5 MUST-DO SEO Tactics for Every Small Business

You have a business website and you need to get it in front of customers. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) works towards getting you more exposure to prospective customers on the ever increasingly popular internet. SEO ranges from very basic to very complex steps, so a good foundation for your web presence is essential to start. Here are 5 of the absolutely essential SEO steps that every small business should utilize.

Have focused and relevant content.

Focused and relevant content should be your 1st step in having a web presence. If you have a specific term or topic that you would like to be found by customers on search engines, you NEED to have content on your website that goes into detail about that subject. The more detail that you go into, the better! Make sure that each page is focused on one specific topic instead of many topics.

If your company has a specific area that you provide service in, have separate pages that are dedicated to that area and talk about that area and common problems that people in that area experience (flooding, fallen trees, etc.). The more "local" you can get with your content and pages, the better opportunity you have to rank.

Citations and consistent NAP data.

There are many sites and directories that allow you to create a free business listing, including Manta, Yellowpages, Superpages, Yelp, Foursquare, Google Plus, and many MANY more. The reason you would want to create one of these listings is because it increases your presence on the internet. It puts another lure in the water, so to speak, to get people to come to your website or give you a call. With these listings, you want to make sure that your NAP data (Name, Address, Phone) is correct and up to date so customers can get ahold of your business.

Created a properly categorized Google My Business profile

With Google being THE major search engine in today's internet search world taking up over 65% of ALL search traffic, it is important to have a presence on all Google has to offer. With Google My Business, you are able to take control of your listing on Google which includes your listing on Google Maps and Google Plus, so it is crucial that your business listing is properly categorized and filled out completely and correctly. Add a detailed description full of links to your site, upload multiple good quality photos, hours of operation, and more. This listing will also link your site to any reviews on Google that customers have left of your business (more on reviews later in this article).

I want to stress the importance of categorizing your business properly. Google provides you with the ability to categorize your business into 2-5 categories so that they are able to understand your business better and apply you to relevant results. Being properly categorized will help in aiding your website to show up in local searches relevant to those particular categories.

Managing and Encouraging Reviews

This is something that I cannot stress enough to every business. Reviews play a substantial role in where and how your business is seen online. There are several ways to encourage reviews by customers including:

• Send a follow up email after you have provided a service. This email would include a link to where your customer can leave a review for your business.
• Have a prominent "Review Us" button on your site that links to where your customer can leave a review for your business.
• Embed some of your reviews onto your website. This will show the customer that others are reviewing you as well.
• If your business is person to person, ask them for a review after the exchange is done.

For better or worse, you want to encourage reviews and whether the review is good or bad, you also need to be proactive in responding to customers, showing that you care about them, their voice is important, and you want them to return. This is not only good for current customers to see but also prospective customers.

Get links from local associations and organizations.

Chamber of Commerce websites, news sites, local blogs, Better Business Bureau, Community Centers and many more sometimes will have free directories that you can gain a link to your site. These links to your site, especially sites that are authoritative and trustworthy, show that your site is authoritative and trustworthy as well. Links to your site are taken in to consideration by search engines when applying your site to search results.

These are only the basic building blocks that every business should take advantage of to create a web presence. If you would like more information on what is involved or would like us here at Alt Media Studios to do the work for you, please feel free to visit our Digital Marketing service page and watch our informative video.