The goal of my business is to offer SEO and social media services to businesses that wouldn’t normally be able to afford them. I know from working at a large agency, that quality SEO can cost thousands of dollars per month. Most small business owners don’t have that kind of advertising budget. Luckily there are things you can do with a small budget to improve your Google ranking. Here are a few things you can do today that won’t break your budget.
1. Start a blog. Blogging is one of the easiest ways that you can improve your website. If you have strong writing skills you can write a blog yourself. If not, you may need to find an English major or someone else (like me) that can do it within your means. Blogging about relevant topics to your business will provide an instant SEO boost. It helps because Google gives websites that are consistently updating websites with relevant content priority over stale websites.
2. Set up social media account. Search engines are also ranking social media pages in search results. Setting up a Facebook page or Twitter page can improve your website’s overall SEO as well. There is some debate about how social media relates to SEO, but there’s no doubt that Google does rank social media accounts in certain keywords. Make sure you set up an account and are active. Don’t focus on too many social media sites if you can’t manage them all and update them consistently.
3. Find lower competition keywords. If you are in an industry with high competition keywords you may find it hard to rank on the first page. But there are always multiple keywords that you can research. Find keywords with a lower competition that you can put on your website. While they may not have the highest search results, they are more-realistically keywords that you can dominate. For example, if you are a florist, instead of trying to rank for the “florist” keyword in your area, look for lower competition keywords like “affordable roses.”
4. Spend your AdWords dollars wisely. Larger companies may be spending thousands of dollars per day on AdWords. If you only have a few hundred dollars to spend, it’s still worth the investment. But don’t spread it out over an entire month. Instead, look at peak times that you know your potential business will be searching online. For example, if you offer a lot of Christmas items, save your AdWords budget for late November and early December. If you are a vacation rental, spend your money during the peak tourist seasons in your area.
5. Stay up to date on SEO trends. All small business owners should be spending time each month looking at trends and changes in how your website will rank. Google is constantly changing its algorithms to help people have a better search experience, and to avoid spammers who are always trying to manipulate the system. If you know about these trends before your competition you will have a better ranking website. For example, right now the focus is on mobile search, meaning having a website that responds to mobile devices and Siri-type searches is key to future rankings.
Those are just a few budget-friendly ways to improve your website? Are you still struggling with your SEO and social media marketing? If you have a small budget, I can manage your online presence with rates that start at just $200 per month. Feel free to contact me to ask about my SEO services today!