If you are a small business, chances are you struggle with being seen online given all the competition, especially larger, more renowned companies with expansive budgets and elaborate digital marketing campaigns, in which case you probably wonder how you can stand out in search results pages.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) provides the most natural way for online businesses to increase their website’s rankings and, when done effectively, can even help propel it to the first page of search engines, which is important for being seen.
Otherwise, According to an article in Forbes states that more than 70 percent of visitors end their web search after the first search engine results page, which means if you’re not on it, then you’re likely to get passed by, making SEO an important part of your digital marketing campaign. It’s also cost-effective, and the results only improve over time.
How SEO Helps Your Website Appear on Page one of Search Engines
It Helps Increase Your Site Organically
When a page or site appears in top search results, it means that the search engine values the source enough to rank it as the most useful for a specific query. This high ranking, in turn, implies credibility, which builds trust in searchers, so they click on the site and follow through.
According to Michigan Tech, one way to help increase your page rank naturally in search engine results pages includes providing quality content that is relevant to the search and adds value to visitors.
In fact, search engines reward sites that provide the best user experience with the highest rankings.
Some ways to improve your content for quality include know your topic, so you can provide the most accurate and helpful information to your target audience, format and edit properly, include data, add visuals, and use examples, which all naturally add value to users.
It also helps increase the likelihood of visitors sharing your site’s link with others, which also helps build authority and page views for better search engine results and more traffic.
It Helps You be Found in Local Searches
Local SEO target’s results pages by location, which is important for area businesses to be found when visitors search locally for their offerings.
One way to improve your local SEO rankings to appear on the first page of results includes listing your establishment with Google My Business, which this Youtube video shows you how to do step-by-step, to help the search engine validate your business, as well as also display your business by relevance, distance, and prominence to a location, so you rank higher for visitors closest to you.
Responding to reviews in Google My Business also helps increase your rankings because it’s another way to show Google that your business is valid, which it will use during its evaluation of your site.
It Enables You to Rank Higher for Specific Keywords, Phrases, and Descriptions
Target keywords enable your site to rank higher for specific texts, which helps improve your traffic. Therefore, research relevant keywords to add to your site’s content to help increase your SERP position for keyword rankings.
One way to do this is to simply key certain terms related to your site’s subject matter into Google to see what content your audience is searching for.
Then develop content incorporating these keywords and phrases. This way, visitors know your site addresses their particular issues, which makes you stand out in search results, so they are more likely to look to you first to solve their concerns.
Meanwhile, according to MOZ, adding meta descriptions to your content using relevant terms can also help you rank higher in SERPs.
You can also create supporting content, such as blogs or guest posts, to help further increase your authority and thus your SEO rankings.
It Helps Endorse Your Website’s Content
Links back to your web pages, also known as backlinks, makes search engines deem your site as more credible, which also helps propel you to the top of results lists.
Therefore, try earning links back to your site to help increase the endorsement of the site with search engines.
One way to do this is by guest blogging, which enables you to get backlinks to your site in return for your post.
It Enables You to be Found Even on Mobile Devices
According to MOZ, many sites are not designed for mobile users, which means they could be missing out on valuable traffic as each year the number of mobile users increases. As a matter of fact, Google’s bots now analyze pages as they appear on mobile devices first.
Therefore, by making your webpages mobile responsive, which an experienced web designer can help you do, it not only helps ensure you can be found by all users for higher traffic, but it also increases your page load speeds for a greater user-friendly experience, which Google also rewards with higher SEO values.
Conclusion
If you are a small business without an SEO strategy, you are missing out on the valuable opportunity to increase your brand’s awareness online, as research shows that many people turn to the internet to gather information as well as to make purchase decisions.
SEO is also easy to learn and use, beginning with the tips we provided, which you can simply incorporate one at a time until your site is fully optimized to avoid becoming overwhelmed.
Once you have the hang of it, simply make adjustments to your site as needed to maintain its optimization.
