The Power of SEO: How To Successfully Position Your Small Business Online

As a small business, getting customers can be a daunting affair, especially when starting up. The budget is tight, there isn’t enough money to plug into various marketing initiatives. Nonetheless, you can't just sit by and sing kumbaya, hoping that things will miraculously work themselves out. Certainly, that would be disastrous and, probably, spell doom for your budding business. So, you may be wondering if I’m operating on a shoestring, how, then, can I promote my enterprise to reach many customers cheaply?

What is SEO?
Well, there are a lot of options you can explore. But today, we would like to single out just one: search engine optimization (SEO). You’ve probably heard or read about it somewhere. In case you are not familiar with the term or the practice, SEO is the systematic and continuous process of improving website ranking on the result after conducting a web search. By ranking on top of your competitors, you stand a far, much better chance of scoring higher traffic to your website.

Up to this point, you must have noticed that a website is at the heart of your SEO strategy. So, the first thing you should do is to design and develop a professional website for your business. Everything piggybacks to your business website. Think of it as your shopfront situated in the digital space or if you want to be technical a search engine.

Google, Bing, and Yahoo are some of the most popular web search engines that businesses and organizations of all sizes can use to facilitate link-ups with prospective clients. The innovation was and continues to be a marvel, given how much it has transformed business information technology. Sounds interesting? Well, let’s dig in on how it works!

How SEO Works For Small Businesses
The goal of SEO is to make it easier for customers to find your business online by providing relevant and timely information to their queries. Search engine software usually begins by crawling through the millions of webpages on the internet, looking for the content that matches the search query. Thereafter, the pages are indexed in a process called indexing. It essentially involves identifying and filing pages that contain useful content for on-demand use. Lastly, the using complex algorithms, the search engine system assigns scores to each webpage then displays the results in descending order.

Given that everyone would wish to be listed on the first, the top rankings are extremely competitive. Chances of your page being viewed decreases as you go down the ranking. Still, it is possible for you to get way there by focusing on the three components of SEO with little or no cost at all, depending on your competency. The three components that one needs to understand are Technical Optimization, On-Page Optimization, and Off-Page Optimization. Let us look each in turn briefly.

1. Technical Optimization
This is often the first step in setting up your business for success in the online world. And as the name suggests, it is technical and thus requires an expert with programming skills. Remember the website we talked about earlier? This is where the process of SEO begins. When developing the website, your technical consultant will focus on making the site SEO friendly. To do this, he or she needs to look at several factors (1) the loading speed, the website should fast, ideally 10 seconds or less; (2) set up proper, active internal links that will allow search engine robots to crawl on the pages easily; (3) website security to guarantee safety and privacy of your customers; and lastly, (4) website site map or structure among others.

2. On-Page Optimization
This is where you’ll need to continuously update your website with content that is relevant and provides a great user experience. First, you need to come up with a list of keywords. These are words or phrases that your customers are likely to use when a search for information related to your business. In doing so, you will be making it easier to search bots to fetch and display your webpage when a prospect query any of your keywords. The content can include blogs, company news, new products, event images and other pieces of information that the online community will find useful.

3. Off-Page Optimization
Although the above two components, technical and on-page optimization, contribute considerably, you still need off-page optimization to boost your ranking on the search engine. As the name suggests, off-page optimization involves activities done outside the site to promote traffic to the website. Some techniques include (1) backlinks from higher ranked websites that signal your website’s authority; (2) social media marketing, (3) influencer outreach; and (4) publicity among other promotional efforts.

Having understood the three critical components of SEO, it is time for you to get into action by applying the suggested tactics listed above. One of the most frequently asked questions at SMD Consulting Associates is how long it takes for one to see results. Well, this depends on many factors and there’s no definite timeline. But the bottom line is, it takes an awful lot of time. From our experience, we usually see traction after from six months. In general, consumer businesses (B2C) tend to do well as compared to business-to-business (B2B). As with all other marketing, patience is a virtue.

Final Thoughts
When working on your SEO, always focus on the customer perspective and behaviours. Before updating content on your website, ask yourself two questions: (1) is this piece of information relevant to my customers? (2) what keywords or phrases are they likely to use querying for the information on the search engine? This, therefore, calls for constant vigilance and research on consumer behaviours to stay ahead. Also, it is important to note that SEO is a continuous process. If you drop the ball, you will certainly be by-passed and getting back to your former rank may be an arduous endeavour. Even though you may be short on cash, SEO can’t be your only tactic in customer acquisition. You need an integrated approach that combines different channels, both offline and online. Slowly, as the business grows, incorporate other tactics contained in the marketing toolbox. Properly done, you’ll surely be on your way to success. Start now. Don’t wait any longer.

Stephen Osomba currently serves as the Lead Partner, Communication & Marketing at SMD Consulting Associates where he helps SME clients deliver value by adjusting the solutions to each company's mission, product, strategy, and industry.