Free Search Engine Optimization – Grow Your Business With These 5 SEO Techniques
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is extremely important for your business website to attract traffic to show up in online searches. Not surprisingly, good search engine optimization services don’t come cheap and low-priced SEO services could end up costing you more than you bargained. Most such services practice black hat SEO strategies that get fantastic results in the short-term but risk your website’s expulsion from Google, Bing, and other search engines. Small businesses with tight budgets find it difficult to hire professional SEO services or buy popular keywords in a highly competitive environment.
Small businesses can take some steps to improve the search engine ranking of the business website. Take for example the option of using more than text to generate traffic. A great opportunity has opened up with Google’s Universal Search concept that highlights videos, images, maps etc. apart from the regular search listing. Other free of cost SEO strategies that can make a difference to your page ranking in search results are:
1. Adding your details to Google Local Business Center
Google Local Business listings display your business for various search terms in your local area, with your brand information, a map with directions to your business and your address, phone, email, and website URL if any. Use this opportunity to promote your business irrespective of it being an e-commerce website or a brick-and-mortar establishment. List your business address here and include pertinent keywords in the listing title and details. The information is confirmed before your registration is approved. Ask clients to upload their review of your business in the Google Local Business listing and get links from other web sites such as trade directories, yellow pages, etc. Yahoo! Local offers comparable features.
2. Registering your business on Google Product Search
Develop a web feed for your products and include particulars such as description, price, specifications, value to customer, and other product information. Include pertinent keywords, brand name, and product name in the title and description of the product listing. If your product listing includes customer reviews, it looks more credible. You should motivate customers to leave feedback by offering discounts or similar benefits.
3. Create a buzz with social media websites
Social media networking is the latest trend in marketing a business or a brand. These websites are the social hub of countless users and ideal locations to start a conversation about your business. Social networking portals such as Twitter and Facebook can divert traffic to your website as “most searched” topics often get pulled out in search results.
4. Using multimedia
When clients type some keywords into a search box, their main purpose is to get information. This can be achieved through multimedia such as videos, audio, animations etc. too. You must make sure that the video title and description includes popular keywords to make it come up in search results. Again, customer reviews and feedback helps build your credibility. If your video is really good, more users will link to the video or tag it as their favorite, thereby improving your brand visibility.
5. Publishing articles related to latest industry news
Websites such as Google News love to pick up articles on trending topics. Create content on relevant trending topics and make targeted keywords part of the title. Good articles can get inbound links from blogs and other websites. It helps drive traffic to the site.
These suggestions should help small businesses get started with their SEO initiatives. Without applying basic SEO tactics, a business website cannot attract customers. Even if marketing is not the principal purpose of your website, not optimizing it is your loss. Websites cannot magically improve sales or expand your customer base. Some selling is a must, and SEO is one of the most cost-effective yet powerful means of pulling in traffic. Daljeet Sidhu is the author of this article.