How a Small Business Can Compete With the Big Guys at SEO
By Brad Shorr, September 2015
You’re running a small business. You’d dearly love to have high visibility on Google for organic search engine traffic and leads—but you’re being overwhelmed by big competitors with deep pockets and an army of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) specialists at their disposal.
Cheer up! You can still win at SEO, but you have to be smart—very smart—about how you deploy your resources.
The important thing to remember is: What most small businesses do with SEO is exactly what they shouldn’t do.
One way they go wrong is to do a little bit of everything; a little on-site optimization, a few off-site articles, an occasional new website page. The problem is they never put enough into any one area of SEO to move the dial.
The other way they go wrong is putting all their SEO eggs in one basket, such as writing off-site content. The problem is they neglect other key SEO activities, and in doing so, cancel out any gains these activities may be generating.
Avoid these traps, and instead, follow this recipe for small-business SEO success.
Keyword research
Every SEO campaign begins with keyword research. Big companies can pick thousands of search terms and successfully optimize for all of them; you can’t.
So, be selective: Optimize for a small set of keywords that you could compete on and have a high probability of conversion.
When doing keyword research, consider these factors:
1. Look for “long tail” terms
Do you have a niche product or service? Can you identify search terms that are less popular but are likely to attract search engine users that really need what you sell? These are the terms to build your SEO program around.
So for instance, if you’re small, the term “credit card processing” will be impossible to compete on, but the term “mobile credit cards for home candle makers” could give you excellent visibility.
2. User intent
There’s a big difference between “credit card processing” and “credit card processing solutions for shoe stores.” A person using the former term could be looking for a service provider or doing research for a term paper. A person using the latter phrase is likely to be in the market. Terms with high-conversion potential are vastly more cost effective.
3. Geography
If you are a local business, you’ve got a better chance of standing out for “credit card processing Arlington Heights” than “credit card processing Chicago.” Just make sure your more narrowly defined geography has a decent amount of search volume.
On-site optimization
Your website must communicate properly with Google; otherwise, Google won’t understand what you are trying to say and as a result, how to rank it. There are three bases to cover:
1. Make sure your website is error free
This is simple, because Google Webmaster Tools runs a report that tells you exactly what needs to be fixed on your site. Have an SEO-trained web developer address issues once or twice a year.
2. Add or reorganize content strategically
Every primary product or service keyword phrase should have its own page on your website. If you’re optimizing for 20 really important phrases, it may take you a few months to add or rework all 20 pages.
Go at a manageable pace; slow and steady is okay, because Google prefers ongoingoptimization to one-and-done SEO projects, which Google potentially sees as a “black hat” SEO tactic or a company not really committed to SEO.
3. Reclaim backlinks
High-quality backlinks are extremely important. If your website has been around for a while, it probably has acquired backlinks from unsavory websites, or backlinks that have the wrong anchor text based on today’s best practices.
An SEO specialist can help you fix these backlink problems and give your SEO visibility a big boost. The work can be very time-consuming, however, so again, do the work at a pace you can handle.
Off-site optimization
Creating off-site content—an extremely important technique for creating natural links and establishing authority with Google—is where small companies can beat the daylights out of big SEO competitors.
Google has become good at identifying and rewarding authoritative and useful content. Small-business owners and leaders are authoritative and know exactly what kind of information is useful to their customers and prospect.
If they leverage their years of expertise by writing (or actively editing) off-site content, the best websites and blogs in their niche will be eager to publish it. When small businesses are published on industry-leading blogs, the content produces backlinks and social media shares (which lead to additional, natural backlinks)—which is tremendously important for SEO.
In addition, this high-quality off-site content helps a small business expand brand awareness and establish its credentials as an expert. In the eyes of prospects, this content, over time, makes a small company look as appealing as a big one—or more so!
The advantage small businesses have with off-site content is that they are ready, willing, and able to produce it. Large companies obviously have a lot of expertise, but their executives and subject matter experts usually don’t get involved in SEO campaigns. As a result, their off-site content is relegated to lower level employees or outside writers who receive few inputs and little guidance. The content they produce is not always up to the standards that an entrepreneur can achieve.
Bottom line: Pick your spots and you can compete in SEO. Start small, with a handful of search terms. When you see results in terms of traffic and leads, you can always expand your budget and add more.
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