Search engine optimization is a strategy no business with an online presence can do without. People are more likely to visit a site that appears higher in their search results, while those that are listed on second, third, and any other page get significantly less traffic. The first page of search engine results doesn’t have to be unattainable by small businesses. With the right strategy, they can beat the competition and get even better ranking.
In this article, we’ll discuss the benefits of SEO for small businesses and how to gain traction in your SEO efforts.
How SEO Works
A search engine scours millions of websites and uses thousands of factors when determining the right answer to a query. The search engine must analyze all information on the internet before displaying search results. If your webpage meets certain criteria, it will be shown on the first page of search engine results. Therefore, your SEO strategies will be successful if you understand your audience’s needs and use a professional.
Tips To Get Started With SEO
So, how can a small service business use SEO strategy to improve its marketing success? Here are small business SEO tips to get you started.
Prioritize Local SEO
HVAC companies can use local SEO to stand out on search engine results in a specific geographic market. You can start by displaying your business’s physical address, phone number and logo on each of your website’s pages. At the same time, positive customer reviews on popular review sites, such as BBB and Yelp, can also improve your local SEO prospects.
It would also help if your business were mentioned by local news and business websites. These mentions will inform potential leads that your company is reputable and trustworthy. Also, you can ask an SEO expert to create a Google My Business account for your local business. The Google My Business account increases your business’s exposure and ensures that your HVAC business appears in local search results.
Optimize Meta Tags
Meta tags give details regarding a webpage to a web crawler or search engine. The search engines utilize the meta tags’ metadata to rank a website and show snippets. If you want your website to rank higher in search engine results, it must have the following meta tags.
- Meta Content Category: This tag reveals the character set on a webpage and must appear on all your web pages. It impacts how the search engine and the browser display the web content on different devices.
- Title: You can ask an SEO professional to create a title that is unique and clearly outline the particulars of its page. Titles that have 50-70 characters are recommended because they will display optimally on mobile and desktop devices.
- Meta Description: A meta description doesn’t influence page ranking, but it does provide more information to searchers. Meta descriptions that are shorter than 160 characters and grab the searcher’s attention can increase a website’s click rate.
Work on Backlinks
A link on a different website that redirects to your website is called a backlink. By mentioning your website on another site, backlinks boost your site’s authority and ranking on search engine results. More websites are going to link back to your site if you create and share informative content. Therefore, your content should contain specific data and be unique and relevant.
Asking an SEO professional to share your blog posts on your webinars, email newsletters and social media pages may also result in backlinks. Alternatively, you can provide free home services to the administrator of a review website. The administrator may then write a review of the service on their website and link back to your site.
Leverage Google Search Console
Google Search Console can track and change a website’s appearance in the search engine results for free. It can discover backlinks, submit sitemaps and resolve technical flaws. However, you must confirm domain ownership before you can use the Search Console. After verification, you can add sitemaps that tell Google where it can find key passages on your web pages.
You can use the Google Search Console to conduct important SEO activities, such as:
- Verify that Google has indexed and is crawling your website
- Pinpoint indexing errors and update your content
- Know the number of search results appearances, search traffic data and queries that attract searchers to your site
- Diagnose and resolve mobile accessibility and AMP problems
Do In-Depth Keyword Research
You can understand your audience’s intent by knowing the type and volume of keywords. To get started, you should create a list of 5-10 essential topics in your industry. Next, you should find potential search phrases for each topic that customers will use to find information online. These are the phrases that your site is already getting discovered for. For instance, you will understand if they want to search for a specific site, find answers to questions or buy something.
You can use an SEO professional to expand and prioritize the list of keywords before mapping the priority keywords to particular web pages. Remember that you must polish your keyword catalog every few months by removing redundant phrases and adding trending keywords.
It is also a good idea to prioritize long-tail keywords over short-tail keywords. Long-tail keywords are more illustrative and can use more than one search phrase.
Wrapping Up
Investing in local SEO for small businesses can increase your brand’s visibility and boost your sales. A professional can help you take things to the next level when you’re ready. Contact us for small business SEO needs and we’ll help you get started today.
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