Our Nashville SEO agency is passionate about helping small business owners take control of their search engine optimization (SEO) and rankings. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of misinformation out there about SEO, so it can be challenging for business owners to separate fact from fiction.
We’re here to set the record straight about SEO for small businesses. Let’s take a look at some of the most common misconceptions we come across while helping clients in our Nashville, TN, office to achieve an optimized marketing strategy.
Myth: SEO is too complex for a business owner to do
As an experienced Nashville SEO agency, we’ve seen firsthand how overwhelming the average business owner finds SEO. Between understanding the importance of SEO keywords and concepts like backlinking and domain authority, there’s a lot to learn.
It doesn’t help that many SEO professionals go out of their way to overcomplicate the subject, hoping to make it seem so complex that you won’t be able to wrap your head around it unless you pay them for help.
Our Nashville SEO agency is built around the idea that most business owners can handle the fundamentals of SEO on their own, once they learn the ropes. Now, we wouldn’t say all SEO activities are a cakewalk, but most of the important things can be done by anyone that takes the time to learn.
Content
One of the most important aspects of SEO for small business is consistently producing new and helpful content for your audience. This does two things:
- Drives traffic to your site
- Positions your brand as an authority in your industry
Not sure what type of content your customers will like? That might be a sign that it’s time to narrow down your target audience by defining your ideal buyer personas with the help of a Nashville SEO agency.
Keywords
Another fundamental aspect of SEO for small business is using SEO keywords properly. Whatever you do, don’t just guess at keywords – take the time to research keywords related to your niche or sector so you can implement them into the content you create.
Balance keywords that:
- Have a high search volume
- Have low competition
- Show intent to purchase
There are plenty of free tools, like Ubersuggest’s Keyword Ideas tool, that can help with your research.
Once you find the optimal SEO keywords for your content, you’ll need to organize them. Why not head over to our blog on keyword organization for more information?
Myth: SEO doesn’t work anymore
Some of the more pessimistic SEOs out there claim that all the big businesses have swooped in, snatching up all valuable SEO keywords, leaving it impossible for small businesses to rank. It may be true that it can be difficult to rank for many high-level keywords, but never fear: there are still plenty of opportunities out there.
Small business SEO strategies should utilize long-tail keywords that focus on specific industries, job titles, and locations to obtain more traffic. Long-tail keywords tend to be easier to rank for and often show more intent to buy, making them that much more likely to convert.
For example, say you run a cake shop in Nashville that specializes in using all-natural, organic ingredients. Instead of trying to rank for a general keyword like “cake shop”, focus on the more specific and long-tail keyword phrase, “organic cake shop in Nashville, TN.”
See the difference?
Instead of competing with many thousands of businesses which are trying to rank for “cake,” you’ve narrowed down your target to people in your location who are interested in the specific type of cake you offer. Now it’s just a matter of helping them decide on a flavor, and you’ve got a likely sale.
Myth: You only need to optimize a page once
One of the biggest mistakes people new to SEO make is thinking that they can write a piece of SEO-friendly content and forget it. In reality, SEO is an ongoing process for every page on your website.
Don’t let this scare you, though. The initial page setup takes more work than maintenance because the first time you set up a page. you have to put in extra work doing things like:
- Page interlinking
- Alt tagging images
- Meta title and description writing
On the other hand, updating your current content involves:
- Adding more content
- Updating links as new pages are created on your site
- Adding and creating new images and infographics
Keeping your pages fresh and updated helps you seem relevant to search engines so you rank better. Keeping a close eye on your pages also helps avoid the dreaded link rot, which can decrease your domain authority and therefore your rankings.
Myth: SEO is all about trying to rank #1
When you’re learning about how to use SEO keywords and strategies for your small business, it can be easy to lose sight of the main thing you’re trying to accomplish: increasing valuable traffic to your website.
Notice we said valuable traffic.
Achieving the number one rank shouldn’t be your priority; ranking for the right keywords that attract people interested in your product or service is what you should be focused on. After all, the point of increasing traffic is to increase sales, right?
Ideally, you’ll rank on the first page for a robust variety of keywords, thereby stabilizing organic traffic.
Being featured in rich snippets for important buying questions is another invaluable tactic that will win traffic and business.
More questions? Contact our Nashville SEO agency today.
Are you ready to learn more about taking your small business’s SEO to the next level? Our Nashville SEO agency can help you build an SEO strategy from the ground up so you can focus on serving your customers.
Contact us to schedule a discovery meeting.
