The Small Business Local SEO Battle

The Small Business Local SEO BattleYou’ve seen it before, and might have had to face it yourself, having a small budget but having big website traffic dreams. Not every small business can afford SEO but there are some things that a small business can do on their own.
First of all, you’ll need to check on your website to make sure it is worthy of recognition. If you have a website that is sloppy, without proper layout and programming, then you end up with a product that is just not up to par with the competition out there. It’s really that simple. You can’t have a website with all sorts of bells and whistles and looks great with lout music and video dancers, but if the site doesn’t convey what your business is about, where your business is, then you’ve failed from one end of the spectrum to the other.

Think simple at first. Keep the site to the point but don’t make it so bland that people won’t remembe4r it nor will it capture their imagination. They have to like what they see, but you also have to penetrate so that your site stands out in their mind. The same thing goes for search engines especially when you’re doing local SEO. Google is coming out with more new ways to examine and index a website so that their surfers get the best results they can. When Google does this, they look for every piece of data they feel is relevant. Your site has to have such data available easily, in your tags, descriptions, and more. You have to make absolutely sure that people can find your name, address, phone number, on down to your latitude and longitude coordinates.

Well, maybe not that detailed, but you get the point.

Once your site meets the standards of a well done website, you’ll need to expand. Things like link building may seem passe’ but in reality they can’t hurt if done right. An inbound link from a reputable source is worth its weight in gold. It shows Google that a site with authority, hopefully a Google news site or some other verified site by Google, will boost you up the search engine rankings and keep you there. Remember, petition to get these links as much as you can. If yo have a dog walking business in your hometown, you need links that help your small business local SEO right off the bat. Google will know if the links come from paid subscriptions and so on so don’t do that. Earn those inbound links and cherish them.

Get photos and videos and articles about your local area that tie into your business. You can take pics of the local landmarks and public events that are perennial headline grabbers and pop them on your site and blog. Make sure you have a blog and social media and mobile friendly options online. Again, let’s say you have a dog walking service. Take pics of you walking the dogs past famous monuments or popular landmarks. Even political campaigns, picnics, anything you can use to boast about and tie in your brand name with the event, location, and other data that will aid your small business SEO.

So the bottom line is not to fret. You can make some waves with small business SEO if you plan right and enjoy what you do.