For a small business that is looking to dominate in a particular area, a solid SEO strategy is essential for building interest. The best way to create buzz around your brand is to build a website. But how do you get more traffic to your site since there are many businesses also looking to dominate in your local area? That is where SEO comes in.
If you are looking for ways to optimize your website, build your brand and increase your online traffic, here are some innovative SEO tactics to skyrocket exposure. You will have a better chance of ranking highly on Google searches and may become a leading business owner in your area with these tips.
Create a Google My Business (GMB) account
By creating a Google My Business (GMB) account, you can easily manage your free Business Profile on Google, promote your business website, and connect with your customers. Managing your free Business Profile is a solid way to gain more visibility in Google’s Local Pack, Google Maps as well as organic search results.
By creating a free Business Profile on Google, you can keep customers up to date and respond to reviews to build customer trust. You can add basic information about your company, such as the name, address, phone number or shopping hours. Your customers can leave reviews and book services right from your free Business Profile on Google.
In order to manage your Business Profile for local SEO, you need to create a GMB account. Your GMB account allows your customers to quickly book appointments with your business through a booking button and send you feedback through messaging.
Creating a Google My Business account can increase your online exposure on the world’s most popular search engine.
Consistently post content to GMB
You will rank better for local keywords when you consistently post to GMB. You can post informational blog posts relevant to your business to your profile. When you post an article to your Google listing, it only stays for one week after it is published. So, you need to be consistent in uploading regular informational posts every week.
Highlight upcoming events, sales, product launches, offers, and anything else that is relevant to your business when you post your weekly article. An ideal Google My Business post is 100-200 words long, so you do not need to write a lot for each post. Focus on a specific topic, event, product, or sale to engage the target audience. You should also include an image alongside your post to improve engagement.
Add fresh, relevant content on a regular basis
Google loves websites that publish fresh, relevant content on a regular basis. Depending on the industry of your business, you may choose to post content once a week, or more, but be sure to maintain consistency. You can also improve search rankings of your website by refreshing or updating existing or old content often. Add testimonials, if you already have them, to your site. You can add in an updated “About Me” page. Make sure to optimize every image on your website for SEO and ensure that the images are on topic. For example, you can input SEO Company Toronto into the alt tag section to describe your business in Canada. Include alt tags or attribute tags and detailed image descriptions.
Update and optimize your social media profiles
Social media is an easy and inexpensive way to optimize your small business for local SEO. If you are social media savvy and have the time on your hands, you can update and optimize your social media profiles yourself. Respond to every comment and interact with your existing customers as well as potential customers on all your social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest.
Upload your company’s logo and images to all your social media profiles to make your business profile look professional and to help build your brand. Add a link to your small business website from all of your profiles so your potential customers can find it easily.
By building a dedicated following on various social media platforms, you can drive traffic to your business website and/or your physical business address.
Improve your user experience on your website
If your website takes longer to load, or glitches, it is bad for the user experience, and will affect your search ranking. Google ranks websites highly in their search results pages if they have fast page load times.
By providing a positive user experience across your entire site, you will be able to keep customers on your site longer. If people spend more time on a site, it will prevent low bounce rates, and Google rewards sites that have low bounce rates with higher rankings.
If your site provides a poor user experience, you will fail to attract traffic and it likely will not rank at the top of the search engine results page. So, it is crucial for your small business website to provide a positive website user experience if you want to convert traffic, get more quality traffic, and ultimately increase your online exposure.
Ensure your website is mobile-friendly
Today, the majority of local searches are done on mobile devices, such as smartphones or tablets. Provide these users with a positive experience if you want to rank highly locally. If you do not get found by mobile users in your geographical area, you will fall behind your competitors who understand its importance.
Google will not rank your site in a prominent position if you do not have a mobile-friendly website. So, if your small business website is not optimized for mobile devices, work to create a site that is mobile-friendly.
Ask for online reviews
Focus on getting a steady stream of online reviews on your website and Business Profile on Google. Online reviews will help your website rank in local searches quickly and in the long term. Encourage your customers to leave a review on your website, Business Profile and on your blog posts. You can also offer giveaways (e.g., prizes, discounts, etc.) to entice your customers to leave a review. Always respond to all of the reviews, even the negative ones, to show all your customers and potential future customers that you will listen to them.
Network with local online influencers
Small business owners used to promote their business using traditional marketing strategies such as networking events and business cards. However, you can now network with influential people in your local area from the comfort of your computer. You can offer discounts on a product or products, or freebies to them in exchange for mentioning your business on their platforms.
Many people trust online influencers more than online ads now, so if you can network with local online influencers, you can increase your website’s online exposure and improve your brand awareness quickly.
Final thoughts
These innovative SEO tactics for small businesses will help you improve your online visibility, get more customers and build your brand. If you want to show up in local-based online searches and skyrocket your small business’ exposure online, use the above strategies.
If you do not have the time to work on your local SEO for your business yourself, then consider working with a professional, reputable SEO agency or firm that specializes in local SEO and digital marketing.
