As a small business, you’re ready to grow — and you’re ready to manage your search engine optimization (SEO) by yourself. It’s challenging, however, especially if it’s you or your team’s first experience with SEO.
That’s why we’ve compiled 12 go-to tips for how to create SEO content as a small business:
1. Think about your local SEO
Considered one of the hottest SEO trends, local SEO provides brick-and-mortar companies with an excellent tool for reaching nearby shoppers. Depending on your business model, you may want to start with local search engine optimization strategies.
A few include creating local profiles on social media platforms, as well as industry-specific ones, like TripAdvisor or Yelp. After you make these profiles, you can start using them to share the content you create, such as blog posts, and to interact with your customers.
2. Invest your time in keyword research
A challenge for many business owners — especially those new to SEO — is the keyword research process. While you may want to skip ahead to content creation, it’s critical that you research keywords for your industry and business. Otherwise, you’re missing out on the benefits of SEO.
Make your keyword research easier, as well as less time-consuming, by downloading the KeywordTool.io extension for your browser. When you start your keyword research on Google, it’ll show you the search volume, competition, and cost-per-click of different keywords.
Aim for keywords with a high search volume, but low competition.
It’s also beneficial to choose long-tail keywords, versus short-tail keywords, as a small business. Unlike short-tail keywords, long-tail keywords contain three to four phrases. They’re also specific, which makes it easy to determine the intent of a user.
If you’re in a seasonal market, such as vacation rentals, you may want to check out Google Trends for different keywords too. It’ll show the search volume for keywords over time, which lets you see when users might start searching for your service.
3. Determine your content’s search intent
Do you know your audience, as well as understand what they want?
It’s critical that you do, especially when developing content for search engine optimization. Otherwise, you may write content for the wrong consumer — and while that may earn your website traffic, it won’t help your company’s revenue.
That’s why you should consider the three types of searches:
- Navigational: Users want to visit a popular website with this search, but don’t know the URL.
- Informational: Users want to learn more about a topic or product.
- Transactional: Users want to purchase a product or service.
Since 80 percent of searches are informational — 10 percent are navigational, and another 10 percent are transactional — you’ll likely create a lot of content for informational queries. The great thing about informational searches is that you can capture leads before they’re even ready to buy.
4. Make your topics unique and innovative
Everybody’s vying for the attention of users, which is why it helps your business’ SEO strategy if you create content that’s unique and innovative. If you choose content topics that everybody in your market’s already written about, you’ll likely struggle to stand out.
That’s why you want your content to have a unique selling point.
5. Give your topic a clickable title
Back when you researched your keywords, you probably got a taste of some titles — good and bad. If you want your content to stand out, as well as earn valuable traffic, you need a title that’s great. Otherwise, users will pass on your page.
How can you create a clickable title or headline? By using the following tips:
- Make your headline specific: Create a headline that’s detailed and to-the-point. Emphasize what you’re offering, whether it’s tricks for restaurant tipping or how-to guides for wedding floral arrangements.
- Reference your swipe file: Maybe you haven’t created a swipe file yet, but it’s great for saving powerful headlines for future reference. Use them as inspiration for your next set of titles or as a template.
- State your benefit: Encourage users to click on your content by offering them something of value — this factor should also drive your content creation. Think about what users want, whether it’s an easier and faster way to tip their waiter or a guide for stunning, low-cost flower arrangements.
For inspiration, there are plenty of title templates that drive traffic. In most, you’ll find they follow a specific formula, whether it includes a number or a question. Just remember, you’ll need to fill in the blanks to have your headline resonate with audiences.
6. Write your content for users, not search engines
If you’re new to search engine optimization, it’s easy to become caught up in the search engine aspect. It’s critical, however, that you write content for your users first — not Google, Bing, or Yahoo. Otherwise, it won’t drive the results you want.
7. Keep your content structured
Whether you’re creating a new page or writing a new blog post for your company’s website, you need to structure your content. That means dividing your content into headings for easy skimming, as well as including images to break-up text and add white space.
To make sure your content’s easy-to-read, consider having a team member, friend, or family member look over your newest post or page. Another great tip is to limit your paragraphs to four lines — they become too chunky otherwise.
8. Lengthen your content
With so many readers skimming pages, it’s surprising that longer content performs better in SEO. That’s why marketers recommend creating content with at least 1,000 words — the reason is that content with 1,000 words or more earns more shares and links.
What if your topic doesn’t warrant that kind of word count, though? That’s okay!
Prioritize your readers and write for them first. At the bare minimum, you should aim for a word count of 300 words, but if you’re struggling to reach that number, you may want to re-evaluate your content topic.
9. Include your call-to-action
A call-to-action (CTA) doesn’t have to ask readers to purchase your product or visit your store. It can relate to lead generation and nurturing too, such as by asking users to join your email newsletter or follow your business on social media.
In most cases, you’ll want to have a CTA in your content. While a lot of businesses will include their call-to-action at the end of their content, you can also add one at the start of your content — or above the fold. For the best results, test different placements to see how users respond.
10. Add your SEO tags
In recent years, search engine optimization tags have undergone a bit of a revamp due to some Google algorithm updates. While marketers view some as no longer valuable, you want to use a few of them when creating content for your small business.
The SEO tags you’ll want to focus on include:
- Title
- Meta description
- Image alt
- Headings
With SEO tags, you’re helping search engines, as well as your readers.
11. Pitch your content
A critical part of SEO is link building — it’s one of Google’s top three ranking factors — so you’ll need to help your content rank higher. That often involves pitching your content to bloggers, as well as journalists, in the hope that they’ll link to your content.
As a local business, you may want to focus on local leaders in your area. For example, reach out to local papers and magazines with an online presence. You can also search for influencers in your area, as they may have a following that extends outside of your city.
When you pitch your content, make sure you’re personalizing your message to the reader. Use their first name, for instance, and touch on some content they’ve published in the past to show that you’ve read their work — keep your pitch length to a minimum though.
12. Track your content’s performance
If you publish your content and move on, you’ll miss out on valuable data and learning experiences. That’s why you need to track the performance of your content and apply what you learn to your future content.
Via Google Analytics, you can see how your pages perform. Focus on the following areas:
- Bounce rate
- Pages per session
- Dwell time
Depending on your business, you may also have goals in your Google Analytics account. If you’re a small ecommerce store, for instance, you might have some goals for revenue, which you can track in Google Analytics.
For many small business owners, it’s a new challenge to learn how to create SEO content that works. With practice and time, however, you can build content that’s engaging and popular with readers, plus contributes to your overall goals for growth.
SOURCES
https://findbestseo.com/blog/seo-small-business-how-know-if-you-can-go-it-alone
https://findbestseo.com/blog/guide-local-seo
https://www.tripadvisor.com/GetListedNew
https://trends.google.com/trends/?geo=US
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/important-tags-seo/156440/
https://searchengineland.com/now-know-googles-top-three-search-ranking-factors-245882