I know SEO is one of the most popular buzzwords in the digital marketing space. But it remains the best strategy for small business owners to reach their ideal audience. Regardless of your budget, you can use SEO to grow your business, boost your sales, and generate more revenue. It’s a gold mine that you can use to compete favorably in any niche. So, in this article, you will learn some of the SEO best practices for small businesses.
When someone mentions SEO, the next thing that comes to your mind is Google search. Funnily, Google Search Results are just the tip of the SEO iceberg.
There are several other search engines where your ideal audience can find you. They can see you through local search results on Yelp, Bing, Yahoo, Baidu, AOL, Ask.com, Excite, DuckDuckGo, Wolfram Alpha, Yandex, Lycos, Chacha.com, etc.
You see, the world of SEO provides endless opportunities for small businesses to explore. Surprisingly, you don’t need to break the bank before you start implementing the right SEO strategy for your website.
All you need is a reliable and experienced SEO Expert with an amazing track record in the industry.
If you have a good local SEO strategy, your prospects will find you online and start doing business with you. Yeah, it’s that amazing.
But you need to target the right keywords to grab the attention of near and far potential customers who have yet to come across your business.
Read Also: 7 SEO Tips for Businesses with Limited Budget
So, here are 7 SEO best practices for small businesses;
SEO Best Practices for Small Businesses
#1. Claim and Optimize Your Google My Business Page (GMB)
Claiming and optimizing your Google My Business Page (GMB) is one of the SEO best practices for small businesses. And if you don’t have a GMB listing, create one immediately after reading this article.
If you claim and optimize your Google My Business Page, your customers can easily find you when searching for your products or services.
Your Google My Business page should show up on the right side of Google Search Results whenever keywords relating to your business are searched.
It gives potential customers important details about your business, including your business address, website URL, opening hours, phone numbers, and email.
Surprisingly, your GMB is a perfect platform for your customers to provide reviews about your products and services. And when your customers leave more reviews for you, it boosts your reputation in the industry.
#2. Add Location Pages to Your Website
Adding location pages to your website is also one of the SEO best practices for small businesses. And it works better if you have local stores in different locations.
The location pages on your website shouldn’t just contain addresses and phone numbers. They should also include;
- Embedded map
- The parking space within the location
- Your stores’ interior and exterior photos
- Optimize the location page’s title and description
- Industry-related local news and other relevant information
- A strong call to action that guides potential customers on what to do next
Again, It’s wrong for your location pages to be identical. Try to customize every page with different descriptions, the different products or services you offer in the various locations, and other information that helps your audience understand the uniqueness of each area.
As a rule, take a tour of a few local business websites. You will have an idea of what a typical location page should look like.
Check out: 7 Tips to Optimise Your Website for Voice Search
#3. Be Consistent With Your NAP
Being consistent with your NAP is one of the SEO best practices for your small businesses. NAP is an acronym for Name, Address, and Phone numbers.
Ensure that you use the same NAP details in every platform you are using. It’s easier for your website to rank higher when you consistently use the same business name, address, and phone number across different platforms.
Here are some of the tips to help you keep your name, address, and phone number consistent;
- Use the official name of your business given for tax purposes whenever you are listing it on any platform, or use the dba.
- When writing your business address, write all the words, including common abbreviations like street or road.
- Use a dash for proper spacing when you are writing your phone number.
When you are consistent about your NAP information, algorithms will confidently show your business on search results. It will also help you build trust online.
#4. Create Local Content
Creating local content is also among the SEO best practices for small businesses. It’s an effective strategy that will make your business discoverable to both people (your audience) and search engine algorithms.
Ideally, you should create content about the environment, your audience, their pain point, and how local businesses like yours can help them overcome their challenges.
This strategy will increase your local search rankings and demonstrate that you are an active member of the community and have a lot of local knowledge.
#5. Target Local Keywords
Your SEO strategy as a small business won’t get you the desired result if you don’t target local keywords.
It’s important to always target frequently searched local keywords whenever you create local content for your website. Your audience tends to find you easily when you are targeting local keywords.
However, it’s not advisable to target keywords for targeting sake. You have to do thorough keyword research and pick frequently searched local keywords relating to your niche.
#6. Encourage Your Customers to Leave Google Reviews
Encouraging your customers to leave Google reviews is one of the SEO best practices for small businesses. These reviews will help you for ranking purposes and help you reach directly to whatever your customers are saying.
Google positive reviews can help attract more customers to your business. However, negative ones will allow you to improve on your products or services.
#7. Build Links on Local Websites
Link building is one of the pillars of SEO. It belongs to the off-page category. It’s an evergreen SEO strategy that can help your website rank high on Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs).
The more local websites linked to your website, the more search engines will trust it and send visitors your way.
These are 7 of the SEO best practices for small businesses. If you implement these practices, people tend to find your business easily online.
