Obtaining good results through search engines is the key to promoting any type of product or service. However, many smaller businesses and organizations struggle with this task.
Search engine optimization or Search Engine Optimization, known as SEO, is a strategy aimed at improving the positioning of a website in the results list of Google and other search engines on the Internet. Although it works on technical aspects regarding structure and metadata, it has a dimension that is applied at the content level. This, with the aim of making them more useful and relevant for users.
While paid campaigns are an important part of a marketing strategy , organic search is a linchpin in website performance for most businesses. It is a critical component in the journey that users take before completing a conversion, whether through a purchase or simply consuming our content.
SEO recommendations
Proper optimization gives us the possibility of establishing trust and credibility in our brand and its digital properties. Although this goal is transversal to all types of businesses, it is especially important when it comes to smaller companies . Here are some tips to start working on the positioning of your content.
Learn the basics
The Google SEO Guide is a great starting point to start working on optimizing your website. Due to the large amount of content that it has, in a first analysis it can be quite overwhelming material. It is advisable to review the criteria one by one so as not to generate confusion, both in ourselves and in the users who will later use our services.
We recommend using the Google guide as a “checklist” and gradually verifying the criteria.
Do it yourself
Once you learn the basics, you can start optimizing your website without a hitch. This is especially important if budget is one of your limitations, since SEO services tend to have a high associated fee.
Even if, later on, you find yourself in the position of hiring an SEO agency, having the basic knowledge and having performed optimization related tasks will help you better understand your own requirements.
If you decide to venture into the world of optimization, there are several tools – paid and free – that can help you take your first steps. Google has several easy-to-use proposals. For example, for research keyword or keywords you can use the Keyword Planner , Google Trends , and Search Console .
Another popular tool is Yoast SEO, which analyzes the presence of key terms. This allows us to make the necessary corrections to ensure that we position our content correctly.
Use of keywords
As we anticipated in the previous points, the use of keywords is very important when optimizing a website. In the case of smaller companies and organizations, it is not advisable to use keywords that are highly competitive.
Instead, it is much more convenient to search for less popular keywords that have been overlooked by competitors. These keywords may not generate much traffic, but they will allow you to strengthen the reputation of your brand in the rankings . You can use tools like the ones we already mentioned to find these terms and start using them on your site.
Optimize for local search
The smaller your business, the more likely it is to be tied to a certain area or location. In this line, the first thing you should do is create an account in Google my Business so that your business appears in Google Maps. This simple action will help you appear in local search results, strengthening your connection with the community.
SEO for small businesses: 7 Keys to compete with the big ones
The SEO for small businesses like yours is so important (or more) than SEO for big brands and companies that are torn between the top of the SERPs.
7 SEO Tips for Small Businesses Like Yours
In order not to go crazy, we are going to start with 7 essential SEO tips so that organic positioning flows and you see your business grow.
Start by optimizing your website for SEO
If your website is not well optimized at the on-page SEO level, it will be much more difficult to position it correctly for the terms in which you want to appear in search results.
You may be thinking right now, what was on page SEO like?
What was all that he had to take into account?
Do not panic.
If you follow this SEO checklist for small businesses like yours before publishing your website, you will be on the right track.
May the Force be with you!
Create a content strategy for SMEs
For the content to help maximize the SEO of your SME, it is important to set the goal of quality, of providing real value to the user.
However, giants like Amazon seek the most direct conversion with their content and can afford it, since they do not need to reaffirm their reputation or prestige.
Its size and level of diffusion is “enough” for them.
But in the case of a local business such as yours, the need to offer added value with your content goes to mass.
Put yourself in the shoes of your target audience and answer their questions, their concerns, their existential doubts with your “how-to guides”, with your 100% useful video pills, with your in-depth ebooks on that topic that takes them upside down and with everything that has a place in a successful content strategy.
For this we can help you with our content marketing guide , editorial planning and new trends to get ideas with which to make your audience fall in love.
Get active and passive links
In addition to adding value to the user, creating top content will help you passively generate links (link baiting) .
To stand out and attract attention in order to get shares and links, you can include in your content strategy a diversity of formats such as multimedia content, infographics, podcasting, interviews, tutorials and guest articles.
The opportunities to improve the positioning offered by link building or the active generation of links are also juicy.
Sight! I give you some ideas for link building : send press releases, appear in business directories and generate content as a guest on third-party blogs.
But, that’s not all when it comes to link generation as part of small business SEO .
Nor can we ignore the internal links strategy or also known as the structure of a website .
Launch a local SEO strategy
The SEO for small businesses with physical headquarters becomes stronger if it includes strategies local positioning , and thanks to these positions by keyword + location, what
that can be a reef to bring customers to your establishment.
In the location, users can thread as fine as they wish, including from a country, autonomous community or city (SEO Valencia agency) to the name of a street (Caferterías calle Colón).
Therefore, it is a very powerful tool to bring traffic to your store , since users who do this type of search are interested not only in a specific product or service, but also in acquiring it in a specific location.
And why can’t it be yours?
In general , local positioning strategies depend to a great extent on the Google My Business tool. Don’t miss this post where we tell you how to create and optimize your Google My Business account !
Avoid traffic losses with all your might
As you already knew or are discovering when reading this post, SEO depends on many variables that it is essential to know well to be able to analyze them before starting with the strategy and to ALWAYS continue to provide feedback.
There can be no changes to the search engine algorithms that affect you fully and you without finding out (or finding out when you have already fallen from the best positions in Google).
That is why it is vital that you leave your SEO strategy in good hands as I tell you below.
If you have already experienced a considerable drop in organic traffic in your own meats, it is likely that your website has a penalty.
Don’t be scared at all!
Stay up-to-date on new SEO strategies for small businesses
This more than advice is a MUST .
In order to compete with the big boys, you cannot leave your SEO strategy anchored in the past, but it must always be fresh and adapted to possible changes in search engine algorithms and new trends.
Local SEO, voice or image searches , positioning on Amazon and Google Shopping should not sound like Chinese to you, nor should any other fundamental tool to boost your business.
Here we tell you the latest SEO techniques in case you want to expand knowledge and apply them in your company
SEO strategy for small businesses
In this globalized world and connected through the internet universe, one of the most effective strategies to promote a medium or small business, also known as SMEs, is its positioning in search engines.
SEO, short for “Search Engine Optimization” , is nothing more than improving the visibility of a website in search engine results to increase the traffic of visits and subsequent leads.
Do you want your business to grow? So it is vital to establish an adequate SEO strategy that allows you not only to make it known, but also to help you be successful and stay in the market, especially considering that more than 3 million daily searches are carried out on Google in the world.
And as the competition is greater every day, because everyone wants to have access to this free web traffic, many small companies are doing SEO to compete with large companies.
But is this possible? Of course yes! Many SMEs, such as Ydoxy , are applying SEO techniques to compete with large established brands and are obtaining excellent results when it comes to boosting their digital business and positioning it.
Other successful cases worth citing are the online real estate agency Deplace, the haberdashery Planas & Linares in Barcelona, We Are Knitters (a brand specialized in wool and kits to learn to knit), Bodegas y Viñedos de Pablo or Disfraces Jarana among many others. .
Do you want to compete with the big players in your sector? These are some of the keys to implement a correct SEO strategy for small businesses.
The best SEO techniques for SMEs
Do you want some tips to help you improve the visibility of your online store or your website? These are the best SEO techniques that small stores use to position themselves.
Apply them and you will see the results.
Of course, be patient because when it comes to optimizing the SEO of a company, because in addition to time, it implies dedication and follow-up. Don’t get frustrated ahead of time!
Have a website optimized for SEO
A good content marketing strategy is not the only thing that will help you boost the SEO of your SME, if your website is not optimized at the on-page SEO level , the positioning you want will unfortunately not be obtained.
For the SEO optimization of your website there are many aspects that must be taken into account. Here are some of them:
- The choice of domain and server .
- That the web is designed to meet the needs of users , not SEO.
- Avoid duplicate pages .
- Check in the txt file and the sitemap.xml.
- Check that there is only one browsable version and that all links work
- The functioning of the forms must be correct, as well as the contact and the mail SPF.
- Your website must have both the Analytics code correctly installed and the main events traced from the beginning . The latter will depend on the objective of your website.
- It is vital that the content you publish is up-to-date and written for SEO purposes.
- The WPO optimizations are crucial, as they have to do with the speed of page loading. The most important points are caching, minification, and data compression.
- Make sure the social media links are working properly.
Long-tail content strategy
One of the strategies that these small stores apply is to position themselves through long tail keywords , which the competitors are not taking into account.
The “long tail” technique works to position itself in markets occupied by large companies with heavy investments in SEO and also in saturated markets, but to apply it you have to take into account that you have to specify the keywords , since this action will allow you to find people who are looking for that specific product.
For the long-tail content strategy to work, it is also necessary to define from the beginning, what will be the differentiating element within that saturated market.
The application of this strategy in the content must be achieved in a natural and unforced way , since its misuse can penalize the positioning of the web.
Prioritize the user experience on mobile
Before 2018, Google used the desktop version to index web pages.
However, during that year its algorithm progressively changed and now gives priority to pages that have versions adapted for mobile devices.
What does this mean? That to achieve a good SEO positioning it is necessary that your site is adapted and designed to be navigated from a mobile phone.
If it is not optimized correctly, your SME will not be able to compete with large companies and you will be losing a very high percentage of visits that will leave you out of the competition.
Opinions and reviews matter
There are many details that are at stake when it comes to the positioning of a website and user opinions and reviews play a fundamental role.
In general, when we make an online purchase from a large brand we do not put reviews because we think they do not need them.
However, when we have a good experience with a small business we put a review because we know that they will read it and that it will help other users.
Exploiting this option as part of the SEO strategy for SMEs is very important, since if your online store or business has comments that speak well of its products or services, it will bring in new customers.
For this reason, make sure that positive evaluations make more noise than negative ones. In this sense, monitoring opinions and reviews is vital for the SEO positioning of an SME.
Link strategy
Link building or link strategy is a very useful Off Page technique when it comes to obtaining links that go to your website . The more external and quality links you get for your website, the higher your positioning and popularity will be.
You must bear in mind that these links must be consistent and natural with the content where they appear and must link through an anchor text or anchor text .
If for example your page sells costumes, it does not make sense to include a link to a page about birds. The coherence and naturalness is an essential part of a successful strategy linkbuilding.
Another aspect that cannot be neglected when it comes to SEO positioning is the internal link strategy or structure of the web, which should preferably be pyramidal and interlaced.
Advantages of SMEs over big brands
Although it may not seem like it at first glance, there are several advantages that SMEs have when it comes to competing with the big brands. Is it difficult for you to identify them? These are some of them!
Personalized customer service
In SMEs, customer service is much closer and more direct than that offered by large companies.
In addition, the client knows that if he has any problem, he will be dealt with directly by one person and he will not have to go through several departments telling his problem until he finds the person responsible for offering the necessary support.
Nor will you have to wait several days to have a response to your requests, since the volume of customers is lower, which allows individual and personalized attention .
Knowledge of the product or service
In general, the work team behind a small or medium-sized company is not usually large, which facilitates a greater knowledge of the product descriptions.
In an SME, people have really worked with these products , they know them first-hand, which gives them greater control and efficiency in the service.
They are more flexible
The ability to adapt to changes in an SME is much greater than that of large companies, because their size and structure is simple, which makes them more flexible and faster in decision-making.
The staff tends to have a greater connection with the company
The relationship of the management with the workers of an SME is usually more direct and close than in a large company.
This results in a greater humanization within the work team, which usually translates into greater motivation and increased productivity.
You see it. Even if you are a small company, you have many points in your favor to beat the bigger ones. So take advantage of all the advantages of SEO and start stealing customers from your competitors.
