For the last so many years, marketing experts have been asking small businesses to start establishing an online presence. After the pandemic hit, SMBs were the worst hit. Lockdowns brought small businesses to a grinding halt. Having little or no online presence created financial troubles for SMBs.
With the importance of digital being firmly established after the pandemic, it is high time small businesses start digital marketing. Creating a website, pursuing search engine optimization, and maintaining social media pages on different platforms can be a good start in the right direction. However, before that, there is one important question that needs to be answered-
‘How can small businesses start when it comes to Digital Marketing?’
According to leading marketers, a good first step should be getting in touch with an experienced seo consultant. In this article, we are going to look at some credible ways an SEO consultant can help small businesses not only establish a digital presence but also improve performance.
Who is an SEO Consultant: What SMBs should know
An SEO Consultant is someone that can help create, formulate and execute SEO strategies for small businesses. SEO or Search Engine Optimization is the process of ranking a website on the search rankings for an SMB-related keyword.
The SEO consultant can work independently as an external expert or be a part of an SEO agency that you can reach out to.
The rationale is that the higher your SMB’s brand website shows up in the search rankings, the better will be the benefits in terms of-
- Improved traffic flow to your business website
- Higher possibilities for lead generation and sales queries
- Increased revenues and sales for the business
Greater visibility and awareness among target audiences - Better trust, credibility, and loyalty for the brand
As a digital marketing strategy, SEO strategy is something that businesses of all shapes and sizes should pursue. It is a long-term strategy that helps improve organic search traffic on search engines. This ensures that as an SMB, you have regular customers, orders, and revenues.
Small business owners do not need to spend a ton of money on SEO. Small investments over a year can help them outrank their competitors and power online performance.
How can an SEO Consultant help your Small Business?
An experienced SEO consultant can help your small business in multiple ways. The following are some of the major ones-
On-Page SEO Optimizations – SEO concerns looking at various aspects of On-Page SEO Optimizations. This involves looking at the URL structure, meta title, and meta description and whether they are optimized for best results according to Google’s guidelines. Consultants can also help arrangement of H1, H2, and H3 tags, undertake keyword research, set up your blog, and create a content strategy.
Off-Page SEO Optimizations – Performance through SEO depends a lot on Off-Page SEO strategies. Majorly, SEO consultants can help you create and execute guest posting and link-building strategies. The more brand links you can bring on search engines, the higher will be your site’s rankings on the SERPs. From targeting keywords for guest posts to creating content, you can get all this done.
Setting up Local SEO Presence – Small businesses continue to be dependent on physical footfall and sales. This means that a primary task of an SEO consultant is setting up an SMB’s Local SEO. This means setting up the small businesses’ Google My Business (GMB) page. Apart from this, we are talking about local listings, aggregator platforms, and local directories. This will help push footfalls and sales.
Benefits of Hiring an SEO Consultant for your Small Business
At the end of the day, every small business owner knows what is plaguing their business and what they need to do to improve it.
The following are some specific benefits that small businesses can enjoy after hiring an SEO consultant-
- Firstly, an experienced SEO consultant can lead a small business start on the path of digital transformation. These small steps eventually lead to better pursuits in digital.
- Secondly, small businesses can learn about what their competitors are up to. Using SEO tools, consultants can give insights into what SMB’s competitors are doing.
- Thirdly, small businesses must find out about cost-effective ways of building an online presence. A consultant can prioritize which strategies should be done.
- Fourthly, consultants can help SMBs learn from data analytics. Data can get overwhelming to comprehend unless you have someone to take you through it.
- Lastly, hiring an SEO consultant can help you boost efficiency and streamline performance. They can also train your teams and employees to understand digital better.
The Final Word
SMBs need to make a start when it comes to digital marketing. Getting in touch with a full-fledged digital marketing agency can be overwhelming. A better solution should be to get in touch with SEO consultants who can offer the initial guidance and support. If you have any more questions, you would like us to address the topic, please let us know in the comments.
Further SEO tips for small businesses:
– Basics of content marketing
– How to formalize your SEO strategy
– Maximise your ROI from PPC
HussaiN is a full-time professional blogger from India. He is passionate about content writing, tech enthusiasts, and computer technologies. Apart from content writing on the internet, he likes reading various tech magazines and several other blogs on the internet. Email ID: [email protected]