Did you know that there are 30.2 million small businesses in the U.S. alone?

This number is only likely to increase in the coming years.

As a small business owner, you may struggle to get the word out about your company in such a competitive field. What’s more, you may simply lack the financial resources needed to launch massive advertising campaigns.

Luckily, there are plenty of tools at your disposal for boosting your organic visibility. Small business SEO services, in particular, can get you noticed without breaking the bank!

Keep reading to learn more about SEO services and how they can help your business today. Whether you want to learn and implement on your own, or invest in small business SEO packages, this article will get you started in the right direction.

What is Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?

Google processes over 40,000 searches every single second. This equates to over 3.5 billion queries a day!

Businesses everywhere can take advantage of this incredible search traffic with Search Engine Optimization (SEO). SEO is a digital marketing strategy that can improve a business’s visibility.

Think about a basic Google search. A user types a keyword into Google that best approximates what they’re looking for.

Examples include “effective remedies for sunburn” or “best restaurants in London.”

Google then ranks websites based off of which ones best match these searches. The better the match, the higher the ranking.

For this reason, most users will stick to the first page of Google results when searching. They will most likely click on one of the top ten listings.

What does this mean? If your web content is appearing in the second or third page of search results, you’re missing out on potential traffic. What’s more, you could be missing out on brand visibility–period.

Enter SEO. This digital marketing tool is available to anyone with a website! And it is ultimately designed to boost your organic visibility by optimizing your content for keywords your customers are likely to enter into Google.

What is Organic Visibility?

Organic visibility refers to how “visible” you are as a brand.

In general, the more visible you are, the better. More customers will notice your brand and–hopefully!–walk through your doors or engage your website to make a purchase.

In fact, that’s what marketing is all about. Most advertising campaigns are designed to get the word out about your brand.

Organic visibility, however, is the best kind of visibility. “Organic” in the marketing world refers to something that happens naturally. Organic searches refer to Google searches that lead a visitor to your site.

This has a lot to do with inbound marketing. Inbound marketing is all about letting the customer come to you (rather than the other way around). It can be far more powerful than outbound marketing, and far less taxing!

SEO is all about helping you achieve that organic visibility. When your content is optimized for the right keywords, it will surface at the top of search results, and your organic “click-through rate” (how many people click on your link as they scroll through search results) will rise.

The higher your click-through rate, the greater your visibility. This can only lead to more conversions, sales, and long-term customers.

What Are SEO Services?

It’s possible to implement SEO on your own or with the help of professionals. In fact, you can optimize your content for search terms without spending a penny.

If you are interested in tackling SEO yourself, we recommend beginning with Google’s SEO Starter Guide.

Even if you eventually invest in SEO services, it’s important to know the rules of the game. SEO involves so much more than cramming some great keywords into your content!

SEO services research, implement, and track SEO campaigns for small businesses. Instead of you having to do all of that work, the experts handle it for you. Many businesses have discovered the value of organic SEO, so while you can get started on your own if you lack the budget, over time the SEO grind gets taxing and it makes sense to bring in the pros.

Every SEO package varies, but small business SEO services focus specifically on finding lucrative keyword opportunities that are attainable with your website and your budget.

Marketing professionals will help you get there through content marketing, monthly reporting, keyword optimization, and effective link-building.

The Financial Benefit of SEO Services

What are the benefits of SEO services as opposed to DIY SEO campaigns? More importantly, how can agency SEO services help budget-conscious small businesses?

As a small business owner, you may be wary of outsourcing anything beyond the essentials. This is totally understandable, especially if you are in the first few years of your business.

After all, most small businesses start out at a mere $3,000 to $5,000. The majority of entrepreneurs seek outside financing, such as business loans, to get things going.

Marketing’s ultimate aim is to “get things going,” though–by getting you noticed! For this reason, investing in professional advertising services may be exactly what you need to get off the ground.

Here are some other reasons why SEO services may be what you need.

The Many Elements of Winning SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) sounds simple at first glance. How complicated could it be?

Sure, SEO involves playing a bit of a matching game. Marketers choose search terms and knit these into existing content.

But it is so much more than this! If the only rule for SEO involved keyword integration, Google would have no way to assess authority and rank pages appropriately.

Google takes into consideration plenty of other factors when assigning rankings. For example, it looks very, very closely at content quality.

After all, Google has to maintain its own reputation as a search engine. If it fails to deliver good matches for searches, users will navigate elsewhere!

In its guidelines to a Google-friendly site, Google emphasizes the value of high-quality content. It urges marketers to give searchers the information they’re looking for. This content should be well-written and authoritative. It should not be misleading in any way.

Yes, it should be optimized appropriately for relevant keywords. But this is only part of the SEO pie.

Google also inspects link quality and number, especially the number of links to your site found on other sites. These “backlinks” can be valuable for assessing your domain’s authority and its likelihood of ranking highly.

If your site loads too slowly, this could also hurt your Google ranking. Google prioritizes fast-loading, mobile-friendly sites.

If you are new to marketing and SEO, all of these factors can be hard to keep track of! When you invest in SEO services, you entrust your campaign to experts well-versed in everything that influences rankings. What’s more, you can rest assured that they will be optimizing everything to ensure your organic visibility.

SEO Takes Time–And Effort!

SEO is a time-consuming, ongoing digital marketing process. It is not something you do in a day. Nor is it something that can be implemented and then left to its own devices.

In fact, the best SEO campaigns come from solid industry research. Professional SEO marketers will spend time analyzing your target market and industry niche. They will perform intensive keyword research to come up with the exact search terms your clients are likely to type into Google.

Then, they will optimize your content accordingly. Sometimes this involves fresh web design and actual content development. Some SEO services will incorporate link-building as well.

Once a campaign is launched, marketers will track it constantly, identifying areas for improvement and generating monthly reports.

As a small business owner, you’ve got enough on your plate as it is. Plus, your time is money. The more time you have to devote to SEO, the fewer dollars in your pocket.

SEO services can actually save you money by generating an effective campaign the first time–without costing you your time. The return on your investment will always be higher, especially if you are not well-versed in SEO already.

Like any relationship, building a strong relationship between your website and Google takes time. In the long run though, having a steady stream of organic leads for your business is an undeniable asset that leads to massive growth.

Results Happen Fast When You Outsource

Our customers have said it time and again. Outsourcing SEO generates fast, effective results. With SEO services, small businesses can get onto the first page of Google within a matter of months.

Tackling SEO on your own, however, can have variable results. It may take longer to boost those rankings organically without the aid of professionals.

Plus, it can be hard to identify areas for improvement if you don’t know what to track.

Don’t Get a Google Penalty

Yes, it is possible to make an SEO misstep. If you violate any of Google’s SEO rules, you are at risk of a penalty. Google penalties can tank your organic visibility. They can also take a long time to recover from.

DIY SEO marketers are at greater risk of these penalties than professionals. When you outsource, you eliminate this risk.

Any organic visibility acquired through SEO services you get to keep. End of story.

Final Thoughts: Small Business SEO Services

SEO can be a powerful tool for small businesses everywhere. Because it is a form of digital marketing, it is particularly ideal for budget-conscious businesses.

Small business SEO services can be especially valuable for boosting organic visibility. These are designed to get your brand on the first page of Google so that you can enjoy greater traffic, conversions, and sales!

While businesses do have to invest in SEO services, this investment is likely to save money in the long run. Every SEO campaign is time-intensive and unique and requires professional attention.

Are you ready to boost your visibility now? Start a conversation with us to learn more!

The post Small Business SEO Services: Improving Rankings on a Budget appeared first on Midas Marketing.

Small Business Blogging: Introduction

Are you the owner of a small business looking for ways to spice up your blog to attract new customers? Or perhaps you’re a part-time blogger who is wondering how to best increase your web presence? Maybe you’ve heard bits and pieces about SEO and effective marketing strategies, but you’re not sure how to tie it all together? Well in that case, welcome to our how-to guide designed to help you create an effective blogging strategy to market your small business or campaign!

1. Make it Rain in Your Brain

Sit with a pen and paper and do some intense brainstorming. Try to answer the following or similar questions: What is the purpose of your blog? Who are your ideal customers? How can you maintain a customer-friendly relationship? Who are you main competitors? How will you ensure your blog remains unique? Come up with detailed answers and underline the important topics or keywords. Check with your friends and business partners. Reevaluate your answers. When you’re done, come up with simple, powerful statements that best summarize your business and your blog.

2. Do the Keyword Research

Small business blogging should start by carefully studying keyword data. Make a list of proper keywords and create composite keyword groups. Use keyword tools such as Google’s free AdWords Keyword Planner to come up with the best keywords to suit the occasion. Always run your blog with free keyword density checkers for the most SEO-ready content. Take advantage of Google Trends to search for keyword “hot topics.” Lastly, proofread eveyrthing. (See, we can be funny too!)

3. Fix a Schedule and a Budget

If it’s your first time, start small. Once you get used to it, build a core creative team with copywriters and graphic designers. Make a schedule, slot duties and see to it that your blog is properly updated from time to time. Keep your contributors happy by paying them on time. Keep a tab on your site’s web traffic by noticing when you have the most amount of visitors and time your posts accordingly. Overall, this one is especially important for small business owners who have to juggle a lot of things at once. Make a plan and stick to it!

4. Promote your Blog via Social Media

Maintain a powerful social media presence. Keep your Twitter handle up to date by tweeting about the trending hashtags. Have a Facebook page, and directly engage with the customers and clients. Request for their feedback and take criticism very seriously (but not personally). Send out monthly newsletters, host contests and give away surprise gifts to loyal followers. Be active and engaging, or else your social media and blogging strategy might actually backfire. By making your visitors feel like part of a friendly community, you stand to build a powerful and intimate relationship with your customers. If your blog is visuals/graphics-oriented, keep an Instagram account or a Youtube channel specially dedicated to it. Once again, incorporate important keywords in your posts but do not overdo it.

5. Make Sure Your Site Looks Professional

Use the free tools available online to know to what extent is your site search engine-friendly. Use XML sitemaps and double check the validity of web documents. Make sure your blog is not only aesthetically appealing but also easy to navigate with simplistic fonts and designs.

6. Keep an Eye on Your Competition with Backlinking Tools

If you want to know what your competitors are up to, use tools such as Backlinkwatch and Moonsearch to be updated with their latest strategies and tactics. Compare different websites using Open Site Explorer and keep a close tab on their domain stats as well. Use this information to assess the strengths and weaknesses of your own blog.

7. Content is King (especially for Small Business Blogging!)

High-quality content is always a must, and there will always be interest for easy readability and originality. Make sure your content is free of plagiarism by using Copyscape-like software or any other plagiarism checker. While JuicyStudio assess a website’s readability factor, it really pays to have an experienced copywriter if you aren’t doing the blog yourself as the small business owner.

Don’t forget: With the rise of the smartphone-addicted generation, do try and build a mobile-friendly site too for your blog.

Our Conclusion on Small Business Blogging

We hope this guide was a helpful one on small business blogging. Whether your brand new, or if you’ve been one of those SEO beginners who has a blog already but isn’t maximizing SEO benefits, you now know the exact steps to take. Good luck building a killer blogging strategy for your small business!

The post Small Business Blogging: Creating an Effective Strategy appeared first on Midas Marketing.

Affordable SEO Services for Small Business

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can sound confusing and technical, especially to a lot of small and medium-sized businesses. Because it can seem overwhelming, a lot of small business owners miss out on an incredible opportunity to grow their company. SEO, to put it simply, is a strategy to show up higher in search engines like Google and Bing when people search for keywords related to your business. So if someone searched for the title of this article, they would find it, hopefully near the top of the engine they used!

Ranking well in the search engines is becoming more and more important as a young generation that values authenticity and organic value grows towards adulthood. With social media being all the rage these days, there’s situations where SEO might actually be much more effective. Additionally, SEO (when done properly) can be tracked and measured to the point where a business can usually know if it’s truly bringing in a positive ROI. The value of a website visitor is generally easier to determine than the value of a like or a retweet.

What are the keys to great search engine optimization?

1) On-site optimization

The first part of SEO is optimizing your own website to be properly “understood” by the search engines. This involves using bold headlines to emphasize your top keywords, captioning your pictures with good descriptions, and a myriad of other activities done within your website to accurately describe what your company does.

2) Fresh, keyword-rich content

Blogging, adding new pages, and other website updates are important to keep visitors informed, but also to continue to rank well in the search engines. Part of your ranking is determined by how much content your site has on the web, as this generally describes a more informative and authoritative site. Think of regular, keyword-focused updates as “hitting the gym” with your website. The more you do it well, the better off you’ll be.

3) Backlinking strategies

A website is also ranked based on how many links point back to the site. Exchanging links with other websites, submitting your website to online business directories, building social profiles and more all play a key part in determining how valuable your website is in the eyes of a search engine. Be careful though, some “black-hat” (unethical, against terms of service) strategies promise fast ranking for competitive keywords by spamming your site all over the internet. Sometimes it works in the short run, but once the Google or Bing police catch you, your site could be removed from appearing in the search engine forever.

If you want to collaborate with us to explore ethical and effective SEO options, click the button below. Even a small business can benefit from an affordable SEO package. Thanks for reading and happy ranking!

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