Search Engine Optimisation SEO Startup Guide

SEO tips for small businesses in 2021

Charley Sixsmith SEO Leave a Comment

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is crucial to the growth and success of your business in 2021. By using these SEO tips for small businesses in 2021 we have provided below, your business will have an upper hand with creating brand awareness, reaching new customers, and building your knowledge of marketing techniques.

Starting and running a small business in 2021 is a difficult feat. With a huge list of responsibilities and tasks, it can be very time consuming to also have to consider how you will market your business using SEO effectively.

In this post, we have curated some of our best tips and tricks to answer all of your questions, help you understand where to start with SEO, and how these will help your business grow in the future.

1. When should I start doing SEO for my business?

In short: now.

Working on SEO for your business can be long and tiresome work, and it may be something you have been avoiding as it’s not what you went into business to do. But, without SEO there is no business; 61% of marketers say improving SEO and growing organic presence is their top inbound marketing priority, so it should be yours too!

If you really are against doing SEO then contact an SEO expert Digital Marketing Agency (like us!) to look into your website and do all of the hard work for you.

The first step towards a successful SEO campaign is to have a professional website with eye-catching landing pages in place and research your business selling or pitching keywords and then find out who your competition is; both locally, nationally, and globally.

Have a look at what they are doing to stay towards the top of search engines and keep going back to see what changes they make to their website to stay in that position. You then know your strategy should be to get above them on the search engines and bring visitors to your website instead of theirs.

2. What is local SEO and why should I use it?

As the past 18 months have shown, small businesses need support and customers more than ever, and so appearing in local searches is one of your biggest strengths. SEO experts have noted that “Where to buy” + “near me” mobile queries have grown by over 200% in the past two years, suggesting that optimising your business for a local market should be one of your main goals.

Imagine you search “best flower shops near me”, and instantly you’re shown a listing like the ones below:

With all of the information in one place, you don’t even need to leave Google to find the best and most appropriate content and place to buy what you need.

Keep these tactics in mind when you are implementing your SEO, and you will find that your local searches and conversions will soar.

3. Do I need a big budget to be successful with SEO?

By investing time in good content, complete analysis of on-page SEO, updating your website, and creating strong online relationships you can achieve a lot more with your SEO than your competitors who may have a much larger budget for SEO.

Although you don’t need a big budget for a successful SEO campaign, any budget you do have can be optimised by working with an expert Digital Marketing Agency who have all the knowledge and experience of dealing with SEO and can show you how to get the most from your campaigns.

4. Should I be optimising my content for mobile devices?

Yes! In 2020, 55% of all worldwide online traffic came from mobile devices. By optimising your websites and content to fit mobile screens, you can reach 55% more customers in your industry.

Some essentials to consider:

– Page speed: Mobile users want a quick, easy experience when searching on their phones, so the speed at which your page loads is the key to keeping them engaged.

– Website Design: A website’s design on desktop sometimes will not transfer well to a mobile device. By using responsive website design techniques you can allow mobile users to navigate your website with ease.

– Avoid pop-ups: Ads and pop-ups on desktop screens are not too invasive, but on a smaller scale mobile device, these could cover all of your content, leaving the user unable to see what you are offering.

However, when looking at other companies’ websites, remember that no two websites are ever the same and therefore what works for your competitors may not work for you.

5. Why should I optimise my business for Social Media?

It is estimated that the average internet user spent 2 hours, 24 minutes daily on social media outlets in 2020. Therefore, by optimising your business for social media platforms, you can make it easy for users to share your content, and the more your content is shared, the more likely Google will consider you a high authority website.

Here are a few tips to get started:

– Use high-quality images and videos: on most social media algorithms, videos typically perform better when it comes to exposure and engagement.

– Post new and relevant content for your viewers.

– Engage with your viewers on the content you post by responding to comments and sharing your work across a wide range of platforms.

6. How long will it take to see results?

It is essential that you remember that off-page SEO results are not instant or permanent. Just because you updated all the content on your website today, making it SEO friendly and engaging it does not mean Google will see this immediately – it may take a few days, weeks, or months.  Depending on keyword difficulty, and a range of other factors, off-page SEO can take up to 6-12 months to show the full extent of the results.

One of the most annoying things for a new business or a business with a new website is the waiting game. You will not suddenly be at the top of Google the very next day because you have to build up trust and authority. You need to continue updating your website and making it bigger and better so when Google does notice you it can see what you do and what you have been doing to make the user experience as good as possible.

7. Why should I optimise my business for Voice Command Search?

As we talked about before, mobile searches are the way of the future. Increasingly, we are also seeing a dramatic increase in voice command searches on Google. Voicebot.ai found that 41.8% of consumers used a voice command to search for products and services.

Voice searches are often longer and more conversational than text queries, as users are directly asking Google to answer their questions. Designing your content to fit users’ questions will help to put your business in front of the right people at the right time. So, optimising your content to fit with speech patterns and keywords that users are most likely to use when researching your business makes the most sense in 2021.

As a small business, this may not be a tactic that you think is important to focus on, but if you can take advantage of the rising use in Voice Command Search before any of your competitors, those customers will be yours.

8. What are Google webmaster guidelines?

Google’s webmaster guidelines set out which practices may lead to your website being removed entirely from the Google index. As they hold most of the search market, a penalty from Google results in a significant, and sometimes long-term loss of visitors and profit to your site.

Make sure to check the webmaster guidelines frequently, and read up on their best practices, and the techniques to avoid your content from being deleted.

9. Should I focus on my website’s link structure?

Using a mixture of internal and external links in your content is the key to maximum exposure and a higher conversion probability.

Internal links take a reader to content/products/services that you offer on your own website. These links can be useful to help viewers reach and interact with more of your content, which helps Google to determine the relevance of your internal pages and rank them as they see fit, ensuring you keep a strong online presence.

External links work by linking or being linked by a third-party website. For example, if you run a business that makes handmade notebooks, and a website such as The Independent links your business on one of their pages, this qualifies as an external link.

Links from big companies such as The Independent help your business to be seen by more customers, and this helps Google to determine the validity and reputability of your business. If a large number of high-ranking businesses are linking to your content, then it’s highly likely that you are producing great content that can be generated into great search results, and more conversions for your business.

10. What are Long-Tail Keywords and how do I use them?

Effective keyword strategy is essential in order to create successful SEO campaigns for your business. Free tools such as Google Keyword Planner are available to help select the most appropriate keywords for each page. Targeting keywords and phrases as a user would enter them into a search engine ensures that the article appears at an optimum time.

Long-tail keywords are an effective way to improve a page’s ranking in search results.  Long-tail strategies target more specific search terms with lower search volume than more generic terms. Customers in an advanced stage of the conversion funnel are more likely to use specific keywords to find the exact product they desire.

11. I don’t know how to do SEO, where can I get help?

If you have a question, ask it in an online SEO forum or hire an expert Digital Marketing Agency who have the necessary SEO tools and professional experience of handling complex businesses.

By using these SEO tips for small businesses in 2021, your business will be reaping the rewards for years to come.

How have you handled SEO for your business? Add your advice and experiences in the comments section.

The author’s views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of CodifyMedia.


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