What Can Search Engine Optimization do for your Small Business This Holiday Season?

 

 

It doesn’t matter if you own a large international conglomerate or a tiny tea house on the side of town, search engine optimization benefits all businesses great and small.

Not everyone fully understands the nature of this important marketing tool. It is important to understand that SEO is not some “magic pill” solution to attaining that online attention and position to smash out the competition.

However, underestimating the efficacy of this tool in reaching your goals and fattening that bottom line through making a connection with your most valued clients, customers and business associates could be detrimental. It is essential that your small business SEO campaign is kept on point with the latest industry insights and expert guidance.

As much as I would like to provide individualized advice for each situation in the online markets, it’s never that simple. So much of the important moves and decisions will have to be planned according to the needs of your small business and SEO marketing strategy. But, there are some important best practices that I have seen ubiquitously successful in all types of SEO for small business promotion.

With winter just around the corner, preparations will be underway for an especially advantageous marketing season and you will not want to be left behind. If you feel your online marketing is lacking in some way, here are some best practices to kick your small business SEO campaign into high-gear this holiday season.

 

 

7 Ways to Boost Your Small Business SEO before the Holidays

 

1.Create a Holiday Content Calendar

With all the special plans you are making this holiday season, don’t forget to create a plan for posting special holiday content. Take the time to go all out on this and add a content calendar to your website maintenance schedule. Make sure you have added the plan for updating your social media sites as well.

 

2.Get Your Experts to Plan Keywords

The need for high-quality industry specific keywords has never been greater. This is where you may want the help of an expert keyword planner. Because these words will be used to find your options online it is essential that you have chosen these especially for the customer pool or B2B demographic you are hoping to reach.

Is there a chance you will want to choose seasonal keywords related to your seasonal content? Absolutely, so make sure you have your selection well-prepared.

 

3. Optimize Metadata

Meta-data will be as important to your holiday SEO for small business/ start ups as it is at any other time of the year. These words and phrases are how the great search engines find and index the information on your site.

These important words and phrases will need to be included in the titles, URLs and meta-descriptions of the page. It is very important to be as simple and straightforward with your metadata. You need the headlines and titles to be informative and enticing to your visitors but still inform the search engines of what is happening on the website.

 

4. Make Your Landing Pages Impossible to Ignore

There is nothing like adjusting your landing page for greater seasonal advantage. You need to make it so that every aspect of your landing page directs your visitors to the solutions to their questions, needs or desires. This can be a tricky aspect to get just right. If you need some good ideas, it often helps to consider what your biggest competitors are doing to boost their SEO and Conversion Rates.

Blog Quote For Holiday SEO

5. Choose the Length of You Content carefully

During the especially busy holiday season people are especially busy and concise content is in order. If you are running your average B2C business, choose a length around 1000-words or less.

But, for those running a B2B you will need something a bit more substantial to deliver your message effectively. The average B2B Company should aim for content of at least 2000-words to ensure that all the points are properly covered and your clients don’t have to surf multiple posts to find the information they are looking for.

 

6. Add Video Content to Your Strategy

Video content is king when it comes to successful seasonal marketing and there is no reason to be left behind.

Your clients and business associates will be looking through a lot of data and information at this time and it is best to provide something fast and chock-full of information. Video content allows you to provide a host of useful information in a concise presentation. This convenient and easily-assimilated content is something your small business SEO should not be without.

You can take this idea to the next level by backing up all your video content with a transcript of the information you have covered. Not only does this allow you to double up on the valuable content you create, it also allows search engines to better understand what is on the video.

 

7. Tailor Keywords to Voice Searches

Voice searches have become the most popular form of searching for information on the web and the convenience can’t be denied.

This is a great way for time pressed holiday shoppers and busy business decision makers to find the information they need basically hands free. So, you should consider how you can make your keywords more suitable to voice search.

One way to do this is by thinking of the most natural and conversational way to form a query. For example, if your keyword is “Pizzas in Brooklyn”, you could change this to something a bit more conversational. “What are the closest pizzas in Brooklyn”, may be a good option to consider.

 

Conclusion

This holiday season, your small business SEO work will be your greatest tool for making the most of marketing and raking in that end-of-the-year ROI.

Take the time to consider how many customers and clients will be looking to make decisions based on convenience and the valuable content you provide. I advise all my readers to get ahead with their holiday marketing by applying some of these small business SEO best practices.