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| Good SEO is essential no matter what your business. Credit: SEO image via Shutterstock |
With the majority of consumers now looking for businesses online, having a quality search engine optimization plan is a must.
Research shows that three-quarters of Internet searchers never scroll past the first page of their results, making it critical that small businesses spend time working on their SEO strategy to get themselves in a top position.
To help small businesses, Eric Schiffer, CEO of the digital marketing and SEO firm DigitalMarketing.com, offers five tips on how they can boost their search engine rankings.
- Mobile optimization: If your website isn’t already seamlessly viewable on mobile platforms, it should be. Google has been very open about the fact that mobile websites that fail to perform correctly from a technical standpoint will be ranked lower than those that do. Use traffic analyzers to gauge how much traffic your business site receives from mobile users, then use an online tool to check how easily your site translates to mobile.
- Interact socially: Small businesses are now expected to have some level of social media interaction with their target market. Take time to interact with your consumer base and build social relationships. That can go a long way toward making your business relevant and more credible in the eyes of your prospective customers.
- Content is not king: Content is not king, credible content is. Make content marketing a must for your small business in order to grow your company. A blog, which is a very effective way of producing and distributing compelling content for your brand, is also a strategy that offers numerous SEO benefits. This is especially true when used properly as a central asset to which other social sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest, are connected. Form your blog posts around current industry issues and important information for potential customers. Set up blog entries to be posted ahead of time with simple scheduling techniques.
- Optimize your website’s FAQ section: If you can effectively compose your FAQ section to contain the proper target keywords (in both the questions and answers), provide accurate and thoughtful answers and include interactive links to other websites and targeted social assets, the FAQ section of the site can serve as a major boost to your rankings. Google is always looking for that potent combination of keywords, relevant content and links. Once you nail those down, you’ll be further conquering the search engines.
- Local listings: Increase your exposure by getting your business listed on local business listings like Yahoo! Local, Google Places and other emerging sites that can inform users about your presence within their community. This offers opportunities for interaction, such as posting reviews for your business. Optimize and manage those local business listings to further the significant impact they can have on new revenue opportunities and your business’s reputation within your local, regional or national market.
Originally published on Business News Daily.
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