SEO, or search engine optimization, is critical to the long-term success of your small business and its online presence. Making sure your website shows up in your customers’ search results involves targeting the right keywords, optimizing your website pages, writing helpful content, and creating a link-building strategy.
Whether you’re launching a business from scratch or you want to generate more organic traffic to your website, follow this guide on SEO for small businesses.
Table of Contents:
- What Is SEO in Small Business?
- Is SEO Worth it for Small Businesses?
- How SEO Can Help Your Small Business Website
- Easy SEO Tips for Small Businesses
- The Best Small Business SEO Tools
Don’t have a website for your small business yet? Create one in seconds using Durable’s AI website Builder.
What Is SEO in Small Business?
SEO in small business is similar to SEO for any other company or industry. It involves optimizing your website and content to make sure it shows up in search results so you can get in front of your target customers or audience.
SEO for small businesses is also referred to as local SEO. This is because small businesses often target customers in a local area or region, which can make your SEO strategy a bit more niche and personal than large businesses with a broad audience.
Is SEO Worth It For Small Businesses?
The short answer is yes. SEO is essential if you want to set your small business up for long-term success.
6.5 million Google searches are conducted every minute. If you want even a sliver of that online traffic to your business, you need to ensure your website is optimized for search. This involves targeting relevant keywords, creating high-quality content that matches those keywords, and making sure the technical aspects of your website are in check.
But SEO is a long game, and you can’t expect immediate results. It takes time and effort to figure out the best keywords to target, optimize your website, and create high-quality content that ranks in the search results.
However, small adjustments can make a big impact. And the good news is you don’t need any marketing or SEO experience to improve your search visibility and increase organic traffic.
How SEO Can Help Your Small Business Website
SEO is not something to overlook.
Increased visibility in the search results can also help your small business stand out against the competition, especially if your competitors aren’t optimizing their websites for search.
Here’s why it matters for your small business website.
Improves Brand Visibility
Better SEO leads to more visibility in the search results. Think about it this way: the more people see your website in search results for relevant queries, the more they’ll view your business as a trusted and reputable source in the local community.
Generates More Leads
With more organic traffic comes the opportunity to generate more leads. When your website shows up in relevant search results, it helps you get in front of your target customer at a critical point in their buying journey, whether they’re in research mode or ready to make a purchase.
In fact, a survey from Databox found that the most valuable leads come from SEO compared with other channels like referrals or email:
Increases Sales
Because organic traffic brings in high-quality leads, this also means SEO can help increase sales for your business.
But you can’t rely on traffic to do all of the work. Your website pages also need to be optimized for search. Your product or service pages should include keywords that are not only going to show up in the search results but also convert website visitors by highlighting a specific need they have.
5 Easy SEO Tips for Small Businesses
Here are some easy tips you can implement today to improve your website’s SEO and get more attention for your small business.
#1: Conduct Keyword Research
If you’ve never worked on SEO for your small business, one of the first steps to take is to conduct keyword research. Keywords are words and phrases that people search for on Google that are relevant for your business.
You can use a keyword research tool (more details below), or you can research on Google to see what people are searching for and which businesses are already ranking for those results. If you build your website with Durable, you can take advantage of the platform’s built-in on-page SEO recommendations. AI will generate page titles and descriptions that are optimized for search.
As you’re conducting research, try to get specific with the keywords you want to rank for. The more narrow you can get with the terms you are targeting, the better chance you have at ranking. However, the broader the terms, the more search traffic. When first starting out, we recommend starting very narrow.
For example, let's say you start a personal training business in Miami, Florida. You would want your website to appear at the top of the search results when someone in Miami searches for "personal training" or related keywords.
Instead of targeting “Personal training in Miami,” which can be difficult to rank for, write a list of all the specific services you offer and customers you work with.
A few examples:
- Pilates instructor in South Beach
- Female personal trainer in South Beach
- Fitness classes in South Beach
- Personal trainer for injury recovery in South Beach
- Personal training for seniors in South Beach
With choosing keywords, you want to pick the search terms that are most relevant to your target audience. From there, you can then create an SEO strategy around them.
#2: Claim Your Google Business Profile
Google wants to know if you are a real business. They use a variety of ranking signals to determine this, including the information on your Business Profile.
Your Business Profile is the sidebar of information that shows up when people Google your business. Here’s an example:
To edit and verify the information that shows up in your profile, you have to claim it first. Follow these steps to claim your Business Profile on Google.
#3: Create Helpful Content
There are a few good reasons why every small business should have a blog on their website, and one of those is SEO. Having a blog gives you the chance to create helpful content that educates or informs your potential customers. You can answer the questions or search queries they type into Google by writing about it on your website’s blog.
As a small business owner, you probably don’t have the time to write blog posts, especially on a consistent basis. That’s why tools like Durable’s AI Blog Builder can make your job even easier. The tool allows you to set up a blog on your website and generate content within minutes using AI.
#4: Ask For Customer Reviews
Positive customer reviews can impact SEO and your business’s ranking in the search results, especially for local SEO.
A study by Semrush found that reviews and ratings have an impact on local SEO for Google Maps. To give you an example, take a look at this Local Pack on Google Maps for the search “coffee shops near me.” Each of the top three listings has an overall rating of 4.5 or higher, and they have a higher quantity of reviews compared to other coffee shops nearby.
While distance is also taken into account for local SEO results like this one, Google Reviews certainly plays a role.
Make it easy for your customers to review your business by adding a Google Review link on your website. Plus, you can get even more out of these testimonials by placing them on your website as social proof. This builds more trust and credibility between your business and potential customers checking out your website.
#5: Generate Links
Another way to boost your SEO is to make sure you have a plan for internal linking. Internal links are links that direct to other pages on your site. For example, on your blog, you can link to other relevant blog posts or to product pages when you make a direct call-out.
Backlinks are also important for a small business SEO strategy. Backlinks are links to your website from another website. Backlinks let Google know that other websites know and trust your content, which can help improve your ranking.
One way to generate backlinks to your small business’s website is through PR. If a local news publication writes a story about your business, it will most likely include a link to your website in the article. Another quick and easy way to generate organic backlinks would be to submit your website to local business directories.
The Best Small Business SEO Tools
Whether you’re just getting started or are ready to level up your SEO efforts, here are a few of the best small business SEO tools to add to your toolkit:
- Durable
- Ahrefs
- Semrush
Durable
Durable is an AI website builder that enables small business owners to get a website up and running in just 30 seconds. Your website not only comes with hosting, analytics, and a custom domain name, but it’s also equipped with built-in SEO so you can start generating traffic as soon as you hit publish.
Google itself is one of the most user-friendly SEO tools for small businesses, especially when you’re on a budget. You can connect your business website to Google Search Console to get in-depth insights into traffic analytics and user behavior. You can also use Google for keyword and competitor research by running simple searches like you would as a customer.
Ahrefs
If you want to dive a little deeper into SEO, use a professional tool like Ahrefs. Access to the full suite of features may be on the pricier side for small business owners, but luckily Ahrefs offers an affordable option for anyone who owns a website. Ahrefs’ Webmaster Tools allows you to monitor your website’s overall SEO health, check for backlinks, and see which keywords are generating traffic to your site — all for free.
Semrush
Like Ahrefs, Semrush is another professional SEO tool. Semrush provides the tools to conduct SEO, competitor research, and content marketing from one platform. The platform also offers PPC (pay-per-click) tools which can be helpful if you want to conduct paid search marketing in addition to organic SEO.
SEO for small businesses continues to be a critical component of marketing. The more time people spend online and the more Google searches they conduct, the more important it is for your website to be optimized so you can get in front of your target customers.
Durable makes building an SEO-friendly website easy. Build your website in one click with our AI Website Builder.
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