3 Ways to Use SEO to Build Small Business/Startup Brand Awareness

As a small business owner, search engine optimization (SEO) may sound daunting. You may not have the technical expertise needed.

But SEO doesn’t have to be complicated, especially if you want to build brand awareness.

While big business may have an advantage over you, you can still reap the benefits of SEO with the right plan.

A good SEO strategy can help you rank your site for specific keywords and increase search traffic. It enables you to optimize your website so that search engine crawlers can find it.

Wondering how you can leverage SEO to boost your brand visibility and awareness?

Read on to find out:

Which SEO Strategies Can Help You Build Brand Awareness?

When starting a small business, one of the biggest challenges you’ll face is to get noticed among the big players in your niche.

There is no quick way to become the go-to brand for consumers when they need a product. However, you can employ strategies that ensure you build trust and authority. You can also boost your visibility to reach out to them at the right time by making use of various social media tools.

For this, here are some SEO strategies that you can try out:

1. Boost Your Local SEO

Want to reach out to people in your neighborhood?

Leverage local SEO.

Look for ways to rank locally on Google and get found by people who are looking for businesses, products, and services in their areas.

For example, when a consumer searches for local businesses near them on Google, they see three local listings in a separate box. These are Google My Business (GMB) listings that you can create for your business as well.

This is called the Google snack pack.

These snack pack listings are aimed at giving more visibility to local businesses. Below this box, you can see organic results as well.

By working on your local SEO, you can increase your chances of appearing in these results.

Here’s what you need to do:

• Create an account for GMB for your local business and optimize it by adding updated and accurate information.

• Use relevant keywords in your meta descriptions, title tags, landing page content, and other sections.

• Gain quality backlinks by partnering with local publications or newspapers, joining charity drives, etc.

• Use tools for website audits to ensure that you have a healthy link profile. If you find any suspicious links, ask the site owners to remove them or disavow them.

2. Optimize Content for Voice Search

We’re seeing a change in how people search for information online. From keyword-heavy searches to conversational ones, we’ve come a long way. Voice search has also played an important role in the evolution of search.

With Siri, Cortana, and other voice assistants entering the market, voice searches are becoming more popular.

In January 2019, a study found that 60% of US adults had used voice search. They also found that 47% expected to increase their usage of voice search.

What does this mean?

It’s time to optimize your content for voice search if you want consumers to find your products and services.

How can you do this?

• Research specific questions your target audience pose

• Optimize content for long-tail keywords

• Target question keywords like how, where, when, what, and which

• Create an FAQ page for your website or include FAQs in your content. Add in some quick answers centered around specific semantic questions.

3. Pay Attention to SEO Ranking Factors

Your business may be small, but there is a way you can go from unseen to the top of the list.

Want to know how?

Make sure your website adheres to all SEO ranking requirements. After Google’s Penguin update, SEO ranking factors are all about providing a great user experience to website visitors.

If your website is well-crafted, it can retain visitors for longer which is a good sign for Google. Over time, your site can start drawing more organic traffic. This will bring you increased awareness, leads, and sales for your business.

Here are the factors you should take care of:

Accessibility and Website Security

Google bots should be able to easily reach your site, crawl it, and understand what it’s about. For this, you need to have a well-coded website, robot.txt files, and a sitemap.

You should also enable HTTPS for your website. It is a factor that improves your visitors' security by encrypting data between the server and browser.

Search Intent

Search intent is the “why?” behind a customer’s query or searches on the search engines. When you create content with your customer’s search intent in mind, you meet their content needs at each stage of the buying journey.

Page Speed

Ensure your site loads fast on all devices, to improve a user’s experience. Visitors may abandon a website that doesn’t load fast. This is also an important ranking factor for mobile searches.

Topical Authority

Google emphasizes expertise, authority, and trustworthiness as major ranking factors. If you write SEO-friendly content, which is also authoritative, you can improve your rankings.

User Experience

Gear your overall optimization efforts towards providing better user experiences. Ensure that you create content that is engaging and helpful to your target audience. In addition to this, make sure that your website has a responsive design.

Ready to Build Brand Awareness?

If you want your small business to make an impact and stand out, you need more than a memorable logo.

You need a good SEO strategy.

Optimizing your website and content makes it easy for search engines to discover your content. This, in turn, can boost your online visibility and website traffic. If you get it right, you can increase your revenue.

Do you have any questions about these SEO strategies? Please feel free to mention them in the comment section below.