Small business owners need to appreciate that it is perhaps only in the online space that they can compete effectively with big businesses by ensuring that their online marketing initiatives are up to the mark. With Google tuning its search results to give an advantage to small and local businesses, it is the most opportune time for small business owners to optimize their websites in many small but effective ways so that they can not only survive the intense competition but do well too.

Emphasize Long Tail Keywords

Because keywords are the most important aspect of getting a good SERP rank, it is natural that everyone spends a lot of time researching the most effective keywords, and finding the best ones can hugely determine the extent of the success. As a small business owner, it is likely that your SEO budget would also be slim so it would be a good policy to focus on long tail keywords because that may get you quicker results even though they may have a lesser volume of search. Long tail keywords are nothing but an expansion of the keywords that typically are considered for page rankings. Long tail keywords also basically try to mimic the way a searcher might phrase the query on the search engine and thus has the benefit of increased conversion ratio.

Focus on Quality Content

Even though advancements in technology have enabled even owners of relatively smaller businesses to afford websites with contemporary technology and programming, these are not adequate for the business to thrive. You need to ensure that the content hosted on the website as well as the blogs are of very good quality and relevant to the target audience. It is only by posting good quality content on a regular basis that you will acquire the all-important authority that Google seeks in its top-ranked sites. The quantity of content is also significant as Google is able to index more pages and the visitor also can spend more time on the site consuming the content.

Get Backlinks

The more the number of backlinks that you can get from sites that are relevant, the more the chances of Google discovering your site and giving it a ranking boost. As a small business owner, you should contact all the local publications to include your business name and website link in the reports they carry as well as attempt to post on subjects that are relevant to your business on sites that have high authority in the niche. Experts in social media marketing Mumbai also advise small businesses to get active on the social media to take advantage of social signals that Google and other search engines are increasingly becoming sensitive to.

Local SEO

In recent times, the importance of local SEO has grown tremendously with Google paying special attention to giving local businesses of relevance a superior rank in its search results pages. This has also given small businesses a very good opportunity to compete with their larger competitors for local sales. It can be very useful for you to optimize your site’s pages with local information, such as the address of the store, hours of business, phone numbers, etc. because Google’s Pigeon update now specifically caters to this sort of information and gives the site rankings a big boost. Also, make sure that your business is present in all the local online directories and that you post as many local reviews as possible. You should also attempt to clean up duplicate business listings using Google’s MapMaker tool.

Conclusion

Small business owners need to appreciate that the only way they can stay ahead in the game is by being nimble and use every advantage in the book afforded to local businesses by Google and other search engines with smart SEO techniques.

 

Author bio: Joe Paulson is a freelance SEO expert who consults with a large number of small businesses to improve their online visibility. A prolific writer on SEO trends, Joe has also been associated with GingerDomain.com for a number of digital marketing initiatives.