8 Small Business SEO Basics That Will Improve Your Search Rankings
Updated December 2023
Introduction
Small businesses often face challenges in gaining visibility in search engine results. A strong online presence is crucial for success in an increasingly digital world. That’s where Search Engine Optimization (SEO) comes into play.
In this blog post, we will explore the basics of SEO specifically tailored for small businesses. Whether you are a business owner, professional, or entrepreneur, understanding these fundamental principles will help improve your search rankings and drive organic traffic to your website.
So, let’s delve into the world of small business SEO and discover the strategies that can elevate your online visibility and attract potential customers.
Why You Need These Small Business SEO Basics
Search engine optimization is usually not on the front of small business owners’ minds. It should be! Any small business can use these small business SEO basics to grow its online presence and engagement. By not doing so, many small businesses miss out on valuable opportunities for digital marketing.
Even worse, by not knowing about questionable SEO practices, many business owners fail to get the benefits they expect from their search engine efforts. Others get trapped in useless long-term contracts. Using these SEO basics to grow your small business is a much more effective approach.
Many small business owners don’t use SEO to grow their business because they don’t understand how it works. Yes, SEO can be tricky, and for more advanced applications, we recommend that small business owners engage a professional.
If you are an SMB who wants to do your SEO yourself, you can use these eight small business SEO basics to grow your small business online. If your small business already uses an outside agency, you can use these small business SEO basics to ask the right questions.
8 Small Business SEO Basics
1 – Be Mobile-First
For your small business to compete in the ever more competitive online world, you absolutely must have a mobile-first website in 2024. Regardless of the nature of your business, potential customers will visit your website from a mobile device at least once as they learn about your business and services.
A mobile-first site will provide a much better user experience for mobile consumers and enable you to benefit from frequent Google algorithm updates.
SEO Benefit: A mobile-first website is required if you want to comply with Google’s Mobile-First policies. Since 2018 the search engine has ranked mobile-first websites higher than desktop-only versions.
2 – Efficient SEO With A CMS
A Content Management System (CMS) is an efficient way for small businesses to publish content and manage SEO. While you can choose from many small business content management systems, we recommend using WordPress for your small business website.
SEO Benefit: WordPress plugins such as Rank Math allow full control of your on-page SEO. It will tell you how well your pages are optimized. WordPress websites also provide many options for improving page speed, which is an additional ranking factor.
3 – Plan With Keyword Research
Know what your customers are searching for when they visit your website. Use free tools like Google Keyword Planner to help you hit all the right notes. For more in-depth research, you can use SEMrush to find keywords your competitors use. Here is some additional information on choosing SEO keywords for your business.
Target local keywords specific to your business. For example, an electrician in Seattle prefers to work north of the ship canal only. Key phrases like “North Seattle Electrician” are more relevant than “Seattle Electrician.”
4 – Stand Out With On-Site SEO
Create unique page titles, meta descriptions, URLs, and content. Creating additional pages can help target new keywords and send signals to search engines.
For example, if your electrical contracting firm only serves North Seattle, use a key phrase like “North Seattle Electrician” on your home page.
5 – Local SEO With Google My Business
Claim your profile on Google My Business and Bing Places for Business, and list all your locations. Be sure to create keyword-rich descriptions for each of your business locations. Sorry, this only works for real ‘brick-and-mortar’ businesses.
SEO Benefit: Your business will appear in search results for local keyword searches.
6 – Blog
Yes, we may have mentioned this before! Write compelling content that your audience will read and share. Use images, videos, tips, news, and more to keep it varied. A long-tail keyword approach can work very well on blogs.
For example, a North Seattle Electrician Review post with a customer testimonial. How did your actions make life easier for your customers? Describe the steps you took and their outcome. Testimonials are a great way to show off your business and build trust.
Blog Post Ideas: Answer questions and offer solutions. Create check-lists. Offer free information and knowledge from your area of expertise. Become a trusted resource.
SEO Benefit: Every new blog post created is an opportunity to be found by search engines. It works even better if you optimize your blog post for content distribution.
7 – Encourage Action!
We shouldn’t even have to mention this as part of our small business SEO basics, but just a reminder. Make sure your site visitors are taking the action you want them to. Want a visitor to call you? Tell them! Prefer email? Tell them! And tell them who they should contact first.
For example: A finance company wants people to book appointments. Use a Call to Action (CTA) where site visitors will see it. Here is an example: “Call 123-456-7890 to book an appointment with our finance manager, 20 years of experience to help guide you to a secure financial future”.
8 – Diversify Your Marketing
Reviews, social media, PPC and AdWords campaigns, email, guest blogging, display ads, marketing forums, Facebook, Yelp, Instagram – can all drive traffic and leads. (Let us know if you need a few more ideas!) Social media, blogging, and forum participation in your niche are free. Test different channels with budgets and see what works. You should also incorporate visual content marketing into your marketing strategy.
SEO Benefit: A diverse marketing plan can complement your SEO through traffic, links, and branding.
Implementing These Small Business SEO Basics
Now you know how to start using these small business SEO basics to grow your small business. For each of our 8 SEO basics, we listed examples and benefits for you to follow. Start with the ones that are the most urgent or the ones you feel most comfortable using. And be sure to measure the results.
Conclusion
In conclusion, incorporating small business SEO basics into your digital marketing strategy is crucial for improving search rankings and attracting new site visitors. You can enhance your online visibility and reach a broader audience by implementing a few simple SEO strategies.
If you’re ready to take your business to the next level, contact us for more information, and let us help you optimize your search rankings effectively.
Do You Need Help with Small Business SEO?
Are you unsure how to optimize your website for higher search rankings and visibility? Here at PixoLabo, we help businesses and product brands increase website traffic. PixoLabo offers a full range of mobile-first web design and search engine optimization services.
Feel free to contact us to learn more about our business website design and redesign services. Our team will listen to your concerns and evaluate your needs. We will ensure that your small business has all the SEO basics you need to increase your search rankings and visibility.
Did You Implement our Small Business SEO Basics?
Are you noticing an increase in your search traffic and visibility? Do you have anything to add to our SEO basics? Feel free to add your comments below so our audience can share in the fun and grab our feed so you don’t miss our next post! And feel free to share our small business SEO basics with your audience!
For more content relevant to your business or product brand – check out the range of articles on our web design blog. (This one, listing common small business SEO mistakes you must avoid, is an excellent place to start!)
Thank you! We appreciate your help to end bad business websites, one pixel at a time!
By Gregor Saita
Co-Founder / CXO
@gregorsaita