A
strong SEO foundation will almost always lead to good results in the end.
CONTRIBUTOR
Co-Founder
of E2M
Source: Entrepreneur
When it comes to online marketing, the purpose and objectives
are generally the same as traditional strategies in terms of increasing brand
awareness and finding new customers.
There are a number of ingredients that go into a successful
digital promotion all the way from planning to sales. Perhaps the biggest
benefit online marketing has for small businesses is that it enables them to
spend each dollar more efficiently to yield a higher ROI.
Here are some ways in which small businesses are making the most
out of their online marketing efforts.
Producing strong content
Content marketing is the cornerstone of every online marketing
strategy. Producing stellar brand material is a surefire way to create loyal
visitors and encourage sharing.
At the end of the day, the most important goal of content
creation is to turn visitors into customers. This can start with small
objectives like earning a follow on social media, signing up for a newsletter
or taking a survey or poll.
Regardless of what type of content you are producing, such as a
video, image, blog or social media post, you need to have a clear vision of how
your content is going to add value to the life of the reader. Successful small
businesses don’t just produce content for the sake of keeping a schedule.
Typically, they know exactly what the concerns of their target audience are and
they gear their content to address them in a profound, meaningful way.
Take Magnolia for example. This father and son electronic
store took into account that a good deal of their customer base is not
well-versed in the world of electronics. With this insight, they released a
mini magazine called Buyer’s
Guide Place. This
magazine was similar to a blog in that it educated their audience on subjects
like little things to looks for when buying electronics. It worked to highlight
the expertise of their team and what they stand for. After years of
successfully connecting with customers, what started off as a small electronics
store ended up being bought out by Best Buy for $87 million.
They are still producing top-notch, educational content in the
form of online expert guides.
Everyone benefits from quality content. Consumers get gratifying
material and businesses earn better rankings on the SERPS. Small business can
take advantage of their tight-knit followers and cater to their precise
interests.
Localized SEO strategy
A good SEO strategy is the key to getting noticed in on the
SERPS. Local SEO is extremely important for small businesses, especially ones
with a physical address.
The end goal of local SEO is to gain high rankings for searches
around your geographic location. When users search keywords or phrases in the area,
you want your website to be at the top of the list.
Localized SEO is great (but very competitive) for smaller
companies such as dental offices or law firms. For example, Abrahamson and
Uiterwyk, a Florida injury law practice, has used local SEO to dramatically
boost their rankings to increase business. With consistent efforts, they’ve
ended up ruling Google’s Map packs and local results for keywords like “injury
lawyer Tampa FL.”
“When someone is in need of legal counsel, they are checking the
yellow pages less and less. They turn more to Google. With the help of some
great local SEO efforts, we’ve managed to be one of the first few names that
pop up in the search. This has helped us represent over 15,000 injury victims.”
-- Erik Abrahamson, Senior Partner at Abrahamson and Uiterwyk in Tampa, Fla.
Currently, only 17 percent of small business are investing in
SEO. Now is a great time to jump onboard and find the best ways you can
leverage the SERPS to increase your online exposure.
Website marketing
To compete in the rapidly evolving digital landscape, having a
strong website is a must for businesses of all sizes. Keep in mind, 51 percent of website traffic comes from organic search. Your positioning
depends on the reputation of your website.
Perhaps one of the most important factors that go into a
website’s reputation (that influences Google Rankings) is speed. Loading time
has a huge impact on how users interact with your platform. Page abandonment
drastically increases after each second.
A great way to optimize website speed is to select a good host
for your web server. A lot small businesses miss the mark in this area because
they’ve put together a site using a basic CMS like WordPress, but don’t have a
good technical team to support them. Here’s a good hosting comparison
for WordPress sites.
For a small business evaluating a website platform, the free
trials are typically pointless. Building and marketing a good website takes a
lot of work and resources. Committing to this task is one of the best
investments of time and money you can make for your business.
One of the greatest things
about online marketing is that it gives small businesses a chance to compete a
relatively level playing field as the bigger enterprises. Success is based on
smarter, more efficient strategies rather than total money spent. Having a solid
content creation plan and SEO approach is crucial in getting your website in
front of the eyes of your target audience. No need to rush it, a strong
foundation will almost always lead to good results in the end.
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