Were you aware that the majority of consumers, namely 93%, utilize the internet to locate local businesses? Whenever an individual conducts a search for things such as “dry cleaners” or “donuts near me,” it is considered a local search. Nevertheless, simply having a website does not guarantee visibility, as the majority tend to only peruse the search outcomes that display on the initial page, with half not even bothering to look beyond the top three listings. The means of increasing your site’s visibility is by way of search engine optimization (SEO).
SEO remains crucial when catering to people beyond your vicinity, as almost 90% of buyers consult online reviews before finalizing a transaction. By optimizing your website, you can guarantee that your feedback and other materials will catch the notice of prospective clients.
1. Perform keyword research and identify target keywords
During the process of keyword research, seek out the long-tail keywords that are entered by your intended audience into search engines.
Investing sufficient time in keyword research can yield significant benefits. By identifying target keywords, you can shape your content strategy, which has a substantial impact on the ranking of your pages on search engine results pages (SERPs).
By utilizing any of the available free keyword research tools, such as Google Keyword Planner, you can expedite the process and gain valuable insights.
In case you don’t have a few hours to spare, consider hiring an independent SEO keyword researcher who can handle the task for you. These experts may have access to advanced keyword research tools, enabling you to obtain a top-notch list without having to purchase new tools or invest time in mastering them.
2. Fix and improve your technical SEO foundation
Don’t be intimidated by the technical aspect of technical SEO if you’re not a coder. This means improving specific features of your website that affect your natural search engine rankings, which are unaffected by paid ads.
Establishing a strong technical SEO base involves ensuring that the quality of relevant content on your website is aligned with the search engine robots’ understanding of your page organization. This balance is crucial in enhancing your customers’ site experience and optimizing your website for search engine rankings.
You should examine these aspects to enhance and rectify your technical SEO:
- Images
- File sizes
- Javascript
- XML sitemaps
- Site architecture
- URL structure
- Structured data
- Plugins
- Content quality
- Duplicate content
- Outdated content
- Hreflang tags
- Canonical tags
- 404 pages
- 301 redirects
- Robots.txt files
If you believe that it’s impossible for you to find time for all of this, you can easily seek assistance. You can utilize Upwork to discover numerous self-employed SEO audit experts who specialize in technical SEO and operate within a reasonable budget.
These experts not only complete the work more efficiently and to your desired level, but also possess current SEO tool subscriptions, eliminating the need for you to purchase them.
3. Optimize your website for mobile phones
More and more individuals are accessing the internet through their mobile phones. Last year, over half (52.2%) of all website traffic came from smartphones. To adapt to this evolving consumer trend, your company must stay updated.
To attract mobile phone users, it is essential to choose a website design that is compatible with mobile devices. When selecting an effective mobile-friendly design, prioritize responsiveness and convenience.
Your website visitors won’t need to zoom in or out if you have tailored your web pages for mobile usage. A reliable mobile-compatible website should be easily accessible through screens of various sizes.
This strategy also offers the benefit of enhancing your search rankings. The escalating presence of mobile phone users globally has been noticed by Google, leading to adjustments made in their algorithm in response.
Google utilizes mobile-first indexing to evaluate and rank your webpage, necessitating consideration of mobile responsiveness in your SEO plan. Businesses with both desktop and mobile websites are advised by Google to follow the recommendations outlined below.
- Your mobile and desktop site should have the same content in crawlable and indexable formats. This recommendation applies to photos, videos, and text.
- Make sure you’re using structured data on both versions of your website.
- Add the same meta descriptions and titles on both versions.
4. Conduct an SEO audit
It is unlikely that your initial attempt at an SEO strategy will be successful. A successful SEO strategy requires experimentation. To enhance your strategy, it is necessary to evaluate the SEO performance of your website.
Although conducting an SEO audit is a simple task, a lot of small businesses fail to incorporate it in their strategy. With the many responsibilities that come with running a business, missing crucial elements such as broken links or spam score can be unavoidable. It is, therefore, recommended to conduct regular SEO audits as one of the top SEO tips for small businesses.
By assessing your website, it indicates the area of your SEO strategy that requires adjustment. This will enable you to identify your weaknesses and determine areas that require enhancements. To obtain a comprehensive evaluation of your website’s progress, SEO tools such as Pro Rank Tracker or SEMrush can be utilized.
5. Optimize for voice searches
The availability of Google Home and Amazon Echo is simplifying our lives by enabling us to perform multiple tasks simultaneously. It’s now possible to place an order for lunch while playing a game without being tethered to a mobile device or computer. Furthermore, voice assistants can assist you in searching for information on the internet.
Gartner’s report highlights that incorporating voice search can have a positive impact on revenue. An anticipated 30% growth in digital commerce revenue is expected by 2021 for businesses that modify their websites to facilitate voice and visual search capabilities.
To stay ahead of your competitors, it is important to adapt your SEO tactics to cater to the growing trend of voice-based searches. As most of these searches are done using mobile devices, it is crucial to ensure that your website is optimized for mobile usage.
Additionally, your content should place less emphasis on abbreviated keywords and instead prioritize conversational topics. This is due to the fact that 70% of Google Assistant’s requests are made using natural language.
Voice-based searches are generally longer in comparison to text-based ones. For example, when looking up flight fares, individuals are unlikely to type “Boston New York flight fare.” Instead, when using voice-based searches, they tend to ask questions like, “How much does it cost to fly from Boston to New York?”
While developing content, remember that a significant number of vocal inquiries originate from words such as What, How, Why, When, and Where. To attract and capture the interest of more individuals, concentrate on providing answers to the questions asked by users.
In order to capture the attention of the audience you want to reach, it is recommended that you increase your output of video content. Based on projections, video content is expected to make up 82% of total internet traffic by 2022 and there is expected to be a fourfold increase in internet video traffic from 2017 to 2022.
Producing more video content is the first step towards maximizing the benefits of using video content for your SEO strategy, as it can increase traffic and prompt Google to feature relevant videos as snippets in response to search queries.
In addition, it is crucial to provide a textual reference that accurately communicates the content of your video to enable Google crawlers to comprehend its purpose.
In your text reference, it is possible to provide an outline of all the steps or information discussed in the video. Moreover, you must incorporate pertinent keywords in your video titles and meta descriptions, as well as include transcriptions of your videos.
7. Use internal links
As a small business owner, it’s not sufficient to merely drive traffic to your homepage. Your objective should be to involve your visitors in a way that causes them to remain on your site for a longer period of time. Persuade them to read more of your articles or check out additional products.
By including internal links, you can steer your website visitors towards other pages on your site, which can enhance your search engine optimization by increasing the amount of time users spend on your site. Dwell time, average time spent on a page, and bounce rate are key factors in small business SEO that should not be overlooked.
Your website structure can become more organized with the inclusion of internal links. These links enable Google crawlers to comprehend your content better and establish connections within it.
8. Boost your page loading speed
Google has emphasized the significance of page loading speed in terms of search engine optimization since 2010. Furthermore, in 2018, they revealed that site speed was equally significant for mobile searches.
Page loading speed is a critical aspect of user experience that Google emphasizes. Research shows that 53% of mobile users abandon a website if it takes longer than three seconds to load.
Improving your page loading speed is crucial to attract customers to your website. Elements such as heavy images, unsuitable themes, or large media files can hinder your site speed.
To obtain information about your website’s speed, it is recommended to make use of Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool. This tool evaluates the time taken for your page to load and indicates if there are areas that require enhancement. If you require more in-depth analyses, you can opt for TestMySite and LightHouse tools.
9. Optimize on-page SEO
After finishing your technical SEO and gaining an understanding of your audience’s search intent through keyword research, it’s now time to apply it by enhancing your website’s on-page SEO.
On-page pertains to the elements that are within your control and can impact the ranking of your website pages, including the content and title tags.
On the other hand, off-site SEO pertains to the ranking elements beyond your website that you cannot fully manage. Such factors comprise of external site backlinks and social media traction from promotional endeavors.
Even today, Google examines your website for pertinent keywords, making traditional techniques such as including the keyword in the first 150 words of your webpage and keyword-centric title tags beneficial. To enhance your page position, aim to refine the content by:
- User experience
- Bounce Rate and Dwell Time
- Search Intent
- Page loading speed
- Click-through-rate
10. Build an internal linking structure
Your site’s SEO may suffer because internal links play a crucial role in connecting different pages of your website. Without an internal link to a page, it may not receive the same level of visibility or authority, negatively affecting your overall SEO efforts.
- Search engines will have a difficult time finding and ranking it
- Your customers won’t know the page is there or be able to navigate to it
When numerous internal and external pages link to a webpage, it indicates to search engines that the linked webpage holds significance or greater worth. Therefore, the likelihood of that particular webpage obtaining a higher rank is amplified.
Pay attention to anchor texts
To comprehend the content and rank the keywords, search engines examine the anchor text of both internal and external links. Viewers can click the words within a link (usually in blue), which represent the anchor text.
If you’re considering using the same target keyword for all of your anchor texts in order to increase the ranking of your page for that keyword, think again. Google has already caught on to this tactic and uses the relevance of the keyword rather than the anchor text itself to rank anchor texts.
Link with purpose
After comprehending the significance of internal site links in determining page ranking for search engines, randomly linking pages within your website may not be the best approach. It is crucial to have a well-planned internal linking strategy for SEO and ensure that it is evaluated and modified on a frequent basis.
11. Add schema markup
Schema markup, which is also known as schema or structured data, is a type of microdata. When added to a webpage, it generates an enriched description (referred to as a rich snippet), which is displayed in search results.
Although there is no conclusive evidence that microdata has a direct impact on organic search rankings, incorporating rich snippets can enhance the visibility of web pages in search engine results pages, potentially boosting click-through rates. Local businesses often utilize popular markups for this purpose.
- Opening hours
- Telephone
- Currencies accepted
- Price range
- Address
- Aggregate rating
- Area served
- Logo
- Reviews
12. Focus on local SEO
Local SEO is crucial for small or startup businesses aiming to draw in customers from a particular town or city. Even though you may not be able to compete with large companies such as Walmart and Amazon for organic listings, you can make an impact on a local level.
Local SEO not only increases foot traffic to your store but also enhances website traffic. A greater number of website visitors not only offers the potential of more clients, but it also garners attention from Google and could elevate your site’s or specific page’s placements.
The most convenient method to commence is to create or revise your complimentary Google My Business account. If enterprises authenticate their Google profile, consumers are more inclined to rely on them. Furthermore, the giant search engine employs it to amplify your search result rankings and exposure throughout Google, such as Google Maps.
Improving your local SEO involves tasks that are reminiscent of great customer service, thanks to Google’s prioritization of user experience. Essentially, you’re providing digital customer service. Here are some ways to enhance your local SEO:
- Asking for and responding promptly to reviews
- Adding images to give consumers a sense of what it’s like doing business with you
- Providing accurate contact information and business hours
- Using Google My Business posts to share news and offers
- Using the Q&A function in Google My Business
