What Should Small Business Owners Focus on in 2014?

SEO best practices have to evolve as Google and other search engines change how they rank sites across the web. SearchMetrics conducts an annual study to determine what is important for SEO and what business owners should focus on. In 2014, it has been increasingly clear that content marketing plays a critical role in SEO and is essential for getting a well-ranked site. According to Marcus Tober of SearchMetrics content is “no longer an addition to, but is the main focus of, SEO.”

What to Focus on First

As a small business owner, you can focus on content marketing and social media with excellent results but it all starts with a well-designed and easy to navigate site. If you haven’t had a site review lately, you should do so and make sure that all of your links are working and that the site architecture as a whole is functioning properly. Your website also needs to be responsive or mobile friendly so that it functions well, regardless of the type of device someone is using to pull up your site.

Start Optimizing

Once the site architecture is functioning properly, go through each page and make sure that the title, description, H1 and H2 headers are in place. We can perform an analysis and tell you which keywords your site should be optimized for. These keywords need to be included in all of these areas along with the body of the text on the page itself. These SEO best practices are important for increasing your site ranking but are often neglected since most people rarely think about their website once it has been built.

Increase Your Reach

Next, incorporate social media into each page on your site and build an overall social media strategy. Social signals are still important in SEO since they show Google and other search engines that the information you have on your site or blog is both relevant and interesting to the reader. If, however, you don’t have an easy way for them to share your page or blog – they won’t.
Our list of SEO best practices would not be complete without discussing user signals. How long someone stays on your site and what they do there, is important for both SEO and your bottom line. This shows Google that people like what they see on your site and want to stay there instead of leaving as soon as they arrive. If your bounce rate is high, look for ways to optimize your site so that you can engage users more effectively.

If you are a big brand, it is easier to rank – period. This means that most of us little guys (not Coca Cola) need to focus on quality in every area of our online marketing. Websites need to hum with fast load times and a complete content marketing strategy. Social media should be used often and in a compelling way, and you have to focus on engaging users through clever blog posts and social media promotions. The good news is that with the right online marketing strategy and by incorporating SEO best practices, you can successfully compete.