Once you have launched your website, the hard part begins.
Promote your site. Social media marketing has become an important aspect of achieving success online. Start with sites like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. Use social media not just to promote and network, but to gain user feedback about marketing campaigns and your content’s effectiveness.
Always be willing to adjust and improve.
Do not ignore the importance of choosing the right long-tail keywords. Single keywords tend to be more competitive as internet users become savvier, but the use of long-tail keywords gives you a better chance of getting your site noticed. Long tail keywords consist of at least three words and are more specific. Fewer people are attempting to rank for these words, too.
SEO matters.
However, it is becoming harder to get your business site noticed when marketing your product or service online. SEO, or search engine optimization, is the way to get search engines, such as Google and Bing, to notice your website. SEO basics for small business websites are important. It isn’t impossible to learn how to improve your site’s rankings, but it does take time and patience. Here are some important tips to get you started.
Identify relevant keywords
Creating great content: Search engines generally seek to deliver the best results to their users. The best way to achieve high rankings in search engines is by providing the best content that satisfies the needs of your viewers. The more you can satisfy your audience, the more visitors you will receive, and the more satisfied your audience members are, the more they will recommend your site. If your user satisfaction metrics are high, then your site’s rankings will improve.
On-page optimization: On-page optimization is the process of assigning relevant keywords to your website URLs, page titles, meta descriptions, meta tags, alt tags for images, body content, and anchor texts of internal links. Besides keyword assignment, other factors that play a heavy role in the decision of ranking a web page include the title of the page, description tag, and headings like h1, h2, h3, which are contained in the website’s content.
Identify relevant keywords: To get higher rankings, small business owners should understand that they need to target keywords that are relevant to their website pages. Start by creating a list of keywords relevant to the central theme of your site pages. You can use some common keyword research tools like Google Adwords Keyword Research tool or Wordtracker, etc. to find the keywords that are relevant to your website’s central theme. Now, with your list of relevant keywords, you can assign them to your site’s pages by carrying out on-page optimization.
Use keyword research tools
In practice, if you run meaningful keyword research to understand how sentiment will develop an optimization strategy for your sales or customer success-focused engage, the organic linking capability of the content you deliver will be an attainable consequence of executing good strategy.
Moz Keyword Explorer or Semrush – these are similar to Google Keyword Planner tool, but often will provide more long-tail keyword ideas and help you identify search volume in depth. They provide a Keyword Difficulty Score which can make it an attractive tool for your initial research stage.
Picking the actual target phrases you intend to use on any given piece of content is far and away the most critical step ahead of those actions in an SEO campaign.
Questions – Answer the Public tool is a great way to find the types of questions and problems people in your target demographic are having.
You can then use your keyword research tool to check volume. Tools such as Quora can be used to the same end, but keep in mind while refining ideas that the volume on questions and the related phrases may not attain the trend you may want.
Again, integrate the specific search engine keyword research into the process of refining your initial high-level content topic. This particular sort of content will be key to equipping your sales and customer service teams with new materials that support link-earning.
Analyze keyword competition
Regardless of the keyword, the quickest way to find out how much competition you’re dealing with is through a simple Google search.
To search for a keyword, go to Google.com and type the intended keyword in the search box. Make sure that the Display Advertising option is set to On. It will show results at the top that are paid, so you will have to scroll down a bit to see the organic search results.
Start analyzing the first organic search results (not the paid ads). If none of the sites that rank high have the keyword phrase you’re using in their domain name, you have a pretty good chance of winning that keyword.
If you’re going after high competition keywords that have excessive results on the first page of the search engine, the best way to catch up with other websites is by using the competitive keywords in the body of your page, not just in the meta-data.
If your keyword phrase is a common or popular term that gets thousands of searches per day, your site will have a more difficult time getting noticed.
Think about it this way: imagine your headline in a newspaper or popular website. If you’re the only one talking about purple grape soda, you might get some recognition. If purple grape soda is the subject all over the news, your article is likely going to get lost in the crowd. The same concept applies to keywords for SEO. To avoid high competition keywords, try finding phrases longer than three words. Sometimes that may be challenging, but it is still possible to win with these keywords.
The more specific your keywords are, the more targeted your site will be. Keywords longer than three words often return specific details about what users are searching for.
If your site is the only site that has helpful information for the lengthy and specific search, you’ll be number 1 on the search!
Optimize page titles and meta descriptions
To ensure a good competitive position, we must invest in on-page optimization.
Google, the largest and most important search engine in the world, continuously appreciates the relevance of the URLs it indexes in order to classify them among several results. URL optimization, as well as better user experience, is also a way for Google to determine a good result destination, which, at the same time, should be well-seen by the final customer.
Title Tag and Meta Description are “indexing-level” optimizations, known as “on-page semantics”.
In 2 very direct examples: In a Leather Jacket store, a title tag for an “urban” woman could be: “Leather Jackets for Stylish Women | Custom or Pronta entrega”. In this way, future potential clients will be in no doubt that the page is the search result that answers their urban style jacket search.
An example of a meta description can be: “Find our fashionable leather jacket in classic, short, bomber and more models. Well-produced bags, challenging cuts and beautiful seams can accompany the gem that you love so much!”.
The first thing you think when you run out of a product you usually buy at the store is “Let’s check online for options.” If you are an entrepreneur, you can only imagine the potential that this gives you to increase access to your small or medium store and grow your portfolio of customers.
Having a good online presence is more than a business differential, it has become a need for any type of activity. Digital integration is a reality and the inevitable next step.
Create high-quality and engaging content
Remember, high-quality and engaging content is not just about great words sprinkled with a few valuable images.
Try to create a range of content from blog posts, white papers, and tutorials to infographics, animations, slides, how-to guides, photos, music, podcasts, videos, indexable PDFs, and other interactive media that educates, informs, inspires, and wows your visitors.
It is also important to update and optimize existing content to ensure it remains accurate, complete, and current. Even though creating high-quality, engaging content is time-consuming, expensive, and requires a creative writer, it is the best strategy for your website’s SEO. With that in mind, you simply can’t afford to skimp on it. Great content creation is one of the best ways to drive long-term results and organic traffic on your website.
People visit your website for valuable information and to solve their problems, and you have to give that to them. It is one of the most important SEO advancements and can drive substantial traffic to your website.
When you share high-quality, engaging content, your audience is more likely to return and recommend their friends, family, and others to your website. Excellent content also earns more shares and backlinks, offers a greater opportunity to draw traffic, and reveals Google or any other search engine that your website is alive and essential.
Optimize images and use descriptive alt tags
If your home page takes forever to load, prospective guests will likely move on to another.
Reduce the file size of your images so your site loads quickly, but save the quality of good photography by using file formats designed to display photos effectively. Include long tail keywords within your image names and tag images with descriptive text.
As with mobile search, Google ranks fast-loading websites higher.
To ensure all your hard work pays off, use website analytics systems like PageSpeed Insights to monitor your website speed.
If you can’t measure something, you cannot improve upon it. Regularly monitor your business search engine rankings and conduct a new keyword analysis to continually search for and develop new terms that better target your intended audience.
You can use Semrush to create a project and monitor things like site health, visibility. You have also an On-page SEO checker.
Or you can use Google Search Console to monitor total clicks, total impressions, average CTR, average position and more.
An image may be worth a thousand words, but search engines cannot read the text within an image.
Use keywords to optimize any image files for search engines. When you save the files, use descriptive titles separated by hyphens. For example, change “IMG38729.JPG” (the default name given by your camera) to “coupon-restaurant-South-Beach.jpg” to enhance search engine access to the file.
Also, use alt text within the code to provide a description of the image. Descriptively name local files so they are easy to locate, and be sure to use an appropriate anchor text when you include a link. For example, use “South Beach Restaurant Coupons” as anchor text in the hyperlink.
Claim and optimize Google My Business listing
If you’re not familiar with Google My Business, it’s an easy and free way to get a website for your small business.
It’s essentially a “mini website” that allows you to display the most important information about your company at the very top of the Google search results. You can even upload posts and pictures, and as people start to leave reviews about your business, those will become visible as well.
You can also take advantage of Google My Business’ curbside pickup and delivery headings if either are relevant for your company since Google recently added these features in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Adding these attributes can help you show up in even more searches.
After you claim your listing and Google verifies you are the legitimate owner of your business, make sure you fill out every single part of your Google My Business profile, including your long description – also known as your business bio. Make sure you use your priority keywords. Highly professional, fluff-free copy is always ideal, but focus on getting your most desirable keywords into this bio. It’s a crucial piece of the SEO puzzle and will help improve your rankings.
When potential customers are looking for a business like yours on Google, the first thing they’ll see is the Map Pack, a three-pack of the “best” local businesses based on those search criteria.
Claiming and optimizing your Google My Business listing is even more important than your website when it comes to ranking in local search because, it’s cited as a top local ranking factor. Your listing shows up at the top of the search results and includes information about your business like its address, phone number, operating hours, and even photos.
Just take Google My Business’ word for it: “Businesses that verify their information with Google My Business are twice as likely to be considered reputable by consumers.”
Encourage customer reviews and testimonials
Do not be too preoccupied with making negative reviews go away. A business with 40 five-star reviews and 1 two-star review is worth more and seems more legit than a business with 15 five-star reviews and 16 four-star reviews.
Occasionally receiving a bad review can also actually be a good thing. If a customer believes that a product can be improved, that customer should be given a forum for their complaints and a chance to weigh in on how your business can improve. Another consumer can then read your response, see the interaction, and get a more complete picture.
When a customer writes a review, respond to the review with a “thank you” and point out specifics. If they are factually incorrect or misleading, politely tell the truth. You should also give the customer a chance to tell their side of the story and politely offer corrective mechanisms.
If a customer verbally tells you that they are satisfied but they do not have the time to write a review, ask them to tell you the rating. You can then offer to write the review yourself and ask them for initial permission to use their name and perhaps a picture.
Additionally, your website should include the ability to upload a 20-second video review of your service. This adds a personal touch and might help increase customer confidence in your product or service.
