According to new research from the SMA (Small Business Authority) less than half of small businesses feel that search engine traffic is an important source for new business opportunities. When the same study was done last year only 36% of small business owners felt it wasn’t very important. When asked if they are actively investing in SEO only 17% of people said yes. This is largely down to the perceived cost and ROI of such endeavours. In this article, we’ll be covering how to get more traffic to your small business website to small business owners on how to improve their search engine traffic through SEO and to show that it can be done cheaply and effectively.

 

1: Start A Blog

Don’t just use this as an opportunity to cram in keywords, try to connect with your audience and give them information that they will find useful. If done well people will be engaged by your content and return to your site again and again. 

 

2: Set Up Social Media Pages

Social media is an excellent way to improve the presence of any small business. You can begin by creating them on as many social media platforms as you can think of. Use accurate information and fill them all out correctly and ensure you have inserted your website details. Through experimentation you can find out which platforms work best for your business.

 

3: Don’t Trust “Guaranteed Results” Companies

Don’t believe a company if they are saying they will guarantee you results, they will probably end up doing more harm than good. There is no magic formula that works for every site and as always online previous success is not necessarily the best indicator of future success.

 

4: Use Clear URL Structures

It should be possible for anyone on your website to look at the URL on any given page and have a good idea of what is on the page itself. 

 

5: Use Google’s Keyword Planner

This is an excellent free tool for finding relevant keywords and finding out how competitive they are. 

 

6: Don’t Expect Quick Results

Results from good SEO work don’t happen overnight. It takes time so you will need a long term strategy, especially in highly competitive areas.

 

7: Have Your Website Mobile Optimised

Mobile optimisation is now a ranking factor in where sites are listed, even when the searcher is using a desktop computer. It’s crucial that you have an optimised website or you will be lower in the rankings and losing out on potential search engine traffic.

 

8: Set Up Google Analytics

Google Analytics allows you to see a person’s whole journey from the second they get to your website. You can see how long they spent on each page, what content they engaged with as well as other useful information. It’s essential in knowing your customer.

Spending time on SEO so that your search engine traffic increases is a great idea for small business owners. The aim of this article has been to show you that it doesn’t have to be complicated or too expensive. Hopefully it has succeeded.

 

 

Credit: Cliq