While every business can benefit from SEO, not every entrepreneur has the budget to invest large amounts of money to invest in their marketing strategy. Even though some concepts, like completing a keyword search, are easy enough to handle on your own, others are more complicated.
Luckily, there are plenty of ways for all businesses to incorporate some key SEO tactics without stretching any budgets too thin. Here’s what you need to know.
Start with Social Media.
While Google has publicly stated that they don’t factor social media activity into a site’s overall rankings, there’s a strong correlation between SEO and your social profiles. While your profiles can appear in the search results on your own, it’s also true that social pages with more decent likes and shares see more web traffic. This could be from a social media search button including a link to your site. Plus, Facebook and Twitter pages can rank just like any other site, particularly depending upon a strong keyword or two. Whether consumers are looking for hospitals, TV mounts, or something else, social media makes it easier for sites to be found in the digital galaxy.
Overhaul your Website.
Whether you use a pen and paper or an Excel spreadsheet, you should start taking some notes. Go through your website and list all of your visible pages. Once you think you’ve got them all selected, try and determine which of those pages could be considered to be “thin.” Thin pages are ones that don’t have much value. They might not have strong content, they could be missing SEO metadata, or they could lead to a dreaded 404. Once you’ve identified thin pages—and note, pages like your privacy policy may qualify as “thin” due to their lack of inherent SEO value—start making the adjustments you feel comfortable handling.
Consider Mobile Optimization.
In the galaxy of digital marketing, are you a dwarf star or a supernova? If your answer is the former, you may want to review your mobile optimization strategy. Consider the fact that a vast amount of searchers rely on their mobile devices to look for solutions and information. If your website isn’t mobile-friendly, you’re going to have a difficult time appearing on smartphones and tablets. If you want to be a digital supernova, you need to ensure that your site adapts to mobile specifications and has snappy load times.
Get your Customers Talking.
One thing that customers love is a good review profile. Say your business is called something like “TV Mounts, Inc.” A customer searching for TV mounts spots your business listing on Google and checks the first review. Unfortunately, it’s not so encouraging and says “TV Mounts, Inc. sells the worst TV mounts I’ve ever seen.” What’s the likelihood that searchers will then visit your website? If you guessed that it’s fairly low, you’d be correct. While good and bad reviews don’t directly impact your SEO, claiming the top spot won’t hold much sway if you’re frequently getting bashed by former customers. Good reviews can translate to a stronger chance that someone will click through to your site.
Seek Outside Help.
Many businesses are hesitant to partner with SEO agencies, especially if they’re on a budget. Some think they can write their own privacy policy page, conduct their own keyword research, and handle every aspect of their on-page SEO. Then, things become overwhelming. Luckily, there are plenty of affordable SEO services like SearchAtlas that can give you a boost in the search results. Companies like SearchAtlas are just that: your atlas, or roadmap, to success. Plus, the ROI from a marketing agency can easily offset the recurring costs.
Even if you’re working with a smaller budget, there are still plenty of ways to add search engine optimization to your digital marketing strategy. From website tweaks to smarter optimization, there’s a lot you can do to improve your standings in the search results.