Big Results Can Come in Small (SEO) Packages

January 6th, 2015 by Search Influence Alumni

tinygiftsimageMany small businesses fear that because they don’t have millions of marketing dollars at their disposal to build their SEO campaign, they simply won’t be able to compete with large corporations. However, there are many SEO tactics small businesses can employ to level the playing field and compete against large marketing budgets.

If You’re Small, Focus Small

If your small business offers many services but has a limited budget, it will be more effective to focus your SEO efforts on a small set of highly relevant keywords. For example, if you’re a hair salon and you offer haircuts, blow drying, hair coloring services, etc., it will be better for you to focus on the one service that you perform best. It’s more effective for you to try to be visible for a primary or specialty service than to try to be visible for all of your services—and not to be visible for anything in the end.

pinonglobeimageYou’re Local, So Get Hyperlocal

A big advantage you have as a small business is your attachment to the area. Focus your efforts on your local audience by hosting events, participating in your community, getting local reviews, and targeting your content to your locale. You can then leverage all of these hyperlocal efforts in your SEO campaign. That local event you hosted or local organization you helped can generate local content, local buzz, and website links back to your site, all of which tell search engines that you are locally relevant.

Specific And Long Tail Is The Way To Go

With limited funds, you need to be clever about the keywords you’re focusing your efforts on instead of going for the obvious ones. To go along with the hair salon example, instead of emphasizing keywords like “hair cut” or “hair coloring,” focus your efforts on more long tail phrases such as “tips to layer your hair” or “how to get an ombre effect.” It’s much easier to rank highly for these long tail, specific keywords than the obvious, broad keywords. While there may be less traffic, the traffic you do get will be highly relevant.

The next time you think your SEO dollars and campaign efforts don’t stand a chance against giants in the industry, don’t forget that being small has its advantages. Leverage your nimble nature and cleverness for some easy wins!

Thanks to Heiwa4126 for the globe image and to John Fingas for the tiny presents image.