Ranking on the top of Google is every business’s dream. Now, everyone knows how being on the first page of Google brings change in their business prospect. And when you own a small business you know the difficulties of making your ways through and gain the top spot while withstanding the competition. Knowing the right process of online marketing makes it easier. But if you’ve not yet started, this is the right time you do.
Online marketing is offering more opportunities than ever before to small local businesses.
Internet marketing is an umbrella term that comprises of different methods designed to help brands reach to its desired online goal. And the methods are Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Social Media Optimization (SMO), and Pay-per Click (PPC). Usually, you can divide the process of online marketing into two broad categories- Organic and paid campaigns.
This blog is especially dedicated to small businesses striving to make their brand name appear on the top of Google’s search result.
How do we help small businesses to rank on the first page of Google?
Getting rank on top of Google has never been easy. The road is full of challenges and time-taking. You may not be able to see any changes for some months after you start. However, when you go right, you know it’s worth every effort you put.
When it comes to small business, it’s more often deemed as ‘local business’, it needs to have good name in the market. And local SEO can be a game changer.
Local SEO
Local SEO is all about marketing the brand in and for the local market that the business wants to target. The process of local SEO is designed to make the business visible to the people who live in the targeted areas and looking for the services.
Local SEO boosts results with location-based-targeting. This means your business is visible in the areas you want to target and get conversions from. For an instance, if your accounting firm is located in Queensland and you’re targeting area is Hervey Bay; people looking for accountants in Hervey Bay will come across your business name on Google.
Similarly, there are more ways than local SEO for your small business to get it ranked on top of Google’s search result.
Google Listing
Well, this is an amazing offer by Google, enabling small businesses to mark themselves in Google map. It’s an extremely effective and also the quickest way to get yourself found by your targeted people from the targeted location.
For this, you need to open a business account with Google that will have the business details including, business hours, locations, website link, customer reviews, services, product categories, address, and images. So when you have the account, you’re listed with Google. And when someone searches for services and products that you offer in your area, your business name appears with all this information.
Organic SEO
Now, organic SEO is different from that of local SEO. The former SEO process is designed to target users based on location while organic SEO is to cater to the people using generic key terms used for optimization. Organic SEO is important for irrespective of brands, small or large.
There are numbers of procedures set by Google in terms to achieve long lasting result- top ranks for a longer time. Here are some basic SEO strategies to be followed-
Targeting website content
Content plays the main role in this marketing game. When you want to target the local market, make sure to use content that addresses the local people. The content must have mention of the areas with the service like Asbestos Removal in Sunshine Coast in the website, Meta description, headlines and in Google map listing so that you have better chance to get ranked on top of the result. Using this location-specific-keyword in the content improves first page ranking potentiality and shows up your business name when users in the mentioned area search for the same service.
Now, if you want to keep your business name for a long time on the search result, use location specific keywords for blogging for local customers which they will find beneficial. A blog is an extremely great way to achieve results on Google as they provide steady and fresh information about the service.
Site Responsiveness
Google’s only intention is to provide the best user experience to its users. Site responsiveness is one of the important parameters. A responsive website allows users to browse the site from any device without the stress of pinching in and out for adjusting. However, having a responsive website doesn’t mean you will rank high automatically- it’s just the basic approach of showing Google that you abide by the rules of giving your users better user experience.
Page Loading Speed
This is another important thing which can make or break your user base. If your site takes more than 2 seconds to load, it will drive away your online users, resulting in your site with poor traffic counts and negative user experience. In today’s fast world, everyone wants the result in seconds. Do not make your users wait for more than 2 seconds. As you update the site with codes and content, you need to check page speed because it’s one of the important metrics that Google consider for high ranking.
Web design
To make sure the visitors feel welcomed and they have a good impression, you need to consider your web design. Your website design should be updated with great navigational features. While the design must be aesthetically pleasing, it should not confuse visitors. The colours and style represent a brand image. The use of colours should meaningfully connect with the brand’s appearance.
Now, design or visual appearance is not everything. If the design is not functional, it makes no sense. Hence, frontend development comes into play to connect each design aspect with each other and make the website functional.
Social Media Optimization
Well, the lines between social media optimization and search engine optimization has been blurred over the period. Previously, they both were looked as different aspects of digital marketing. Now it’s seen that businesses without proper social media management strategy have poor SEO performance. Social media optimization helps you connect with your audience and strengthen your brand presence.
While one viral Facebook post won’t magically bring change in your SEO process, SEO and SMO together form a strong marketing compound that every brand should have in their marketing strategy. Most often not having proper social media optimization strategy blocks the growth and make the branding effort stagnant. A productive social strategy must contain:
- Solutions of meeting social challenges
- Creating a content strategy
- Business opportunities
- Process of engaging the audience
- Tracking of marketing effort
Doing social media in the right way can drastically change the way you approach your audience. Using platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram can put you amidst your potential customers.
Pay-Per-Click
Who doesn’t want to see their brand name on top of search result? If you want the same you need to consider Pay-per-click service. While SEO takes time to show result, using Pay-per-click serve you faster while building your chance to rank better organically.
The best part of PPC is that you can increase your chance to be on top of the search result with spending some amount of dimes per day, based on your industry, keyword and location that you target.
PPC works as how bidding works. You choose keywords that you want to rank with and bid on against your competitors who also want to rank with the same keyword. When your PPC optimization beats away your competitors you earn the top spot.
But, don’t forget the landing page. Your landing page decides the quality of your paid result. When a user clicks on the link they are directed to the landing page. The landing page should have information about the particular service and product you’re promoting. The link should also encourage the user to take further desired action to make the buying cycle complete.
Does your small business need help to get rank on Google?
If you want to gain top score for your small business on a search result, paid or organic, we can help. Since we’ve been working with many clients like you for years, we know what will work for your type of business.
With effective SEO and PPC plan you can increase the closing rate and grow your business. We can also help you with the website development and design. To know more about our comprehensive web services, please feel free to contact us at- info@designzcloud.com