Home is increasingly becoming where the workplace is for modern entrepreneurs. A dedicated office is no longer seen as key to a business’s worth or success, which is why more owners are embracing working from the comfort of their own abodes.
While running your own business from home certainly doesn’t inhibit your prospects, there are still actions you need to take in order to flourish. One of the most important is improving your website’s Google rankings in its search engine results pages (SERPs), as greater online visibility results in more customers visiting your website. To achieve this, an effective SEO strategy needs to be employed. Failing to do so can be the difference between a successful and unsuccessful business venture.
To help you get started, we’ve outlined some of the most important yet cost-effective SEO steps to improving your home business’s Google rankings.
1. Create business citations
Citations are mentions of basic company information, such as business name, contact details and web address, that appear on online directories. Not only do citations make it easier for users to find businesses, but they are also an essential component of Google’s ranking algorithm, particularly in local search. Google associates citations with brand trust, so if your company has lots of citations from reputable local sources, it is more likely to appear in search results.
There are many places you can create free business citations, from Google My Business (GMB) and Yell to Facebook and your local chamber of commerce. Your GMB profile is arguably the most important, as this listing can appear both in branded search results and localised search results, where Google selects three GMB profiles to appear in its Local Pack of businesses.
2. Ensure your site structure is optimized
You’ll probably have a list of target keywords or queries you want your website to appear in search results for, but without a clear site structure in place, it’s not going to happen. Google needs to understand your website’s content to determine whether it is relevant to a user’s query or not. The better your site structure, the easier the crawlers can access and index the content. Site structure is also essential to user experience, with engagement metrics like bounce rate and dwell time largely dependent on how simple a website is to use.
The best site structures employ a hierarchy, where main services and products are given the most prominence within the site’s navigation, and subcategories or subproducts sit off the main categories. The URL structure should also follow this hierarchy, like this (without the spaces):
Homepage: www. website. com
Category: www. website. com/category/
Sub-Category: www. website. com/category/subcategory/
Once the hierarchical structure is in place, use internal linking to signpost to Google which pages are related to each other within an information hierarchy. Internal link strategies also help users navigate through a website and spread the authority of links around the website. Another useful step is to weave in relevant keywords while ensuring that multiple pages aren’t targeting the same terms, as this could lead to keyword cannibalisation issues later down the line. SEO expert Neil Patel has compiled this comprehensive guide to ensure you get your site structure right.
3. Use Schema markup
Schema markup is a type of structured data which, when added to a page as a piece of HTML code, helps search engines understand the content of the given page. Not only does Google use this to provide results that effectively cater to a user’s search intent, but Schema can also be used to bolster search result snippets, with the potential for additional information like product prices, reviews, and event dates to appear alongside metadata. These eye-catching details have been proven to improve a page’s click-through-rate. To add schema markup to your own site, go to Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper and follow the steps outlined. If you’re an HTML novice, it might be a good idea to hire a web developer to help you with the process.
4. Encourage customers to leave reviews
Reviews play an invaluable role in building brand trust and localised search rankings. The more positive reviews your company has, the more likely a user will be to buy a product or service from you. Reviews can also directly bolster visibility in local search, with Google more likely to show GMB listings in its Local Pack if it has a high number of favourable star ratings.
One way to encourage customers to leave reviews is to simply ask in person after you’ve made a sale. Another is to send out post-purchase emails or texts with initiatives like loyalty points or prize draws in exchange for comments. It’s also imperative that you respond to all reviews, regardless of whether they’re positive or negative. This shows customers that you value them and their feedback, and also gives you the chance to iron out any issues they may have had with your company.
5. Secure high-quality backlinks
Link building is essential to any SEO campaign for a number of reasons. Firstly, high-quality backlinks boost the overall domain authority of a website, which in turn increases its chances of performing well in search. Secondly, backlinks can be a way of driving referral traffic to your website. Websites with more backlinks tend to rank more highly than those with less.
While obtaining backlinks can be simple, it’s very easy to fall into the trap of obtaining links that Google considers to be spam, such as posting links in comment sections or paying for backlinks. To obtain high-quality links, you first need to create great content on your own website, something that is a genuinely useful resource for the reader. Creating good resources relevant to your industry makes it more likely you’ll obtain natural links from people citing it without encouragement.
