This is the first of many articles on Small Business Search Engine Optimization (SEO) articles designed to help the business owner take action, massive action, and begin their quest for success using a relatively new and largely untapped marketing source, the Internet.
Search Engine Optimization is a fairly new discipline, considering the actual media has been in full swing for less than a decade. Gone are the days of relying solely on Yellow Pages, Radio or even Television to drive targeted traffic to your storefront. We now live in an exciting new era, the electronic era where for some, their storefront is now a website.
Business owners should welcome this new media with open arms and use it to their full advantage. Having your business website ranked high on the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) is no longer an option, its a necessity to stay competitive.
In the most basic sense, SEO is a broad discipline that involves "On Page" and "Off Page" methods, with the sole purpose of driving targeted traffic to a website. There is overlap between SEO and Search Engine Marketing (SEM), but these two disciplines are beginning to mean the same thing - drive targeted traffic to your website and convert the traffic to paying customers. Whether using organic or Pay per Click (PPC), positioning your website so your customers can find you is the goal.
Below are the minimal components of Small Business SEO:
- Keyword Research - picking keywords that will convert for your business.
- Meta tags - Title and Description Meta tags are a very important and simple, but all to often business websites get this one wrong.
- Business address on all pages of your website - very important for Google and others to find and recognize the location of your business.
- Submit your business to local search directories - Google, Bing and Yahoo Local Business Centers.
- Citations and back linking to your website - important for authority.
- Content, content, content - essential for success.
- hCard - a very effective way to make it easier for search engines to locate your business along with providing a "trust" factor.