SEO for small businesses can be quite overwhelming at times. There are lots of tasks and it can be quite hard to understand what needs to be done. That’s why today, we’re going to talk you through 6 small business SEO hacks that you need to know to help you rank higher.
At the end of the article, you will also be able to learn more about our SEO services for local businesses.
1. Start a Blog With Long-Tail Keywords
Our first SEO hack is to start a blog with long-tail keywords.
What we’re talking about here is starting a blog, under your domain and writing articles. The articles should focus on local terms and long-tail keywords. This way, you will have much higher chances of your website showing up in the SERPs when someone types them in.
The cool thing about blogging is that it also helps you build your topical relevance and authority. This means it can also help your site rank overall. Starting a blog is also free, and you can either write the articles yourself or choose to hire a writer. The choice is yours.
Plus, if you write a great blog post, it will also often get shared by lots of local community members which will not only help you get more exposure but also help your SEO. Overall, blogging is probably one of the simplest, but most effective ways to improve your SEO.
2. Analyse The Competition Properly
One of our favourite SEO hacks is also to analyse the completion properly. The reason we say this is because if you do, what they are doing but even better, you will rank above. So, take a look at their content and backlinks to see what they are doing to rank above you.
Inside Tip: Add your competitors URL using this free online tool. We use this tool internally and it’s great to see your competitors backlinks and their high traffic pages!
Do they have a longer piece of content? Is it optimised better? Do they have more authoritative backlinks?
All of those questions should be taken into consideration when analysing your competition. If you figure out why they are ranking above you, you can work on those factors to beat them. Deep competitor analysis like this can go pretty far, as it’s the key to ranking above your competitors.
When you analyse them make sure to take into consideration:
– Their content length
– How it’s optimised
– The quality of backlinks
– The number of backlinks
From here, you can do everything they did, but even better. And then you’re much more likely to beat them.
3. Help a Reporter Out
Help a Reporter Out (HARO) is a network of reporters and sources that help each other out. The reporter gives them a topic and lets them know what their story will be out. From here, sources (like you) can tell offer insight in exchange to be mentioned and gain a backlink.
If you set this up, and keep an eye on the reporters in your local area, you can get some extremely high-quality backlinks from local news sites. This will help you crush the competition, as they are some of the best links that you can get.
Plus, the chances of your competition having them is practically 0. Now, this is something that may need a couple of tries, but it’s definitely worth it as it can help you rank above the competition.
4. Update Old Pages
Our next SEO hack is quite simple. It’s to update pages.
Do you remember the last time you updated your pages? Probably not. Chances are, they are outdated and need updating. Head over to them, and see what you can add to them to make them rank better. You can also look for keywords that they rank for, and optimise them better for those keywords.
Once you have optimised your page again and updated it head over to the Google search console and get it re-indexed. This can sometimes increase the rankings, meaning you’ll get more traffic and customers!
5. Optimise Your GMB
SEO hack 5 is to optimise your GMB.
Optimising your GMB for local keywords, a better look, and to make it more helpful for your customer is a great way to increase its rankings. For a local business, this is great, as it will help you directly get more customers.
You can research how to do this yourself, or this is also one of the SEO services for small businesses that we provide. If you would like to learn more about that, you can contact us. Our contact information will also be at the end of this article.
Tip: Add your website to free directory sites like: b2blistings.org – Web Design and Development Listings
6. Ask Your Customers For Reviews
Last but not least, our final SEO hack is to ask customers for reviews.
Reviews are also an important ranking factor for GMBs and will help you rank higher. Additionally, they will also improve your social proof so they will also increase your conversions from the traffic you are already getting.
Once you provide a service for your customer, you can simply ask them to head over to your GMB, Tripadvisor, or Facebook to leave a review. You probably shouldn’t ask for a 5 star review, but instead, just ask for them to review you honestly. Usually, most customers will give you a 5-star review anyway, or at least if you provide a great service!
Looking For SEO Services?
Whether you are looking for SEO services for local businesses or small businesses, we’re here to help.
Our small business SEO services have helped our customers grow their business and reach more customers. We also rank for various SEO terms around the UK, so you know we can do the same for you.
All of our small business SEO services will also be tailored to your business. This means we will analyse your competition, and see exactly what you will need to beat them. From there we will build out a strategy that we can implement to get your business on top of the search engine results page (SERP).
If you are ready and would like to learn more about our SEO services for small businesses you can learn more on our local SEO page.
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Softdata is a leading digital agency and AI Services provider based in Gloucester and Cheltenham.About us: Softdata is a premier digital software agency and digital marketing provider, based in Gloucester and Cheltenham. We offer a range of digital services including web design, bespoke software development, SEO, Paid advertising, conversion rate optimisation, web hosting, and AI consultancy services. Our team is dedicated to providing the best solutions tailored to the unique needs of our clients.
If you would like to discuss your needs with a Digital Specialist, we offer a Free Initial Consultation without cost or commitment. Meetings can be held at our offices, via video conference, or by telephone. Our telephone number is 01452 502 508.
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