SEO 101: Getting Your Small Business Found Online

“Businesses don’t have to chase the customers now, we just have to be in front of the prospects when they need us.” 

Anish Vijayan, Digital Marketing Strategist at Grafitti9

One of the main things that small businesses can do in digital marketing to help their online visibility is to have a strategy in place for improving Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO is the process of optimizing your online business content so that when customers go on to a search engine and search for your product or service, you show up at the top (or as near the top as possible!) to ensure that they find you and not a competitor. If you own a plumbing company, and someone were to search “plumbers near me”, how often do you think that person will scroll down to business #10 on the list? How often do they click on the second page? If you aren’t listed ‘above the fold’, or visible without having to scroll down, you are missing out on potential customers. Therefore, ranking high in search results is crucial for your business over time.

But what exactly is SEO, and how can a small business with limited resources compete? Well, let’s discuss a few main points:

What is SEO?

SEO is the process of taking steps to make sure that you are getting organic traffic and showing up on search engine results pages, or SERPS. Most times, we default into thinking of Google, but this also includes search engines like Bing and platforms like YouTube. When someone searches for your product or service, the search engine crawls the internet to try and find content results that it thinks best suite the search request. You can improve your chances of showing up with things like On-Page SEO, Technical SEO, Local SEO, Link Building, and SEO Analytics.

On-Page SEO

On-page SEO includes the basics of optimizing your website’s on-page content for search engines. This includes:

Keyword research: This is how you go about finding the terms your target audience is searching for. Tools like Google Trends, SEMrush, Ahrefs can be used to help find keywords that your customers are using in your geographic area, and in some cases, you can even see which keywords your competitors are using so that you can decide if you want to try and compete on those keywords or avoid them altogether.

Content optimization: Writing valuable, relevant content that aligns with those keywords helps search engines like Google find your content. If the search engine believes that your content is valuable to the search that was conducted, it is more likely to place your results near the top of the SERP.

External linking: Including links to external websites and sources can help you with the SEO on your own page. This shows the search engine that your content is more trustworthy and credible because it has had some degree of ‘research’ involved. This can be a great opportunity for networking as well!

Technical SEO

Technical SEO includes more of the behind-the-scenes elements that affect your ranking. In most cases, you will need to have access to your website design functions, or at least access to someone who does, but this includes things like:

Website speed: Why fast-loading pages are essential for ranking and user experience.

Mobile optimization: Making sure your site is responsive and user-friendly on mobile devices.

Proper site structure: How well-organized pages and links help search engines crawl and index your site.

Meta tags and descriptions: Crafting effective titles and descriptions to improve click-through rates. This can be done with some minor HTML coding if you have that skill set or in the website builder if you are using a template/drag-and-drop builder like WordPress or Wix.

Local SEO

Local SEO functions are some of the easiest ways to improve your basic SEO results on search engines like Google. Since many small businesses serve local customers, some of the simplest local SEO tools are:

Google Business Profile: The importance of claiming and optimizing your profile for local searches cannot be overstated! If you have not claimed your Google Business Profile, go online right now and do so! This is how you show up in the search results, specifically for Google Maps.

Local citations and directories: Ensure that your business is listed consistently across major platforms like Yelp, Bing, and the different map applications. It is important that your NAP (Name, Address, Phone Number) is consistent across all of these mediums. You can go in and edit this manually, or there are paid services that will do this for you like Yext.

Online reviews: Another easy way to gain some online authority is to encourage and manage positive reviews across those directory platforms. Reviews on sites like Yelp and Google Business Profile are used to add authority and value to your online profile rating, giving a boost to your local SEO.

Link Building

Link building is the process of building authority by getting other reputable websites to link their content to yours. This can be one of the simpler strategies because it involves partnering with community organizations, sponsoring local events, and reaching out to local bloggers. Anything that you can do to create an opportunity to get another page or organization to include a link back to your website or content will help with your SEO ranking.

Tracking and Measuring Success

The final important piece is how to measure your SEO efforts. How do you know if what you are doing is working? Tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console can show you what kind of traffic you are getting to your website or, more importantly, how that traffic is changing over time. Ideally, you would want to see an upward trend if you are putting in consistent effort to improve in the areas mentioned.  Tracking things like clicks, keyword ranking, and conversions are the KPI that show you if you are making productive progress.

While the may be some fees associated with some software applications that can aid in SEO, all of the tactics mentioned in this blog can be done for free. The biggest things are to be consistent in your efforts and track your results over time. If you want to discuss any of these points further, or if you would like to discuss using our services to do this for you, you can always reach us via email at: [email protected]

Until next time,

Dr. Travis Lange