SEO for Small Business: How To Compete (Part One)

Articles written on the internet about SEO for small business are often the most mind-numbingly boring things that a person will ever read in their lifetime.

It’s a subtle kind of torture inflicted on the reader that practically dares you to care enough to read another word.

We’ll never be able to make SEO or digital marketing into something super-exciting for one-and-all but we can try to break it down to some simple elements that might make it a little easier to see and understand.

Even a blog post about SEO for small business by a Vancouver-based branding company in Vancouver will have a tough time making this stuff seem cool.

So Why Keep Reading?

This post is intended to show small to medium-sized business owners that you don’t need a sophisticated marketing department or some fast-talking wizard to have a website that ranks well with Google.

You have to be ready to compete.

This post is for business people and organizations who want their great-looking site to be seen and used by visitors. Who doesn’t want their stuff to be found by the people looking for it?

This is for the people who know that the competition for clients and future business isn’t just confined to real life anymore but extends digitally through desktop computers, tablets, and mobile phones; through social media networks and word of mouth. They’re all integrated, they all overlap.

Below are the first two lessons for small and medium-sized business owners who want to boost their rank and aren’t afraid to compete.

LESSON TWO: You’re writing for humans, but you’re also writing for machines.

Your present and future visitors want to read compelling content that is written in the authentic voice of you or your company or organization.

The tone of the text is important and it should match the visual sense that you’re projecting with the design of your site and the personality of your brand.

You can’t fake it – it’s got to be real.

While you’re dealing out the realness of everything that your brand has to offer in your blog posts and page content you have to remember to include just enough text, written with the intention of feeding Google’s insatiable appetite for context and relevance.

This can be accomplished by understanding keywords and relevant phrases that resonate within your industry or community.

What common and specific words are used to signify your work – and the work of your main competitors – online and in real life?

Understanding and using these terms in interesting and imaginative ways within your content can propel your website up the rankings and provide your visitors with a genuine experience that reflects the sensibility of your business.

Text and good writing are not the only things that work hard to improve your SEO and your ranking on Google, but without a strong commitment to solid and strategic use of text on your site, it will struggle to compete.

Always put speaking in a genuine voice first when creating any content for your site.

~ ~ ~

Be warm, be funny, be informative AND be yourself.

Craft your words carefully, but don’t get bound down by keyword strategies. Google needs food too, but not at the expense of clear and easy to digest copy that reflects you and the subject matter at hand.

If you create the content people want, they will stay engaged and your rankings will climb as well. At Eggbeater Creative we’re here to help you succeed and happy to provide the advice and direction to get you on your way up.

Contact us today, and we’ll happily talk to you about how to compete with SEO and content strategies that will help you now and into the future.