Guest post by BandC from MyBlogGuest
For beginners the world of search engine optimisation (SEO) can seem mindboggling. ‘Keywords’, ‘back links’ and ‘page rank’ can all seem like complicated computer jargon. Small businesses may think that utilising an SEO strategy is a time consuming, complicated procedure but it needn’t be.
There are 4 key areas of SEO that any small business can put in place and start reaping the benefits:
Keyword Research
Keyword research is the first and most important step in any SEO strategy. You need to decide who you are targeting – clients, other businesses etc – and what you want to rank for. This put simply means where you appear on a search engine results page when certain words are searched for.
Research this area carefully to identify how competitive the terms are, and what people are actually searching for. You don’t want to go to niche, or to obvious. Geographical keywords are always a good place to start and will target people who are looking to buy, not browsing.
For example, ‘teeth whitening in Worcestershire’ is specific and local, but not as competitive a keyword as ‘teeth whitening.’ These keywords are then placed in your website copy, headings and meta tags. Remember to strike the perfect balance between making it coherent for human readers, but specific enough for the search engines.
Back Links
Back links are another essential part of SEO and the quickest way to build your page rank. Page rank is the authority of your individual website pages according to Google and other search engines. If external websites have linked to a particular page, search engines see them as having more authority and rank them higher.
Using your keywords as anchor text, create links to specific pages of your website. This way, even the pages deep within your website can be indexed by Google and benefit from SEO and page ranking.
As with your keywords, you want variation in the locations of your back links. Having multiple links from one website or blog is not as effective as having a number of blogs and websites linking back to your site.
You can create more back links through guest blogging, press releases and article directories. If you don’t have the time, funds or access to these, you could enlist the help of a seo company. They can help you get started and access these platforms.
Google Places
Adding your business to Google Places enables you to target millions of Google users in an instant. Linked to Google Maps and related services, Places improves the visibility of your business on the Internet.
Google Places can be a great tool for small businesses as it allows you to target local customers. Couple this with you local keywords and back links to ensure you reach people in your area. This also helps you rank for the localised keywords and improve your page rank.
It is really easy to manage and you can update your listings at any time. You can even promote your business if you haven’t got a website. Google Places lets you track how many people have viewed and clicked your link.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is an easy way to manage the traffic to your website and check how well your SEO efforts are working. You can instantly see what people searched to find you, and you can make sure you are targeting the right keywords. This way you can shift focus if one term is ranking slightly better than another.
If something isn’t proving as successful, you can find out quickly with Google Analytics. As a small business you want to make sure everything is working as you had hoped. You can then tweak and change anything as needed to best maximise your SEO strategies.
SEO is an essential marketing strategy businesses of any size should strive to employ. Only one team member needs to have grasped the basics before you begin to yield results and fast. You can bring your business exciting new sales and clients in a short space of time.
Businesses of any size can benefit from offsite and onsite marketing. Bird and Co Creative is a full service graphic and web design company that specialises in SEO and Social Media Marketing. Contact them today to see how it can benefit your business.
About Kiesha Easley
Twitter: jimcorine
says:
Great Post. Very informative. This information should save many brand new internet marketers from making the common mistake of believing all the mis leading get rich quick schemes that are being advertised all over the internet. It is refreshing to read honest internet marketing information instead of all the false promises that so many blog posters write. Have A Wonderful Day Corine Miller
Corine recently posted..A Exhaustive Affiliate Marketer | Home Online Business
Twitter: larryphoto
says:
Nice post Kiesha! I had not dabbled in Google Places until recently. It really is an untapped resource at this point- nobody is really using it yet. Good time to jump aboard!!
@larryphoto
(dofollow)
Larry Lourcey recently posted..Think You Know Ana Hoffman?
It is truly important to optimize your website since the day it is active to get better traffic and get potential customer’s who may like to utilize your services. The keyword research and tags creation will help you make your website search engine friendly and get in more traffic.
Google Places have helped my local search quite a bit… and unique fresh content seems to be pretty important also. Thanks for info on analytics I will probably start to use it.
Keyword Research is for me the biggest thing about starting a new website.As a newish website owner myself i decided to target something that has a low compatition as i think the saying learn to walk before you can run is ever present in the internet world.The main problem people find when starting out is not seeing results fast enough thats why picking something less competitive will hopefully give you the info needed to go on and challege the big boys.
ryan recently posted..Best Xbox 360 Games of 2011
Twitter: TayyabShamsi
says:
I would like to give big Thanks for this great post that is really valuable for me. I was searching for the helpful blog that how to do SEO. Your blog is very helpful to learn seo for small business.
Backlinks are important, but as Google gets better, they will be weeding out more and more irrelevant ones. Get your backlinks by going to sites relevant to your own, and write comments relative to the article. And, like Keisha said, do it on multiple blogs.
Imagine the horror of waking up and checking your backlinks just to see that half of them disappeared because Google changed their algorithm, or the site you spent hours and hours on, posting lot of relavent content on had gone belly-up.
Joe M recently posted..Themes That Make Me Angry – Part 1
Hi Kiesha, thanks for these tips. This basic SEO information is necessary for everybody who runs a website or blog. You dont have to be a SEO professional, but i think you should know how to do proper keyword research and how to get quality backlinks. However SEO is very complicated thing and it’s better to hire a professional to promote your website
Re: Keywords, the three steps to use if you’re short of time is
1) Use Google predictive search
2) Then run those keywords through the Google adwords keyword tool
3) Then run them through Google Insights For Search (which in my opinion offers a better reflection than the adwords keywords tool).
Hope this helps.
As a new business owner, I find the backlinks part the most time consuming and also challenging. In the near futuer, I will definitely seek help from SEO companies. But I have learned a lot and totally agree with Keisha on these four parts of SEO for business owners.
Twitter: erydave
says:
Hai Kiesha…
It’s really good article. Everyone who want to learn about Internet marketing and blogging need to know about it. But I need to add one more. Content is also very important. So creating good quality content is a must. Thanks for sharing.
ery recently posted..Guides to Choose Kitchen Cabinets Design 2012
Good post with some good basic info.
Might be worth mentioning though about the difference between match types when using tools like Google Adwords Keyword Tool.
For the most pinpointed research with highly targeted keywords it’s often a good idea to use exact match or phrase match rather than broad.
a dance with dragons recently posted..Hello world!
Twitter: elliepowell1912
says:
Hi Kiesha. Thanks for the article. I especially enjoyed the information on backlinks. I am looking for ways to make my website more popular and backlinks seem to be a great way to do it.
Ellie
Ellie recently posted..Prevent Anxiety Attacks
Thanks for the help…I will make sure that this will be shared so that more people will be aware of it too…
Janna recently posted..How to Choose the Best Affiliate Marketing Software
Thank you Kiesha – Well the best bet would be to include also some top secret linkbuilding strategies, but you are totally right, PR Releases, Articles are important. Would you suggest using Social Bookmarking as well? Used to have it in the mix but not anymore.
Let me know what you think, thanks a lot, Ciao from Australia.
Easy is right. This couldn’t be anymore simpler. Great work on this article. Everything else is now up to us to make it happen, thanks for the help.
Gary Ashton recently posted..Mortgage rates Continue to Fall
Yes, this is true, BUT as mentioned in my comment before – some link building tips always appreciated. I’m pretty active already, but usually there is always something new, a niche strategy, that may help other linkbuilders :). Of course no one will give out their secrets, but just tips is what I’m talking about.
Twitter: allierambles
says:
SEO is still my downfall, even after over a year of blogging. I know I am getting better, it just seems like there is so much to remember! So I read about it…a lot.
Thank you for the information. I do forget how important backlinks are to a blog. I have been working on some Guest posts but I forget that comment links are awesome too!
~Allie
Allie recently posted..Blogging Success: Failure Is Success
Uhm, I am getting confused to which one will come first. Is it keyword research or market research? Or is it the same thing?
Having a small business is not easy especially when you have no experience. But this can help…
Bling recently posted..Bedok Residences in Bedok Central
Keyword research with Google analytics are really vital for small businesses to have. I prefer to optimize long tail keywords.
Joey Lim recently posted..Explosion in waste plant injuries one
Thanks Keisha for your nice article. Seo can applied for get high traffic, but i have problem third of your tips. My blog have bad in google place. Do you any solution?
Keyword Research is the most important thing of SEO. WE need to do it with determination and research.
Atish recently posted..RIM Is All Set To Launch BlackBerry PlayBook 2012
I think the most important aspect is that you need to benchmark, test and verify the results. Most people probably don’t know how good can be for their business some of this tips.
nice post!
Twitter: ForteProperties
says:
Great tips. Google places is a GREAT local seo tool, but it’s becoming harder and harder to get your listing to show in the regular organic results.
Chris recently posted..Austin Homes For Sale: Find Austin Real Estate
Twitter: SeoRizwan
says:
Hey Kiesha,
You are right keyword research is the most important step in the whole process of building successful site. I use Market samurai and sometimes the old good google Keyword-tool.
Rizwan Sultan recently posted..Symptoms of Crohns Disease
Twitter: davidsneen
says:
I scraped and clawed to get to page one on a couple long-tailed keywords. After reading multiple SEO posts, there is still so much more to do. Kiesha, from your article, I have just been inspired to create keyword links.
David Sneen recently posted..How to Earn $57,600 a Year!
Twitter: Janis167
says:
Short sweet guide :)
I totally agree, usually small organisations an be dynamic and react well to change but in the insrance of SEO its sometimes confused and mis guided, probably because there is so much bad advice out there!
Harris recently posted..Free dating sites
The amount of small businesses that utilize SEO in their marketing strategies is minimal. And convincing them to do so can often be the heart of a successful SEO business.
It’s correct that the competition is often pitiful, which is due to the reason I’ve just stated. Small business owners know nothing of SEO and often think that they’re being succesful if they rank on the 1st page for their company name.
Iain recently posted..Keyword Research Services
SEO is really great. All stuffs noted here are really helpful to those who wanted to improve their SEO for the benefit of their small businesses.
Samantha recently posted..Weber 386002 Portable Propane Gas Grill Review
I think social media plays a big part in promoting small business too. Example in twitter and Facebook. SEO is important but in years to come, social media will be the next in thing to connect people faster instead.
The Get Back Ex Guru recently posted..How To Get My Ex Boyfriend Back
Hey, these are great points and good suggestions. As you said keyword research, building back links and using analytics tool will provide great benefits. Apart from these we can use google webmaster tool which effectively track down errors in your website. This is one of the essential tool for better performance.
Margaret recently posted..Cost of Nissan Sunny and Micra to go up
Twitter: Life2Learning
says:
I mostly use Google keywords, but I have been using wordtracker lately. Great post.
Michael Belk (calculators) recently posted..Confidence or Arrogance? | The qualities of good leadership?
Usually with small businesses there isn’t too much competition in the state/town/city they are in, so ranking for local keywords is relativly easy.
John Barnes recently posted..Penny Auctions Sites
Twitter: devjosephite
says:
Hey I totally agree keyword research is the most important thing for getting good targeted audience. I feel Google analytic is the best tool for related keywords.
Devesh recently posted..How to Make a Resume Most Effective
Remarkable things here. I am very happy to peer your post. Thank you a lot and I am looking forward to touch you.
harshit recently posted..Angry Birds Coming To Facebook Gaming Zone This Valentine
Great article. A few more tips for your readers.
1. Utilize your most important keyword(s) in your title.
2. Do not “overload” your content with keywords. That used to be referred to as keyword stuffing.
3. Consider using multiple variations of your keywords on the same page.
4. Set up local business listings on Yahoo, Bing, Citysearch, Insiderpages, Manta, etc. These are all free listings that allow you to post your website link.
Denise Smith recently posted..10 Tips to Optimize Your e-Commerse Site
Twitter: techblowup
says:
SEO is really very essential. If your blog is not coming on the top of the search than there will be very low traffic than. So SEO plays an important role. Thanks for this nice post.
Prakash recently posted..Upcoming Games of 2012
I also agree that Google Analytics is perfect! And most important it is free. I like the way how easy to use is the software!
Anna recently posted..how much are veneers
That’s true Google analytics is really the perfect tool for keyword research if used properly and can really boost traffic .
Deep recently posted..Google Changes for Blogging and Seo 2012
Twitter: allierambles
says:
Hey Anna,
Nice to see you here. I know you have niche sites, so you use Google Analytics for the research on your subjects? I am curious. Just picking your brain. :-)
~Allie
Allie recently posted..Blogging Success: Failure Is Success
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is important because almost all internet traffic goes through search engines like Google and Yahoo. SEO is making your work show up the best in those search engines which in turn means more traffic to the site.
Tana recently posted..PPI
Twitter: abhibalani
says:
I am constantly reading SEO articles and everywhere I see KEYWORDS, kEywOrds and keyWORDS.. I didn’t know it’s so important. I am working on them now. I hope it helps my blogger blog in better SEO.
Abhi Balani recently posted..Good Blogger And A Good Blog: What Are The Signs?
Keyword research is a foremost thing which leads for the success of online business. It should be accurate so that you can able to target the targeted visitors. However it is not an one time process which starts and ends. It is a trail and error process.
SEO is, as the name suggests, optimization of your site/blog for higher search engine rating. Search engines like Google rate your sites according to the quality of the content in it. If your site provides good quality content, more users will be able to see your site when they search for related content. More users will make more ad-sense.
Tana recently posted..PPI Claims
Twitter: wishesfromhome
says:
These are all very useful things to follow. Especially the backlinks. They aren’t easy to get, so start working on it ASAP.
Google Analytics is the best SEO software for free. I love to use the new version of it. Nice Post.