SEO for Small BusinessTackling SEO on a small budget is not easy, but it certainly can be done. It’s easy to lose sight of this fact when you’re confronted by the fact that large corporations often seem to dominate high profile search results.
Rather than finding this frustrating, it’s worth considering that massive companies are spending an enormous amount of money on SEO. Is that money being spent wisely? My own experience suggests that there’s considerable room for improvement, which actually creates opportunities for small businesses.
Understand what your customers want
It’s easy to think that online business is significantly different to traditional business models. It’s undeniably the case that running an Internet business involves a considerable use of technology, but many long-standing marketing truths hold firm in the online world.
In particular, it’s often said that great companies know their customers. They know what their customers like and what they don’t like. Successful companies also tend to have a good understanding of their rivals and where they have competitive advantages.
All of this information is vital when you’re looking at online marketing. It can help to make your small business SEO campaigns successful and profitable.
Look for niche areas
So how can you look to take on larger rivals? How can you create an approach to SEO that’s truly cost-effective for your business?
The key here is actually to avoid many of the search terms that your largest rivals are targeting. That may sound wholly counter-intuitive, but there’s sound reasoning to back this up.
Those big corporations are targeting some search terms because they generate a lot of visitors. They would argue that this is the whole purpose of an SEO campaign. But is it really?
Although it’s tempting to think that SEO is all about increasing visitor numbers, it’s worth remembering that your main aim should be to increase income levels. You’re looking for customers, not simply for people who want to browse your website. Thinking about things with this level of clarity, we can see that a clever approach to optimization will produce improved results.
You don’t need to target high profile search terms. Instead, you need to look for phrases that will actually generate new sales. While large companies can afford to throw money at SEO as a branding exercise, you’ll want to concentrate on an approach that’s more direct, measurable and cost effective.
This means that you’re best approach will be to concentrate on niche areas.
Use your business knowledge
Fortunately, if you already have a good understanding of what potential customers will want, you’re also in a great position to identify the search engine terms that you need to target.
It may be the case that you have particular products or services that will sell well online. It makes sense to concentrate your efforts on selling these, rather than needlessly looking to spread your optimization efforts too thinly.
You’ll be amazed at how many profitable keywords are simply being ignored by the big players within your industry. This is the beauty of SEO. It’s these niche areas that will enable you to ensure that your approach to SEO is profitable.
You may not have the largest online marketing budget, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t run an effective campaign.
This guest post was written by Keith Barrett
