SEO Strategy Set-It-and-Forget-It

As A Small-business Owner, You Barely Have Time To Develop A Website, Let Alone Master The Latest Digital Marketing Tricks. This Strategy Can Help!

Many of your potential clients will begin their search for products and services using search engines like Google and Bing. Manta’s recent millennial marketing survey found that websites and blogs make up 16% of small-business owners’ marketing to that valuable customer market.

Search engine optimization (SEO)—the technique that will keep your company website and blog at the top of search results—can be a complex process to master and maintain.

Research shows that web users are most likely to visit sites that rank high on the first page of search results. Keeping your business at the top of Google and Bing searches can result in more visitors to your website. But earning your place on that front page can be a full-time job in itself.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed, take heart. Very few small-business owners have time to sit in front of their computers all day monitoring their search rankings. Mastering a few SEO basics can help boost visits to your company website.

The first step is to know the following two things about your business:

1. What unique products and services do you offer customers?
2. What are customers looking for when they do business with you?

Spelling out these two simple points will allow you to develop authentic descriptions of your products and services for your website.

For example, Steve Ozment, co-owner of Flowerama, has a clear sense of what he wants customers to know about his flower shops. “I want them to know that we are quality and that we are value. We’re going to deliver what we say we’re going to do,” he said.

When it comes to Flowerama’s website, Ozment added, “We need to make sure we’re giving [customers] content that is not only interesting, but valuable. … We do it because these are our best customers. These are the people who follow us.”

Try the same strategy with your own website. Don’t try to “trick” search engines by stuffing too many keywords into your business description. Instead, focus on information about your offerings that Internet users and potential customers can use, along with client testimonials that describe your business’ quality services.

Because Google and Bing rely on the value of the information on business websites—not just on the number of keywords stuffed onto a web page—a company blog can help you rise in the search rankings. Some small-business owners have the marketing budget to hire a copywriter to produce blog articles. Depending on your location and the number of blog posts you want, hiring a copywriter will cost anywhere from a couple hundred to few thousand dollars.

This expense can be built into your marketing budget. Reputable digital marketers and business-listing services are well aware of the SEO value that original content will bring to your website and blog.

If you are a do-it-yourself marketer, getting your company blogs up and running is quick and simple. You may even enjoy sharing your knowledge of your industry and blogging about the business you love.

If you haven’t set up a blog already, most website services allow you to add a blog function to your existing site. Take a few minutes to map out how often you’ll be able to post blogs and what you’d like to share with your customers.

Refer back to those two questions you answered earlier, then ask yourself:

• Can I spare 15 minutes a week to post a blog?
• Which details about my company am I comfortable sharing? What updates about my products and services are nonproprietary and will be of interest to my customers?
• What is happening in my industry that will help customers see the value in my products and services?

Remember, you don’t have to spend too much time on blog posts. Just a few paragraphs, a photo or a video posted once a week will start you on your way to better search engine placement. It’s a good idea to be consistent with your posts; a steady stream of new content will help your search ranking and keep readers coming back to learn more about your industry and business. Be sure to share your posts in your marketing emails and on your company Facebook and Twitter accounts.

If your information is helpful, other websites will link to your page, boosting your Google and Bing rankings even more. Who knows: You may even enjoy blogging about your business every week.

There are no shortcuts to boosting your Internet visibility. But developing a website with these content techniques in mind will allow you to step away from your keyboard and get back to business.