It isn’t a myth that digital marketing is harder for smaller businesses – it’s a fact. There are many reasons for this, including a lack of time and money. However, even if small businesses put more time and money into online marketing, their small website must compete with bigger, branded websites that Google (and other search engines) typically favor. Let’s not forget you are competing with established businesses that customers better trust. As a result, search engine marketing in Boca Raton for small businesses is no easy feat.
Can you do it on your own? Possibly. But you stand a better chance of succeeding if you hire an experienced internet marketing company, like Local Management. More on that later.
Whether you choose to hire a third-party marketing company, or do it yourself, in this article we will provide three important marketing strategies every small business owner should begin implementing today. With consistency, you will rank higher on search engines and gain trust among prospective customers.
Keyword Strategy
If you own a business, there are probably a few terms that best describe it. Consider these your keywords. These are the words and phrases that prospective clients will type into search engines when looking for a product/service your business provides.
Think of 50 keywords that best describe your business, then search for them in a trustworthy marketing platform with a good keyword research tool. This way, you can see how frequently the keywords are being searched and how competitive they are. Don’t stop with just 50 keywords. Continue to use keyword tools to build your list and give your competitors a run for their money.
Don’t Overdo Keywords
Now that you understand the importance of keywords, it’s crucial that you do not overuse them on your website. This is considered keyword stuffing, and not only does it read poorly, which can turn off your customers, but it is also a tactic that Google will penalize you for implementing. There are many tools and plugins that you can use/install to gauge whether a page or blog post on your website has too high (or low) keyword density. It’s strongly recommended that you utilize these tools in your marketing efforts for the most successful results.
Implement On-Page SEO
Every business should have a website. Once you have a website, you should optimize it to rank high and generate relevant traffic. On-page SEO is one of the best ways to achieve this. This practice revolves around optimizing your content and HTML source code (content structure) on your website. There are many tips you can implement for on-page SEO, but these are some of the most effective:
- Create a primary keyword as well as variants of that keyword
- Prioritize keywords based on their search volume
- Make sure page URLs explain what the page is about and are under 100 characters
- Headlines are important to users and search engines, so make sure the words you incorporate in them are important
- Every page should have a meta description, which summarizes what the page is about. You should experiment with different meta description formulas to see which one gets the most clicks.
- Content is still king, so make sure your content is clear, accurate, and informational. And don’t forget that quality beats quantity. If you can concisely deliver a message in 550 words, you do yourself no favors by making it 1,500 words.
- Always add images to your pages. Images should include an alt attribute, but not the same one. For example, your first image should have the primary keyword. The second image should have a variant of that keyword. The third image should be a similar, long-tail keyword.
Should You Hire a Marketing Agency?
As a small business owner, it’s recommended that you know the basics of SEO. As a result, consider starting off without a marketing agency, just to get a feel of what search engine marketing is all about. However, we don’t recommend you continue doing it on your own – unless you’re a master at SEO. Marketing agencies, like Local Management, can provide you with a team of qualified experts to solve all your marketing needs. In marketing, you will need:
- Web designers
- SEO experts
- PPC experts
- Email marketing experts
- Social media marketing strategists
The list goes on. Unless you can perform all these functions and run a business at the same time, we recommend hiring a reputable company for search engine marketing in Boca Raton. Let us help you get started with a free site review. Contact us or call (561) 944-7536 today.
