It's not easy to be a small business owner trying to get to the top of Google on a budget, all while actually running your business day-to-day too.
Small business search engine marketing (SEM) is a mixture of art and science. There's the creativity needed to produce good-quality content to add to your website, for the search engines to find, but there's also a lot of data analysis to satisfy the ever-changing search ranking algorithms.
On top of that, search marketing agencies have a vested interest to sell you services you'll need month after month (e.g. Pay Per Click advertising) and not just the methods that deliver long-term lasting gains (e.g. building your website content with well-written in-depth pages).
That's not to say that methods like PPC aren't a good addition to your search engine marketing mix - in fact they can deliver some quick results while you're building your organic search traffic - but if you're on a tight budget, I'd argue in favour of adding some new search-friendly pages to your website for Google to find.
How much does search marketing for small businesses cost?
You don't have to spend a lot on SME search engine marketing to get positive results. Just adding new pages to your website on a regular basis shows Google that your content is updated, which can help to improve your search rankings.
For the best impact, you should publish in-depth, insightful pages. Don't just churn out versions of pages that already exist - original content will perform better. Add your own first-person insight where possible.
If that sounds daunting, it doesn't need to be. Find a writer who's willing to learn about your business, and you can put your trust in them to create content with 'your' authentic voice. Working with a freelancer is a great way to get the same author on all your content, rather than an agency assigning the work to whoever's in the office that day.
As a freelancer, I understand the pressures of running a small business on a tight budget - so if you let me know how much you want to spend, I'll always aim to offer you the most content I can reasonably produce for you at a competitive market rate.
Do I have to manage my own search marketing campaign?
You can have as much or as little direct involvement with your new content as you want. Again, working with a freelancer is an excellent way to get the flexibility you want when it comes to delivering, approving and publishing content.
In my career, I have done everything from getting sign-off at every stage from the first draft onwards, to publishing pages directly to clients' websites (with permission!) without needing prior approval.
A good middle ground is to agree some headlines or topics upfront, and then just approve the final draft, either as an email attachment or uploaded into the Drafts section of your website.
I'm more than happy to upload the content to your site, especially if it's built using WordPress or similar, and you're able to trust me with a login so that I can create and save new pages as needed.
What about small business SEO and keyword research?
I don't claim to be an SEO expert. In fact I write content for some of the most respected SEO agencies in the north of England, the Midlands and London.
Although I don't offer in-depth keyword research and analysis, I can recommend a trusted agency in your area if you want a detailed report preparing.
Alternatively, I do believe that a lot can be achieved just by choosing a few words and phrases that are relevant to the topic of the page, and repeating them in the right places (headings, subheadings, hyperlinks and bullet points).
That might sound old-fashioned if you know much about SEO, but Google have ALWAYS encouraged website owners to publish natural, well-written content, with good keyword placement to help Googlebot decide what the page is about.
Crucially, this is one SEO technique that has never been penalised, whereas many other methods are only effective for a short time before being put on the naughty list by Google (e.g. paying third-party websites to link to you).
It's second nature to write in a search-optimised way, when you've been doing it as long as I have (18 years professionally and about 26 years since building my first website). I've rarely met an SEO keyword I couldn't make work in a grammatically correct sentence, although it's not always easy.
What kind of content to publish?
There are plenty of options when deciding what to publish. Remember, helpful pages will usually rank higher, so try to provide real value to your website's visitors and readers:
- How-to and step-by-step guides
- 'Explainers' about specific subjects
- Timely news and industry events
- News/opinions from your own business
- Comments about your industry/sector
I can suggest some topics and headlines to you upfront if it helps, and you can pick as many as you want or let me know why they're not suitable. I'll work with you to come up with a content plan that includes the products or services you're trying to sell, in pages that should rank well too.
As an experienced freelancer, I have memberships to many industry-specific news and press release services, as well as the knowledge needed to find source material about niche topics.
I have a top 0.5% IQ and an educational background in science as well as the arts, so I'm good at writing about technical subjects using plain English.
When to start publishing new pages?
There's no time like the present. The sooner you start publishing new pages onto your website, the sooner Google will realise you're updating it regularly.
After that, you should see your website 'crawled' more often by Google, with new pages added to the search results faster. If they're in-depth and of good value, they should rank highly too.
Organic SEO (where you build traffic by improving your search rankings, rather than through sponsored methods like PPC ads) generates more ROI the longer it's in place - a PPC ad is gone as soon as somebody clicks on it, but a new page on your website will continue to bring in traffic indefinitely.
With the new tax year underway, it's the perfect time to take a fresh look at your marketing budget. Even if there's very little to spare, I can make you an offer to get at least some fresh content on your website each week or month, without you paying SEO agency overheads.
As a freelancer, I really do understand the pressures - and I'm here to help your small business thrive as we move through the new financial year.
Please feel free to email me or contact me via social media if you'd like to discuss your search marketing. I'm always happy to talk about it, with no obligation to place an order.
