What is Small Business SEO Checklist?
Despite being a small business, it is still possible to develop an SEO strategy that will help you stay competitive in your market. Read on to find out everything you wish to know about small business SEO, why it’s important, and the way to develop a technique for your business, with no budget required.
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SEO is critical for small businesses because it helps you generate organic traffic without spending money on advertisements in SERPs or other channels. When your site appears in the search rankings, you become competitive and drive more traffic, which in turn helps you build engagement, sales and customer base. Not optimizing your site can mean that your competitors are the only ones showing up in results, and your target audience won't even know you exist.
Let’s go over the way to do SEO for a small business. Let’s go over a way to do SEO for a small business.
Small business SEO is the process of improving your small business’ website presence on Google SERPs, so you rank highly and are visible in search queries that relate to what you sell.
It’s important to not confuse small business SEO with local SEO, as local helps businesses appear in location-based searches vs. general results. However, some small businesses may hope to leverage local traffic, so, if this can be you, your small business strategy will include local steps. We’ll discuss this further below.
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Small business SEO does not require a large team to design and run things, nor does it require a significant budget. Many of the steps you'll take are free, and you'll handle them yourself.
Keyword research helps you find the correct words to use on your website when writing about your content, giving titles to your pages, and even picking your URLs.
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When you write about your offer, you will find the most relevant words to use on your website and look for terms that the audience uses when searching for products like yours. As a small business, your keywords should help you champion your unique offerings and stand to get into your niche. The easiest thanks to conducting keyword research is to use a keyword research tool, like Google’s free Keyword Planner.
An important way to rank your site highly in SERPs is by creating a Google-friendly site structure with schema markup and structured data. Schema markup is the code that you add to your website to provide more information about your listings.
This can help you rank higher in search results and increase clicks. As an example, you'll add a star rating schema to your listing so browsers can see that you’re highly rated and worth checking out.
Structured data is how you organize and tag text on your website, and it helps crawlers understand the context of the knowledge on your site pages. So, as an example, you’d use product page structured data for product description pages. You also want your website to have a logical structure for site navigation, including internal links.
This helps Google navigate through the different pages on your site and understand what’s what. The image below is an example of a high-quality website structure.
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On-page SEO includes elements such as meta tags and image ALT-Text. These items explain to Google what’s on your site and give searchers more information about what they’ll find.
Meta tags are crucial for small business SEO. Since competition could also be big, using exact meta descriptions and meta tags helps Google surface you within the right results for queries most relevant to your business.
The image below may be a search result card for Marcy & Myrtle, a small coffee bar in Brooklyn. It features a meta title, Marcy & Myrtle: Fresh Coffee & food, and a meta description: Marcy & Myrtle provides you with fresh coffee, delicious pastries, and great service in a welcoming and relaxing atmosphere.
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Image alt text describes the pictures on your site, giving more context to your content. Image alt text can even help you rank in image packs and image search results. Image alt text also ensures your website is accessible, as screen readers can use your descriptions to describe a picture on a page.
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Syndicated could be a cinema and restaurant, and the image below is a picture from its website advertising its Sidewalk Cinema series. The alt text reads, “Shot of the Sidewalk Cinema in the dead of night showing Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom.” The alt text uses relevant keywords related to the offering, sidewalk cinema, that may surface the business in relevant queries.
A great thanks to building authority in SERPs as a small business is to get backlinks from relevant sites, as Google trusts sites with high domain ratings. you also build trust with audiences if they find links to your site on pages they trust.
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Submit your links to directories related to your business, but ensure they’re legitimate. Listing your website on spam and fraudulent websites will do more harm than good.
LinkedIn may be a great directory for small businesses to list on, irrespective of niche, as it’s a credible source with a high domain rating. Awoke Vintage could be a small business in Brooklyn, NY, that has created a business profile on LinkedIn.
If you depend on local traffic, submit your NAP (name, address, phone number) to local directories. Many local directories are sources of authority, so having your business on them builds credibility. Some examples of directories include:
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If you've got multiple social media accounts, place a link back to your website in your profile. for example, you'll include your link within the descriptions of your YouTube channel or in your Twitter bio.
As a small business, you may not have a lot of content on your website. However, you continue to want to monitor technical SEO to ensure your site runs and is easy to navigate. Some key elements to focus on are:
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You might be thinking, “But I’m just a small business! I don’t have that much to write!” and that’s okay. You don’t need to write a lot, but you wish to make sure that all copy on your site is good therein it includes your target keywords. this can help visibility because Google learns which search queries are relevant to your business and when to surface you in results.
Part of your overall SEO effort is constantly monitoring your website. You'll be able to run SEO audits periodically to check up on each of the elements we mentioned above, and you’ll work out if there's anything that needs fixing.
[ads3]
If you depend on local customers and local traffic to generate revenue, you wish Google to know to surface your location in relevant queries by adding local business structured data to your site. You'll also want to improve your Google My Business profile.
[ads1]
Small business SEO is free, and it also helps you appear within the same SERPs as your competitors. An optimized site can help you stand out and attract qualified customers who are already looking for your offer.
[ads1]
Is SEO Good For Small Businesses?
SEO is critical for small businesses because it helps you generate organic traffic without spending money on advertisements in SERPs or other channels. When your site appears in the search rankings, you become competitive and drive more traffic, which in turn helps you build engagement, sales and customer base. Not optimizing your site can mean that your competitors are the only ones showing up in results, and your target audience won't even know you exist.
Let’s go over the way to do SEO for a small business. Let’s go over a way to do SEO for a small business.
What is Small Business SEO?
Small business SEO is the process of improving your small business’ website presence on Google SERPs, so you rank highly and are visible in search queries that relate to what you sell.
It’s important to not confuse small business SEO with local SEO, as local helps businesses appear in location-based searches vs. general results. However, some small businesses may hope to leverage local traffic, so, if this can be you, your small business strategy will include local steps. We’ll discuss this further below.
[ads1]
SEO Strategy for Small Business
Small business SEO does not require a large team to design and run things, nor does it require a significant budget. Many of the steps you'll take are free, and you'll handle them yourself.
1) Conduct keyword research.
Keyword research helps you find the correct words to use on your website when writing about your content, giving titles to your pages, and even picking your URLs.
[ads2]
When you write about your offer, you will find the most relevant words to use on your website and look for terms that the audience uses when searching for products like yours. As a small business, your keywords should help you champion your unique offerings and stand to get into your niche. The easiest thanks to conducting keyword research is to use a keyword research tool, like Google’s free Keyword Planner.
2) Build a logical site structure.
An important way to rank your site highly in SERPs is by creating a Google-friendly site structure with schema markup and structured data. Schema markup is the code that you add to your website to provide more information about your listings.
This can help you rank higher in search results and increase clicks. As an example, you'll add a star rating schema to your listing so browsers can see that you’re highly rated and worth checking out.
Structured data is how you organize and tag text on your website, and it helps crawlers understand the context of the knowledge on your site pages. So, as an example, you’d use product page structured data for product description pages. You also want your website to have a logical structure for site navigation, including internal links.
This helps Google navigate through the different pages on your site and understand what’s what. The image below is an example of a high-quality website structure.
[ads2]
3) Optimize your on-page SEO.
On-page SEO includes elements such as meta tags and image ALT-Text. These items explain to Google what’s on your site and give searchers more information about what they’ll find.
1) Meta Tags
Meta tags are crucial for small business SEO. Since competition could also be big, using exact meta descriptions and meta tags helps Google surface you within the right results for queries most relevant to your business.
The image below may be a search result card for Marcy & Myrtle, a small coffee bar in Brooklyn. It features a meta title, Marcy & Myrtle: Fresh Coffee & food, and a meta description: Marcy & Myrtle provides you with fresh coffee, delicious pastries, and great service in a welcoming and relaxing atmosphere.
[ads3]
- Meta titles are the headings you use to describe what’s on your page content. once you write them, aim to summarize the most topic of your page with a related keyword.
- Meta descriptions give a summary of your page explaining your business. This summary is only visible in search results and, when writing, aim to include your target keywords.
2) Image ALT Text
Image alt text describes the pictures on your site, giving more context to your content. Image alt text can even help you rank in image packs and image search results. Image alt text also ensures your website is accessible, as screen readers can use your descriptions to describe a picture on a page.
[ads3]
Syndicated could be a cinema and restaurant, and the image below is a picture from its website advertising its Sidewalk Cinema series. The alt text reads, “Shot of the Sidewalk Cinema in the dead of night showing Wes Anderson’s Moonrise Kingdom.” The alt text uses relevant keywords related to the offering, sidewalk cinema, that may surface the business in relevant queries.
4) Get backlinks from relevant Websites
A great thanks to building authority in SERPs as a small business is to get backlinks from relevant sites, as Google trusts sites with high domain ratings. you also build trust with audiences if they find links to your site on pages they trust.
[ads2]
1) List your business in related directories
Submit your links to directories related to your business, but ensure they’re legitimate. Listing your website on spam and fraudulent websites will do more harm than good.
LinkedIn may be a great directory for small businesses to list on, irrespective of niche, as it’s a credible source with a high domain rating. Awoke Vintage could be a small business in Brooklyn, NY, that has created a business profile on LinkedIn.
2) Submit your site to local listings
If you depend on local traffic, submit your NAP (name, address, phone number) to local directories. Many local directories are sources of authority, so having your business on them builds credibility. Some examples of directories include:
[ads1]
3) Place your link on all of your profiles.
If you've got multiple social media accounts, place a link back to your website in your profile. for example, you'll include your link within the descriptions of your YouTube channel or in your Twitter bio.
5) Technical SEO
As a small business, you may not have a lot of content on your website. However, you continue to want to monitor technical SEO to ensure your site runs and is easy to navigate. Some key elements to focus on are:
[ads2]
- Secure Sockets Layer to signal to Google that you just provide a safe browsing experience.
- Improve page speed by compressing images and large files
- Ensuring your site code isn’t messy and has a logical structure for crawlers to simply navigate through your site and learn about it.
- Improve mobile with responsive mobile design so that visitors can easily browse and have a pleasant experience regardless of the device
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6) Write A Good Copy
You might be thinking, “But I’m just a small business! I don’t have that much to write!” and that’s okay. You don’t need to write a lot, but you wish to make sure that all copy on your site is good therein it includes your target keywords. this can help visibility because Google learns which search queries are relevant to your business and when to surface you in results.
7) Continuously monitor your SEO.
Part of your overall SEO effort is constantly monitoring your website. You'll be able to run SEO audits periodically to check up on each of the elements we mentioned above, and you’ll work out if there's anything that needs fixing.
[ads3]
8) Optional: Tell Google Where You're
If you depend on local customers and local traffic to generate revenue, you wish Google to know to surface your location in relevant queries by adding local business structured data to your site. You'll also want to improve your Google My Business profile.
[ads1]
SEO Will Help You Stand Out As A Small Business
Small business SEO is free, and it also helps you appear within the same SERPs as your competitors. An optimized site can help you stand out and attract qualified customers who are already looking for your offer.
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