Top 20 Small Business SEO Tips That Instantly Work

Looking for some small business SEO tips? Well, for those who are yet to dive into Search Engine Optimization, SEO might seem like a complex landscape. But that is not the truth, it is much simpler than what it seems.

Often small businesses experience time and monetary crunch when it comes to implementing any sort of marketing ideas. This is exactly where SEO can help, as it requires minimum efforts and even minimal investment. There are numerous small business SEO tips that instantly work.

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In fact, there is so much that small businesses and individuals can actually do without having sound small business SEO knowledge and need not make any huge investments too. We have put together a compiled list of top 20 small business SEO tips, as suggested by the search experts.

SEO for small business is extremely important. If you are still wondering “does small business SEO actually work?”, then let us make it clear – SEO for small business owners is a must and it does work. Our SEO tips for small business owners include SEO plans for small business online presence, small business website tips as well as small business search engine optimization.

Following are some of the simple SEO tips for small business. Let us now evaluate each one of the strategies for small business SEO.

Top 20 Small Business SEO Tips

Here are a few small business SEO basics and some extra tips on SEO for small business owners. Let us now look into each of these top tips for small business websites.

1. Create Your Google My Business Account

Creating and regularly updating your Google My Business account is a “must do” step and it is very important to keep all your business details updated here. It is completely free and enables you to get visibility in local search for specific queries in your domain of operation.

Even broader searches with huge volumes are showing the local results. Now, this is something that small business owners like you can actually capitalize on.

2. Design a Quick Mobile-Friendly Website

Developing a mobile website is no longer difficult. Simple plugins for content management systems like WordPress make it extremely easy. So, you can create mobile-friendly at minimal costs and within a short time.

3. Extensive Keyword Research

Targeting keywords, which are opted by the bigger competitors will not do you any good because they have higher online coverage and are more established online.

Using tools like Keyword Planner will help you to identify and target the right keywords and help you capitalize on it. The chances are that those keywords might convert at a much better rate.

4. Leverage Google Search Console

This free tool provides enormous information on how your website is performing on Google and presents you with the website problems that require your immediate attention.

It also helps you identify keywords that are relevant to your website, identify website crawling problems and much more.

5. Clearly Understand Your Audience

Identify who your customers are? What they want? Where do they spend time online? What kind of content interests them? These are the questions that you should be addressing before you begin your small business SEO efforts.

Identify the platforms where your target audience spend most of their time and target all those platforms to get maximum results. Trying out numerous random things will only be a terrible waste of time and will not fetch you any results.

6. See How Search Results are Displayed in Your Niche

Doing this will help you to understand what and with whom you are competing with. This is an important aspect to have a good small business online presence. For instance, let us say that search engines mostly present images and videos for your target keywords, then you too should try to create similar content. This helps you to get noticed among your target audience.

7. Check On Site Issues Using ScreamingFrog

Check for any website security issues that could be present because it is important. While it looks unrelated, sites that are not secure tend to attract lesser web traffic.

8. Claim Actual Address on Google Maps

If you are a local business having offline customers and a physical location, then do make sure to update your complete address with the landmarks on the Google Maps. This can be very beneficial.

9. Be Genuine in Your Approach

If you do not have a huge budget for marketing then try making a single move at a time. Never turn to any cheap methods like getting someone to randomly manage your account.

Invest time to personally connect with your target audience. This helps you to establish a good relationship in the long run.

10. Avoid Agencies that Promise the Moon

Until you are planning to purchase PPC ads, there is no way to assure that you will get listed on page 1 of the search. So, if a sales person or an agency promises this to you, then you better beware. Just ignore such promises and look out for a better option.

Agencies like these can actually cause a lot of damage to your company and negatively impact long-term visibility. Also, the best part is, if you are just getting started then you do not really need an agency to help you.

11. Keep an Eye on the Agency You Hire

If the agency you hire make some blunders then you will be in trouble because it will make huge negative impact. Often, dodgy link building programs will fetch you short-term results, but might increase the risk of your website being penalized.

12. Stay Updated with the Industry News

Things quickly change every now and then in SEO. So, techniques that work for a while might suddenly stop fetching the results after some time and the rules might change completely.

This is why you should keep up with all the latest industry news. Google will hardly spell things out, so it is you responsibility to look out for all the latest updates. While you can find some hints and advice, you will definitely not get everything spoon fed. You will just come to know that you have gone wrong somewhere only after you receive a notice.

13. Do Not Rely on Google Completely

It is always worth increasing your organic rankings. Search traffic is extremely valuable, but this does not mean that you should solely rely on it. This is because Google time and again changes the way in which ranks the websites, displays search results, etc.

All these might adversely impact your search traffic. So, try to build your email lists, leverage social media platforms, etc. to attract visitors and potential customers from different sources.

14. Create Content or Launch Your Blog

Content is the one that actually helps you to rank for the keywords that you are targeting. This includes a variety of content – product pages, service pages, home page content, pretty much everywhere across your website.

Blogs also can be of great help, particularly when you do not do it just for the sake of small business SEO, but try to educate your target audience. They present you with an opportunity to discuss your products and services with your target audience and also discuss the issues that surround it.

15. Plan to Blog? Then Be Regular

Well, we are certainly not asking you to write 4 articles per day. But, if you maintain a blog, then regularly add some content to it. By regular updates, we refer to something that your users will have to read every now and then. You can also create some fresh content specifically for the search engines from time to time.

16. Never Go Crazy with Keywords

While content can help you to target specific keywords, it definitely does not mean that you should go crazy while using keywords. While it is important to target the search terms that are likely to be searched by your customers, it is crucial to remember that you are writing for the humans.

When you do not write for the humans, your content will be regarded as weak and not up to the mark.

17. Consider Evergreen Content

Try to create top quality web content that answers the issues of your customers and target audience. This kind of content will have a longer shelf life and is referred to as “evergreen content”. Content like this will help you to get better organic rankings over a longer span of time.

18. Optimize Your Content with internal Linking

Efficient internal linking is extremely important – this involves interlinking themes and topics in a way that makes it very sensible for the readers as well as the search engines.

For instance, let us say that you offer cake decorating services. So, you can have several articles using that particular phrase. All those will not rank for it, so just go for the page that you would want to rank for and then point the links to it.

19. Leverage Site Search Data to Identify Target Terms

You can find the search phrases your audience look for on your website just by taking a look at your analytics data. Site search data provides you with useful insights.

When you analyze site search data, you can find the phrases that people search on your website. You can then correctly target these via PPC or SEO. Therefore, this data is a great resource that helps you identify your target keywords and also tell you what kind of language your customers prefer.

20. Optimize Your Images

Images bring your web content to life. They also contribute to the SEO of your website. So, it is important that you fully optimize your images for the search engine bots. This includes choosing the right file name, scaling your UX, using responsive images, maintaining optimum file sizes and also giving appropriate image alt tags.

While the techniques to optimize your organic search rankings change from time to time, implementing a few simple tips will let you to gain an edge over your competitors.

Have we missed anything? Please feel free to share your tips in the comments section below.