Defining an SEO strategy for a small business involves making the business visible in local search results. Like the Yellow Pages of old, visibility in Google can significantly impact local businesses. While SEO strategies today are more nuanced, the goal remains the same: to appear at the top of search results.
An effective SEO strategy includes keyword research, content creation, and registering with relevant directories, especially Google Business Profile. Understanding how local search results appear to the target audience is also crucial.
Let’s explore a step-by-step process to create an SEO strategy for a small business, using Bella’s Bakery in Brighton (UK) as our example.
Step 1: Install SEOPress
If you are serious about doing SEO for your small business, you should install SEOPress. For the purposes of this guide, we will assume that you are using WordPress with the latest version of the SEOPress PRO plugin installed. You will be particularly interested in the Local SEO features of SEOPress.
Keywords research for small businesses
Keyword research will be vital to understand what customers in Brighton are searching for.
Download our eBook Keywords and SEO guide for more information on finding keywords using SEOPress, Google Suggest, Google Search Console data, Google Keyword Planner, People Also Ask, and brainstorming. The free eBook uses local business examples to explain how to find keywords.
Results for keyword research for Bella’s Bakery would look something like this.
We recommend organizing keywords by brand name, activity (bakery), products (bread), and other keywords. Search with and without the city name.
Search volumes are often country wide. For example, “Bakery” has 40,500 monthly searches in the UK, but “Bakery Brighton” has only 720. People in Brighton may also just search “Bakery” without specifying the city, so it’s important to consider both scenarios in your SEO strategy.
Analyzing local search results
Doing keyword research and analyzing what search engine results look like locally is very important for small business SEO strategy. If you don’t live in the same city as the target audience (Brighton in our example), then you may find this job difficult. We suggest you use the Local SERP Checker by Brightlocal to see what Google search results really look like.
In Local SERP Checker, enter the keyword you want to search for, the city, country and language you want to search in and click Check search results.
The first thing to note about the SERP for the keyword “Bakery” is the prominence of the Google Places results, known as the “Local 3-Pack”. These listings are more visible than organic search results and are drawn from Google Maps and Google Business Profile. For example, Hellenic Bakery Brighton shows up prominently even without a website. It is rare for a business without a website to rank number one, but this result highlights the importance of optimizing your Google Business Profile for better visibility.
You don’t need a website to rank in Google!
We also listed some product keywords for Bella’s Bakery. The bakery makes a lovely Quiche Lorraine, and this is a very popular search term. However, looking at search results in Brighton we can see that Google is only showing recipe sites and no local results.
Many product-related searches identified for Bella’s Bakery, like “bread” and “almond croissant,” show results dominated by national recipe sites or online sales. This highlights that not all searches come from people looking to buy a product locally. To complete your keyword research, you need to be sure of searcher intent before deciding to target a keyword.
We’ll assume that although she understands that not very many people search that keyword in Google, Bella would enjoy ranking for “best quiche Loraine in Brighton” anyway. Go for it!
SEO content for small business websites
When developing an SEO strategy, it’s important to recognize that a website doesn’t need many pages if there aren’t numerous keywords to target. For Bella’s Bakery, the site could work with just 7 pages optimized for SEO:
- Home (Bella’s Bakery Brighton)
- Bread (Artisan bread Brighton)
- Cakes (Cakes Brighton)
- Quiche Lorraine (The best Quiche Lorraine in Brighton!)
- Event Catering (Event Catering Brighton)
- Baking Lessons (Baking Lessons Brighton)
For some small businesses a blog may be a useful way to communicate events, share testimonials or announce new products. But a blog is far from compulsory. See the chapter dedicated to SEO strategy for bloggers for more hints on this.
Local listings, Business Profile and NAP
Local SEO relies heavily on a verified Google Business Profile and consistent online directory listings. Ensure you or your client have a verified Google Business Profile account, and always use consistent Name, Address, and Phone (NAP) information across all platforms. Correctly completing your Google Business Profile and using the primary category are vital for ranking. Other online directories are also important; listing your business on popular local sites with consistent NAP details will boost your local SEO efforts.
See this complete article from Search Engine Land: How to manage and edit your Google Business Profile from Google search for some detailed information on how you can edit important information about a business in Google as well as replying to reviews and questions.
Although reviews are not a massive ranking factor, the star rating you get on Google or other local directories can be a big help or hindrance to business. A study by the Spiegel Research Center concluded that nearly 95% of shoppers read online reviews before purchase and that the content of reviews had an important impact on buying decisions.
Part of your SEO strategy should be a way to obtain and increase positive reviews. QR code signage like the one proposed by QRCodeGenerator.com could be a great help for Bella’s Bakery.
Social media for local SEO
Social media also plays an important part in local SEO. Links to official social media pages can be added to Google Business Profiles and it is not unusual to see Facebook and Instagram pages listed in search results (sometimes as alternative directory listing before the local 3-pack). The choice of social networks will depend on your target audience, but it is always a good idea for a local business to be active on social media and it may be a more effective way to communicate events and news than a blog.
Make sure that the business address provided on social media is the same you use on your website and make sure that the link to your website from your page or profile is up to date (we see a lot of links that start http: when they should start https:).
Google also allows you to add posts to Business Profiles, the latest posts are often published in your businesses knowledge graph and they can surface in other Google SERP features.
Backlinks for small businesses
One of the most important factors for ranking in Google’s organic results is backlinks. These are the links that send users to your site from other sites. Google indexes all the links between pages on the web and it uses this index to calculate a score (the PageRank) that is used as a signal in ranking. It is often said that local search goes further and takes into account “citations” where a company is simply mentioned but not necessarily linked to. This is why it is important to use a consistent name, address and phone.
Work to make sure that you get more links to your site is called “link building”. If you have already added a link to your site on Google Business Profile, on popular local business directories and on social media, you have already started link building!
To find more link opportunities for an existing business, search for the company with its name and address or name and phone number in Google. You may find pages that mention your business, but don’t link to you. You can contact them to ask for a link. You can do the same using the name, address and phone number of a competitor. This will help you find sites where they are listed, but you are not.
For more backlink ideas, see our full guide Link building with WordPress.
