18 Best SEO Tips For Small Businesses To Boost Online Visibility

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Running a small business can feel like staying afloat in a sea of competition, especially when getting noticed online. You’ve likely heard about SEO, the magical process that can boost your visibility in search engines like Google. But knowing where to start can be daunting.

That’s where this article comes in. This guide explores practical SEO tips for small businesses, including notion to blog strategies. These tips are part of the blog growth engine, designed to boost your blog and business through improved SEO.

What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and How Does It Work?

SEO is about making your blog shine in search engines like Google. It’s the art and science of tweaking your blog to rank higher in search results. When your blog ranks higher, more people see it, which means more traffic. It’s not just about keywords anymore. It’s about creating quality content, optimizing your site’s structure, and building relationships with other websites.

Keyword Research: The Foundation of SEO

Keywords are the words and phrases people type into search engines when looking for something. By understanding these keywords, you can create content that answers their questions and meets their needs. This involves finding the right balance between high-traffic keywords that can bring in a lot of visitors and, more specifically, less competitive long-tail keywords.

Link Building: Building Relationships

One key factor search engines use to determine a website's relevance and authority is the number and quality of links pointing to it. Link building is the process of acquiring these links. This can be done through guest blogging, reaching out to other bloggers, and creating content people naturally want to link to.

Image Optimization: Speed and Relevance

Images can make or break your blog’s SEO. Large, unoptimized photos can slow down your site, hurting your rankings. On the other hand, well-optimized photos can help your blog rank higher.

This involves compressing images to reduce their file size:

Using descriptive file names and alt texts

Ensuring the images are relevant to the content

Content Writing: Quality Over Quantity

Content is still king when it comes to SEO. But it’s not just about churning out as many blog posts as possible. It’s about creating high-quality content that provides value to your readers. This means writing in a way that’s easy to read and understand, using the right keywords, and structuring your content in a way that makes sense.

How SEO Works: The Technical Side

Search engines like Google use complex algorithms to determine which websites to show in search results. These algorithms consider hundreds of factors, including:

Relevance and quality of the content

Number and quality of links pointing to the site

The site’s overall user experience

Understanding how these algorithms work allows you to optimize your blog to rank higher in search results.

18 Best SEO Tips for Small Businesses To Boost Online Visibility

1. Kickstart SEO with Google Search Console

Google Search Console (GSC) is your go-to tool for tracking search engine rankings and analyzing keyword performance. It also helps you submit your sitemap for indexation. GSC flags issues like website errors or penalties that could impact your rankings. Connect GSC data to Google Sheets for more intuitive analysis.

2. Leverage Google Analytics for Insights

Google Analytics (GA) links SEO efforts to site performance metrics. Track organic traffic, page performance, and revenue from organic searches. Sync GA with GSC for deeper insights into content performance. Setup guides for WordPress, Shopify, and Squarespace ensure you maximize this tool.

3. Define Your Project’s KPIs

KPIs help measure SEO success. Common KPIs include:

Organic traffic

Brand awareness

Backlink growth

Keyword rankings

Bounce rate

Sales

Clearly defined KPIs make it easier to track progress and tweak strategies.

4. Optimize Your Google Business Profile

If you serve customers locally, a Google Business Profile is essential. It influences your business's appearance on:

Google Search

Maps

Shopping

Set it up to help users find and learn about your business.

5. Create Pages Targeting Local Keywords

Target local keywords with service or location pages. Include NAP info and helpful details like directions and building images. For multiple locations, create specific pages highlighting unique features. Incorporate questions into headers to optimize content for voice search.

6. Build a Quality Website

A quality website is:

Clear

Functional

Easy to use

From an SEO perspective, it provides the information or solution customers seek. Ensure it accurately reflects your brand.

7. Conduct Thorough Keyword Research

Need more satisfaction with your SEO? You should pay more attention to keyword research. To identify relevant keywords, use tools like:

Keyword Finder

SEMrush

Google Ads’ Keyword Planner is a free option for local businesses. It helps them understand local search trends and optimize their pages and ad campaigns.

8. Align Content with Search Intent

Search intent is the “why” behind a query. Analyze top-ranking pages for keywords to determine intent. Match your content type, format, and length to what consistently ranks well.

9. Balance Keyword Volume and Difficulty

High-volume keywords are competitive. Long-tail keywords can offer quick wins. Balance keyword volume with difficulty, focusing on terms you can realistically rank for.

10. Build Keyword Groups for Better Results

Create clusters of semantically related terms that support the same topic. These reinforce your primary keyword and increase your chances of ranking for multiple associated terms.

11. Optimize On-Page Elements

On-page elements to optimize include page URLs, titles, headers, alt text, and meta descriptions. SEO-optimized content uses relevant keywords throughout text and images.

12. Produce High-Quality, Relevant Content

Search engines assess expertise, experience, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (EEAT) in content. Incorporate criteria like:

Bios

Credentials

Real-life examples

Credible backlinks

13. Link to Authoritative External Sites

Include external links to trusted sites like Wikipedia or government pages. While it doesn’t directly boost rankings, it enhances user experience and trustworthiness.

14. Review Your Site Structure

Site structure affects how easily users and search engines navigate your site. A good structure lets users find every page in four clicks or fewer. Pretend you’re a user to spot structure issues.

15. Consistently Create More Content

Each page is an opportunity to target more keywords. A small site only targets a few dozen keywords. Write keyword-targeted blogs or content regularly to increase visibility.

16. Avoid Keyword Stuffing

Use keywords naturally and avoid overstuffing. Read your text to see if it sounds natural or follow the 1%-2% rule—1%-2% of words should be a keyword.

17. Focus on Evergreen Content

Write content with a long shelf life. Quality, valuable information is essential. Stay fresh with topics that don’t change, like:

Ideas

Strategies

Theories

18. Identify and Fix Basic SEO Issues

Technical SEO issues to address include:

Uncrawlable pages by Google

Broken links

Slow loading speed

Sitemap errors

Duplicate content

Security vulnerabilities

Effortless Email Creation and Sending

Run your blog and newsletter with Feather today! Create a new account and send emails from Notion, or go from notion to blog in minutes!

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Boost Your Visibility: The Role of SEO

SEO ensures your business appears in top search results, drawing more clicks and potential customers. Studies show that the top spot on Google gets up to 40% of clicks while the results lag lower. Focus on the right keywords and optimize your content to increase your chances of hitting those top spots.

Establish Credibility: Why Users Trust High Rankings

Climbing to the top of search results doesn’t just drive traffic; it builds credibility. Users view top-ranked sites as trustworthy, influencing their buying decisions. Consistently appearing on the first page signals that your small business is a reliable source, which is crucial when competing against big brands.

Cut Costs: SEO vs. Traditional Advertising

SEO is an innovative, cost-effective strategy compared to traditional advertising. While paid ads offer immediate visibility, they vanish once the budget runs out. Conversely, SEO builds lasting organic traffic, driving results over time without ongoing expenses. This makes it an excellent investment for small businesses with tight marketing budgets.

Get the Right Traffic: Target Potential Customers

SEO attracts visitors who are actively searching for your products or services. By optimizing for the right keywords, you align your content with what potential customers want. This precision means you’re increasing traffic numbers and bringing in visitors who are more likely to convert, maximizing your return on investment.

Enhance User Experience: A Better Website for Your Audience

SEO and website usability go hand in hand. Search engines favor sites that are easy to:

Navigate

Fast-loading

Mobile-friendly

By optimizing for SEO, you’re also improving the experience for your users, keeping them engaged longer and increasing the chance they’ll convert. This creates a positive association with your brand.

Gain Insights: Use Data to Improve Your Strategy

SEO tools offer valuable data on:

User behavior

Popular keywords

Content effectiveness

This information helps you understand what works, enabling you to refine your strategies over time. With SEO, you gain insights into your audience’s:

Preferences

What drives their engagement

How you can improve and enhance your marketing effectiveness

9 Best SEO Tools For Small Businesses

1. Feather: Your All-in-One Notion Blog Tool

Feather is an SEO-friendly blog and email newsletter service.

Key Features

Publish blog content and newsletters directly through Notion, with no coding or design skills required.

Automatically publish blog content written in Notion to your Feather blog.

Set up a subfolder blog (domain.com/blog) for better SEO, rather than a subdomain (blog.domain.com).

Manage your CRM and website blog entirely through Notion, offering a HubSpot-like experience.

Customize your design with custom CSS, collect emails, and access additional features.

Write on Notion and automatically publish to an SEO-friendly blog, collaborating effortlessly with your team. Feather lets you set up and send newsletters directly from Notion to your email subscribers.

Run your blog and newsletter with Feather today! Create a new account and send emails from Notion, or go from notion to blog in minutes!

2. Google SERPs: Your Free Keyword Research Assistant

The Google search engine results page is an excellent resource for finding keyword ideas and understanding your audience's interests. Google Autosuggest, for instance, provides automatic keyword suggestions based on user searches, while features like 'People Also Ask' and 'Related Searches' offer additional queries and related topics.

These tools can help you expand your existing keyword research and generate new content ideas, mainly if you have a limited budget for paid keyword research tools.

3. Google Keyword Planner: Uncover Competitors’ Keyword Strategies

Google Keyword Planner is valuable for keeping tabs on your competitors and identifying their target keywords. By entering a competitor site in the Keyword Planner, you’ll get a list of keyword ideas with their monthly:

Searches

Competition

Other metrics

The data comes directly from Google, so you can trust it to be reliable and accurate. This tool is a great option for small businesses looking to improve their SEO efforts without spending a fortune.

4. SEO Minion: PAA Extraction Made Easy

SEO Minion is a free Chrome extension that provides various SEO tools, including a People Also Asked (PAA) extractor. This tool allows you to quickly get related questions to your Google search with the click of a button and download the list as a CSV file for further analysis. SEO Minion can be a valuable tool for anyone, whether you’re a:

Small business owner

Blog owner

SEO professional

5. Ahrefs: Keyword Exploration Simplified

Ahrefs is an all-in-one SEO tool known for its Keyword Explorer feature, which provides a list of related keywords and detailed information about each. This includes:

Search volume

Keyword difficulty

Cost-per-click

Ahrefs’ search volume data is relatively accurate compared to Google Search Console, making it a reliable option for optimizing content with relevant keywords. Ahrefs is best suited for startups, mid-sized companies, and individual bloggers looking to maximize their reach.

6. SE Ranking: Comprehensive SEO Toolkit

SE Ranking offers a comprehensive SEO toolkit with features like:

Rank Tracker

AIO Tracker

Competitive Research

Website Audit

The Keyword Suggestion Tool is particularly useful for SEO content writing research. It provides in-depth keyword data with relevant metrics like:

Search volume

Keyword difficulty

Search intent

You can use these keywords in the Content Editor to guide the creation of well-optimized and reader-friendly content.

7. Yoast SEO: Your WordPress Optimization Guide

Yoast SEO is a popular plugin for WordPress that helps:

Improve content readability

Optimize keywords

Ensure proper linking structure

It provides a color-coded score for each post or page, making it easier to understand and improve your SEO efforts. Yoast’s focus on “green light” optimization is perfect for beginners and experts.

8. Moz Keyword Explorer: Discover New Keyword Opportunities

Moz’s Keyword Explorer offers a robust set of tools for keyword discovery and analysis, including metrics like:

Monthly search volume

Difficulty score

Organic CTR

Keyword Research and Competitive Analysis with Moz

Moz allows you to see keyword suggestions and competitors’ rankings, making finding keywords that balance search volume and competition easier. It also lets you organize keywords into lists for targeted campaigns, making it a great option for small businesses looking to improve their SEO strategy.

9. Surfer SEO: Optimize Content for Search Engines

Surfer SEO analyzes Google’s top-performing pages for a specific keyword and provides an optimization score based on:

Keyword density

Headings

Content length

It includes tools like:

Content Editor

Audit

SERP Analyzer

This helps you produce SEO-friendly articles that match search engine requirements. Surfer’s Chrome extension allows you to optimize directly within Google Docs, making it a handy tool for small businesses looking to improve their content.

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Getting Started With SEO As A Small Business

An SEO audit helps you determine what's working and what’s not. It’s your roadmap to better rankings. A technical audit and a content audit are the way to go. They’ll show you the steps needed to shape your site.

Content Audit: What’s Working and What’s Not?

Let’s talk content. You need to know which pieces are pulling their weight. Start by listing all your web pages, like:

Blog posts

Service pages

Product descriptions

Then, gather data on traffic and engagement metrics. Check which keywords each piece ranks for. This will help you spot content that could boost and find new writing topics. Your goal is to align your content with what your audience is searching for. This makes it more likely to attract and engage potential customers.

Technical Audit: Make Sure Your Site is Search-Engine Friendly

Don’t forget the tech stuff. Search engines need to crawl, index, and display your website correctly. During this audit, look for:

Missing or duplicate page titles

Meta descriptions

Broken links

Slow-loading pages

Site speed is a big deal, so make it a priority. Also, monitor redirect chains that might mess with user experience. Check the following:

Canonical tags

Hreflang tags

Structured data for a deeper dive

These help search engines understand your content better.

Go From Notion to Blog With Ease Today with Feather

Feather transforms how you handle blogging and newsletters. Use Notion to draft your content, then watch it automatically publish to an SEO-friendly blog. This seamless integration means you can manage everything from one place without coding.

Streamline Your Workflow with Feather

Imagine collaborating with your team during the publishing process, streamlining your workflow. Feather is like having the HubSpot experience but through Notion. It simplifies your CRM and website blog management, too.

Subfolder Blogs: Boosting Your SEO

Want better SEO outcomes? Use a subfolder blog with Feather. By setting up your blog as

"domain.com/blog" instead of "blog.domain.com," you enhance your SEO performance. Search engines favor subfolders because they keep your site’s authority intact. Feather makes this process easy, allowing you to focus on content while maximizing your SEO.

Customize and Collect: Make Feather Work for You

Feather is not a one-size-fits-all tool. With options to tweak the design using custom CSS, you can make your blog look exactly how you want. Feather also lets you capture emails, so building your audience is simple. This flexibility ensures Feather meets your business's unique needs.

Newsletters: Engage Your Audience Directly

Newsletters are powerful tools for engagement, and Feather lets you send them directly from Notion. Write, edit, and refine your content, then hit send. Your subscribers receive your latest updates without leaving Notion. This integration means you can manage your blog and newsletter in one place, making your life easier.