Learn to hire SEO for small businesses
You may be able to do the basics of SEO professional Services, but if you can’t do all the tactics, your efforts may not move your results to the top and your time will end up being wasted.
For any small or local business that wants to stay afloat, search engine visibility is very important. Paid ad campaigns are a great way to get immediate visibility and highly targeted traffic, but it’s crucial that you’re working on your organic presence for the long term as well. The problem is that website optimization (SEO) is a complex digital marketing strategy that requires consistent effort over time.
And this is the riddle. Local companies are not making use of one of the most powerful digital marketing strategies due to the fact that they are a local business. Now, you don’t have time to do SEO, but you also don’t have time to learn enough about it to be able to hire small business SEO services correctly.
And that is why we wrote this post. We would like to change that for you, so here’s what we’re going to cover:
- The basics of what SEO is and why it matters to local businesses.
- The benefits of hiring SEO services for small businesses.
- How to find affordable local SEO services.
- What to look for in an SEO agency.
Search engines are where your customers are looking for information about your products and services, and that’s where you need to stand out for them and stand out from your competitors. So let’s get you equipped to do that.
What is SEO for small businesses?
Before we get into the types of services that an SEO agency provides, let’s first make sure that you have a correct understanding of what SEO is. Many business owners see website optimization (SEO) as a mystery that only those with internal knowledge can solve. Yes, an SEO company will have the internal knowledge you don’t have, but knowing the basics is really important, and it can be divided into simple concepts:
- Even if you are optimizing your site, search engines build their ranking algorithms around user behavior, as they aim to be the most reliable source of information out there. What this means is that, in the end, you are only optimizing for search engine users – also known as people like you.
- SEO is not just a tactic, but a combination of efforts that work together to help search engines like Google find your site, identify it as trustworthy, organize the information you’re publishing about it, and present it to users looking for it.
Let’s look at each component more closely.
Search
One of the most common ways for consumers to find products, services and businesses closest to them is through a search engine (hence the term “local search”). They will enter a search term or question (also known as a keyword). They will then return what they identified as the most appropriate and useful results, showing local results whenever possible due to their proximity and relevance.
In fact, in many cases, local results take up the entire home page. This is what we get when we type in “law”, “dentistry”, and other services for example on Google, without even including our location in the consultation.
Search engines use complex algorithms (or formulas) that help to identify, evaluate and prioritize pages. The engine “spiders” constantly search the web, filtering each page they find using this formula and storing the pages in a database (called an index). That way, when a person does a search, Google is actually returning results from its index instead of the live internet.
The important thing to remember is that SEO is about transmitting the quality of your website pages and their relevance to certain places and terms in a language that a computer can understand, such as through meta tags and other elements marked in HTML.
Optimization
In order for your potential customers to find you through a Google search, you need to rank at the top of Google; particularly, on the first page; ideally, in the first results. That’s why you need to optimize your content. Hence the term “search engine optimization”.
And the optimization part is where a small business SEO service comes into play. SEO produces strong and sustained results, but only if done correctly. It can be difficult for a small business to do all the optimizations correctly, let alone find out what these tactics are to start with. So let’s talk about SEO services.
Why hire an SEO agency?
So we have just established that research is very localized information, which is why it is a digital marketing strategy for small businesses that is worthwhile. But why hire an SEO agency?
SEO is complex
Although we have only simplified the main components above, this does not make SEO any less complex. And SEO for small businesses doesn’t make it any less than SEO for large companies. As mentioned above, SEO is a set of practices that work synergistically to gain exposure on the results pages of local search engines. You may be able to do the basics of SEO, but if you can’t do all the tactics, your efforts may not move your results to the top and your time will end up being wasted.
SEO requires continuous work
SEO is not a single, plastered strategy. There are some unique optimizations that you can perform that require little or no maintenance, but real SEO is a constant work in progress. It involves:
- Publishing fresh, high-quality content regularly;
- Constantly updating existing pages for accuracy;
- Going back to old pages and adding links to new pages;
- Promoting content through other channels such as social networks and email.
Many small business owners have enough on their plate with carrying out their daily activities. With the help of an SEO agency , your website may be generating massive traffic and takes you in the background while you are able to stay focused on your customers.
SEO is a moving target
As we covered in the “engine” section of our SEO introduction above, Google uses a complex algorithm that takes into account several ranking factors to determine the quality, relevance and accuracy of a page. We know a good part of these classification factors, but not all of them. In addition, Google is always evolving its algorithm. A small business SEO service can stay on top of these algorithm updates and adjust the strategy accordingly.
Knowledge and tools
Free SEO tools are great to use when creating content and doing the work you can master. SEO tools and service subscriptions are also useful, but you have to learn to make the most of each platform. A professional SEO services agency is equipped with the best tools and knowledge that, when combined, can give you an edge over your competitors.
Benefits of using an SEO service
So, we can see how much work an SEO partner can remove from his marketing action list, but let’s talk about what you get in return.
Stay focused on growth
As mentioned above, SEO takes a long time – not just each individual tactic, but it also performs ongoing maintenance and stays on top of Google updates. When hiring an SEO agency for your website, you no longer need to specialize in using meta tags, rich snippets, other technical information, SEO audits (unless you want to) and Google updates. This means that you have more time to focus on other aspects of your business, such as increasing your offers or leads and sales.
See fast success
SEO efforts can take weeks and even months to show in terms of traffic and more customers. So while we think that learning the hard way is often the best way, SEO’s long turnaround time makes it a more fun place for trial and error. A small business SEO service has the combined years of experience among its specialists to be able to quickly identify victories and mistakes that could take years (and precious brain cells) to achieve on its own. In addition, there are many other aspects of your business that I am sure you are already learning the hard way.
Understand your data
The faster you can increase your website traffic, the better, because you will get more meaningful data to be able to work. But what data is significant? How can all this make sense? This is another benefit of using an SEO service for small businesses. They can take a look at your website’s traffic and gain important insights to inform your goals. They can help you see:
- Which pages receive the most visits;
- Which calls to action are most effective;
- Which landing pages (arriving from search engines) convert the most;
- The demographic profile of your target audience.
These insights will inform your content strategy moving forward and help your SEO agency refine its efforts only to the sites that are worth your money.
Activate your marketing wheel
Getting started with SEO can be slow, but good SEO tactics employed by a solid SEO company will eventually create a reinforcing cycle. When your site’s ranking improves, more visitors will find your pages in search results. With more visitors arriving and staying on your pages, you will get taller. With a high level and broader exposure to your high-value content, more sites will connect to your pages. This increases your domain authority and credibility, which further improves your site’s ranking. And so on. And the higher you rank on Google, the more you will effectively reach your audience.
Generate more sales
When SEO is done correctly, you will not only see more visitors to your site, but more qualified visitors. Since search engines return results for users who are actively looking for a particular term or phrase, getting to the top of that pile means that you are providing information to the people who want it most, when they want it. This means that people who come to your site through search are interested in buying and more likely to convert.
What will an SEO services company do?
If at this point, you know the basics of SEO, but if you are thinking of hiring an SEO services company for your business, you may be wondering exactly what they are going to do. In this section, we’ll take a little deeper dive into your tactics so that you can form a more accurate picture in your head and be aware of terms that may come up in your conversation with an SEO agency.
SEO On-Page
The efforts within the page, called SEO On-Page , are focused on the “traceability” and usability of the pages on your site. They will make optimizations for the parts of your site that are seen by the public and are read by search engines. That includes:
- Content: They will ensure that the content of your pages is relevant to the keywords you are trying to rank and that the content is useful and of high quality.
- Experience: They will use site analysis to identify how engaging a page is and will provide fresh start-ups to improve the user experience.
- Structure: They will ensure that your site’s linking hierarchy is organized and easy to crawl through search engines.
- Meta data: They will ensure that each page is complete with title tags, headers, image tags, rich cards, among others that contain keywords being targeted.
- Website performance: This involves page loading speed, responsiveness (renderings and functions correctly on any device or screen size) and image size, etc.
Off-Page SEO
A good SEO services company will also employ several off-page SEO practices, which involve the backend elements of your website. They will help you with:
- Backlinks: They will help you build links to your website from other trusted sites.
- Domain authority: They will ensure that you are consistently building trust with Google.
Tips for choosing a small business SEO agency
When starting your search for the perfect SEO agency, it can be exhausting. To help you navigate the hundreds of companies that everyone claims to be “best”, we’ve compiled a short list of important considerations.
Look beyond the agency ranked first
Of course, you could argue that they must really know what they’ve been doing since they first came in, but in doing so, you also risk going over other top agencies that may be smaller and nicer than work, and even closer to you geographically. There are many agencies that are genuinely amazing at what they do, and instead of spending their time ranking for highly competitive keywords, most of their business comes from referrals.
See if they specialize in anything
As attractive as it may seem to go with the company that does all of this, you may find that your money is best spent on an agency that specializes in a particular industry or service. Trying to be the best in everything related to SEO is a high order that very few can fulfill. Really investigate the service providers you consider and see if they have the expertise that applies directly to your niche, industry or problem areas.
Search for an agency with educational content
While a good SEO service will do the fieldwork for you, a great SEO service will keep you informed and educate you along the way. This will not only give you peace of mind that your money is being well spent, but you will also gain knowledge and maybe even get tools to perform SEO practices on your own and make informed decisions in the future.
Know your budget
Knowing your SEO budget will largely determine which companies are cut and which deserve a closer look. This will not only make you more comfortable when the ball starts rolling, but you also don’t have to worry about any strange cash flow problems in the middle of your service plan. Don’t be afraid to openly explore all the payment options that your SEO company has to offer.
Create a relationship with your SEO agency
Nothing can give you a better view of an SEO agency than having a close relationship with it. This gives you a chance to get a real feel for the way they handle business and determine whether or not there is any chemistry. Which leads to our next section.
Questions to ask an SEO agency
Many small business owners are wary of SEO services due to past experience. They hired so-called SEO experts who were only temporarily effective, completely ineffective, or perhaps even hampered their website traffic. When analyzing SEO service options, be sure to avoid companies that mention guaranteed rankings and automatic link exchange. Also, ask the questions below:
- How will we communicate and how often?
- What kind of contracts, quotes and service options do you have?
- What is your action plan to improve our rankings?
- Have you worked with a company similar to ours in the past?
- What do you know about our industry?
- What kind of results should we expect to see?
- What does contract cancellation consist of?
- What kind of tools do you use?
Do you want a small business SEO agency?
As the world of online marketing continues to grow, the competitive landscape will also remain competitive, making SEO more important than ever. At the end of the day, in addition to the costs of a website, SEO is free, BUT there are no shortcuts. It is a set of efforts that collectively and over time will improve your ranking and visibility. If you are not confident in your ability to consistently produce relevant and quality content, correctly place keywords in meta data for your web pages or make other technical adjustments to your website, an Abdul Rimaaz SEO professional may be the best for you.
Please contact us to talk about how we can help your business.