The Beginner’s Guide to Small Business SEO

14 August 2020

SEO has leveled the playing field when it comes to marketing and promotion for small businesses. Previously, small businesses didn’t have a way to compete with larger companies in their industry. These days, when small companies use effective strategies to implement SEO, these organizations can work their way into large competitive spaces. Even though big businesses have an immediate advantage when it comes to SEO, smaller companies can find creative loopholes to be just as prominent when it comes to online searches. Here are some important tips you need to know and how you can utilize the best SEO companies in Kansas City to grow your business.

What You Need to Know About SEO

SEO

SEO, or search engine optimization, is the process of making your business website rank for applicable keywords to create more search traffic. SEO is based on several factors, including impact, local SEO, HTML tags and titles, links, keywords, and website organization. These factors assist search engines in determining what your website is about.

It’s also important to ensure your content quantity and quality is appealing. You should release new content regularly so potential customers will see the value in your product or service. When you update your pages, you’ll increase search rankings.

SEO can also boost your company’s reputation. If your domain has a high search ranking and provides links to additional domains, your page will usually rank faster. Your small business will also rank higher when local customers search for you. For instance, if your business is in the Kansas City area, you should utilize the best SEO companies in Kansas City to bring your website to the top of the search engines.

If you’re just getting started with SEO, the terminology may sound overwhelming. You don’t have to be an expert to get started with small business SEO and the technical aspects of search engine optimization aren’t as complicated as they may sound.

SEO is essentially creating digital content that potential and existing customers want to read and share. This means you’ll have to research the content your audience searces for the most and write blogs and articles that answer audience questions. It’s also important to optimize your content with features that are compatible with Google to bring more traffic to your website.

SEO Terms You Should Know

It’s important to have a glossary of SEO terminology on hand so you can make sure your website ranks as high as possible in search engines.

Organic search: An organic search is when you type a phrase or word in a search engine. Google will return organic search results and paid search results. Paid search results will be labeled “sponsored” or “ad.” The higher the website ranking, the more likely the person searching will visit the website.

Google Answer Box: This is also called rich results or featured snippets. The Google Answer Box is a small box with a page excerpt and a link to the page. Most snippets will answer a specific question or share general information about the topic the individual is searching for. Google usually has a separate link to the website in the box. Google-featured snippet ranking is ideal for increasing your traffic. You don’t have to rank at the top to get a snippet. You just have to answer the question in a way that Google deems informative and interesting.

These are just a few of the ways you can improve SEO for your small business. The more you incorporate these tips into your business model, the more success you’ll see when it comes to promoting your company.

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Ariana Smith

I enjoy writing and I write quality guest posts on topics of my interest and passion. I have been doing this since my college days. My special interests are in health, fitness, food and following the latest trends in these areas. I am an editor at Content Rally.

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Halle Cook

Good post! We will be linking to this particularly great post on our site. Keep up the great writing

Reply 2024-02-29 14:28:47

How to Monitor the SEO Health of Your Website

Monitoring the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) health is essential for any website to maintain its search engine ranking and search results. You never know when an SEO issue left ignored can hit your ranking and impact your business adversely. Website owners need to take care of several SEO metrics regularly and be proactive to fix the issues that may lead to low performance. This post explains the most important SEO health metrics that need regular monitoring to maintain the performance of a website. Organic traffic : Your website ranking is useless unless it brings you traffic. Tracking your organic traffic is an indicator of your SEO performance. An increase in visitors coming through search engines indicates that your rankings are increasing. Organic traffic is one of the most important metrics that you can track. While other metrics also show a trend, organic traffic provides you with quantifiable proof that your efforts are working to bring more visitors. However, the quality of the traffic depends on the keywords you're ranking for. Keyword rankings : Ranking of important keywords is a vital part of any SEO campaign, as high keyword rankings drive more traffic to the website. There are plenty of tools that will help you to conduct the keyword research, and track your website’s rankings over time. You can also search at Google Search Console to look for the keywords that drive most of the traffic to your website. As Search Console is a free-to-use platform, you can set up your website on it if you haven’t already done it. If you find it difficult to conduct the keyword research, you should get a monthly SEO maintenance plan to improve your keyword rankings. Backlinks and Referring Domains : Backlinks are another most important metric and ranking factor in the SEO Analysis. You should track the backlinks pointing to your website. Keeping track of your backlinks and referring domains provides you with an estimate, how good your SEO efforts are working. A large number of backlinks might not immediately lead to better rankings (especially if the links are from low-quality domains), but they show positive results in the future. The quality and relevancy of backlinks also matter, and you should always use the backlinks from reputed websites. Bounce Rate : The bounce rate is defined as the percentage of single-page sessions in which the visitors left your website without interacting with the page. A low bounce rate indicates that the visitors have found your website interesting or useful. On the other hand, a higher bounce rate on a particular page might not be a bad thing, as it could just be that the user’s search query was answered on that page and they are satisfied. You should set up an event tracking to track the success of a page, even if you expect to have a high bounce rate on it. It is better to subscribe to a quick SEO plan to improve the bounce rate of your website. Click-Through Rate (CTR) : The click-through rate (CTR) is another important metric to track the success of a website. Organic CTR is the percentage of clicks to impressions for your site in Google search. As you work on improving the CTR of your site, you may see an improvement in your keyword rankings. When Google sees that more people click on your website for a specific keyword as compared to other websites, it makes perfect sense that they would rank your website higher on search engines. Final words : There are many other metrics that you need to track to evaluate the performance of your SEO campaign. However, the above-mentioned metrics are the most critical in determining the SEO health of any website. A monthly SEO monitoring campaign is essential to monitor the important metrics and fix any issue at the right time. Tracking these metrics regularly and working on them will help you to improve the ranking and organic traffic on your website. Read Also : Critical Off-Page SEO Mistakes To Avoid Things To Consider While Doing SEO 8 Key SEO Strategies For E-Commerce Websites

8 Reasons Your SEO Campaigns Aren’t Showing the Desired Results

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the digital marketing strategies that have been talked about for years. Established businesses on digital media swear by this strategy in boosting their web traffic, increasing visibility, and improving returns on investment. As a result, all businesses are running towards this strategy with the hope to see positive results. SEO campaigns are essential for your business to improve your business to the next level. Unfortunately, to the disappointment of many firms, SEO isn’t showing the results that they expected. This has led to great losses after spending thousands of dollars to develop a strategy that does not bear results. The question is, “Is SEO overhyped?” If not, why is it not working for your business? And what can you do to improve your SEO strategy and begin to experience positive results and increased ROI? SEO is an effective digital marketing campaign, but it only works for firms that have learned how to leverage it. In this light, here are eight reasons why your current SEO campaign isn’t bearing traffic and leads, and what you can do to realize positive results from it. Different Factors Are There Why SEO Campaigns Do Not Show The Desired Results There are several factors are there why SEO campaigns do not exhibit the desired results all the time. Try to achieve your goals in the best possible ways. Work out the plans that can help you to achieve your goals in the correct order. 1. Your Web Design Sucks How visually appealing is your website? Do you have a professional look that would appeal to a new customer? How are the pages, posts, imagery, calls to action, and other page elements placed on your website? Does the site look busy and stuffed? When an individual visits your site, they will move on quickly if they don’t like the design and layout. This results in increased bounce rates which causes search engines to rank you at the bottom of the search page. What’s more, a poorly organized page makes it hard for search engines to crawl the site, and this results in lower rankings. You can improve your SEO strategy by taking the time to design a user-friendly website. Make sure that page elements such as the content, imagery, and CTAs are correctly placed on your site. 2. You Have Poor Content Experts say that content is king and this statement has never been more accurate than in matters of SEO. Content is what will draw people to your site and keep them coming back. If you don’t give your readers a reason to return, they will not. What does poor content look like? First, it does not provide any useful information to the target client. Secondly, it is poorly written with an unappealing structure and poor-quality imagery. If readers find your content unattractive, they will pass by your page regardless of its ranking. Take the time to develop quality content for your readers. It should provide meaningful information that's easy to read. Use an appealing tone and organize your work into visually appealing formats. Finally, use high-quality images and video for your content. 3. You’re Targeting the Wrong Audience SEO only works if you are targeting the correct audience. This may seem obvious, but not all businesses can accurately sift through the millions of online users and identify their target audience. For example, if you are an auto repairs company but your content leans towards the car manufacture industry, you may lose out on your target audience. Before developing an SEO campaign, identify your target audience. Strive to produce content that is directly targeted to them. For example, an auto repairs company should focus on clients who are seeking repair services and not to buy new vehicles. If you are not sure, consider seeking help from a Minneapolis SEO Expert . 4. You’re Using the Wrong Keywords One of the top techniques in an effective SEO campaign is the use of keyword phrases. These are search terms that prospective clients feed on search engines when looking for a product or service. Note that not all keywords will guarantee success in your SEO strategy. If you use simple keywords, you will face stiff competition from other players in the industry. If you go for very narrow ones, no one will find your site. The best way to use keywords effectively is by using long-tail over short keywords. Long-tail keywords utilize a series of terms, at least two or more, that are commonly typed by readers. So instead of using “dentist” as your keyword, you would have a phrase such as “best dentist in Minneapolis.” The longer phrase has a higher chance of ranking higher and shaking off competition. 5. You Have the Wrong Priorities When employing an SEO campaign, various metrics come into play. You can choose to measure web traffic, conversion rates, bounce rates, ROI, and many others. Failure to focus on the right metrics can cause your SEO strategy to fail. Unfortunately, most businesses pay attention to the wrong metrics. For example, they will strive to increase their following on social media and their site traffic but ignore other metrics like the conversion rates. Having a large following doesn’t guarantee that they will all convert. Therefore, make sure that you are paying attention and directing your resources towards metrics that will generate returns for your business. 6. Your Conversion Rates are Low One of the ways to know that your SEO strategy is working is when your conversion rate increases. Conversion rates go up when users take your desired call to action (CTA). It could be to sign up to your newsletter, join your email list, or buy your product. Different businesses have varying CTAs based on their needs. If your conversion rates are low, your SEO campaign is not working. To improve your conversion rates, focus on strategies that will draw and keep people on your site. Have an appealing website and ensure that your call to action is visible. The CTA should also have attractive graphics and terms – it should be like the magic button that everyone itches to click. SEO campaigns can work well in your favor as it can help your business to grow in the right direction. 7. You Have no Precise SEO Plan What do you intend to get out of your SEO campaign? Do you have specific goals? If not, the chances are that your strategy is not targeted at anything in particular either. Lack of an actionable SEO plan will cause you to try out anything, including strategies that are doing nothing for your campaign. Come up with a practical plan of what you wish to achieve with SEO. Do you want traffic? What for? Do you want to write blog posts for your website’s blog section? What will the blogs help you achieve? Outlining your goals enables you to channel your efforts and resources towards a worthy cause. 8. Your Site is Not Mobile Responsive Search engines today are favoring sites that are mobile responsive over those that maintain a desktop view even on mobile devices. Mobile friendly sites load faster and have easy readability on phones and tablets. If your website isn’t mobile responsive, search engines will rank it lower, and this will stall your SEO dreams and goals. Develop a mobile site that will appeal to search engines and visitors. SEO works for businesses that have mastered the strategy. If your campaign isn’t working, look into these eight things and make the necessary tweaks to gain positive results from your SEO campaign. Final Take Away Hence, these are some of the core factors that can work well in your favor while you want to develop your business in the right direction. SEO Campaigns can work well in your favor when you apply the correct techniques in the proper manner. Do not lose out on the chance that can provide you the opportunity. Read Also: How To Integrate Email Marketing With SEO Two SEO Trends To Take Advantage Of In 2018 5 Ways To Improve Mobile SEO

How To Run Effective Social Media Ads

Due to digital technology, marketing has evolved beyond using print, radio, and television. The emergence of social media platforms allowed businesses to reach their target audience on a more personal level. Businesses can simply create their own social media account and directly interact with their consumers. However, traditional ways of advertising are also possible on these platforms. Social networks also show ads to generate revenue from their sites. As such, it’s worth discussing social media advertising as another form of digital advertising. Social media advertising refers to paying for a social networking platform to show ads to specific users that make up your target audience. The ads involved often come in different forms such as images, videos, and text. Moreover, these ads can also direct the user to the business’s website or social media profile. What sets social media ads from other digital ads is the ability to use metrics and the specific platform’s features. In fact, it’s so powerful that companies such as those in Bristol often work with a local marketing agency to fully optimize their social media ads. Essentially, it allows businesses to effectively reach more people and engage with them. For example, you can use metrics to ensure your ads will have an impact. More specifically, you can use it to see if your content and graphics generate enough conversions. However, since social media ads are guided especially by algorithms, it’s vital that you effectively create the right kind of ad and know how to use the social media platform. In doing so, you’ll be able to maximize your return on investment (ROI), reach your target audience, and maximize conversions. With that said, if you wish to learn how to run effective social media ads for your business, Here’s A Guide On How To Run Effective Social Media Ads: 1. Identify Your Purpose The first step to creating an effective social media ad is to understand the purpose of the specific ad that you’re making. Are you creating it to ask people to check out your business’ social media profile or maybe are you creating it to have them buy one of your products? Knowing the purpose of your ad allows you to create effective content. When you understand your ad’s purpose, you’ll also be able to pick the right kind of media for your ads, such as an image or video. If you intend to have an ad that is easily accessible and scannable, then using an image may be the right choice. Meanwhile, if your goal is to gain more engagement and clicks, then a video is worth considering. 2. Identify Your Target Audience The second step is to understand your target audience. By doing so, you’ll be able to create an ad that is optimized for them, increasing the chances of interactions and engagements. Furthermore, you’ll be able to create an ad that speaks directly to them. One way to do this is to understand their culture. By doing this, you’ll be able to speak their language. Furthermore, it’ll also allow you to understand their struggles and address them in your ads. This helps your business connect with people at a more personal level. 3. Plan Out The Design Then the next step would be to prepare your material, which includes your brand’s assets, the overall layout, and content. This allows you to fully optimize your ad for its overall purpose. Make sure that your brand’s logo is clearly visible in all the ad designs that you create to run on socials. If you are unsure about the impact it will have, try to get an expert for logo design. If you don’t get this right, audiences that view your ad will not be able to clearly identify with your brand. Your brand’s assets are essentially visual elements that help the audience identify a product or marketing material to be uniquely yours. This includes your logo, the color palette, design elements, slogan, and more. When you use these consistently in your ads, you get to solidify your brand’s image. Next is to consider the layout of your ad. This is important because it will direct your audience to the most important parts. Furthermore, it also improves the readability of the material. For instance, if your ad is designed to ask viewers to follow your profile, then the word ‘follow’ must be placed at the top in big bold letters. Aside from this, the layout will also influence the aesthetics of your ad and could leave a good first impression on the audience. Finally, you’ll have to add your content or copy. The content of your ad must include informative text and a catchy phrase that anyone could remember easily. Essentially, the key is to balance the informative portion of your ad with an effective call-to-action. 4. Pick The Right Platform Picking the right social media platform will help you reach your target audience faster. But before choosing a social media platform, you must consider your target audience, the media format of your ad, and the analytical features from the platform that could help you track the performance of your ads. If you’re targeting young professionals, for example, then you may want to consider running ads on LinkedIn and Twitter. If your ad is a video, then it’s safe to assume that you might want to consider a video-based platform such as YouTube or TikTok. Related Resource: 5 Unusual Social Media Tips That No One Will Know About 5. Use Hashtags On Your Campaigns When you publish your ads, you may find that there’s often an option to add a caption or description. This is something that you can include with your ad’s media to give further information about your campaign. In these captions, you can include hashtags. By doing this, you can track your customers’ engagement with your campaign along with the content they create. To be more effective, you must use branded hashtags consistently. 6. Social Monitoring And Listening Finally, the key to launching successful marketing campaigns and social media ads altogether is to utilize information and data. This means using social monitoring and social listening tools. Social monitoring refers to using the metrics available to you to understand how your campaigns and social media posts are performing. Meanwhile, social listening allows you to understand the context behind these statistics. For instance, you may be receiving a lot of comments—which could indicate some level of engagement. However, these comments may be filled with negative feedback, which would not translate well for your business Using these two methods, you’ll be able to completely find out how your target users feel about your brand, what they want from it, and how well your campaigns are actually performing. Related Resource: A guide to Running your Instagram Marketing Campaign Summing It All Up Social media advertisement can be a very powerful tool if you do it right. With all the features and metrics that you can get from using it, you can easily reach your target audience and gain more reach. Learning how to use these tools well is the key to maximizing your ROI, reaching more conversions, and essentially reaching your target audience. Hopefully, the guide above has helped you learn how to do this and improve your marketing strategy through social media. Read Also: Is Technology A Good Career Path In 2021? How To Effectively Promote Your Company How To Improve Your Social Media Branding By Getting More Instagram Followers And Likes

The Beginner’s Guide to Small Business SEO

What You Need to Know About SEO

SEO Terms You Should Know

Comprehensive SEO services: how important is a competent keyword selection

SEO Agencies Are the Experts at Improving Your Website Content

Ariana Smith

I enjoy writing and I write quality guest posts on topics of my interest and passion. I have been doing this since my college days. My special interests are in health, fitness, food and following the latest trends in these areas. I am an editor at Content Rally.

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Comprehensive SEO services: how important is a competent keyword selection

SEO Agencies Are the Experts at Improving Your Website Content

I enjoy writing and I write quality guest posts on topics of my interest and passion. I have been doing this since my college days. My special interests are in health, fitness, food and following the latest trends in these areas. I am an editor at Content Rally.

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