Digital Marketing Blog Post 1 – SEO for Small Organizations
Do you have, or want a website, and want to boost its performance? Then SEO (search engine optimization) can be a very useful tool if done right. SEO is the act of improving many areas of your website or internet presence in general, to make your business more apparent in a wider range of searches throughout the search engine. It is the process of maximizing the number of visitors on your page. There are many aspects to SEO systems, which can take a significant amount of time and money. Therefore, many startups and SMEs (small to medium enterprises) do not feel the importance of doing even a little bit of SEO. Despite the complexity and range of the entirety of SEO, SMEs and startups do benefit from small modifications in their web domains. This blog post will guide you through 4 short, easy, and effective SEO tips that you can be used for SMEs and startups by yourself. I have to mention, there are many SEO applications nowadays. For example, Screaming Frog – SEO Spider, is a great application because it notifies you when there are broken links, title page, meta descriptions, URLs and more. Plus, it is free all small business with under 500 pages on the web! Once you have looked at the SEO tips below, Screaming Frog can be a very useful tool to keep your website running smoothly, and up to date.
Source of Image: (ScreamingFrog.co.uk)
SEO Tips for Small Business
1. Domain Authority
From all the websites and journal articles about SEO, domain authority is always a significant aspect to be expressed. Google is the largest search engine by far, therefore understanding the way google search results work will allow for you to understand how to upgrade your page in the search results. Google now uses the acronym E-A-T, which stands for expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness, to evaluate the domain authority of the page (Dean, 2020). Therefore, by having reliable sources, quality content, citable and interesting authors, pictures, and videos then the page will appear more when people search.
2. Website
This is because having a well-structured, easy to use, and fast website will allow for your visitors to find and use your website to the best of its ability (Miller and Miller, 2017). There are many things a website or page does that can devalue its search placement. The most common mistake found on the internet today is duplicated content, about 50 per cent of websites face this problem (Terenteva, 2016). According to Terenteva, (2016), the second most common mistake faced by websites are meta descriptions, which are the small text that summarizes the website on the search result page of the search engine. 30 per cent are duplicated and 25 per cent are missing, so make sure to have a well thought out meta description of your website. Other issues include broken links, hashtag issues, geolocation issues.
3. Knowing your Audience
It is essential to understand who your customers are and why they potentially want to transact with your website. By knowing who your customers are and what keywords they search for will allow you to relate to those keywords in your website to optimize your search engine presence. A few words that help for SEO are the location, brand, product, etc. Nowadays, consumers start on search engines 70 per cent of the time when browsing and shopping for products and services (Decker, 2018).
4. Content Quality and Quantity
Firstly, the content quality must be unique and attractive to your target visitor on the website. Photos and videos help significantly! Keep in mind when adding photo and videos that they must be well titled and accessible from all platforms. As mention earlier, the E-A-T, expertise, worthiness and authoritativeness, will be improved by having quantity of quality content. Additionally, it is highly important to have many new contents published on the website for it to stay relevant and fresh to visitors.
Overall, SEO for SMEs and startups can be done without it having to take all your time and money. Although, expert consultants on SEO will do wonders for a larger firm and maybe even a small firm, it is not necessary to hire one to do some SEO and improve your page to make it the best it can be. Although I am a student, from the extensive research of scholarly journal articles and credible online websites, I am able to present above the 4 most significant and effective parts of the SEO tool for SMEs and startups.
References
Dean, B. (2020). The Definitive Guide to SEO in 2020. [online] Backlinko.com. Available at: https://backlinko.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/backlinko-seo-this-year-guide.pdf [Accessed 16 Jan. 2020].
Decker, A. (2018). The DIY SEO Beginner’s Guide to Optimizing Your Startup’s Site | Foundr. [online] Foundr. Available at: https://foundr.com/seo-for-startups [Accessed 16 Jan. 2020].
Miller, M. and Miller, M. (2017). Small business SEO: Your questions answered – Search Engine Land. [online] Search Engine Land. Available at: https://searchengineland.com/small-business-seo-questions-answered-276500 [Accessed 16 Jan. 2020].
Search Engine Optimisation Starter Guide. (2018). Google.
Terenteva, E. (2016). 11 Most Common On-Site SEO Mistakes – SEMrush Study. [online] SemRush. Available at: https://www.semrush.com/blog/semrush-study-on-site-seo-issues/ [Accessed 16 Jan. 2020].
