As a small business owner, you must implement marketing tactics that will give you the most bang for your buck. With limited use of marketing dollars, inbound marketing can help more local consumers find your small business. If you haven’t yet implemented an inbound marketing strategy, now is the time to get started.
Make Your Site Mobile Friendly
According to Inbound Marketing for Local Business, much of today’s online shopping is done on a tablet or smartphone. With this in mind, whether customers can purchase products directly from your website or can use the site to learn more about what’s offered in your bricks and mortar store, your website must be mobile friendly.
Websites that don’t work well on mobile platforms don’t just frustrate consumers, they’re also now being penalized by Google. And being penalized by Google is something you want to avoid at all costs because the end result could be mean lower SEO rankings than your local competitors.
Register with Online Directories
If today’s consumer needs a product or service, the first place they’re likely to search is online. They type in a few keywords related to their need and will scan the local business listings of online directories until they find a business that peaks their interest.
If a local consumer typed in a keyword related to your business online today, would your business appear in the search results? If you’re unsure of the results, now is the time to do some research. Ensuring your business is accurately listed with local online directories is an important part of your inbound marketing strategy. This listing will help potential customers find your business with minimal effort on your part.
Improve your SEO
Along the same lines as making your business visible on local online directories, you must also ensure that your site is ranking high in search engine results. This is where your SEO efforts come into play. When a local consumer searches Google (or another search engine) for local businesses in your industry, your SEO ranking will determine whether or not your website will appear in the first page of results.
A good starting point for building your site’s SEO is making sure that the copy on your site’s pages includes the top search keywords that customers are using when completing online searches for businesses like yours. For example, if you own a window cleaning business, you should verify that the copy on your website’s pages includes top keywords related to your local window cleaning industry.
Start Blogging
An important method for building and maintaining your site’s SEO is by developing a blog strategy. By adding a blog to your website (and updating it on a regular basis), you’ll ensure that your site is being updated often with fresh content. This content should be valuable to your target market and should include keywords related to your industry.
As you become more comfortable with maintaining your site’s blog, you can then branch into the world of guest blogging. This additional blogging tactic involves pitching blog posts (that include a keyword and link back to your site) to other site owners. This blogging tactic further strengthens your site’s SEO and widens your reach to potential customers.
As a small business owner, you wear many hats. One additional hat to add to your repertoire is that of an inbound marketing strategist. By implementing an inbound marketing strategy, you can begin driving more traffic to your business with less effort. From improving your site’s SEO to blogging regularly, start implementing these important inbound marketing tactics today.