When it comes to running a small business, visibility and brand awareness are critical components to your success. Working with an experienced SEO firm can help you to reach your goals and grow your business organically. Our team not only helps you with the initial design of your website, but also with maintenance and your overall online presence. We are a comprehensive online marketing firm with services targeted to your specific needs. Below is an article from Forbes that highlights the importance of SEO for your small business:
Business owners are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of the internet and using search engine optimization (SEO) to increase revenue for their business. Climbing to the top of Google’s search engine is something almost every business owner should want since it can exponentially increase revenue.
Have you ever been frustrated with your competitors showing up higher on search? Ever wondered what your business can do to get more customers? If so then, make sure to keep reading this article since it will cover all you need to know about small business SEO, the emerging trends in 2021, and how local and online businesses can improve their rankings on Google.
What Is SEO And Why Do I Need to Know About it?
Search engine optimization is the process of improving your online presence in a manner that can grant more exposure, increased user traffic, and better-qualified clients. To help you understand more about this topic and improve your business’s SEO, we have compiled thoughts from three search engine optimization experts.
SEO Is Different For Online and Offline Businesses
When people with offline businesses hear about SEO, they might immediately think, “why do I even need to worry about my presence on search engines?” Although this train of thought may seem logical, those with local businesses such as dentists, mechanics, and so on can benefit significantly from some basic knowledge of SEO.
However, you will not be using the same strategies as those with online businesses if your business depends on local customers. An online e-commerce business will have a much different focus and strategy than a dentist looking for customers within a 30-mile radius.
Clayton Johnson, an SEO expert from The HOTH, asserts further, saying that “For example, if you are a construction company, you’ll want to make a separate page on your website for Chicago kitchen remodeling, Chicago bathroom remodeling, Chicago roofing repair, etc.”
SEO Is Not Just for Google
If you want to get into SEO, you don’t need to focus on Google. Amazon, Reddit, Yahoo, YouTube, Bing, and others all have standards for SEO and require different strategies. Keep in mind that you may need to optimize your business on multiple platforms.
SEO Has Been Evolving in 2021: New Trends to Consider
SEO is constantly changing, and the top experts are on the pulse to see what is fact or fiction and provide evergreen advice that any entrepreneur can implement today.
More Prominent Sites Get More Views
One thing that continues to remain constant with Google is that they give preference to sites with more rapport. Typically, this is built with time, building backlinks, and the amount of content that you have. Matt Diggity from Diggity Marketing explains it perfectly by saying that “Google is continuing to reward the biggest sites on the internet (in terms of age, content, and backlinks) and is often leaving smaller sites with much better content on page two or worse.” To succeed in SEO, you need to be excelling in all of these areas and doing it with solid consistency.
Core Web Vitals: Recently, Google started giving preference to sites that load faster. As Tim Soulo from Ahrefs concludes, “there has been a lot of attention to Google’s “Page experience” update and the so-called Core Web Vitals. In other words, Google wants to serve people pages with good usability, that load fast and look great on mobile.” Diggity agrees, saying that “when you make life easy for Google, they make life easy for you. Google wants to recommend fast websites to its users, so make your website fast.”
Upgrades For Search Intentions: Google is also starting to improve on determining what the searcher’s intention is and what kind of content will best answer their questions. As Johnson states: “The best way to understand how to rank for a keyword is to search it in Google and take note of what TYPES of content are coming up – are they sales pages? In-depth guides? Best-of lists? You’ll want to make sure you understand the search intent of the keywords you’re trying to rank for and model your content after what’s ranking in Google.”
Localization Is Improving: Google usually has access to your exact location. Accordingly, they are getting better at giving search results that are most relevant for your area. Clayton Johnson explains it further, saying that “if you search just “sushi” you won’t get the best sushi spots in the US. You’ll likely get the best sushi spots in your city… That brings a big opportunity for local businesses to really optimize their website by including their location in the title tags and content of the site.”
Imagine that you have a sushi restaurant in Boston, Massachusetts. Johnson might recommend that you put tags such as “sushi restaurant in Boston,” “best sushi restaurants in Boston,” and so on, on various locations in your site such as the title tags and the blogs.
Improving SEO As An Online Business
When building an online business, such as an e-commerce site or affiliate site, there is a recipe for success that experts would advise you to follow. For starters, Soulo recommends that you “Do a thorough competitor research. This will help you understand which pages of your competitors are bringing them the most search traffic and which pages of your competitors are attracting links from other websites in your industry.”
Furthermore, Soulo advises you to take things even further and to “do an SEO site audit. There are plenty of online tools which will scan your website for hundreds of common SEO issues and will give you actionable recommendations in regards to fixing them.
The process of putting keywords to use on your website is typically done through blogs. As said by Johnson, “investing in blog content is huge. There are thousands of keywords apart from what you actually sell that can help you attract your target customer, and blog content can not only help you rank for these keywords but also convey your expertise and authority, pushing your visitors down the sales funnel.”
Finally, Diggity reminds us of the importance of backlinks. “Google’s algorithm is founded on the concept of backlinks. It’s no surprise that the websites with the most SEO exposure have an incredible amount of backlinks. Don’t ignore this foundational step to the SEO process.”
In summary, experts advise online businesses to do keyword research, competitor research, investing in regular blog content, improving site speed, and generating backlinks.
SEO Marketing in Houston, TX
If you are not making efforts to optimize your website, you are falling behind because your competitors already have begun implementing SEO design strategies to their websites. As the gap grows between how much effort your competition puts into their online marketing and how little work you put into your website, the more difficult it will become to engage with customers online. The Houston Small Business Marketing team works hard to help your business stay relevant in this online-focused world by tracking the latest strategies in online marketing for businesses.
Houston Small Business Marketing
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Houston, TX 77008
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