SEO for Small Business Owners: How to Compete with SEO Giants!
SEO for small business owners? Impossible… It’s more effective than you may think and can place you in the running for a top spot on Google.
As a small business owner, it may feel like without large pockets and a comprehensive marketing strategy in place, SEO for your business is out of reach. Since large companies – mega-corporations like John Lewis and House of Fraser have millions of inbound links and a domain that has been around for years, not to mention a brand that has a reputation as the best in the business, it’s no wonder they appear higher in the SERP’s.
So, how can you, a small business owner with limited skills and resources, compete with that kind of online domination?
Luckily for you, search engine optimisation (SEO) is no longer about the volume of content. It’s all about quality, relevance and structure. There are several different SEO techniques you can use to increase rankings and come out on top.
Find your niche
One of the best things you can do is to focus on a niche and optimise that for search. There’s a temptation to go all out with multiple keywords variations for different areas of your business. However, if you’re trying to take down your biggest competitors, then a tailored keyword strategy is the way forward. If you pour all your efforts into optimising for a small number of keywords, then you’ll achieve results much quicker.
Local SEO Optimisation
Local search is an excellent way to beat the competition who don’t currently rank for local-based industry terms. By optimising your content for local search then you are capturing the market share of local customers.
Local searches lead 50% of mobile searches to websites in the same day. That’s double the website traffic, and potential to convert more customers than ever before – result. Even if you don’t operate on a national level, you can still capture the local market and edge out the competition in at least one area by optimising for localised keywords. Here are just some of the ways you can give your website authority within a specific location:
- Local Landing Pages. Develop landing pages that reach your local customers. This will include geographical keywords specific to your industry – remember, don’t forget to optimise the meta title and descriptions.
- Local Reviews. Reach out to existing local customers and request a review for a local business on your website or Google My Business Listing.
- Local Directory Listings. This includes the above-mentioned, Google My Business Listing. Ensure you are listed on local directories with a follow link to your website – without these, you can’t hope to compete in rankings.
Become a recognised, respected content writer
Building brand awareness, credibility and authority online can be achieved through a structured content marketing strategy. Post regularly on your business blog (don’t have one? you should) and reach out to bloggers to build a following online with outreach. This will give your website authority while building a name for yourself with industry leading professionals. LinkedIn is a great place to promote this content and engage with influencers.
What results can I expect from SEO?
What’s the catch? We’d love to say ranking on Google is simple, and you’ll be position one in a matter of weeks. In reality, the process of search engine optimisation is a long and often frustrating process. Search engines crawl and index millions of websites every day – that’s one hell of a job! You are just one of the 100000000 relevant sites in the running, so don’t expect results straight away.
This article was produced by Manchester SEO agency, Bigfoot Digital.