SEO for SMEs

Small businesses face many different challenges. Money is tight, and resources are restricted, yet there’s the need to attract enough customers and generate sales to stay afloat. Even established companies can quickly struggle if they’re unable to adapt.

One such area that all small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have to not just adapt for but thrive in is digital marketing. A strong online presence has become more important than ever for businesses of all sizes. With the right approach to small business SEO, a company can gain strong visibility, organic trafficOrganic search traffic (sometimes called natural or unpaid search) is the traffic that's driven to a website because of unpaid placement on a search engine results page., and ultimately conversions from search engine traffic.

There’s just one issue: SEO is difficult.

Many different elements have to be on-point, at all times, for a successful SEO campaign. There’s no taking your foot off the gas – you have to refine, adapt, and improve for optimum results continually. Virtually everyone is in the SEO game these days, which makes standing out from the crowd all the more challenging.

Are you new to SEO for SME? Perhaps your current small business SEO campaign is lacking? This guide is here to help.

What actually is SEO?

It’s almost impossible to define SEO in a sentence or paragraph. It is a complicated, layered discipline that incorporates a wide assortment of components. There are also various SEO types, including:

• On-page SEO
• Off-page SEO
• Local SEO
• Technical SEO
• YouTube SEO
• eCommerce SEO
• Mobile SEOMobile SEO is a term used to describe the optimization of a website to suit the needs of mobile devices.

The type of SEO for SME used by your business is dependent on numerous factors. This includes your industry type, location, and opportunities. If you’re struggling to identify which SEO field to enter, it is recommended to receive assistance from an expert SEO consultant.

Before putting your head in a spin, let’s take a step back.

Think about a search engine as a referral tool, with the overall aim of supplying their users’ enquiries with the best – and most relevant – answers. Now consider SEO as a way of making your business website the ‘answer’, putting it at the top of the search engine landscape for relevant enquiries.

For SMEs, below are the main areas of small business SEO to consider for getting in Google’s good books:

• Website: A fast, responsive, and well-structured website is vital.
• Content: Your site’s content is designed to convince customers to choose your products and services.
• On-page: Optimising meta descriptions and page titles can make a significant difference.
• Off-page: External backlinks, brand mentions, and comments are activities to improve your off-page SEO.
• Content marketing: In-depth, informative blog content has the ability to enhance your visibility and reach a wider audience.
• Credibility: Reviews, testimonials, portfolios, and case studies help build credibility and sell customers on your business being the real deal.
• Local SEOLocal SEO is the process of optimizing your website to rank on the 1st page of Google for a search term and geographic location that is relevant to your business.: This is essential for businesses that have a local audience.

SEO is complicated. Yet this complexity can be reduced significantly by breaking it down into individual components. Plus, it is easy for most SMEs to strip away all the convoluted elements and focus simply on three main aspects: website design, linksHyperlinks, also known as links, are the connection points on a webpage that take you to other webpages., and content.

Key SEO focus areas for SMEs

There are specific areas to focus on for success when it comes to small business SEO. While an ideal scenario would see you concentrate on every SEO-related area, limited time, resources, and budget restrict this from happening. Fortunately, there are various cost-effective and straightforward aspects you can do to instantly boost your SEO standing.

Here’s a quick step-by-step checklist of key SEO areas to focus on:

1. Slick, logical website design

The foundation of any SEO campaign is the website. Now you don’t have to possess the most beautiful or unique site on the internet, but there are certain standards you have to achieve.

The user experience needs to be a particular focus, especially in 2022 as this becomes a ranking factor. This starts with the site structure. A logical link structure, one which is effortless to navigate, should feature easy-to-reach links for all of your site’s important pages. The likes of ‘About’, ‘Services’, ‘Blog’, and ‘Contact Us’ pages should be found on your homepage and in the navigation bar.

Your website’s loading speed is another essential facet. If your site is sluggish and unresponsive, wave goodbye to any organic traffic you hope to attract. Visitors will quickly take an alternate route and end up going to a competitor.

Security is another big point. Obvious as it may seem, businesses often overlook standard security protocols – and this can have drastic consequences. Aside from stolen data and finances, and permanent damage to your reputation, it can be harmful to your small business SEO efforts.

2. Refine your meta titles and descriptions

It’s not just your website that requires refinement. The same is also expected of your webpages.

One of the most effective tactics is to craft an enticing, unique meta title and description. These are what show up in Google search results. As a result, you need to capture the eye of those scrolling through their search result feed. Here are some tips:

• Don’t exceed the character length where Google begins to truncate your description/title. You want everything to be displayed. We go for a max character limit of 155 for meta descriptions, while 60 characters is the limit for a meta title.
• Entice users with engaging copy. This is difficult with a limited character count, but not impossible. Highlight the main points of the content, keep it snappy, and remove any unnecessary words when possible.
• Incorporate the page’s main target keywordKeywords are the words and phrases that potential customers might search for to find your business.. While not mandatory, this is a recommended step to take.

3. Produce high-quality content

To rank for relevant search terms, you need to supply relevant content. Ultimately, Google’s job is to connect its users with the content they’re seeking. If you make it clear to the search engine giant your content is relevant, engaging, and appreciated by their users, guess what: you’re getting a healthy bump up the search results page.

Aside from selecting suitable topics within your niche, keyword research is the starting point for producing content. Although you want to avoid going back in time and engaging in keyword stuffingKeyword stuffing is a technique that attempts to give pages higher rankings in search engine result pages by inserting the same keywords over and over again., it’s vital your content features relevant keywords – otherwise, it won’t show up in relevant search results.

However, depending on your industry, you have to be smart in which keywords you select. This is the case when you’re in a highly competitive market. With SEO for SME, you need to forget about targeting those common big fish keywords (for now at least). Mid and long-tail keywords, where there’s less competition, is the route to take.

Beyond the keywords, you want to produce engaging copy that keeps the audience reading, reduces bounce rateBounce rate is the percentage of visitors to a website who visit only one page. A high bounce rate indicates that visitors are not satisfied with your website., and turns visitors into customers. If you’re not a natural wordsmith, there are companies out there – wink, wink – that can take care of this side of your marketing.

4. Let Google know

Letting Google know about your website is an obvious step to take. Firstly, ensure your website is indexed on Google. If it isn’t, there’s no chance your site is getting ranked for… well, anything. To check it’s indexed, either look via the Google Search Console or do a “site:yourwebsite.co.uk” on Google.

If you’re performing Local SEO, creating a free Google My Business (GMB) account is a must for SEO for SME. Along with helping to rank your business in a specific geographical area, it can also be used to improve your listing, connect with customers, and gain valuable insights.

5. Link building

Link buildingLink building is a process of acquiring links pointing to your website. These links are obtained by creating content, participating in social media or commenting on other blogs. is another important component. These backlinks point back to your site’s pages, which gives said pages greater relevancy in Google’s eyes.

Both internal and external backlinks are beneficial. However, links that point back to your site from other sources are naturally seen as more valuable, which explains why they’re more difficult to acquire. One way of doing so is by guest blogging on relevant sites in your niche.

Other points to consider

The previous section highlighted the ‘must-do’ portion of SEO for SME. However, there are various other important points you should be covering with your SEO campaign. Failure to do so, and you’re giving the competition the edge they need to rank above your business.

Make sure to keep the following in mind:

• Fix broken links and pages: Broken links and pages on your website are harmful to SEO. Think about it: Google won’t be happy if they indexed one of your pages and pushed it up the rankings, but a user clicking on it leads to a ‘Page not found’ message. Locate your broken links/pages and fix them as soon as possible.
• Get links from related sites: Use related platforms to get your website listed in your backlink efforts. Think about using the likes of Apple Maps, Yelp, and Bing Places to get some relatively easy links pointing back to your site.
• Ratings and reviews: Ratings and reviews supply validity. They are social proof your business does what it says. As a result, you want to acquire as many positive ratings and comments as possible.
• Don’t forget images and videos: Images and videos can play a big role in giving your content the edge in the SEO race. When these are correctly optimised, they supply further ranking opportunities and a better user experience.
• Stay up-to-date: You cannot stay still with your SEO efforts. You need to always keep your content up-to-date. It’s also vital to stay on top of algorithm changes made by Google.

The best free tools for SEO

A restricted budget doesn’t mean you are restricted from using SEO tools. There are various free tools available that can significantly benefit your SEO campaign. Here are some recommendations:

• Google: It’s an obvious starting point, but it is also one of the best tools at your disposal. You can quickly find your competitors and understand why they are currently ranking ahead of your site.
• Google Analytics: Sticking on the Google theme, Analytics isn’t strictly an SEO tool. Yet it does provide vital information about your site, including bounce rate, page speed, and organic traffic. This type of information can be studied to see if your efforts are paying off.
• Seed Keywords: A research tool is necessary for finding fresh, relevant keywords, and Seed Keywords is one of the best free options on the market. Do a quick search and be provided with an assortment of industry-relevant keywords to incorporate into your SEO campaign.
• Exploding Topics: Are you struggling to find trending topics to write about for your site’s blog? Receive assistance with Exploding Topics. This tool shows you topics that are just bubbling up in popularity, allowing you to get in early and create content about emerging trends that are ready to explode in search queries.
• Screaming Frog: By using the free version of Screaming Frog, you can quickly find technical SEO problems on your website and fix them within seconds.
• SERP Snippet Optimizer: Ensure your meta descriptions and titles are at their best by using this optimisation tool.

SEO learning resources

There’s a lot to take in with regards to SEO – and that’s just with this guide! The good news: the internet is populated with an assortment of learning resources, so you can understand every aspect of SEO. Not sure what a long-tail keywordLong-tail keywords are phrases with more than two words. They're also more specific, often using modifiers to narrow down a search. is? Do a quick Google search (the irony isn’t lost on us), and you will be provided with an answer.

If we do say so ourselves, one of the best general learning resources is the Click Intelligence Knowledge Hub. The Hub features an array of free resources that SEO experts have crafted. From in-depth downloadable guides to tools, it’s both an educational haven and a practical solution for various SEO-related tasks. The handy search function also makes it easy to find whatever you’re looking for.

The need to analyse the competition

Your competition is the reason why you have to compete so hard with your small business SEO in the first place. Yet your competitors can also be the gateway to a lot of juicy information, the type you can use to benefit your own digital marketing efforts.

Analysing the competition helps to find out why they’re ranking so high, the type of keywords they are using, their website structure, backlink profile, and so much more. With this information, you can find opportunities to improve your own content.

You can also spot chances to get ahead of your competitors, whether it’s due to their site being slow or keywords not being used.

10 take-aways for today

The above is a lot to take in. We understand that. However, if you do take away anything from this SEO guide, make sure it is the following 10 points:

1. Polish your website’s design
2. Conduct keyword researchKeyword research helps websites unearth the best keywords to drive traffic and visibility. This research is supported by a number of powerful web-based tools, the best of which we’ve listed here.
3. Focus on specific keywords for specific pages
4. Optimise your meta descriptions and titles
5. Sign up for a Google My Business account
6. Put together a list of websites for gaining backlinks
7. Bookmark our Knowledge Hub
8. Bookmark/download the listed free tools
9. Take a closer look at the competition
10. Tidy up any broken links and pages

Conclusion

SEO is a key factor in helping SMEs grow their brand online. This need to focus on SEO can be frustrating for businesses that may not have the knowledge or expertise required to conduct SEO well. This guide can hopefully help kickstart your small business SEO and give you a platform to add an SEO strategy to your business.

If SEO is too much to handle in-house, you can also turn to a specialist agency to aid you in this endeavour. Getting expert help can help boost your SEO and allow you to grow online.