In April 2019, Boostability was asked to be part of the joint Lindon-Pleasant Grove Chamber of Commerce marketing panel, which was held in Utah County. This monthly panel was designed to help local small businesses have a better understanding of their marketing options and how to implement them into their business marketing strategy.
“We want[ed] to give [the attendees] an opportunity to ask questions and get educated answers from a variety of marketing professionals, all in one place,” said Emily Olson, owner of Saratoga Jewelry Co. and Chairman of the Pleasant Grove-Lindon Chamber of Commerce,
Olson invited Mike Marsh from Boostability to explain the basics of SEO, with a specific emphasis on current SEO trends and how marketing strategies need to change in order to adapt. Mike has worked with Boostability for five years as an SEO specialist. Highlights from his remarks are below.
An Overview
Boostability offers a wide variety of products that help SMBs reach their goals through inexpensive SEO solutions. We have many examples of low-cost solutions that bring in big results, like:
- Business Listings/Citations
- Keyword Research
- Article Engagement
- Onsite Copy/Blogs
- Offsite Blogs and Guest Posts
- On-page Optimization and Implementation
- Website Services
Small businesses are often left wondering where they should get started when it comes to SEO and online marketing. Luckily, Boostability has experience with thousands of small businesses , and we’re constantly on the search for new methods that will help businesses get traffic. The following list of SEO checklists, courtesy of SearchEngineJournal, illustrates a simple but effective way any small business can address their online presence:
Small Business SEO Checklist
- Nail Down What Problems You Solve for Customers
- Fix Your Technical SEO Issues
- Speed
- Duplicate content
- Broken links
- Improper use of canonical link elements
- Un-optimized pages
- Optimize Your Pages
- Titles
- Meta descriptions
- Body content
- Optimize Google My Business
- Find Out What Competitors are Doing & Do it Better
- Manage Local Business Listings & Citations
- Get Links from Websites in Your Local Area
- Add Schema Markup
- Focus on Getting Reviews
- Create Videos & Images for Competitive Keywords
- Mix Paid with Organic to Get Going
With the help of this list, conduct an SEO site audit to determine what keywords you’re currently ranking for, where you can devote resources and where your attention should be to improve lead conversions.
Local Search
The popular marketing blog The Manifest has noticed small businesses devoting fewer resources to local or on-site search optimization. Instead, most small businesses are focusing on social media marketing. While important, working with other, lesser-known SEO techniques can have big returns.
With small businesses, the best audiences are typically found close to home—emphasizing local search in their SEO campaign will influence customers close to a business’s physical location. Because Boostability understands that unique nuances of small business, we’re constantly gathering data to help the small mom-and-pop shops get big results.
Users conduct 50% of all mobile searches in hopes of finding local results. Of those searches, 61% of users intend on making a purchase. Optimizing your website for mobile viewing ensures people looking to buy will find it easy to do so.
82% of consumers use search engines to find a local business. Enhance you local search results to get your company noticed by local consumers.
As part of local search, all small businesses need to have their Google My Business accounts updated with current information, including a business name, times of operation and an accurate location. Claiming your business on directories like Manta, Acxiom, Localeze/Neustar, and Infogroup are also used for local citations and can have significant influence on local search listings. Claiming your business is essential to being seen and bringing in traffic through online searches.
Q&A
It can be tough to know exactly how to approach an SEO strategy, but here are a few things to consider.
What is the right marketing budget for my business?
From an online only perspective, it’s a case-by-case basis. But to evaluate your online presence needs, you likely need expert help to get it started. There isn’t a magical marketing budget, but we suggest estimating 10% of gross revenue is not out of the question.
Have you ever seen something interesting in a marketing campaign tactic?
I once witnessed a marketing campaign consider sending coconuts or potatoes in the mail as a way to land leads for sponsors. The idea was nixed at the latter stage by management, but it does tell a lot about the possibilities for getting your name out there.As long as it pulls eyeballs, try it. Marketing can be anything! (And, as it turns out, the band Panic! At the Disco used this technique pretty successfully in promoting their latest album.)
What are the current trends with SEO?
There are a few key trends we’re seeing a rise in popularity.
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- Mobile responsive websites are becoming increasingly important. Thanks to a Google update that privileges mobile-responsive websites in the search results, we’re encouraging our clients to make this a priority. You can check for mobile-friendliness with Google’s mobile test.
- While a little older, the E–A-T Google algorithm is still very much at the forefront of SEO strategy. The E.A.T. acronym focuses on three key areas: (Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trust)
- Expertise — Considers how knowledgeable the site owner or content author is on the subject matter they’re talking about.
- Authoritativeness — Determines the credibility of the website publishing the content, including any credentials, outside reviews, or testimonials.
- Trustworthiness — Examines how trustworthy the site in question is, which includes overall site quality and factors like site security.
This update mostly affected websites and businesses that served the health, fitness, nutrition, wellness, and medical communities. Businesses can be more compliant with this update by optimizing About pages and displaying the expertise of site contributors more prominently.
- Subscription testing for Google My Business for advanced features.
- HTTPS emphasis
What should businesses be doing differently now than we’ve been doing in the past?
- Consider audience and user intent when determining keywords you are targeting
- Target and optimize on-site pages for one medium tail keyword (typically 2-3 words) and let Rankbrain rank you for hundreds of other like KWs
- If you’re having trouble determining what keywords will be most profitable, use lsigraph.com.
- Add Schema markup to your website if you haven’t already. Using the Google Structured Data Markup Helper can get you started toward claiming rich snippets that will bring in quality traffic.
Free Consultation
SEO can be tough to understand for the average small business owner. We’d like to show you how easy it can be. Boostability offers a free SEO analysis to SMBs to help them get started in optimizing their website for better SEO, while also providing advanced help through our small business SEO services. Contact us today for more information on how we can help you stay relevant and compete online!
