In today’s day in age we live in a highly competitive world. Having your business’ website on page one for search results is what separates you from all your competitors. Google and other search engines reward companies that have optimized web content on their site as well as your overall audience. As more people turn to search engines for finding products and services, you need to have your website present on the first page. Bigger companies allocate a large amount of their marketing budget to SEO services in order to be number one in search results. That is why getting to page one is a challenge for small businesses or startup companies. Typically, small businesses don’t have the funds for professional SEO services.
It is frustrating when your competitors have a professional SEO agency available for creating optimized content. You might think to yourself, “how can you even compete when you can’t even afford monthly SEO services?” Well there, there are plenty of affordable SEO services for small business. As SEO professionals we have found affordable SEO hacks that can help get you to page one without breaking your budget. Our seven hacks will help your small business create an affordable SEO plan that can get you to page one!
1. Use Free SEO Tools
Not surprisingly, the company that you want to rank first on also has the best SEO tools. Google offers free SEO tools that can give you results and recommendations on how to improve your website’s SEO. Google’s Keyword Planner helps you find and research keywords for your website. On the technical side, Google’s Search Console will uncover and fix technical and on-page issues with your site. Google Analytics also has tools to analyze the amount of people visiting your site as well as where they are landing and how long they are staying. To repeat: all of them are free!
One of our favorite free SEO tools to use, if you wish to shy away from Google, is a browser add-on called Keywords Everywhere. It is a free SEO tool that can be used to help write optimized content for your website. Keywords Everywhere takes the topic you are searching, or writing about, and retrieves a list of other keywords that are related to your topic. Use this tool to find out what people are search for and implement those high-volume keywords into your writing.
2. Utilize Your Social Media
Another cheap SEO hack is focusing more on your social media presence. Google takes into account content and links as primary factors for ranking websites. Social media plays a role in promoting your website. As long as you produce and share quality content, your audience will increase as well as will the duration people stay on your website. These factors send a signal to search engines that your website has quality content worth ranking.
Social media also encourages brand awareness. There has proven to be a correlation between strong brands and search performance. Social media increases your brand awareness because it offers direct access to your target audience. As tedious as it might be for staying on top of social media, it is one of the more affordable ways to boost your audience resulting in an increase for SEO. Hiring a worker strictly for social media can be a solution, but simply doing your own research and posting at the appropriate times should be part of you affordable SEO plan.
3. Focus On Your Website Content
How you write your website’s content is one of the cheapest and most effective things you can do to improve your website’s SEO. Google and other search engines reward websites that have interesting and informative content. One of the easiest things you can do for your website’s page rank is to have proper titles and headings.
If writing isn’t your strong suite or your small business doesn’t have an experienced writer on the team, there are cheap SEO agencies that offer a low-cost SEO service for writing webpages. These SEO agencies typically charge per page and offer a variety of cheap SEO services that can accommodate to your business needs without killing your budget. Check out Upwork.com, UnbundledSEO.com and Freelancer.com
4. Start A Blog Using Keyword Phrases
Writing blogs by using long-tail keyword phrases is another affordable and simple solution for increasing your website’s SEO. If you’re not familiar with the term, a long-tail keyword is a keyword phrase that contains at least three words. Long-tail keywords are actually how people search the internet. For example, one might google “cheap SEO agency near me.” That string of words is actually a long-tail keyword phrase and is what can separate you from the competition in your market.
When you write blogs using these keyword phrases you are helping your website’s SEO by utilizing high volume phrases that people search for. Not to mention you are also creating quality content that can increase your overall audience. Creating a helpful or informative blog, using long-tail keyword phrases is an affordable SEO hack that any small business can implement.
5. Write Blogs For Other People
It might sound strange, but guest writing a blog for another person or company can help increase your own website’s SEO. The more you give yourself and your small business a presence, the more brand awareness and trust you build within your target market. People will begin to take notice of your own company and website.
Guest writing a blog also creates the opportunity for other companies in your industry to become aware of the content you are creating. The better your content and more exposure you have, the more likely similar companies will begin backlinking to your website. As stated before Google and other search engines love links and quality content.
6. Create Informative Infographics
It is a SEO secret that infographics have been proven to increase site traffic and your website’s overall SEO. This is because visual information is processed much faster then written data. Infographics gives you the ability to cram as much information as possible into a single image as opposed to writing a lengthy blog. Infographics encourage backlinks and increase site traffic. Not to mention the load time for an infographic is significantly shorter than a written blog.
Now we know not every business has a skilled graphic designer. That shouldn’t stop you from implementing this SEO hack. There are tools and tutorials available that can teach you how to create effective infographics in a short amount of time. Of course, if you don’t have the time to learn, you can always resort to hiring a freelance graphic designer at Freelancer.com, UnbundledSEO.com or Upwork.com. Graphic designers typically charge by hour or by project, but they are an easy solution for creating a visually striking and informative infographic for your website.
7. Search For An Affordable SEO Company
Now, as a small business or startup company, you might not have the time to focus on writing or creating optimized content. As important as SEO is, sometimes businesses can’t allocate the time needed to really create an effective SEO plan. That is okay, because your small business can hire an affordable SEO company.
Yes, this will cost you money, but not as much as you may believe. This can be a viable option for if you are looking to optimize, write or create just certain pages for your website. Some SEO agencies charge clients per page and along with the type of work. Clearly, a full written blog is going to cost more however, than simply optimizing a page, but it is worth knowing the price it will be to help your website’s SEO. Outsourcing to a SEO agency and increasing your SEO one page at a time, is a reliable SEO hack that can save you money.