Many businesses start off with a fairly small SEO budget because they may believe that SEO it is just a matter of putting a few keywords in the content within the website here and there. Or even more commonly, they don’t have the budget for an extensive SEO strategy.
What should a business do when they don’t have enough money for an extensive SEO strategy? Well, it’s time to get busy and here’s how.
SEO Strategies that Help Businesses Rank in Local and Mobile Search
1. Citation Building
Listing a business on directory sites is a free way for them to reach more customers and increase rankings for their website in local search results. It will take some time to submit the listings, but most of them are free to submit to.
“Citations are defined as online references to a business’s name, address and phone number (NAP).”
These listings create a mention (citation) of a business on the Internet. Local citations are important because Google uses them to verify that the business is legitimate and, if they are all accurate and consistent, it ranks the business on its search engine.
You do need to ensure that all citations mentioning the business are consistent on the Internet. You can run a free report, courtesy of Local Site Submit to find out. There are companies like Local Site Submit that can be hired to claim business listings pretty inexpensively.
2. Getting and Managing Online Reviews
The fact is that customers have opinions about products and services they pay for. Asking them for a review doesn’t cost anything. Research shows 90% of customers say positive online reviews influence their buying decision. By the way, negative reviews must be responded to quickly and apologetically.
Make it easy for customers to give reviews by including links to the review sites on the company website, receipts, and in follow up emails. The easier it is for the customer to give the review the better chance the business will have of receiving one.
Don’t forget current customers are the best referral source and word-of-mouth is world-of-mouth in the digital world we all live in.
3. Cross Promotion
Cross promoting products or services with other businesses that offer a companion service is another free way to get more customers and website traffic.
The key to this working is building networking and business relationships with those companies and then, once trust is built, cross-linking to each business’s products and services.
Another example of this can be cross-linking blog articles. This works best if representatives from the two businesses decide what topic they each want to write about, so that the articles will connect and flow well with each other. Both websites will link to the other’s article. This will cost both companies nothing and they get double the exposure.
For example:
Business 1 – Handyman: “10 DIY Home Repair Tips”
Business 2 – Plumber: “10 Home Repairs You Need To Hire a Pro to Complete”
4. Don’t Forget Social Media
Social media has provided the opportunity for local businesses to easily spread information to friends, family, and customers at either a very low cost or no cost at all. (Yes, you may need to spend a few dollars on Facebook Ads.)
I can’t express enough how important it is for businesses to be on the major social media platforms and especially those where the business’s target audience is spending the most time.
The higher the engagement rate on social media, the more people that will learn about the business and, depending on the social media platform, the odds are higher that the update will be displayed in Google search results.
Being on a budget while creating an SEO strategy might seem difficult, but every business has to start somewhere.
As you can see, it is possible for every business, no matter the budget, to have an SEO strategy.
Have any extra tips that have worked for you? Comment below and let’s discuss.