SEO can be a scary task for new business owners, and that’s understandable. You’re the new kid on the block trying to break into a circle of businesses.
You feel like a fish out of water. First, they’ve learned about SEO over the years. Second, they have more resources and capital to ensure they stay on top of their game both online and offline.
You’re worried about being at a disadvantage. Does that sound like you? Yes? Then this article is for you. But before going deep into this topic, you should know that you were right about your first two inferences: The bigger companies do have more resources to practise SEO on a large scale and they also have more experience than you do.
Don’t panic, though. In this article, I’ll show you how you can practice SEO without having to break the bank. Also, you don’t need to make mistakes to realize where they are and how to avoid them. Keep reading to see how, even with a low budget, you can still practise effective SEO.
Basics of SEO
Before you can start considering the affordable SEO strategies, you need to understand the basics. SEO, an abbreviation for Search engine optimization is a process by which websites increase their visibility. What this means is that you need SEO if you want your website to be seen by searchers.
There are basic SEO practices that form a foundation of the more complex ones, but they hinge on the optimization of two crucial things. Two primary things to optimize include:
• Content
Content is an essential part of SEO. It is near impossible to have a search engine optimized website without a single piece of content.
Many new business owners fail to understand something important about content, and they make mistakes because of that. There are vital aspects of your content that the web crawler looks out for when crawling and indexing.
• Keyword
Your content isn’t worth the time it took to have it written if it does not contain keywords. Keywords are simply the key phrases that searchers input into the search engine. Make no mistake; they are essential. Content that contains relevant keywords has a higher chance of coming up in search engines when searchers input those keywords in the search engine.
It’s important to note that stuffing your content full of keywords isn’t going to make you rank higher. It’ll do the opposite instead. The web crawler won’t be deceived, and as such, any content stuffed with keywords would be blacklisted. Keywords are relevant but knowing how to use them is more important.
• Headlines and Meta Description
Ranking high on a search engine page is great, but that’s not all. You’ll want your visibility to result in traffic for your website. A surefire way of getting there is paying attention to your headlines and Meta description. Why? It’s simple. Your content and keywords do their work to get you noticed.
It is left to your Meta description and headline to get people to click on your link. Your Meta description and headline is the only part of your content that the searcher can see in the results page. It’s sort of the demo of your content, and that’s why it has to be riveting enough to make searchers want to see the entire content.
• Website
Your website has a lot to do with traffic. Slow-loading websites aren’t optimized and often lose out on great traffic. It doesn’t matter if you’ve got great content on your website, you’ll lose traffic if you don’t optimize it. Also, your website should be mobile-friendly. Many people access information on their smartphones these days more than their computers. Mobile-friendly websites enjoy more traffic than non-mobile-friendly websites.
Why you need SEO?
Every business needs SEO, but small businesses have an even greater need for it and here’s why:
1. Brand Awareness
This is what you need most as a new business owner. You can’t have an optimal customer base as a newbie if your brand is obscure. SEO would help you build a brand for your business by creating visibility.
Searchers would come to know and trust your brand if it ranks high in their keyword search. That’s because they trust Google to bring up the right websites for them.
2. Brings in more Customers
Traffic isn’t the goal, it’s all about getting sales. The goal is to have customers, and doing SEO right can take care of that. Optimized pages have higher conversion rates of visitors to customers. The first step to getting customers is to generate traffic. When people start visiting your website, there is a high chance that they would eventually become customers. You just need the right content and services to make them convert from visitors to paying customers.
Searchers trust Google, and that trust is extended to whatever websites rank high organically. The foundation of a client-customer relationship is trust. Your brand awareness builds trust while your products and content convert visitors to customers.
3. Helps you Fight Competition
Without SEO, you don’t have a fighting chance to compete with or beat your competitors. SEO gives you the boost you need to grow a client base as well as gain visibility both locally and internationally.
With SEO, you’d not only have a fighting chance as a new business, but you might also even surpass your competition. Customers, as I already established, would tend to trust your brand more than some competition that doesn’t rank high in searches.
Cost-effective SEO methods
I said it earlier, and I’m going to repeat it. SEO might cost less than advertisement marketing; however, it is still a bit on the high side for small businesses. This doesn’t, however, mean that you cannot optimize your website. You can. Just use the following cost-effective SEO practices and watch your visibility grow.
1. Free business listings (Google my business, yell, Yelp)
You have to grab every free opportunity out there, and free business listing is a big one. The goal is global visibility, of course. However, starting local isn’t a bad idea at all. Business listings might not seem like such a big deal to you until you realize its importance. Try to input keywords searching for gyms in a particular area.
What ranks first before the ads and organic websites is Google’s business listing. So, you have a chance to build some visibility from business listings. Remember also that most people who would click on your own business would most likely go to your website.
It’s a good thing that there are free business listings out there that can be of such a huge benefit to you. There is Google my business, yell, Yelp, etc. Find one and register your business as soon as possible.
2. Targeting long-tail keywords
You know what keywords are and how important they are. A long-tail keyword is a more specific and usually longer key phrase. Long-tail keywords make accuracy in search results very easy. They might not be searched a whole lot of times, but they offer great conversion rates when searched.
By all means, target some long-tail keywords to build more specificity around your content. Just try not to use long-tail keywords in all your contents.
3. Basic On-page optimization
Basic On-page optimization simply refers to optimizing a web page to ensure that it ranks higher. To search optimize your page, you need to put out high-quality content with relevant keywords. Your titles, headlines and Meta description also has to look great.
4. Leverage social media
Disregarding or not fully understanding the leverage of social media as it concerns business is the worst thing that can happen to anyone. Firstly, social media in so many ways is where the work and the benefits of SEO lie. You can reach a wider customer base with digital marketing.
5. Fill the market gaps
As a new business owner, you should be studying the markets. Read up on the business models and services of all the relevant companies in your niche. You’re not doing this because you’ve got all the time in the world to spend. No. You’re doing this because it is the only way you’ll discover what’s missing. Often, established businesses don’t bother making strategic changes to their services. Why would they want to change a sure thing?
Follow them on social media and read their comment sections. You’ll see clearly what need they aren’t fulfilling. Make the gaps in their services a pivotal point in yours. When you capitalize on that need, you’ll have a great product ready to be marketed.
6. Follow the successful competitors
It’s important to follow the successful competitors in your niche, what they do when they do it, and why they do it. You’ll learn far more about your market from them.
You don’t have to know everything about SEO or how to do the nitty-gritty work to get your webpage optimized. If you’re still not feeling confident about running an SEO campaign on your own, there are some other opportunities to consider as well, such as getting in touch with a reliable Digital marketing expert. Our agency, Seolympic, has the technical knowledge and experience needed to improve your website’s online presence, and we can do it on a very affordable pricing! Don’t hesitate to take advantage of SEO for exponential growth. Contact us today!