Small businesses have a lot to benefit from SEO. In fact, It is not out of place to say that businesses that don’t practice SEO are in a far worse situation than companies who invest in search engine marketing.

SEO can play a pivotal role in your overall revenue and business growth. But still, many small business owners fail to see the value in investing in digital marketing, and specifically in their own SEO efforts.

Whatever your marketing budget or business plans, it’s likely you should have an eye on your SEO activity, and how it can be improved. However well your business is doing, it can always do better. And if you’re not currently investing in your SEO, then that is a no-brainer in order to help you drive your small business growth.

SEO offers a number of advantages and importance to small business owners and this is what we will discuss in this article.

• What is SEO and how does it Work for Small Business?
• What are some Factors that Affect SEO?
• What are the Different Types of SEO?
• What are some Benefits of SEO for Small Businesses?
• Why is SEO Important for Small Businesses?

What is SEO and how does it Work for Small Business?

SEO stands for search engine optimization, and it is the process of getting your website to organic, or optimized, search traffic from a search engine results page.

Read Also: How to Protect your Business from Negative SEO

In other words, SEO includes some changes to the design and content of your website that make your site more attractive to search engines. You do this in the hopes that the search engine will display your website as a top result on the search engine results page.

While search engine optimization can be quite complex, when it comes to all the different factors affecting your ranking, the underlying process is not that difficult to understand.

Search engines want to provide the best service to their customers. This means delivering results on search engine pages that are not only high quality but also relevant to what the finder is looking for.

To do this, search engines will scan or crawl different websites, so that it can better understand what the site is about. This helps to provide the most relevant results for people who are looking for certain topics or keywords.

Similarly, search engines will scan the site to determine how easy it is to benefit high-ranking user-friendly sites on the search and engine results pages.

SEO is the process by which organizations make sure that their site is elevated in search engines in order to find relevant keywords and phrases. For example, let’s say you have an article about building a birdhouse.

In order to get your people in front of the right people, you want to try to improve your blog post so that as a result anyone who searches for the phrase “Build a Bird House” will be exposed. will come.

There are many benefits to SEO for your business. By improving your SEO, you can work to increase your exposure on search engines. This helps you reach and engage as many potential customers as possible. By creating more engaging and efficient SEO-based content, you can increase the likelihood of driving more targeted organic traffic.

What are some Factors that Affect SEO?

These factors include both on-page and off-page factors, which we will discuss below.

1. Content Marketing

Before we dive into some of the SEO and off-page factors on the page, let’s talk about the content. Content is effective at helping your organization attract search engines and connect with people who visit the site.

The higher the quality, relevant content pieces on your site, the more likely your search engines are to rank your pages on the engine results page.

Likewise, the more engaging and effective content you have on your website, the more likely your visitors are to spend some quality time on your site and maybe even make a purchase.

The secret to creating content that is suitable for both search engines and your site visitors is to create a wide variety of content pieces that are well-written and on topics that Suitable for your audience.

Here are some types of content you can focus on to help improve your content presentation and, thus, your search engine ranking:

• Blog posts and articles
• Social media content
• E-books and whitepapers
• How-To Guides and Tutorials
• Videos and audio recordings
• Info graphics or other visual content

Another important factor to consider when creating content for your site is SEO keywords and phrases. These are related words and phrases that search engine users can type when searching for answers to their questions or related products and services.

When you create content around these keywords and phrases, you improve your chances of ranking these keywords on the search engine results page.

Yet another factor that can affect your content, and thus your search engine’s rating, is how fresh your content is. Refreshment refers primarily to how often your organization posts new content to your site.

However, creating new content is not the only way to keep your content fresh. You can also refresh your content by updating posts, rewriting them to make them more efficient or adding new information and stats over time.

Although creating content requires time and resources, it will eventually pay off. Search engines love great content and need quality content to better understand the value your organization can provide to users.

Get started by creating some blog posts and following up on social media. Once you have a group of loyal fans and followers, your organization can work to create different types of media to attract and engage with new leads.

2. On-Page SEO

The SEO factors on the page are the elements that make up your site. These are the things that you have complete control over, meaning that you can work to improve these factors over time by following the best practices for SEO. This goes beyond just marketing your content to the deepest level of your site’s HTML.

• Title Tag — The title tag on each page tells the search engines what your page is about. This should be 70 characters or less, including both the keyword your content focuses on and your business name.
• Meta Description — The meta description on your website tells search engines a little bit more about what each page is about. This is also used by your human visitors to better understand what the page is about and if it’s relevant. This should include your keyword and also provide enough details to tell the reader what the content is about.
• Sub-headings — Not only do sub-headings make your content easier for visitors to read, but it can also help improve your SEO. You can use H1, H2, and H3 tags to help search engines better understand what your content is about.
• Internal Links — Building internal links, or hyperlinks to other content on your site, can help search engines learn more about your site. For example, if you are writing a post about the value of a specific product or service, you can link to the product or service page in your blog post.
• Image Name and ALT Tags — If you are using images on your website or within your blog
  content, you will also want to include your keyword or phrase in the image name and alt tag. This will help search engines better index your images, which may appear when users perform an image search for a certain keyword or phrase.

When placing SEO keywords and phrases on your pages with tactics, it’s important to avoid over-optimization. Google and other search engines will penalize you for trying to use keywords on your page multiple times.

In addition, you also want to make sure that each piece focuses on only one or two keywords. This helps ensure that your content is specific and relevant. Trying to deal with too many keywords at once can have a negative impact on your search engine optimization because it is often centered around thin and thin content.

Although site content plays an important role in your search engine ranking, it is important to consider your site’s architecture as well. You want to use a website design that makes it easy for search engines to scan or crawl your pages and content.

Creating internal links between your pages, developing a site map and submitting your site map to search engines helps improve your site’s behavior and give your search engines a better understanding of your content. Can provide.

Yet another problem when it comes to your site architecture is whether your website is mobile friendly or not. Many consumers are looking for information and brands on their mobile devices.

You need to make sure these users are able to view, read, and navigate your site from their mobile device. Not only does this affect the user experience, but it can also impact your SEO.

3. Off-Page SEO

In addition to the on-page SEO elements administered by your organization, there are also SEO factors in the pages that may affect your ranking. Although you have no direct control over the factors away from these pages, there are ways you can improve your chances of getting those factors in your favor.

• Trust — Trust is becoming an increasingly important factor in a site’s Google ranking. This is how Google determines whether you have a legitimate site that visitors can trust. One of the best ways to improve trust is by building quality backlinks from sites that have authority.
• Links — One of the most popular ways to build off-page SEO is through backlinks. You want to be careful here as spamming sites with your links is a quick and easy way to get your site banned from the search engines. Instead, take the time to build relationships with influencers and fans who create quality content and will link back to your site in their own content.
• Social — Another important off-page SEO factor are social signals, such as likes and shares. When it comes to boosting SEO, you want to look for quality shares from influencers. The more quality content you publish, the more likely you will be to get people to share your content with others.

Although you do not have direct control over matters outside your organization, you can increase your chances of improving off-page SEO by simply creating quality content that others will find valuable.

The more relevant and interesting your content is, the more likely it is that others will link to your content and share it on social media. The more people trust your content, the more the search engine will do.

What are the Different Types of SEO?

Here are six SEO tactics that can help your site rank for the keywords you’re targeting. You probably won’t use all of them, but having a better understanding of how to improve your rank is always a good thing.

1. On-page SEO

This is the kind of SEO that you’re probably familiar with. On-page optimization includes all of the things that your readers will see when they visit your website. For the most part, that means content.

Effective on-page SEO is built on high-quality, informative content. And not just slightly informative—content that’s really going to rank well has to solve problems that no other pages are solving (or, at the least, solve those problems better than other available resources).

The information you’re sharing has to be top-notch. Rand Fishkin, of Moz fame, says that it should be ten times better than other content out there. And that’s no joke—if your content is absolutely blowing everything else out of the water, it’s going to rank very well.

The most important part of on-page SEO is making sure your content is awesome. But there are a lot of other factors that go into getting a page to rank well in search results. The example we gave earlier, keywords, is an important one.

If you’re writing a detailed piece on a topic, you’re going to include a lot of relevant and related keywords. But making sure that those keywords are totally optimized to meet your goals can provide a big boost to your SEO.

For example, including your keyword in the title, URL, first paragraph, and at least one sub-heading in your page is a good idea. You also want your keywords to cover a single, specific topic. (If you’re familiar with the Yoast WordPress plug-in, pictured below, you’ll recognize many of the elements analyzed by the plug-in as on-page factors.)

But on-page SEO goes beyond keywords. Having a site that’s easy for visitors to navigate is important, too—if your visitors want additional information, but it’s hard to figure out where it is, they’re not likely to stick around to figure it out. Good design is crucial as well. In short, you need to focus on providing a good user experience all around.

If it sounds like just about everything is included in on-page SEO, that’s because it’s a huge factor, and getting it right is super important. Much of this optimization is focused on the user, and that’s who you’re trying to attract, so it’s really important to get it right.

2. Off-page SEO

Defining off-page SEO is a bit more difficult. The first—and arguably most important—part of off-page optimization is link-building. This is a huge part of SEO, and it’s also one of the most difficult. Getting links to your site helps bring in visitors, and it shows Google that other people around the internet value your content, and that your site is authoritative.

That’s a big deal.

Getting links from authoritative sites can make a huge difference in how your site is ranked—and while it’s difficult to measure the effect of a single link, it’s safe to say that getting a good one can provide a solid boost to your rankings. Getting links from those types of sites, however, is extremely difficult. Many people have built entire careers on building backlinks.

Social media is another off-page signal that can make a big difference in your SEO, as well. If people are talking about your content on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or other social networks, search engines take that to mean that it’s worth talking about and help other people find it. Having a piece of content that’s popular on social media gets you a lot of traffic, too, which can help your SEO as well.

It takes more than writing good content to get your post to succeed on social media, though—solid promotion to the channels where your audience spends time requires a lot of time and effort. The payoffs, however, can be huge.

Building positive relationships with bloggers, journalists, social media personalities, and the people behind websites similar to yours are all positive off-page SEO practices. Commenting on other blogs can be helpful. Guest blogging is still a popular off-page SEO method. Hanging out on Reddit and relevant forums can help, too.

A lot of this might not seem like SEO—but that’s because you’ve been focusing on on-page signals. SEO really has a lot to do with your overall online presence, and off-page SEO focuses on that. It’s often more about you as a content creator than your content itself.

3. Technical SEO

Some people classify technical SEO as a subset of on-page SEO, but we’ll be treating it as a unique type here. Technical SEO, in short, is related to on-page factors but has to do with things that go on behind the scenes.

For example, search engines may give some preference to sites with a responsive design that scales well to mobile devices. Page speed is also an important factor; if your page loads slowly, you’re going to lose visitors, and you might be penalized by ranking algorithms.

Optimizing images, using a secure HTTPS connection, caching information to speed load times, uploading detailed sitemaps, and other technical factors can help your SEO.

The HTML on each page should be optimized, too. Using schema markup to tell search engines exactly what’s on your page, making it easy for crawlers to figure out what your page is about, and using the correct type of redirects are all SEO-related factors. Speaking of crawlers, making sure your robots.txt file is updated to help crawlers find the right information faster is crucial, too.

Technical SEO sounds intimidating, but most of it is guided by the same principles as on-page SEO: you need to provide a good user experience. If your site is fast and easy to use, you’re halfway there. You just need to make sure now that it’s easy for Google’s crawlers to get around, too.

4. Local SEO

While many businesses only operate online, there are still thousands of companies that have a physical location where they need customers. If customers aren’t coming through your door, you’re not making money. So it’s important to take that into account when doing your SEO.

There are a number of steps that are important for local SEO that you won’t need to think about in a more traditional SEO campaign.

For example, making sure that you’ve claimed your Google My Business page, which ensures that your name, address, phone number, opening hours, reviews, and other useful information is prominently displayed in search results and on Google Maps.

That listing itself needs to be optimized with good photos, descriptive information, and real reviews from customers.

You’ll also need to make sure that your contact information is prominently displayed and highlighted with schema markup so search engines know where it is. The more effectively you present this information to search engines, the easier it will be for them to show that information to potential customers.

Other things like embedding a Google Maps marker in your homepage, adding a region or city to your page titles, descriptions, and keywords, and displaying awards and trust symbols can also make a big difference not only in being found by local leads but also in getting turning those leads into customers.

Effective local ranking isn’t easy, so local SEO should be a high priority for local businesses.

5. App store optimization

Google and Bing aren’t the only search engines out there. App stores—especially Apple’s App Store and Google’s Play Store—get a phenomenal amount of searches every day. And if you have an app, you need to do what you can to make sure that those stores are showing it to people who might be looking for it.

App store optimization is very similar to on-page SEO. While it’s not always clear which factors are used in app store search algorithms, there are fewer factors that you can influence, so you need to focus on those.

Your app title and icon are the first two things that anyone will see, so they have to be descriptive and attractive. The description needs to be accurate and include the keywords your users are likely to be searching for as well as related ones. The meta tags in your description should include those keywords as well.

You could argue that there’s a case for off-page-style app store optimization as well. If you’re able to build a lot of links to your app, it’s possible that the app store will rank it higher in searches. This is likely to be part of a wider SEO effort for your entire business, but it’s possible that this could be undertaken specifically for an app.

6. YouTube SEO

Much like app store optimization, YouTube SEO is a niche type of optimization, but it can make a big difference in how much traffic you’re getting. Many people don’t realize that YouTube is one of the world’s most popular search engines, and that ranking for a popular search there is absolute gold.

And if you can also rank one of your videos for a standard Google search, you can get an even bigger boost. So how do you optimize content for YouTube?

In much the same way as you do for other search engines.

First of all, your video needs to be great. It needs to answer questions, solve problems, or be more entertaining than what’s out there. If your video is great, it will keep people on the page longer, result in more comments and subscribes, and get more likes and favorites. All of these are ranking signals in YouTube.

Your video title and description should be descriptive, much like your page titles and introductions on text-based pages. A longer, keyword-rich description (without keyword stuffing) will help Google figure out what your video is about. Adding relevant keyword tags doesn’t hurt, either.

When you’re thinking about keywords, you should think about what are commonly called video keywords—these are the searches for which Google prominently displays video results at the top of a normal search page. They’re hugely valuable.

What are common video keywords? How-tos, reviews, and tutorials are always good bets. Getting your videos ranked for these types of searches will have a huge effect on your views.

And, of course, there’s the off-page stuff; getting links to your video, getting other people to embed it in their blog posts, encouraging comments and discussion, and so on.

What are some Benefits of SEO for Small Businesses?

SEO, or search engine optimization, is the process of adjusting your website to the algorithm of search engines. In plain English, this mostly means you have to use qualities in your website’s content that help potential customers find you.

In other words, SEO is the best and most cost-effective way to manipulate website traffic, to connect with customers, and to boost search engine rankings over competitors.

Search engines organize information based on relevance. Google’s mission statement is “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” But Google can only do so much. The best way to appeal to online searchers is to appeal to search engines.

The organization of information balances quantity and quality. Google, being a machine, relies on certain qualities to help organize information. These qualities include keywords, website speed, and mobile compatibility. However, there are over 200 factors that play into Google’s algorithm for ranking websites.

If a website is well optimized, it has a better probability of being among the SERPs, or search engine results pages. Here are some benefits of SEO for small and local businesses.

1. Find new customers

Marketing should get you new customers, and SEO is no different. While SEO is primarily all about improving your rankings in the search engine result pages (SERPs), you need better rankings in order to get more traffic in order to attain new customers.

Better rankings in the search results means more visits to your site, which should convert into more customers.

2. Find customers in the discovery phase

Finding new customers isn’t always easy, but by focusing on SEO, you are likely to find customers in the discovery phase. People who are searching on Google or other search engines are attempting to learn more about what they need, or what the choices that lie in front of them are.

This is the ideal time to get your business in front of them. They may be searching for specifically what you offer. But if you aren’t ranking, how will these people find you? Well, they won’t. They’ll go to multiple competitors websites and pick the one best suited. Your business won’t even appear to exist to the people making these searches.

Even if your business is the perfect answer to key search terms, and you offer the best solution to the search, if you aren’t making the most of SEO you simply won’t appear on Google.

You need to follow all the SEO best practices to ensure Google considers your business for the relevant search terms you want to rank for.

3. More traffic

While it isn’t traffic for the sake of traffic you want, getting traffic to your website is a key aspect of digital marketing. Even if your website is perfect and offers everything people want – if there’s no traffic coming to it from Google, then no-one is going to convert.

By getting more traffic from organic channels, your chances of getting conversions and subsequent sales rises. Even if your conversion rate is very low, doubling your traffic can essentially double the number of enquiries and/or sales your business achieves.

4. More targeted traffic

If your SEO is done right, then you should be attracting more relevant traffic to your site.

This means you will be targeting terms with the right search intent behind them – meaning the people searching these terms will have the intent of looking for a service or product like yours. So they are more likely to convert than those searching for less relevant terms.

5. Improved conversion rates

With more traffic, and more targeted traffic to specific landing pages comes more conversions. This means the overall conversion rate of your site will improve along with your number of inquiries or sales.

At the end of the day, if people coming to your site are genuinely interested in what you have to offer (as they should be due to the fact they were actively searching for something relevant) then they are more likely to convert than a more generic audience.

6. Heightened brand awareness

Anyone searching for terms relevant to your small business will be more likely to come across your business when making searches.

The more they see your business pop up in the SERPs, then the more aware they are of your brand. Which means they will be more likely to click onto your site, and consider you for the future – if not there and then.

7. Overtake competitors

Many businesses will have that one competitor that is number 1 for terms they think they are more suited to. But if you haven’t invested in SEO, how can you expect to be number 1?

By rising up through the rankings, and hopefully taking their spot in the rankings, you can take traffic and potential sales directly from the competition. People who were previously clicking their site will now be more likely to find your brand instead.

Similarly, if your competition isn’t ranking, but they are still a big player within your industry, this is the perfect opportunity to more easily take them on.

8. Cost-effective marketing

While the big players in your industry may be able to out-spend you on the marketing front, SEO can be a very cost-effective form of digital marketing which is winnable on some fronts – even against the biggest competitors.

Big businesses with big budgets can spend more on pay-per-click advertising, or other forms of ads. But with a well-thought-out SEO strategy, you can go toe-to-toe with the big players in the search results.

SEO often has a very high ROI – as the ceiling for returns is endless if you get the right traffic, and once your website is ranking well you aren’t actively spending money on paid marketing campaigns. You need to keep maintaining your SEO, but you aren’t paying for ad space.

9. Improved usability

User experience is key in order to drive conversions, but also for SEO.

Essentially, most SEO practices boil down to improving the experience a customer has on your site. Google is focused on giving its own users the best experience possible. That is the idea behind how it ranks sites. Which site is the best for this search? We are simply giving Google the information it is looking for.

When a user or customer is finding what they want on a usable website, Google is happy.

By focusing on improving your SEO, you will also be improving the usability of your site. And by improving the usability of your site, your search engine rankings will improve. It’s a win-win situation.

10. SEO results are long-lasting

If you pay for online ads, or offline ads, the results only last as long as you spend money on them.

While you do need to maintain your SEO efforts in the long-run, once you start ranking, your website will stay up there for a decent amount of time. Again, there’s no real guarentees, but as long as competitors don’t outrank you, and your website isn’t vandalised, you should be safe for a good length of time.

11. More customers to grow your business

The whole idea of your website and marketing in general is to get enquiries, or sales, that ultimately grow your business.

SEO is no different.

Businesses investing in their SEO will grow faster and gain more customers than their competitors in the search results that do not.

SEO brings customers to your website that are actively searching for your product or service. You aren’t marketing to people who aren’t interested.

Why is SEO Important for Small Businesses?

SEO is necessary to small businesses’ online presence because, without it, you’re throwing money at content that most likely goes nowhere. Targeting your audience is essential in marketing. Without SEO, your website is a needle in a haystack.

However, SEO also relies on more than a small business’ website and social media accounts. It is also greatly affected by offline marketing. In-person or in-store interactions lead to social media reviews, page visits, and other online interactions that boost SEO.

If you are a small business owner and you are yet to see the importance of SEO for your small business, we have highlighted some benefits below.

Keywords

Keywords are phrases or terms that search engine users enter into the search bar. They’re boosted by volume, headers, image names, and tags. Adjust phrasing and use relevant keywords in order to help organize information and appeal to search engines.

With enough search volume, these words can be essential to developing content. By understanding the keywords that potential customers are using, you’re better able to target and relate to them, while also spotlighting your small business.

But beware: repeating keywords can only help boost SEO so much before it starts reversing. Too much repetition can affect the readability of a piece of content. Google also tends to flag websites for keyword jamming. Make phrases fit and make them natural.

Know your audience

Good marketing, or any marketing at all, requires an understanding of customers and what they want. Keyword research helps to identify popular searches. You can then implement that demand into your content.

SEO directs traffic in order to benefit both small businesses and potential customers. When a business’ website is optimized, potential customers have an easier time finding what they’re looking for. That could land your business over a competitor, or at least some irrelevant search results.

Yes, content is important, but not on its own. A website’s content is a vehicle, picking up users from the Google terminal and dropping them off at Conversion-land or Customer-Loyalty-ville. And without keywords, content will have a hard time being found.

Building your brand

Nowadays, small businesses must invest in their websites to increase visibility, accessibility, and brand recognition. The website itself is a major part of your team.

When optimized, topics and vocabulary can bring in a lot of traffic. This traffic has specific reasons for searching for similar phrases and for clicking on search engine results pages (SERPs).

By publishing content that contributes to a particular community of interest, you build authority and legitimacy. The content is therefore your voice in the community. Not only does it attract potential clients, it also makes your business a legitimate source and a staple in the conversation. That’s how many small businesses build brand awareness.

Off-site SEO

But small businesses can’t merely build authority with hearsay or self-proclamation. Instead, they can enhance their off-site (or off-page) SEO. Off-site SEO involves, as you’ve guessed, your presence anywhere other than your website. Of course, these interactions will lead to the website and hopefully conversion.

Some off-site methods include backlinking, hiring social media influencers, and guest blogging. Off-site SEO is important because it seems natural to users. It helps so your brand is naturally associated with the market.

Backlinking involves a community of websites, all linking to and promoting one another. Build links to your site from other sites. This will develop your business’ reputability and direct traffic right to your doorstep. It’s also good practice to return the favor.

Backlinking not only highlights your investment in the community and research, it credits the sources you use and your own ideas. Similarly, getting published on a reputable blog or publication, or having an expert published on your business’ blog can promote authority.

Social media influencers work like sponsored ads or endorsements for businesses. As we know, famous people have insane mind powers that magically direct consumers.

Social media is one of the easiest and most direct ways for small businesses (without too much digital marketing experience) to boost local SEO. So get online and share.

For small businesses, brand awareness and recognition may be amongst the hardest parts of marketing. It’s one thing to have customers recognize a business’ slogan or icon, but another battle altogether to have them recognize the business for its expertise and dedication to the business world.

Lead generation and conversion

ROI (return on investment) is the biggest benefit of SEO. Of course, it is an investment. Optimization takes knowledgeable staff and lots of time. Keeping up with SEO, algorithm updates, and keywords can be exhausting and require a lot of attention.

Analytics are a marketer’s nutrients. Without reviewing the success of individual content, there is no strategy. Small business owners shouldn’t be intimidated by the commitment that marketing requires due to the ROI and the many options for optimizing websites.

User experience

User experience is the reason for SEO. Not the other way around. That’s why search engines are constantly changing their algorithms, and why it’s important to keep up on. High-quality content will help users stay engaged, which will in turn help with ranking.

Read Also: The Best SEO Tips And Advice For 2021

Above all, small business owners need to provide a positive user experience through their websites. Google recognizes user experience in qualities such as website speed and mobile compatibility.

Basically, Google is saying, “you have to go through me first.” Like getting your future step-father’s blessing.

Bottom Line

After learning more about what SEO is, how it works for your small business, and some benefits and its importance, you can now work to improve your site and increase your ranking on search engine results pages.

Remember, there are many factors that influence your SEO ranking, but the most important thing to consider is whether your content is valuable and relevant to your intended audience.

Remember that refining your search engine takes time to work your magic. You won’t experience the benefits of SEO overnight. In fact, it can take months to enjoy the results of your hard work.

However, following the best SEO practices by producing quality content that focuses on helping your human visitors is a great way to build a sustainable online business that will continue to drive new organic site traffic for years to come.