SEO for Business Owners

Before investing in SEO

What every online business owner needs to know before investing in SEO

SEO for business owners

Search engine optimisation (SEO) is important for every online business that hopes to grow and remain in business. However, it is a long-term investment and steps taken to optimise your website will take a while to give you the returns or visibility you desire.

If you’re starting a new business and need immediate sales or conversions, SEO may not provide that for you, which makes taking other important steps to grow your business important.

SEO is also expensive, and as a start-up business, you may not have all the money you need to invest properly. Although you can start SEO from the early stages of your online business, you need other ways to generate sales that will raise the finances you need for SEO to create a higher return on investment (ROI) and help your business in the long run.

1. Learn to convert organic visitors to buyers

Regardless of how many organic visitors you have, you won’t generate income if they do not buy your products or request your services. Most big and well-known brands raise money specifically for SEO which a start-up brand may not be able to afford. This makes converting your visitors to buyers important.

The following can help convert your visitors to buyers.

• Highlight your promotions on every webpage

Most users consider the prices of services and products to determine whether they will get them or not. Research also shows that the smaller the brand, the more users consider the price before purchase.

Many visitors can miss out on the discounts you’ve given, especially when they land on your homepage or pages that do not highlight the discounts or freebies you’re offering. Consider using rotating or static banners for your promotions. Some sites display promotions with a banner that slides from the top to the bottom of the page. Others use a pop-up section that displays on arrival to the page or a flag at the corner of the page.

• Include product or service reviews

Your reviews are an indication of the value your product or service provides to customers. They also create a unique source of user-generated content that boosts your product page keyword theme.

• Make your visitors trust you

When you have organic visitors on your page, they usually lookout for certain important details, especially when the brand is not a household name. You can help your visitors trust your site by including the following:

    • An about us page with all necessary information about your business
    • Your contact details, including email address and phone number- ensure you place this at a visible position.
    • A chat feature to provide support to buyers

2. Build an authority website

SEO for business owners

• Use a keyword-friendly domain name

Google and other search engines usually give higher ranking to authority websites. Building an authority website doesn’t happen overnight; it takes time and requires patience.

Your content plays a vital role in making your site authority. Visitors to your site need to find your content relevant if you intend to build authority in your niche and have a better ranking.

The following are vital in building an authority site that increases your visibility and makes visitors trust you enough to seek your services or get your products.

SEO for business owners

When you include the top searched keyword in your niche in your domain name, it can help in optimising your site and build authority. Including the right URL tags with keywords makes each webpage relevant. You may also decide to buy an older domain name since it shows the domain has been established and has a certain level of authority.

  • Consider user intent

While creating content for your site, ensure you consider the intent behind your target audience search. For example, if you provide a service, ensure you create content your users will need while searching for people who provide the services you offer.

• Create linkable and quality content

Creating content that users need and trust will keep them coming back. Using reliable material, including images and vital information that answer the users’ queries, makes your site more reliable, improving the chances of ranking higher and becoming an authority in your niche.

• Link your content to quality sites

The external links in your content should be to relevant authority sites. This tells the search engine that you’ve done proper research on the topic you’re writing on to give your readers access to quality information.

  • Get quality backlinks

After you’ve created content for your site, focus on building quality backlinks. You can reach out to other sites with similar content to yours and those interested in linking to your content.

With more quality backlinks, you’re sending a message to search engines that your content is authoritative. Where possible, include relevant anchor texts to your link because it makes the link more relevant.

  • Internal Linking

Creating relevant internal linking connects your content allowing web crawlers more access to your content to determine if your content answers a search query. Including relevant anchor text in each link makes it easy for your readers to navigate your site and gain a higher ranking.

3. Invest in long-term gains

SEO for business owners

Developing your brand is also important. It will help you reach your target audience and help them get to know you and what you can offer them over other brands. Although you may run into short term losses, they will be beneficial if it helps in building your brand and making you reliable in your niche.

For example, if you are a service provider, you may consider offering your customers some valuable services free of charge or at a discounted rate to get them to patronise you and win their trust.

Conclusion

SEO can aid online businesses in generating considerably high traffic and boost conversion rates. However, it is a long-term investment and may take a certain period to get results that most start-ups cannot afford.

Getting your site to become an authority in your niche, converting those organic visitors to buyers and considering taking some relevant short term losses to grow your brand may help generate the income you need for a long-term SEO.

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