Basic SEO for Small Start-ups
SEO plays an important part in online marketing and, if done correctly, it is the ideal way to get more traffic to your site, which in turn will increase your customer base.
For small start-ups, the importance of SEO cannot be stressed enough, not only does it help you identify keywords and increase brand awareness, it also helps business owners to open up their brand to a wider audience.
There are many websites and free tools available to help small businesses and start-ups to get the most out of their online business. This post will help you to understand the importance of SEO, how it can improve your business and how it will increase your customer base.
Understanding Search Engine Optimisation
The first step to implementing an effective SEO strategy is to understand why you need it, there’s not much point in doing something because your competitors are doing it or because a digital marketer told you that you need it.
Moz simply describes SEO as the tool that helps search engines identify what each page on your website is about But over the years, SEO has become increasingly complicated due to Google’s introduction of the Panda and Penguin updates. These introductions by Google were designed to get rid of the loopholes that marketers used to gain backlinks on irrelevant sites. So, if you are considering SEO for your business, the first thing you need to do is to find out why you need it and what it can do for your business.
Keywords or Phrases
Once you have a basic idea of SEO, then the next step would be to find out exactly how you can make Google and your customers notice your blog or website. A fast and easy way to do this is to is to identify your competitor’s keywords and apply the relevant ones to your business. Identifying and tracking your keywords enables you to determine what type of content you need to create in order to attract your target audience. For example, if you own an SEO agency in Manchester, then one of the most common phrases people are most likely to enter into search engines would be ‘SEO Services Manchester’. The main point of using keywords in your SEO effort is not to attract new customers, but to attract the right customers.
Interaction
Maybe not at the start but once you have been in SEO for a while you will understand the importance of building relationships, interacting with your audience and establishing connections with your peers. Firstly, you have to build a relationship with other bloggers, reply to comments online, begin conversations on Facebook, and answer questions on Twitter. Once you have become established as a company that interacts with customers and other industry people online, you can start reaching out to other bloggers for guest posting opportunities. Writing guest posts gives you the opportunity to establish yourself as an influencer in the field and after a while of doing it, you might even get offers for interviews from other bloggers who are also trying to establish themselves.
Social Media Presence
Building a social media presence is a given and new businesses need to establish a strong social media presence because it helps them to grow. In order to build a strong social media presence you need to be a social butterfly, this means you need to be on every social media platform that your target audience uses. Once you get on these platforms you can offer them things that they wouldn’t get anywhere else, be it products, competitions, or the latest news.
Register your business
Once you are all set up with a website and a physical address you should register with Google, Bing, Yahoo! and any other popular webmaster along with a sitemap. This is important because it is your way of letting search engines know about your website and your location(s).