature thousands of pages and this is one of the reasons why they are so successful.
Be Realistic With Your Objectives
If you’re launching a new website about car insurance, don’t expect to get listed on page one of Google’s search results anytime soon for the keywords “car insurance”. Even with a huge marketing budget it can take many months to achieve page one results for highly competitive search terms such as this. Start off with a few realistic objectives. For example, think specifically about your niche. What kind of car insurance are you offering? What age group or demographic are you targeting? Whereabouts is your target market based? Use these questions to inform your keyword research. Tools such as Word Tracker will help you to identify less competitive keywords that are more specific to your offering.
Target the Long-Tail
Targeting the “long-tail” is a strategy that can often work very well for small businesses. The long-tail can be defined as the keywords which have low search volumes but with high intent. This is in opposition to the “head” of the tail which is defined as the keywords which have high search volumes but with low intent. Head keywords are 1 or 2 words long, “car insurance”, for example. Spending many thousands of pounds getting your website to page one on this term might be counter-productive. Yes, you might receive a lot of traffic but your sales conversion rate could be very low if your offering is not specific enough to the end user. “Long-tail” keywords are 4 or more words long, “car insurance for over 60s”, for example. The search volumes will be lower, but the user who searches on this term exhibits a much higher likelihood to purchase if your content is relevant to what they are searching for.
Keep Generating Relevant Content
In order to improve your chances of getting listed on Google you need to keep creating lots of useful, on-topic content. Useful, engaging and newsworthy content will help entice visitors to return to your site for updates. It will also increase the chances of other websites linking to you (an important element of SEO). Your content needs to be “on-topic” in the sense that it must reflect your core business services. So, for example, if you sell pet food, your website must feature content pertaining largely to pets and pet supplies. With a sensible keyword strategy in place you can then begin generating content built around the “long-tail” search. This could include articles on “pet food for small dogs”, product pages optimised on the term “quality pet food for cats” or blog posts about “the latest developments in pet food”. Over time, the search engines will begin to identify your site as delivering expertise in the area of pet food (or whatever your business might be) and, according to factors such as user behaviour on your website and how many other trusted websites link to your site, your website will eventually stand a much better chance of ranking on competitive “head” terms such as “pet food”. As previously mentioned, this is not a fast process. This can take months, possibly even years, of development work to achieve top page positions on competitive terms – especially if you’re on a low budget. So start by targeting the long-tail and be patient with regards to the high traffic keywords. These latter keywords can not be secured overnight.
Target Local Search
An obvious point but one often overlooked by small businesses is to target local search. If you run a cycle shop in Worthing, optimise your web pages geographically to target users searching for “cycle repair shop Worthing” or “cycle repair shop Sussex”. Again, make sure you use a keyword research tool such as Word Tracker, or run a Google AdWords campaign to determine the actual keywords people use to find local products or services.
Install a Blog on your Website
Some blog publishing platforms, such as Word Press, are very search engine friendly. Word Press, for example, can easily be optimised for the search engines with a few simple plug-ins that you can add to your site via FTP or the Word Press content management system. If your business is more service rather than product driven, blogging is an excellent way to develop the volume of pages on your site and increase your chances of getting indexed on niche keyword phrases. Once your site is established and “trusted” by the search engines it’s not impossible to achieve page one results in a matter of minutes for certain long-tail keyword combinations. Again, this is because search engines feed on new content and blogging platforms are designed to provide them with just that.
Combine Your Marketing Efforts
Many people view SEO as a standalone marketing activity, unconnected from other marketing efforts. It’s a mistake to think about it this way. SEO should, wherever possible, be integrated with your other activities. Online PR, social media networking, viral marketing, offline promotions and print advertising can all assist you with your attempts to rank better in the search engines if your campaigns are delivered in an enticing and efficient manner. One of the most crucial elements to SEO is in link-building (generating inbound links from trusted, on-topic websites). Getting in-bound links is not easy, but one method is to deploy a genuinely original, engaging, funny or useful piece of content on your website. For example, you could provide a free video game with a prize for the highest scoring winner. This kind of content, if marketed properly using some of the aforementioned techniques, will help you to generate links in from the blogosphere, local press, related websites and beyond. You need to deploy your content using other marketing methods as traditional SEO techniques will not necessarily create the immediate flow of links required to give your site a boost.
Install Analytics, Learn and Be Patient
Installing analytics on your website is crucial for several reasons. You need to be able to monitor the performance of individual pages on your site. If a particular page has a high “bounce rate” when arrived at using a specific keyword phrase, this indicates that your landing page is low in relevance, credibility or quality. Google and other search engines are able to detect high bounce rates which they will interpret as “the user came, did not like the content and left”. If many of your landing pages have high bounce rates it is essential that you work on developing the relevance, credibility and quality of your web pages. If you don’t do this you are unlikely to improve your positioning across the search engines. Google Analytics is free to install, however there are many other more sophisticated analytics tools on the market (at a cost) if you are looking for a more bespoke solution. These tools will help you to optimise your website performance and engage your visitors. Use these tools to learn, keep implementing the necessary changes, be patient, and over time you will see improvements.
For specific small business SEO enquiries, please get in touch with me via my contact page.
