Seven SEO tips to grow your small business

Did you know that more than 93% of consumers use the internet to search for a local business? So if you haven’t got your SEO right, you could be missing out on business.

The simple fact today is that if you run a business, you need a website. And if you have a business website, you need to use SEO to help potential customers find it.

SEO is the most reliable and cost effective way to generate high-quality traffic, leads, and sales. But how can you practice great SEO if you are a small business with no experience or little budget?

In this article we will share seven tips to help you get ahead with SEO. Don’t forget too that you need strong internet connectivity with suppliers like Cox to stay connected, run your website smoothly, and communicate with your audience on different platforms/ channels.

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So, let’s now check out some of the best SEO practices that small businesses can use to improve their SEO performance.

1) Keyword research

It probably won’t come as much of a surprise to learn that keywords are the backbone of SEO. Your website must be optimized for keywords that your target customers use to find what they need on search engines. For example, if you sell shoes, your customers might search for heels, joggers, women’s shoes, men’s footwear, etc. 

One way to find the best keywords for your business is by using a tool such as Google Keyword Planner, Ahref Keyword Explainer, KWFinder, etc. When you use the right keywords in your content naturally, you can increase the probability of showing up in search results and attracting new customers. 

Also, keyword research gives you ideas for content. When you use the right keywords in your website’s content, you help search engines to know that your website is relevant to those topics, which in return improves ranking and drives more traffic. 

2) Write high-quality content

It goes without saying that keyword research should not be the only focus of your content strategy. Your content needs to be rich in quality. Here are some of the elements that make up quality content. 

It is informative

People seek unique content that introduces them to new things. Therefore, the content on your website has to be informative and useful for your audience. For example, it may include educational series, how-to articles, and product reviews. 

It is relevant

People engage with content that is highly relevant to their interests. So it is important to study psychographics and demographics to curate content that piques their interest. 

It is free of grammatical mistakes

Your content has to be clear and easy to read, which means no language errors or grammatical mistakes. It is important to thorough check your content before it is published on your website. 

It is engaging

Today, stories sell; people look for unique storytelling that is engaging, relevant and interesting. As a result, it is important to produce content with thought and effort. Also, it has to be authentic and useful, which makes it engaging. 

3) Improve your page loading speed

Search engines want to provide the best customer experience to users, so they prioritize websites that load quickly and easily on all devices. And it’s not just search engines you need to keep happy; customers will quickly switch to other sites if your website takes too long to load.

So how do you improve the loading speed of your website? Firstly, look at your images. HD images are sharp, but they can bog down your site. So make sure you do not use heavy images.

Plug-ins and complicated themes can also impede your loading speed. And importantly, it is essential to clean up dense HTML/CSS code. 

4) Optimize your website for mobile phones

Today, a large number of people search from their phones instead of PCs. So it is essential for a website to load faster on a phone, and show up well on the small screen. When it comes to optimizing your website for mobile phones, you need to consider the following things: 

  • Meta tags: Your meta tags, including meta titles and meta descriptions, have to be succinct and clear. 
  • Blocked code: Avoid blocking JavaScript, CSS, and images as they are essential for search engines to estimate the site’s mobile friendliness. 
  • Responsive design: The layout design of websites is usually planned according to desktop size and orientation, which is aligned horizontally. But for mobile pages, the layout has to adjust the vertical orientation, screen size, and resolution. 

5) Use internal links

Internal linking is one of the important SEO factors as it connects related pages and makes it easier for visitors to navigate through your website. Getting users to spend more time on your site helps you improve your search engine optimization. 

What’s more, it helps you keep a clean and organized structure of your website, thus enabling Google crawlers to understand your content.

6) Be active on social media

Don’t know why social media is important for your optimization? You are not alone. Many businesses, especially small businesses, find it hard to understand how social media helps SEO. Well, here is the thing, social media enables you to connect to your customers.

These customers land your website through social media pages, increasing the credibility of your site. As a result, search engines see your website as credible. Being active on social media can also help to ensure consistency for sustainable growth. 

7) Conduct an SEO audit

One of the most important parts of optimizing your site is conducting SEO audits within frequent intervals.

There is no specific SEO mantra that works for all sites and there’s no specific mix that bodes well for all websites. This is why it is important to get insights into the performance of your website to understand if the practices you are employing are actually helping – and which you need to do more of, and which you need to change.

SEO is important – make sure you get yours right

Many small businesses waste time and effort trying to keep up with fast-paced industry trends. However, little do they know that simply making people aware of their products and services can help them stay ahead of the competition. And SEO is the best practice to boost visibility and drive engagement, so make sure you follow the advice in this article and get yours right!