Search engine optimization is a huge industry in today's digital age. Small businesses are a huge percentage of overall businesses in the world. An SEO might ask oneself...what steps should I take on behalf of my small business SEO client in order to maximize internet success? For many, answering this question can be troubling because small businesses need to maximize user experience and still maintain a competitive edge in search engines. However, with these five tips, you can make this project much easier on yourself and more successful for your client.
1.) Content is Still the Reigning King
What does this mean for you? It means as an SEO who is working with small business clients, a lot of your budget must go towards content creation. Every piece of information this company has on hand, and could possibly be valuable to consumers, needs to be out on the web. There is no better way to increase brand awareness, and rankings than writing valuable content. With social media being a huge component of internet marketing, write this content in a concise, and easy to read manner. Keep in the back of your head though, all of the content conventions for search engine optimization; maintain proper keyword density, headings, etc. All of this content should be directed towards user experience, while maximizing its affect on ranking through proper content creation techniques.
2.) Make it Relatable
Consumers love reading content that they can relate to. Whenever someone views a small business website, or searches for that matter, there is always a reason; these reasons should not be difficult to analyze. If your client runs a restaurant, the reason for humans visiting their site is to find information about their food, location, etc. Make the content on the website relatable to these key aspects. Show your visitors your expertise, and give them something meaningful to ponder. Like I previously said, in today's age of social media, it only takes one reader to make your website go viral. Write content in a way that you can convert your website's visitors into your own marketing tools.
3.) Target Local Search
Most queries on search engines include some sort of geographic modifier, as an SEO, you need to make sure that your client's website ranks well for all relevant geographic locations. If your client is located in the heart of Los Angeles, you must obviously target their keywords with a Los Angeles modifier; but don't neglect to target other similar districts as well. Spend some time targeting Santa Monica, Burbank, and other nearby cities. Smaller geographic locations tend to be much less competitive, but can still increase traffic dramatically.
4.) Optimize Internal Link Structure
This is an obvious reason for search engine optimization, but it also goes hand-in-hand with user experience. How many times have you been on a small business website when you simply cannot find what you are looking for? All valuable information should be easy to find, and the navigation should be structured properly. In blogs, reference old posts or relevant pages, this will help users find what they are looking for, and it will also create a web for search engine crawlers to get stuck in. Regardless, refining this link structure will really increase the value of your webpage to both humans, and computers.
5.) Linkbuilding for Small Business Sake
The number of back links a website has, and their respective anchor texts, are a huge proportion in the current ranking algorithms. As an SEO, you need to build links, but they must be built properly for your client to reap the benefits. Look for relevant websites that meet the criteria of having great, relatable content that is linked properly, and targets money keywords. Simply put, target relevant websites that are doing a good job at marketing their website. I cannot stress this enough, quality over quantity. It baffles me as to why some SEOs still automate the link building process. Not only is this dangerous, but it creates an incredibly inefficient link profile that can come back to hurt you. Spend time building these links with care, and do it efficiently.
All in all, SEO for small business revolves around the following: local keywords, user experience, and structure. Through great content you can really traverse up the ranking ladder, and by targeting local keywords and providing a great user experience you can target consumers that are looking for small businesses in your location. Additionally, a great user experience will really help you convert a visitor, into a customer. Small business SEO is a smaller discipline of search engine marketing, but many businesses can really benefit from this process. Proceed with diligence, care, and functionality.

By Mike Nicklas