Google continues to dominate the search engine market in the world. While the search engine experienced a slight decrease in their market share back in January, it’s back to having over 90% of the market.
What this means for businesses is that their SEO efforts should focus on using small business tools to ensure that they get a higher page rank in the Google search results page.
There are a lot of ways to get the best out of your SEO efforts. It’s especially important to get the latest methods to ensure that your SEO stays intact when Google updates its algorithm again. Here are fifteen tactics you can use:
1. Use Google Analytics
No matter what type of website you have, one of your greatest friends is the Google Analytics tool. It’s powerful and free, making it one of the most common tools used in most SEO strategies implemented by companies. Once you install this website analytics tool on your website, you’ll have access to a lot of useful information you can use to do better.
The tool allows you to know about the marketing tactics that give your website the most traffic. That way, you can determine the right tactic to use in order to get the most out of your leads and sales conversions. It gives insight on how visitors use your website to let you know the type of content they want.
2. Mobile-First Priority
Google itself recommends that webmasters ensure that their websites are mobile-responsive. If it isn’t an option for you, you need to make another website that caters to mobile users alone. Doing this will increase your chances of ranking well in the Google mobile search results.
Remember, Google has the influence that impacts your website in a lot of profound ways. If the people behind the search engine suggest something to improve your rankings, it’s best to follow it. The result is worth the effort.
3. Google My Business
Google+ didn’t take off as well as it could, compared to the number of people on Facebook right now. Despite this, Google gave its business users a very important advantage–special SEO treatment. If your business has a Google+ page, it’s more likely for it to appear at the top of search engine rankings or at least on a side suggestion bar.
Google My Business became the formal practice for this preferential treatment. All businesses must have a profile to help their pages rank higher. If you use this, people have easy access to your contact information as well as your location information since it’s integrated with Google Maps.
4. Improving Your Bounce Rate
Improving your dwell time is by reducing the bounce rate. You can do this by ensuring that your visitors have access to content that makes them satisfied. If people leave your website after spending 3 seconds, it’s a sign that people aren’t fond of the content you provide.
The better your bounce rate is, the more likely it will be for your website to rank higher. The best way to do this is to write fascinating and powerful introductions. Always get straight to the point and show your visitors that you have the information they need.
5. Faster Page Speed
Even 8 years after its announcement, Google still uses site speed as a ranking factor for ranking. It even launched tools that helped developers make improvements to their site’s performance. They even made sure that you can optimize your mobile website speed.
The exact definition of optimal site speed is still sketchy. However, there are a lot of ways for you to increase your website speed for a higher rank. The current acceptable loading time for common websites is 2 seconds so if you exceed that, people will abandon your website.
6. Optimizing for Voice Search
More and more gadgets now rely on voice queries. If you haven’t started optimizing yet, it’s time to leverage and create content that caters to voice search optimization. The current trendsetters for this include:
- Siri (Apple)
- Google Now
- Cortana (Microsoft)
- Alexa (Amazon)
It’s important to adopt new SEO strategies and Google business tools to avoid falling behind. You need to do this as early as possible since your competition might capitalize on this already. There’s no denying the fact that the future of web search lies in conversational searches.
A good strategy to implement is to use long-tail keywords. Their short-tail counterpart’s value decreased over the years. The advent of the conversational search trend will most likely decrease their importance even more.
7. Build Backlinks
Despite recent rumors, backlinks are still important to ensure that you maintain a good rank. Google itself said that links still remain as the #1 factor when the search engine determines your search rank. Even higher-ups in the company said that it’s hard for the algorithm to determine ranks without putting link quality into consideration.
When building backlinks, you need to ensure that you only use high-quality links. You must avoid low-quality backlinks such as:
- Blog comments
- Paid Links
A good rule of the thumb is that low-quality links are ones that people can spam with ease. These types of links are ineffective and can even hurt your rankings. Some websites got severely punished for questionable SEO practices involving link farms and the like.
On the other hand, high-quality content, as well as outreach and influencer marketing-based links, are great options for building backlinks. These are safe and effective so you can use them to gain an edge over your competitors.
8. Technical Optimization
Aside from having great content, you need to pay attention to your website’s state. You need to have a solid website. The best way you can do this is to check if your website is up to par with your competitors.
The first thing you need to do is to make the switch to HTTPS if you haven’t already. After all, it’s the most secure version of the HTTP protocol. It’s already a standard for most websites so it’s important to do so unless you want to get left behind.
Its main benefit is that your website enjoys a boost in its SEO presence. It helps your website become more secure and make it harder for parties to hack into your website.
9. Local SEO and Listings
If you have a physical location, you need to pay attention to your local SEO and listings. While people can use online resources to know your location and other things about your business, it’s best that you fix your listings for faster access. It’s the first thing you need to do: ensure your physical information is correct and accurate.
Identify obsolete information about your company. It might be in a Google My Service listing or some other websites that offer local information. Regardless, update the data to make it as accurate as possible.
10. Guest Posting
This method is a great way for you to increase your website traffic. It’s a strategy that came back from the dead since Google used to penalize this method. Now, as long as the post is original and has high quality, it will have a better impact on your search engine rankings.
It’s especially important if your business website offers a blog. To do this, you’ll need to ensure that you claim a niche in your industry and base the guest posts on that specific niche. Pick topics you want to focus on instead of appealing to a broader range of topics.
Guest posting is one of the most reliable small business tools of getting higher rankings. You gain a lot of benefits especially when your website’s blog is in its infancy. It’s provided that you contact a popular blog and write a post there.
11. Use the Right Tools
There are a lot of tools out there that you can use to accomplish specific SEO tasks. For example, there are free keyword research tools that help you know the right keywords to use to make your website rank higher. Google itself is a great research tool to get ideas for search terms and researching your competitors.
For example, if you want to know the list of possible competing companies in your area, type the kind of business you have and put your city at the end. You’ll see specific business names, their business hours, locations, and their ratings.
12. Using Video Content
Video content is one of the most powerful small business tools you can use.
When it comes to video content, YouTube ranks in the top 10 of the results page. People love videos because they’re short, they don’t require reading, and they’re easier to digest. The result is that you gain more means of driving traffic.
The best way you can optimize your video content is to use SEO-friendly video titles. Ensure that it’s also clickable and follows the same principle as the one you use in blog posts. Include keywords as well as power words to get the clicks and shares it deserves.
13. Schema Markup
There are hundreds of markup types out there, depending on the kind of content it represents. Your website will most likely have an associated itemscope and itemtype if you have any data type stored in it. Using schema markups help your website rank higher by at least four positions compared to those who opt not to use them.
It’s not totally clear whether the schema markup is the sole reason for the high search engine rankings. No matter what the case is, there’s a correlation between the two. In other words, doing this will ensure that you don’t miss out on a source of SEO benefits for your website.
14. Reddit Researching
When you’re looking for keywords that you haven’t thought of yet, Reddit is a goldmine. To do a great research, head to a subreddit where you find your target audience. If you don’t know where it is, search for your topic and see the topics as well as subreddits that pop up.
Scan the threads and search for certain terms that appear on a regular basis. Record them and use them as keywords. The benefit of this is that if people talk about these terms, there’s a high possibility that they’re searching for it in Google as well.
15. Consistent Blogging
If you want to build more links and host more content that contains the keywords you need for optimization, you’ll need to maintain a blog. When you do, it’s important that you publish longer, more informative content.
The reason behind it is that, compared to 300-word articles, the average length of articles in the first page of the results page is around 1890 words. Another thing you need to understand is that Google likes to prioritize active websites more. What this means is that you need to post new content on a regular basis as well as repurpose your old content to make it look updated.
Long posts and consistent blogging work because Google thinks you provide in-depth information. More than that, it invokes an emotion in people that make them share your content more–the feeling of awe. Studies found that evoking awe in people makes them 30% more likely to share your content.
Get Small Business Tools for Your SEO Efforts Today!
SEO changes on a yearly basis. Sometimes new SEO trends will emerge within a month. That’s why it’s your duty as a business to adapt as soon as you can.
Even with a saturation of competition, it’s still possible for your business website to gain an edge. Remember, you need to create solid content to make your visitors more engaged and willing to come back for more. Aside from this, you should stay on top of current technical trends like backlinks, site speed, schemas, and more.
It might seem overwhelming in the beginning. but staying on top of the search results page and enjoying more profits is all worth the effort.
Do you need professional SEO services? Are you looking for expert advice on the best small business tools? Contact us today and we can give a free, no-obligation consultation.
