Article written by Hannah Stack, Business Advisor, Western Sydney Business Centre.
SEO… Search Engine Optimisation, have you heard of it? As a small business owner, you most likely have, but understanding it needs a whole course on its own. Well fortunately there are lots of courses and information out there, including MOZ SEO Fundamentals and Niel Patel’s SEO Podcast which can be useful for small business owners looking to go it alone.
For those business owners out there, that see the value of SEO to target and capture local and area specific traffic. Think of it like this…. A potential customer types in a search terms, also referred to as ‘keywords’ into Google i.e. ‘Electrician near me’, ‘Marketing Consultant Penrith’ Your website based on the SEO work you have done, may or may not appear for this search query.
Try it now > Open an incognito mode on chrome and type in [Profession] [Suburb], what appears? Does your website appear? Who does?
There are a lot of SEO techniques which all influence where your website ranks for specific search terms and locally. However, there are some basics small business owners can do as part of their marketing campaign to start the process.
Citations – Listing your business on FREE Directory listing with high Domain Authority
Look for local council and government business directories to list your business. Other sites include Yellow Pages, Yelp, True Local, Hot Frog. It is important you list all the same business details from your website on each of these listings, as well as a great description that has keywords. If you would like a full list of high Domain Authority citations and a template for completing a description, please contact us!
Google My Business
Is your Google My Business up to date? Do you have a GMB? If not, we recommend setting one up. For service businesses you can hide your address. Ensure you have used all the Google My Business features including posts, website link, adding any updates, products/services and opening times.
Keywords
Reviewing your website with keywords is an important step with SEO, including using key suburbs which you are trying to target for example Western Sydney Business Centre or Business Consultant Western Sydney.
All the above recommendations assist in helping build your presence and website traffic. If you have further questions, Western Sydney Business Centre, is where we can develop a plan for marketing your business.