Do you ever feel like your marketing isn’t working? Do you ever feel like no one but you cares? Do you ever feel like the patient in this video?
If your marketing isn’t giving you a clear picture of success and you want more accuracy then working on your SEO can help. You have to set goals and then use the proper tools to measure your progress and get a clearer picture. If you want to learn more about finding the right SEO services for small business so you can do it yourself or so you can hire a company to help, then you need to have a clear understanding of what you are looking for.
Do you really know what SEO is or are you in the position of just knowing it is important? Are SEO services the same for big business and small business? Are there more than one or two services you need to be aware of? How many are there and what are the differences? These may be some of the questions you are asking about SEO (search engine optimization) because you need to bring in more new customers.
Hopefully you see Internet Marketing as a potential source for leads and a significant one at that. But the question that is still running around in your head is how? Let’s look at a few of the key things you want to be aware of when you are considering hiring SEO services for your small business.
First and Most Important : If you ignore everything else in this blog article don’t ignore this!
Find a company that does more than SEO. Find a company that talks about a holistic perspective and strategy. The old way, just two or three years ago, was that SEO could stand on its own, but now companies that only do SEO are going out of business. (Social Media, Online PR, Blogging, Online Ads/PPC are all part of the picture now). In today's Internet, having multiple pieces of content in different places such as Blogs and different social medias all contribute to rank well in Google. Do your self a favor and make sure you find the whole package.
Short Primer on Google Ranking
Trying to rank on Google or Bing or any other search engine is important because the higher your organic rank the more people are going to click on your link and go to your website; but you must realize that with SEO you can’t just buy yourself a spot on the top. The most valuable place on Google is run like a popularity context. You have to have a good website and other people on the web have to think it’s valuable too. So how does that work?
Side Note: One other quick point (that is not the point of this article but still important) is the issue of local search. If you want to know more about it you can go to http://www.davidmihm.com/local-search-ranking-factors.shtml. This is probably the best source available for local search. This just gives you a little bit more understanding of what a company would do for you. It’s kind of like a mechanic. You have an idea of what they are doing but you don’t want to do it yourself. They have the right tools. They keep up with all the changes and rules and they are skilled at it because they do this stuff all day, every day. If you don’t want to study that much then leave it to the company you are hiring.
Part 1: Making Your Website Good
What makes a good website? How do you make your website good enough for Google? You will need to make sure that you have these different parts:
1. Keywords are the terms that people type into the Google search box. Whether it is one word or ten, whatever is in the box is the Keyword.
2. Content that uses those keywords to write with, along with variations of them. That is what you are being graded on by Google.
- Content that is written clearly with only one main subject per page. This is where good writing is important. You don’t have to be an award winning author but your 8th grade English teacher shouldn’t cringe when she reads it.
- Regularly recurring content. Google wants to see that you are contributing to building communities online. They believe that the more people adding fresh content and talking with other people the better. If more people engage on the Internet then more valuable it will become. Regular content is measured by putting a new page up at least once a week. The more you add the faster they see you as valuable and can increase your websites rankings.
- A blog. This isn’t mandatory but it is the best format to use to add more pages to your website without messing up your navigation.
3. Media, Media, Media. Don’t just use text. Use pictures and use video. Either create your own or find something to link to.
Part 2: Becoming Popular and Getting "Votes" on the Web
1. Get links from other sites that go to your website. When a person puts a link on their website that leads someone to your website then that is considered a vote for you. For instance: www.rabitholehay.com just got my vote (by me including the link to the site) for being a website you should pay attention to. Especially if you have a pet rabbit and want to feed them the best hay in the world. (Disclosure: This is one of my clients. :-)
2. Get links from websites that have a good reputation with Google. The simple way to find this is if they rank on the top five pages of Google. You can also check their domain authority. http://www.opensiteexplorer.org (See? Another vote!). If a site has a bad domain authority score then it is a bad vote. If the score is good, say above 40, then it is a good vote. The higher the score the better.
That’s it. Those are the most important SEO services for small business or any size business for that matter. If you can follow this list you will be 80% of the way to getting better rankings in Google and more traffic to your site. Once you get this set up make sure that you are converting traffic on your site from visitors to leads. Yes that is a different list of things to look at but if you follow these things or hire a company that does this well then you will have a good head start.
Last but not least let me give you one more piece of advice. There are lots of companies out there and many will try to seduce you with promises of overnight success. Google knows how to stop most of that and eventually will punish you for trying to cheat the system. Be willing to invest your resources into a solid and long term campaign. It will pay off in spades. Find a company that seems competent in the SEO services for small business they provide, and is a good fit for you relationally. The right fit is super important or it will make you miserable.
Are you currently using any kind of SEO services for your small business?
Read our related articles:
SEO Services for Small Business: 6 Features of a Good Software
Be Careful of Empty Promises Made by SEO Services for Small Business!
