Every business can benefit from SEO or search engine optimisation.
SEO is a method that can improve the visibility of your website by increasing the quality and quantity of your website traffic. It encourages the visibility of your site on search engines by optimising it for the common interests of your target audience and providing an informative and convenient user experience to site visitors.
While businesses do appear in search engine results through paid ads, your organic search results are valuable to optimise your website for a better navigational experience.
This is why for small businesses that are just getting started and are trying to make a name for themselves through improved brand image, a good SEO strategy is a key marketing tool.
Here are some ways you can use SEO for better brand visibility.
Keyword optimisation
Keyword optimisation is one of the oldest SEO tricks. We recommend you to go a step further in keyword optimisation, with a couple of tweaks that can help you attract valuable traffic.
For example, optimise your long-tail keywords—these are search queries that have two or more words that narrow the focus of the search results—to encourage conversion rates.
Compared to generic keywords, long-tail keywords display a higher CTR and higher conversion rate.
According to statistics, long-tail keywords contribute to 70% of site traffic and higher conversions.
In addition, make sure you are not going overboard with keyword inclusion in your content, including your metadata optimisation. Instead of stuffing keywords, you can use variations of your long-tail keywords and synonyms of your keyword to keep the keyword density at a safe level.
Catch your local audience first
Exposure is vital for business growth.
Before going international or having big plans, first, you must win your immediate market by grabbing the attention of the local consumers.
People who are looking for information online tend to search for results that are in proximity.
For example, we usually enter area-specific search queries like good restaurants near me, bridal shoes in London, or cafes in Sydney, instead of a more abstract query like good restaurants.
Listing your business on Google My Business (GMB) and managing your google reviews and responding can improve your chance of getting discovered on Google Maps and making your presence known to local customers.
When using Google My Business, make sure to follow these steps:
- Enter an accurate address with precise location instead of broad city names and pin your business location on the map
- Create a stellar GMB introduction—one that has details like how you differ from your competitors
- Get your GMB listing verified so you will rank higher in Google Maps.
You can also optimise the website for the local audience by including area-focused keywords and adding details like your location, or the best ways to arrive at your store.
Make your website accessible from mobile devices
56.16 % of all web traffic comes from mobile phones.
This means a mobile-friendly site has the potential to attract more prospects than desktop optimised sites.
Everyone who browses the internet does not do it leisurely so making a website mobile-friendly allows them to access your site on the go; from anywhere, at any time.
Ensure you have features like touch-friendly sites making the targets like your CTA big enough to avoid accidental clicks. Making your site easier to navigate is another feature that can make it more mobile-friendly.
Use Google Mobile-friendly Test to see if your site really is mobile-friendly and would not frustrate visitors who use mobile devices.
Include high-quality content
Your content has to be attractive. People search online for information, answers, and tips to help them out with day-to-day problems. Merely having an online presence, therefore, is not enough.
Make sure you are providing quality informational content that addresses the pain points of your target audience.
Adding quality landing pages, blog posts, tutorials, ebooks, infographics, white papers, and videos, for instance, increase the credibility of your website.
To sum up, quality content makes your site resourceful and insightful, retaining the attention of the visitors.
Get your brand out there and go social
Nothing attracts more attention than being on social media. Your social media accounts are one of the best bets in reaching new customers and increasing brand visibility.
More and more people are using social media as a means to find information and discover new businesses.
Including a hashtag about food on the Instagram search option, for example, would get you instant visual content for the latest recipes.
Creating a social media profile to promote your content and interacting with your target audience is a great SEO strategy to attract more prospects.
A good SEO strategy can boost your sales
As a small business, you will have to work extra hard to ensure your brand is visible to your audience.
With a good SEO strategy, you can achieve this by driving organic traffic with a valuable and effective online presence.
Your search engine optimisation strategy needs some out-of-the-box thinking in order to extend into all possibilities that can encourage both the visibility and accessibility of your brand.