5 SEO Tips for Small Businesses
Small businesses needs customers in order to thrive. Customers keep the lights on and keep you in business. One excellent way of obtaining new leads is by having an online presence. However, if you want to rank for relevant keywords you’ll need to optimize on-page elements as well as off-page. Here are a few tips to help you get more local traffic.
Get Listed On Google My Business
Every local small business should have a listing on Google My Business. These listings are prominently displayed on the right hand side in a large box directly in Google search when someone searches for your business name. The listing features your contact information, photos, website url as well as user reviews. Make your listing stand out by adding photos and ask satisfied customers to give you a review.
Submit To Quality Business & Local Directories
Avoid submitting to low quality directories as these links don’t carry any weight. Focus on obtaining links from quality business directories like Yelp, Tupalo, Bizvotes, Superpages & Local.com. You also want to obtain listings from quality local directories in your city. For example, if you’re in Los Angeles, At-la.com would be a good one to target. Search for directories in your niche. For example, if you have a law office you can try to get listed on Avvo. There are directories for every industry; just make sure that you focus on the quality sites and avoid questionable ones with low domain authority.
Optimize On-Page Elements
There are so many small business websites that would get an instant boost just by incorporating keywords in their H1 headings and titles. Make sure these elements include the primary keywords you are trying to rank for. Jacqueline Cao, founder of Elevated Rankings, a Los Angeles SEO company says:
“The meta description is no longer a ranking factor but it should be compelling and encourage searchers to want to visit your site. For example, you can include that you offer low prices or have current pricing specials. More click throughs means more visitors and ultimately more sales.”
Create Quality Linkable Assets
It’s always easier to get quality links back to a linkable asset instead of to a pure commercial page. Linkable assets can include everything from quality blog posts to infographics. Note that quality these days generally means in-depth content that is truly helpful. Take a look at the blog posts on Ahref’s or Semrush as an example; the majority of posts are at least 1500 words long, accompanied by lots of diagrams and offer actionable tips that are atually insightful. Quality content takes time and effort to produce and the standard 500 word blog posts just doesn’t cut it anymore.
Build Links
Once you have your linkable assets you can start to build links. One way of doing so is by contacting sites you want to be listed on and offering to guest post, You can also show them a really cool infographic you designed and offer them to post it on their site with a link back to you as a credit in the intro. Link building is one of the most time consuming elements of SEO. Keep in mind that extensive link building may not be necessary for all sites as those aiming for low competition keywords may rank with just proper on-page optimization and directory submissions. On the other hand, link building is a must for competitive keywords and enterprise level SEO.
