11 min read
What Types of Small Business SEO Services Do I Need?
Search engine optimization, abbreviated SEO, entails digital marketing practices used to increase converting traffic to your website. Does SEO work for small businesses? Yes. Small businesses require a highly effective SEO strategy to make sure returning, and new customers can find their brands when searching online.
Considering that just about 36% of small and medium businesses have a working SEO strategy in place, taking an initiative to increase and enhance your online visibility gives your business an advantage over your competition.
Fortunately, the most essential small business seo services can be done in-house and at a very affordable cost. Small and medium business marketers focus on six major types of SEO practices that drive online visibility:
How Does SEO Work for Small Business?
Whenever consumers are facing a challenge, they turn to Google, or any other search engine, for solutions or answers. The powerful search engine algorithms ensure that the websites with the best and most relevant results for the consumer’s search query appear at the top of the results.
The first 3 positions on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP) share the majority of the clicks for the specific keyword used by the searcher. The lowermost link of the search results page only receives about 2% of the total clicks. For most people using search engines to seek answers and solutions, results on page two and beyond do not exist.
This means that all businesses are competing to take the first three positions on the SERP. How do you keep up with the competition? This is where small business SEO services come in. Search engine optimization best practices will help boost your website’s ranking on SERP and subsequently raise your organic traffic.
More website visitors basically means that you have an opportunity to market your brand to potential clients and ultimately drive larger sales volumes.
If you are working with a thin marketing budget, SEO is typically the best and highly affordable strategy to increase your business’ online visibility. The SEO packages for small businesses in this article require no resources whatsoever, apart from time and focused mental energy. However, hiring an SEO expert for small businesses could speed up the process, but it’s by no means a necessity.
Test your SEO in 60 seconds!
Diib is one of the best SEO tools in the world. Diib uses the power of big data to help you quickly and easily increase your traffic and rankings. Diib will even let you know if you already deserve to rank higher for certain keywords. As seen in Entrepreneur!
- Easy-to-use automated SEO tool
- Keyword and backlink monitoring + ideas
- Speed, security, + Core Vitals tracking
- Intelligently suggests ideas to improve SEO
- Over 500,000 global members
- Built-in benchmarking and competitor analysis
Used by over 500k companies and organizations:
Syncs with 
On-Page SEO
This is basically the process of enhancing individual website pages for better ranking and to help them earn significant traffic. The key ingredient of on-page SEO is the use of keywords. Below are some of the on-page optimization strategies for small businesses:
Optimizing URLs
Every single page on your website must have a well-structured URL. Think of it as a unique code by which web crawlers recognize that specific page. Your URLs must be concise, include the relevant keywords, and use words in lowercase.
Proper Formatting Of The Page Content And Title Tags
Search engine algorithms like well-formatted pages that are easy to read and understand the information contained in them. To help search engines understand the content on your page:
- Only use one H1 tag – The title of the page.
- Use H2 – H7 Tags to create headings and subheadings.
- Try including the relevant keywords in the HTML tags.
- Have your keyword in every 150-300 words. The keyword should read as naturally as possible.
Also, remember that a well-designed and formatted web page is not just for algorithms. A well-structured web page is more appealing to a visitor compared to a poorly structured one. Inviting visual enhancements such as a great structure layout keep the visitors engaged with the page’s content.
Adding Images and Respective Alternative Tags
One, images break your content and give the reader something different to study. They also work for a better SEO strategy. Well-optimized images should be:
- Named with the relevant keywords
- Formatted as PNG or JPEG
- Saved with a smaller file size
All images must have an alternative text. Whenever the image is not available to the reader, the web browser displays the alternative text.
Use External and Internal Links
Every web page should have at least a couple of links to other websites and a few others linking to different pages of your website. However, you can’t just throw in some links just like that. Make sure that you link to trustworthy websites with authoritative and relevant information. Linking to a reputable news source is recommended compared to linking to random bloggers, for instance.
Internal linking is important because it offers a path for website visitors to follow. Think about the pages you would like your readers to visit after reading the content on the current page.
You Might Also Like
Besides giving a path for web visitors to follow, internal linking also helps in enhancing your website’s architecture. It links the pages in your site to each other, creating connections between them. Make sure to track the pages you are linking to with backlink trackers such as this one from Ahrefs:
(Image Credit: Ahrefs)
Off-page SEO
These are SEO services for small businesses done outside your site. The main aim of off-page optimization is building trust with potential and existing customers and bringing them to your website pages.
Link Building strategies
Links from other websites, known as backlinks, communicate to the search engine algorithms that your website contains valuable content. For example, if you publish a page on “how to repair bicycles” and other websites link to that page, you will rank higher for that specific keyword.
You can increase your backlinks by sharing the page’s content on social media. Google advocated for “natural backlinks,” which means links that are not paid for. To attract links from other websites, publishing great content.
Selecting Social Media Platforms To Utilize
Although social media marketing is not one of the direct ranking factors for most search engines, It is a relevant element for off-page optimization as it will help you draw more potential customers to your website.
It is basically a form of backlink building strategy. Additionally, social media brand mentions will help grow your brand’s popularity among the people.
This is to mean that there should exist a natural mutual relationship between your followers and your brand pages. If all you keep posting are links to your service or product pages, followers will soon get annoyed or bored.
We hope that you found this article useful.
If you want to know more interesting about your site health, get personal recommendations and alerts, scan your website by Diib. It only takes 60 seconds.
Soliciting Ratings and Reviews
Off-page optimization is crucial for showing potential customers that your business is dependable. Public ratings and reviews show people that others are having a great experience doing business with you.
Product ratings and reviews show on search engine results pages sometimes. They will also show two-thirds of the times on eCommerce platforms such as Amazon and on all your social media pages.
You should consider reaching out to your customers and request them to review their recent purchases when they have the time. But don’t force it on them. Here are a couple examples of reviews that could encourage other customers to buy this product:
Working With Social Media Influencers
Influencers will help boost content reach and engagement. Most people follow social media influencers to hear their opinion about stuff and to participate in some of their discussions. By working closely with social media influencers, you can have your brand marketed right in front of an alert audience.
Local SEO
Local search engine optimization helps with the promotion of services and products to the local consumer in real-time as they are conducting searches. By working with the best SEO company small business, you will have a dozen local SEO strategies at your disposal.
Contact Information
Local-search Google algorithms offer consumers results from websites selling the relevant services and products in the search query. For instance, someone searching for “best ice cream” in Oyster Bay, New York, will get different SERP results compared to another person searching the same keyword in Portland, Oregon.
To help potential customers locate your business online in real-time, your website should have a page containing your business information, contact, and physical address. For example:
(Image Credit: AWG Sales Service)
Adding Structured Location Information on The Website
After typing your favorite restaurant’s name on google, you are likely to see a well-structured information card with the restaurant’s image, it’s star rating, opening and closing hours, and more information.
How does google get to know all this information? It is through structured data, which is the language search engine crawlers can understand and easily interpret. If you do not have a small business SEO company by your side, google offers a free tool to aid you add structured data markup to your website.
A different approach to making sure that your business shows at the top of search engine results pages is by completing your Google Business profile. This free service not only makes it easier for your clients to locate and connect to you but also allows you to view analytics and to assess your engagement metrics.
Auditing your Website for Mobile Friendliness
About 82% of all mobile devices conducted a “near me” search in 2018. These searches had the intention of quickly finding local services, products, and brands. Google has a free tool for checking your website’s mobile-friendliness. The image below shows Google’s mobile friendly test:
(Image Credit: Google Support)
Ecommerce SEO
Digital retailers rely on the best SEO packages for small businesses to increase the online visibility of all their service and product pages on search engine results pages.
Assessing Website Architecture for User Experience
Ecommerce websites have more pages compared to other standard websites. This means as an eCommerce brand, you should work with a small business SEO company to help organize your site for better user interaction and overall experience.
Great website architecture for eCommerce platforms ensures that visitors do not get lost in the endless product pages. It is recommended that you keep all our pages three to five clicks from the home page.
For instance, if you are a fashion brand and a customer is looking for a specific shoe, the visitor might navigate through the “men’s collection” on the home page, then to “foot ware,” then the specific shoe. For instance:
Creating Website Content Around Your Audience’s Needs
Ecommerce businesses require content that will draw visitors and provide them with value before making a sale. For instance, a retailer in the fashion industry could publish information on pairing a blazer with a trouser.
Such interactive and informative content helps your site rank higher for the relevant keywords used. Additionally, this strategy will provide you with stories to post on social media feeds. Successful brands strive to offer product information, not just a digital shelf.
Optimizing Product Listing for Amazon and Google
The majority of online buyers turn to either Amazon or Google to look for products. If your products do not show on these two platforms, then you are doing a terrible job at digital marketing. Product SEO helps in increasing the online visibility of your product listing.
Some essential product SEO best practices include:
- Using bullet lists in the product description
- Using high-definition/clear images
- Using long-tail keywords in product descriptions and titles
Video SEO
The best SEO Service for Small Business must encompass video SEO. By the year 2022, video content is estimated to account for 82 percent of web traffic. The following video SEO strategies will help customers find your videos with ease.
Adding Descriptions and Title Tags
Video SEO tactics are more rudimentary compared to content SEO. Web crawlers or search engine algorithms are not good at telling what a video contains. Although AI-powered visual recognition technologies are on the rise, they are still not at their optimum to affect your search engine optimization strategy.
For this reason, adding keywords to video descriptions and title tags on platforms such as YouTube helps the web crawlers understand what the content of the video is.
Selecting Appealing Thumbnail Images
To boost your video click-through rates, you should consider paying more attention to thumbnail images. The thumbnail appears next to hundreds of other images, and so you have to make sure it stands out by use of bold texts and vibrant colors. Always keep the text short; 2-3 words are enough. Below are a few examples of intriguing thumbnails:
(Image Credit: Animaker)
Customizing And Enhancing Your YouTube Channel
YouTube content creation is an effective strategy to drive significant traffic to your website. It is vital that your YouTube channel is properly aligned with the appearance and experience of all your other pages.
You can rely on consistent messaging and color to create a cohesive user experience across all your pages and platforms.
Technical SEO
A technical SEO specialist from the best SEO company small business will help enhance your website’s crawlability and indexability by search engines. Besides helping your page rank better on SERP, technical SEO also helps with making sure your pages load faster, particularly on mobile devices.
Checking Canonical URLs
When a website has pages with content similar to that in other pages, it gets penalized by search engines. We use canonical tags to ensure that it does not happen.
If your website has two pages with information that is almost identical, You should use the one that is more important to you as the canonical version. You will then need to add canonical tags to the relevant section on the similar pages and link it to the first canonical page.
Building Your Website’s 404 Page
While proper website architecture prevents visitors from getting lost in your site, you should have a strategy to redirect them when that happens. This is where the 404 page comes in.
The 404 is set up to help lost visitors locate whatever they were looking for. You can achieve these results by having links on your homepage, your sitemap, or on the internal search bar.
Registering your Website with Google Search Console
There are a number of adjustments, if effectively done, would increase your website’s usability and speed. Instead of making guesses on what requires improvement, why not just consult the source?
You get full reports on how your website is performing by registering your business website on Google Search Console. It tells you whether all your pages are indexable, as well as those that contain red flags and errors.
Tips on Hiring the Best SEO Service for Small business
Hiring an SEO company or expert comes with numerous benefits. These professionals breathe and live digital marketing and are therefore always aware of any Google update. SEO specialists have a basket-full of SEO best practices that would drive your website’s performance.
With the best SEO services small business by your side, they will design and effect a holistic SEO strategy steered to one cohesive plan. When hiring SEO services for small businesses, consider working with specialists who:
- Are conversant with the latest digital marketing trends
- Have a positive track record of achieving results
- Rely on data when making decisions. The most successful SEO specialists rely on data to make well-informed decisions
- Have experience in creative writing. Most SEO features are intended to please search engines and people who visit your website.
Diib®: Your Small Business SEO Service Experts!
Search engine optimization is a long-term marketing strategy. You should, therefore, not expect instant results as it will take the search engine time to index your new pages. It will take about three months before seeing tangible results from your SEO strategy. But most importantly, consider working with the best SEO services for small business providers.
Diib Digital is one of these SEO service providers. Our User Dashboard gives you minute-by-minute updates and statistics which then allow you to tweak your campaign for ideal results. Here are some of the features our small business partner report loving:
- Bounce rate monitoring and repair
- Social media integration and performance
- Broken pages where you have backlinks (404 checker)
- Keyword, backlink, and indexing monitoring and tracking tools
- User experience and mobile speed optimization
- Technical SEO monitoring
Click here for your free scan or simply call 800-303-3510 to speak to one of our growth experts.
FAQ’s
This depends on your industry and the scopy of your SEO campaign. That being said, most businesses pay between $1,000 and $2,500 per month.
An SEO company helps small businesses become more visible online. It makes it more attractive and accessible.
With the right amount of persistence and research, you can do SEO for free. If you have the money, there are tools that can make it easier for you to begin your first SEO campaign.
Every so often, a rumor circulates that SEO is dying and not effective. With an estimated value of over $70 billion, SEO is obviously not going anywhere and only continues to grow.
There is no one right SEO company for every small business. Here are some tips to choosing the right company for YOU. 1) Make specific goals and find a company who can meet them. 2) Don’t just Google someone. Word of mouth and positive reviews are very valuable. 3) Make sure their metrics meet your ideals. 4) Find someone you can communicate with well. There is no magic in SEO, only persistence and trial and error.
See how to easily grow your traffic!