When asked about search engine optimization (SEO), the owners and marketers of small businesses commonly provide the same response: they don’t have the time to develop the content that they feel is essential to do well at SEO. This is a common excuse given by small business owners and marketers. The good news is that increasing the amount of content that your small business publishes each month does not have to be your primary focus in order to climb higher in the search engine results pages. On the other side, what is required is an efficient content strategy. When people search utilising keywords and phrases that are pertinent to your company, it will increase the likelihood that your company’s goods and services will come up in the results.
How should one go about writing content for the purpose of optimising it for search engines in the context of a small business?
Blogs are not SEO
When you are developing content with the intention of reaching a high position in the organic search results, this does not always mean that you are writing blog entries. For example, you may create a video instead of a blog post. It is not necessarily the most important content for you to be publishing, despite the fact that your blog might be a wonderful location to target the phrases that visitors at the “head of the funnel” might be searching for. But despite this, it is not necessarily the most important content for you to be publishing.
It is essential to have a strategy in place before beginning work on any content if you want your efforts to result in a return on investment (ROI). Before you go on to writing entries for your blog, you need to make sure that the pages on your website that are dedicated to your goods and services are written in a professional manner and contain content that has been optimised for certain keywords.
Less can be more
When many people sit down to write content for their website, one of the first concerns that goes through their minds is whether or not they are writing enough for it to count for the sake of search engine optimization. Understanding that search engines are trying to rank sites based on how well they respond to a user’s search query is the second most important thing to have a handle on. This is the second most important aspect that has to be understood. When it comes to search engine optimization for small businesses, the amount of content that is included on the page being ranked is not, by itself, a “ranking factor” that may be taken into consideration. There is no correlation between the quantity of words on your website and where it will show up in the search results, so don’t worry about that.
Instead, you should centre your attention on the individual who is going to read your writing. Were they able to find the answer they sought when they first started their search as a result of the amount of text you supplied for them? On sites that sell products, for instance, a brief description of the product can be all that’s required to get the job done. It is not essential to write hundreds of words unless the product being described needs that level of information in order to be understood. In such case, then you should write hundreds of words.
Yes, a lot of research have been conducted, and the findings of those studies suggest that pages of content that are longer have a larger possibility of ranking higher than pages of text that are shorter. However, taking into account the complexity of the algorithms employed by search engines, it is more probable that this is attributed to other variables than it is to the length of the copy itself. In other words, the length of the copy itself may not even be a factor.
This also suggests that there is no use in developing a blog writing schedule that forces you to produce material more frequently than you have time for because there is no reward in doing so and there is no purpose in doing so. Every single line of content that you compose for your website need to have a certain purpose.
‘Give your copy to someone else to read and ask them to spot which keywords you are using’
The best way to use copy for SEO is to answer people’s questions
Making sure that the content you are making is the sort of information that people who use search engines are seeking for is the strategy that is going to be the most successful when it comes to developing content. Performing research on search trends and volumes is a necessary step in the process of optimising a website for search engines for a small business. There are free tools that can be utilised, such as the Keyword Planner that is provided by Google, to obtain an estimate of the number of people that search for your target terms on a monthly basis. These estimates may help you determine how many people are interested in what you have to offer.
Look at ‘People also ask’
You may have an idea of the types of terms people search for to wind up on a website like yours, but it’s possible that there are others that people search for that you haven’t thought of yet that they look for. When conducting a search on Google, it might be helpful to take a short look at the suggestions that display under the title “People also ask.” This can be a simple and efficient way to get ideas for common search phrases that are related to the keywords you are trying to target.
In Google, enter one of the important keywords that you are aware has the potential to provide qualified organic traffic to your site. After doing so, scroll down until you see the tabs labelled “People also ask,” and then click on one of those pages. Make use of them as a starting point for other search words, and study the search volume of the terms you come up with using those starting points. Google will automatically fill in the other fields when you’ve clicked into one of them. You might be able to purchase a large list of keywords that are comparable to help with the SEO of your small business. Once you have this list, you can start reading through it to determine which terms your audience is likely to search with.
Look at forums for what people want to know
Investigating the online message boards and websites that are frequented by the people who make up your audience is another great way to get a feel of the types of topics in which they have an interest. For instance, you may go to the well-known website Reddit in order to look for a “sub-reddit” that is committed to the industry that you are employed in. After this point, you will have a better idea of the many sorts of questions that children ask, and you may prepare for them accordingly. Construct some written work that addresses this matter. If the problem is being brought up on Reddit by your audience, then the answer most likely does not already exist somewhere on the internet. In the event that this is the case, you need to supply it.
Write with keywords in mind, but don’t over-engineer
It is of the utmost importance that when you are developing content for search engine optimization (SEO), you do it with your audience in mind and not the robots that are utilised by search engines. Because algorithms are so sophisticated, you won’t be able to fool them even if you utilise your target keywords in your content a lot of the time even though you want to rank well for those terms. It is also very important to keep in mind that the purpose of your optimization efforts is to move the content you have created closer to the top of the pages that search engines use to rank websites. This is done in the hopes that the people who are most likely to visit your website will find it and click through to it. If people visit your webpage and it looks like it was created just for the purpose of stuffing a large number of keywords into it, then it is highly unlikely that they will be impressed enough with your brand to remain on your site for an extended period of time. This is because people tend to leave websites that look like they were created just for the purpose of stuffing a large number of keywords into it.
You should compose your content in a style that will engage people who will watch it, but you should also keep in mind the key phrases you will be targeting on that particular page while you are doing so. The important thing is to pick a few words that are directly tied to the aim on each page, and then to use those terms throughout the material wherever it makes sense to do so. This will ensure that your content is cohesive and effective. One test that might be helpful is to present the draught copy that you are working on to another person and ask them if they can recognise the keywords that you are utilising in the writing. This is an excellent method for determining whether or not something is accurate. If they are, then it’s conceivable that you’ve been making too much use of them recently.
It is better to optimise existing copy than write more
It is crucial for anyone who is stressed for time but is anxious to have a website that ranks well to keep in mind that it is possible to make the most of the information you presently have on the site before adding any additional content. Those who are interested in having a site that ranks highly should pay particular attention to this point.
Examine the webpages that are ranking on pages two or three but have not been given any SEO work and determine whether or not you can optimise them by better tailoring them to the key phrases for which they are presently ranking. If you are successful, then you will have optimised the webpages. Because of this, they will be able to move up higher in the pages of search results.
3 top tips to remember
- There is no set amount of copy you need to produce per month, or length it needs to be when you do write it
- Make sure however much copy you do manage to write is written with the purpose of ranking for particular search phrases
- Don’t overlook copy you already have on your site
Other SEO Resources
You can find lots of guides on the web for free if you want to learn more about SEO for your business website. Here are some key sites to check out:
- Search Engine Journal – this is their ‘Introduction to SEO basics’ section.
- Moz.com – has a whole section called ‘Learn SEO’ which is split into how-to guides, a beginner’s guide, a learning centre, webinars and a Q&A.
- Search Engine Land – although mostly focused on daily news and updates within the search industry it does have this neat 9 chapter guide on the fundamentals of optimizing for search.
- Semrush – is an SEO software suite for digital marketing professionals but it also has this learning centre accessible to non-subscribers.
- Ahrefs – another SEO software suite used by professionals and digital marketing agencies. They offer a ‘Learn SEO roadmap’ which has a great section on blogs and groups to follow if you really want to amp up your knowledge.
- Search Engine Watch – has an SEO-specific category which covers the latest developments.
There is no question that you can perform search engine optimization (SEO) on your own for your own company and obtain very good results. Simply gaining an understanding of the principles and putting that knowledge into practise may often work wonders for increasing the amount of traffic and leads. To manage what is now such a crucial aspect of operating virtually any business, it may be worthwhile to hire a digital marketing expert or agency, just as it may be worthwhile to hire a marketing professional or agency for other marketing efforts. If, on the other hand, you are equipped with understanding of the fundamentals, you will be able to have much more successful dialogues with any consultants that you may bring in and end up working together in a manner that is much more productive. Be sure to follow the advice that has been offered here, and make use of the SEO resources that have been supplied.
