Employing the best SEO techniques is crucial for businesses of all sizes. Small businesses, however, usually have limited resources, and therefore must be able to pinpoint exact strategies to increase traffic and revenue. The following are SEO trends every small business should know.
1. The Importance of Link Building
Building links and connecting with other sites is crucial because search engines use these links for determining how well a particular page will rank in their results. Moz.com describes in easy-to-understand detail how important great links actually are. If all other factors, including things such as content, keyword usage and social metrics are equal, quality and volume links can make a huge difference. In general, you’ll rank better in search results when you are linked to high quality websites. (You see what we did there?)
2. Optimizing for Voice Search
As technology continues to advance, voice search will continue to grow. According to business.com voice searches are often conducted in a different manner than those that are typed on a keyboard. This means businesses must focus on longer questions such as “What size printer should I get for my office?” as opposed to a cluster of words like “printer, size, office.”
3. Content Length Matters
The quality of the content is obviously important but the length matters as well. During the last few years what is considered the optimum size of content has continued to increase. While many blogs contain content that is less than 1,000 words, longer copy generally converts better than shorter copy. It’s important to remember that if you’re using longer content it must be quality content that is not repetitive or full of keyword stuffing.
4. Using Mobile Optimization
It’s imperative that customers can navigate your website on smartphones and tablets as easily as on a laptop. Over 50 percent of traffic on the internet comes from mobile devices. This means a small business should make sure a customer’s experience on a mobile device runs as smoothly as it would on their laptop.
5. Understanding Local SEO
According to Forbes it’s necessary to create a local business page for each major search engine. It’s important to manage each listing by keeping information such as phone numbers, hours and photos updated. These listings include Bing, Google and Yahoo. A few other aspects to remember regarding local SEO, is that it’s crucial to upload a variety of quality photos and to make sure your business is categorized correctly.
SEO is a crucial marketing outlet that can increase branding and a solid customer base for your business. Following each of these steps will help a small business improve their visibility and ultimately increase sales.