SEO Tips for Small Businesses

As a small business owner, you will know that sometimes, there simply are not enough hours in the day. Unlike large companies with dedicated departments, when you own a small business, all of the day-to-day business operations are down to you and a small handful of staff.

When you are trying to juggle accounting, meetings and customer service, marketing can sometimes take a back seat. However, your marketing strategy can be crucial to the success of your business.

To get the most out of your marketing efforts, you need a method that is affordable and also provides high return on investment. This is where search engine optimisation comes in. But to avoid spending time on wasted efforts, consider these tips to boost your SEO.

Update Regularly

A quick search for SEO and will reveal results about choosing the right keywords for titles, descriptions and content, but terms are not enough on their own. While you may have selected the right keywords to increase your ranking, if your website is not regularly updated, it will start to drop. This is because Google's algorithm also evaluates the relevance of your content based on age. Therefore, make sure to regularly update your homepage to boost your SEO.

Be Local

If your small business has a physical location, whether it be an office or a store, make sure to optimise your site for local SEO. Search engines analyse global and regional SEO differently, therefore it is important to consider both aspects when implementing your strategy. To increase traffic and the number of organic visitors, make sure your address is listed at the bottom of your website and always in the same format.

Start Writing

SEO applies to your website's homepage, landing pages and product pages, but if you really want to boost your efforts and boost your rank, then consider writing. As a business owner, you have industry knowledge that you can pass on to others, whether that be customers, clients or startups. By regularly producing original and business-relevant content, you may be able to increase the number of return visitors, site traffic and your search engine rank.

Quick Loading

Google recently released an algorithm update which will see analytics focus on mobile compatibility. For many small businesses, this will mean adapting their SEO strategy. When making these changes, also consider the time is takes for your website to load, as the faster it performs, the higher your website will rank in results. There are a number of quick fixes to ensure your website can boost at lightning speed, including compressing images, reduce plug-ins, use browser caching and minimise redirects.

Online and Offline

To make the most of your SEO, remember that it is part of a larger strategy. While SEO is just a portion of your digital marketing, it should also go hand-in-hand with offline marketing, too. As a small business owner, you can do this by encouraging website users to visit your physical local and vice versa. This may include providing online visitors with in-store only promotional codes, including call to action on your flyers and receipts, or start a hashtag campaign that gets online and store customers involved.

In a digital world, SEO should be a key part of your marketing plan. To boost your results, make sure to regularly update your website, include addresses for local SEO, produce original content to engage visitors, optimise your website for fast loading, and combine your online and offline marketing strategies. If you are struggling to find time for SEO, delegate to another member of staff, or outsource to an industry specialist like Ingenuity Digital.