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Many business owners make the mistake of assuming that it’s not worth their time to invest in SEO because their website doesn’t get much traffic anyways. But, this is precisely the reason why you should invest in SEO. If you don’t have much traffic now, it’s a good idea to invest in SEO so you can increase traffic and grow your business.
Business owners also use a small budget as an excuse for not doing SEO, but this is another reason that simply doesn’t make any sense. SEO has proven to be more cost-effective than other forms of marketing, so instead of wasting your limited budget on traditional marketing methods, allocate the majority of the resources you have to SEO.
So you see, there’s no reason why your website shouldn’t be implementing SEO strategies. Which strategies are right for you? Here are some of the best ways to do SEO if you have a small budget and don’t have much traffic:
Mobile Optimization
In 2016, mobile officially became the primary device that consumers use to access the web. Google is well aware that most consumers use their mobile devices to browse the web, which is why the search engine now takes a site’s mobile-friendliness into consideration when ranking search results. This means if your website isn’t designed with the mobile user in mind, it will affect your ranking.
How can you make your website mobile-friendly? First, consider the load time. Mobile consumers are impatient—in fact, about three-quarters of them will leave a website if it hasn’t loaded within five seconds. You should also use a responsive web design, which means the website has the same URL and code regardless of whether the user is accessing it with a desktop, smartphone, or tablet. With a responsive web design, the website will adjust to whatever device the consumer is using to ensure they can access all of the features of the site. It’s a good idea to test your website using this free tool provided by Google to learn what you need to improve upon to make your site more mobile-friendly.
Content Strategy
If you want to improve your ranking, you have to commit to creating content. The content that you post on your website has to be well-researched, informative, and fairly lengthy. You shouldn’t expect to see results if you’re only producing short blogs that don’t offer any new or interesting ideas.
Before you begin writing, think about what questions your customers may have and what your customers would be interested in reading about. For example, if you are an esthetician, think about the questions that you have to answer the most often. Your target audience would probably be interested in blogs on some of these topics:
- What are the best skin treatments to prevent aging?
- How can you protect your skin from sun damage?
- The best treatments for acne-prone skin
- How to find the right esthetician
- How much do skin treatments cost?
Now that you have a list of topics that you would like to write about, it’s time to make a list of long-tailed keywords that you can include in the content. A long-tailed keyword is a three or four word phrase that is very specific to your business. For example, a short-tailed keyword would be “esthetician,” while a long-tailed keyword would be “best esthetician in Chicago.” The long-tailed keyword does not have as many monthly searches as the short-tailed keyword, but it also doesn’t have as much competition. This means small businesses have a chance at ranking high in the search results for long-tailed keywords, whereas they might not with short-tailed keywords. Using long-tailed keywords can also help you connect with customers who are very interested in your products or services. Someone who is searching for the “best esthetician in Chicago” is definitely more ready and willing to do business with a local esthetician than someone who is simply searching for “esthetician.”
Try to write at least one or two blog posts a week if you want this strategy to be effective. After the blog has been posted to your website, don’t forget to share it on your social media channels to drive more traffic back to your site.
Google My Business
If you have a website that doesn’t get much traffic, chances are that you may be a local business that relies on customers in the community. If this is the case, you should focus on improving local SEO using Google My Business. To illustrate how Google My Business affects your local SEO, search for pizza restaurants in Chicago. The first results that you will see will appear below a map and will have basic information about the location, reviews, and contact information of each restaurant. This information is pulled from these restaurants’ Google My Business pages. By updating your page, it’s possible that you could appear in one of these spots when someone enters a keyword related to your business.
Claim your Google My Business page by visiting google.com/business. Once you have access to your business’s page, fill out the business hours, location, accepted forms of payment, and description, then add photos of your business. Don’t skip over any sections—Google will only bump you up to the top of the search results if you have a complete profile. Be as detailed as possible when it comes to choosing the category for your Google My Business page. For instance, if you are a nail salon, choose “nail salon” instead of “salon,” which doesn’t accurately describe your business. It only takes a few minutes to fill this information out, but it can make a huge impact on your business.
Do you want to use SEO strategies to drive traffic back to your website? If so, contact us today to schedule a free consultation where you will learn how we can help you with your SEO and digital marketing efforts.