Although many business owners know what SEO stands for, it can be confusing to really understand how it all works and whether you need to allocate your time and effort to it or not. SEO is a practice that seeks to improve your search engine ranking, thereby increasing your visibility on the internet. The reality is that over 50% of all small business owners don’t have a viable SEO strategy, with nearly 22% not even considering engaging in or allocating resources to one in the future. With all of the competition that today’s businesses have for internet exposure, not considering your SEO strategy – or even thinking you don’t need one – is a grave mistake.
What Is the Benefit of An SEO Strategy for Small Businesses?
There are many reasons that a small business can benefit from allocating their resources to enhance SEO. The four main ones are:
- Cost-Effectiveness
- Enhancing User Experience
- Competitive Advantages
- Results for the Long-Term
When you compare other types of advertising and marketing efforts against SEO, it is clear that the time and money spent on an SEO strategy far outweighs other types of marketing including SMM and SEM or paid advertising. SEO does not require a budget; you just have to be savvy, know how to create content, and where to focus your efforts. Once you have a viable strategy; it becomes a matter of maintenance versus throwing a lot of time, money, and resources to stay ahead.
How Do You Develop a Viable SEO Strategy?
As with just about everything, it is hard to know how to get to where you want to be without knowing where you are and a pathway to get there. SEO requires a winning strategy including four key components that must be identified, analyzed, and then maximized.
Keyword Research
Quite arguably the first and most critical step in any winning SEO strategy is the identification of keywords. A keyword search requires that you look for keywords and phrases that your target audiences will necessarily use to find your product or service. Once you find the keywords that will translate to your audience, you have to rank them according to the amount of traffic they will generate to your site. The things to focus on are high-volume keywords that have low competition. That means that you will be more likely to grab a smaller segment without high competition.
Website Optimization
Once you have found the most competitive keywords and key phrases, you have to come up with a way to use them strategically throughout your website. What does that mean? Google is guided by the “EAT” principle: “Expertise,” “Authoritative,” and “Trustworthiness,” meaning you can’t use keywords in high density if they’re nonsensical, overdone, or overused just for content’s sake.
The key is to use keywords in strategic places like page titles, alt tags for images, and in the meta descriptions of your page URL for static pages. It is also imperative to keep those keywords in mind when you are adding content to your website continually and consistently. It is a cumulative effect.
Once more, be mindful of how mobile-responsive and mobile-friendly your website and content is. If your website is not easy to navigate or generally just not aesthetically pleasing on a mobile device, your bounce rate will significantly affect your overall SEO strategy (bounce rate relates to how long a viewer stays on your webpage before they “bounce” to another because the user didn’t get what they needed or didn’t like their experience).
Backlinks Are the Bomb to Help Your SEO Strategy Explode!
There are three types of links: inbound, outbound, and backlinks. Inbound links are links that you create within your website to have the viewer go from one of your pages to another within your website. They help to keep people on your site and increase your “return user” numbers. Outbound links are the links that you create from one site to another.
They are a great way to source your content from a credible website (education, informational, government, etc.). Although outbound links are great, they are guided by you, meaning that anyone can add any source to their website without the other site’s permission. Backlinks are the most significant and rich links that you want.
Having backlinks from highly credible and authoritative sites means that you not only have permission to associate your website with another authoritative site; the other authoritative site is also promoting your website and using it to increase its ranking. It is a win-win situation, but only if you find high-quality backlinks.
How to Obtain Backlinks
Inbound links and outbound links are by your own accord and your control. Backlinks require that you have someone else find you credible and want to be associated with your site. One way to get backlinks is by establishing yourself as an expert for bloggers and or journalists. One way to do so is by pitching your thoughts and ideas through HARO, a site that asks for expert advice in return for quality backlinks. The competition is high and it takes time, but it is worth what it lends to your site’s credibility.
Another way is to submit “guest” blogs and articles to credible independent sites and send them directly to the editor in charge.
The last is to email a website’s manager to ask for consideration. Backlinks take time and effort, but if you choose the right sites, it is well worth it and it will help to establish you as an “expert” which is one of the most critical parts of Google’s EAT principle to drive your ranking higher.
Frequently Post NEW and Original Content
One of the best ways to increase your SEO is through the use of regular and original content posting. When you post to Google consistently it considers you “active,” which gives you credibility. The best way to maintain your activity is by devising a content calendar. That way, you can make sure that you are maintaining your presence. Because content is something you can do organically without having to pay money for advertising, it is a great way to get ahead in your ranking without money, meaning anyone can do it regardless of what type of marketing and advertising budget they have.
Conclusion
As SEO experts, we are asked frequently whether true organic SEO strategy methods are a waste of time. If you know what you are doing, are creative, and you have the time to spend. SEO is the best bang for your not-needed buck. I works and is worth it whether you are running the show or hire someone. SEO is a long-term game, but one that if you get to the top, you can sit and coast with. But the key is knowing how it works and which resources to allocate where.
The truth is, SEO might not cost you money if you do it alone. If, however, if you don’t know what you are doing, you are wasting more energy than you necessarily should. At A Digital Media Company, we have the skills to maximize your time and energy. That way, you aren’t wasting your advertising and marketing budget. Contact us today so that we can partner to create a winning internet marketing campaign. We use SEO and all the other factors that you can benefit from!
