Top 5 SEO Tips for Small Businesses to Get More Customers

Most small business owners don't know much about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and all the jargon that comes with it. Even fewer are actively using techniques to bring more customers through their doors. But that's a mistake, since many of the tactics used in SEO also apply to PPC (pay-per-click), link-building, social media marketing, and other forms of digital marketing. If you're looking for ways to get more customers online — from repeat visitors to new leads — this article will help you out. See our other helpful posts like 5 Steps for Getting Your Business Online to get the most out of your digital footprint.

1. Optimize your site for search engines to attract more customers

Optimizing your site for search engines is important for two reasons: 1) search engines are the main way people find your site and 2) most of your customers search for your products and services online before contacting you. When your site comes up high in the search results, it’s easier for people to find you.

You can only optimize a small portion of your site for search engine results (SERP) before it starts pulling rankings down. Google does this on its own, but it also works with other search engines. When EACH search engine pulls down your SERP, if your website isn’t optimized, your ranking drops, which can affect overall site traffic.

Earning the best rankings first for your keywords and then for emerging topics — called “topics” — are examples of how your site can go from first to best in SERPs. At that point, search engine optimization is all about bringing in everything you know about your customers and showing up as good as you can throughout the entire search process. No matter how good your website looks and how smart your content is, if no one is searching for what you have to offer through SERPs, the best chance for your site to find the best buyers is through PPC. PPC ads serve as a way for businesses to send targeted audience ads to potential customers. Read more in our in depth article How To Increase Your Lead Volume with PPC Advertising.

2. Do keyword research to figure out what people are looking for online

The best way to start a blog is to figure out what people are looking for and then provide that information to them. Keyword research is a great way to figure out what people are looking for online. On a website, you can use your SEO tools to run keyword searches whenever you want. Keyword research is very crucial for any website. It will help you improve your SEO by identifying new trends in search engine rankings. Before you know it, you’ll have a well-rounded strategy for your blog. The bottom line is that it’s all about keywords for a website to be successful in SEO.

Just like with any marketing tool or service, the best way to determine what works for your business or blog is to figure it out first. To do so, you’ll need to know what SEO is and the specifics of what makes it work. SEO is a compounding process. Simply put, if you’re running low on quality content, that makes it harder for you to rank higher. Over time, it will compound, making the effort you want to put in harder than you’d initially think. To understand what SEO is, you have to dig a little deeper into the overarching philosophy behind it, as well as the elements used in SEO. To that end, this article is going to break down the basics and give you tools to implement it in your own content strategy.

Evergreen content is content that stands the test of time and delivers some lasting value to your readers. It’s content that is good enough to be on the first page of Google as a result of outstanding quality. A “worthy” article is one that helps you engage your audience and provides them with something truly valuable in exchange for their time, which will stick with them for longer than the average click-through rate (CTR). For more information see our video about conversion rate optimization here.

3. Build backlinks to your site from other high-ranking sites

There are a lot of high-ranking sites out there, and many of them are happy to exchange links with you. The more high-ranking sites you have linking to you, the more you’ll improve your Google ranking and the more traffic you’ll get from search engines. If you’re getting traffic from a major search engine using a link, then you’re in good shape. Long ago, I got my first paid advertising job directly through Google and I’ve been highly satisfied with the results. I’m by no means a marketer (yet), I just know the ways Google works, and I know how to target search engines for the best results.

You’ll notice that four out of the top five are “topics” (meaning every term is a keyword). And that’s a good thing. Also, keep in mind that every time a keyword appears in the search engine results, there’s a good chance that your page will rank high in that exact topic, too.
And of course, focusing on your high-ranking terms is important. Remember, PPC ads work from the top of the SERP to your bottom, so you can’t possibly ignore them. It’s always a good idea to buy keywords for your search to improve your ranking, so that the words you use will bring more traffic toward your site.

There are two ways to get keywords for Google Ads, one is to buy them directly from Google (the other is to use a keyword tool) and the key is to use keywords that are relevant to the business you’re trying to promote. To learn more about backlinks checkout our SEO video here.

4. Promote via social media to create a buzz around your brand

Marketing is all about building a buzz around your product or service. To make it easier to build a buzz around your brand, try promoting it via social media. Think of it this way: If your customers socialize around your brand, then every time one of them engages with your brand on the platform (visit, comment, etc.), that counts as one more potential customer. It’s that simple.

It might be a funny concept, but 99% of businesses can’t capitalize on social media marketing. Not only are most small businesses new to digital marketing, but so many don’t even have Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. That leaves only a handful of “clickable social media stars” in every town. But before you get sucked into playing Facebook 24/7, you need to realize you can’t apply everything you learn on Facebook to online marketing.

It’s going to be pretty obvious to most small business owners that Facebook has grown greatly in recent years, becoming the de-facto “go-to” social media platform for many. But don’t give the platform kudos for that. What Facebook has done is accelerate a shift in marketing for all businesses that makes social media marketing a crucial part of online marketing.

So why would you ever want to be on Facebook? Because there’s nothing like it. If you own or manage a restaurant, you probably already use it; it’s owned by billion-dollar companies like Google and Facebook. Once you make the switch, you’ll realize how much more efficient Facebook is — for both you and your customers. And it certainly is an efficient platform. That’s because Facebook’s ads are among the most efficient in the world. Will it be the case forever? Probably not. Throughout this century, other social media platforms like YouTube and Instagram have grown in popularity — mostly due to their ease of use, fresh content, and power to draw users.

5. Create content that appeals to the human mind and not just search engine spiders

The reason why content marketing works so well is because people love content. We like to read, watch videos, and listen to podcasts. The problem is that most people try to create content that appeals to search engine spiders instead of their audience. It’s important to write content that appeals to the human mind, not just search engine spiders. You wouldn’t walk by a grocery store and ask the cashier to tell you what the specials are. You wouldn’t find out what similar items are on sale by walking past those same items in the market. You can’t rank highly in the search engines if you don’t know what your competitors are doing to stand out. SEO is all about turning keywords into ideas that your readers want to know more about.

Yes, that’s a tall order, but if you bite into the challenge and learn how to make your content stand out, it will lead to a win-win situation. Readers will find your content more easily thanks to a better offer. They will be more likely to leave a clickable link because they feel it’s worth it to learn more about your industry and learn what you have to offer. They will stay on your site longer because you provide more value than your competitor. And they will take more of what they want from your business. Always remember to be personalizing the content based on your buyer personas!

So how do we get more people to know about our brand and our products? It all starts with keyword research. Learn how to use the right keywords, select the most relevant categories, and determine when and where to use each. Search engines are very picky about what words they will and won’t display for keywords. Make sure your content is helping your audience make quick judgments about your company and products. The keyword research techniques I’ll go over in this article have helped me connect with more customers through content, both on my personal website and in PPC advertisements. Many of these techniques worked for me and many of the PPC companies I’ve worked with as well.

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