Search Engine Optimization or SEO for small business are techniques used by online marketers and/or webmasters to develop their websites in order to get top listings on internet search engines. Large companies will spend enormous amounts of time and money in developing these techniques. It was often thought by small business owners, through either lack of knowledge or experience, that it was not possible to compete with these companies. However, there are SEO marketing solutions such as keyword research that a small business can use to obtain a top listing in search engines for their local market.
Many local small businesses such as auto dealerships, jewelers and restaurants have websites that describe their particular product or service. Much time is spent on beautifying these sites with a lot of bells and whistles. But having a fancy website is not enough, for without the proper use of search engine optimization these websites will just get lost in that bottomless pit known as the internet wasteland.
There are many SEO for small business techniques that can be used to keep a website from sinking into this internet void. Many of these techniques can be broken down into quite a number different steps that can involve more time than than the business owner can afford. However, for the small business just starting out online that wants to create a formidable online presence, the use of keyword research is the first SEO marketing solution that should be learned and mastered.
Keyword research is finding the words or phrases that are most commonly used in searches for information on a particular topic. For example someone looking to have their roof repaired will most likely enter terms such as “roof repair,” “roofing” or “roof replacement” into a search engine to find a business that performs this service. There can be many variations to the keywords or phrases used and there are just as many formulas and theories on how to use them. The important thing to remember is to find the keywords that fit the particular market.
There are many online tools that can help with keyword research. Most of them like the Google External Keyword Tool are free. Most of these tools will provide important information about the keywords such as competition and the number of monthly searches made both globally and locally. For a local small business the local monthly searches is a major factor to consider as well as the strength of competition.
Once the keywords are chosen how they are used on a website will determine its search engine listing. There are many different styles of websites with the Blog being the most widely used today. Regardless of what style is used, all websites consist of web pages. the content of each page should be constructed around one keyword or phrase. That Keyword or phrase should be included in the page title and should be sporadically used throughout the page content. Too much use of the keyword can counteract the intent however, and the site can be classified as spam.
Keywords can also be used as “anchor text” for linking internal web pages and for backlink purposes. Probably the most important reason for using SEO for small business is for developing a website’s page rank in search engines. Backlinks are the determining factor for page rank. The more outside links, or backlinks that lead back to a website the better its page rank. Writing articles or posting comments on other websites and forums with keyword enriched “anchor text” that lead back to a webpage that uses the same keywords is the most effective SEO technique used to develop page rank.
As stated before, there are many SEO techniques that are used to develop a website’s search engine listing. Learning SEO and understanding keyword research is the first vital online marketing solution for a small business starting out online.
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