Hello and welcome to week 3, Service Business Summer Series with Nia Pearson.
When it comes to marketing your business, there are so many options in the marketplace. What I have noticed most common over the years as a marketing consultant at Marketing 4 Real Results is there are 3 common types of small business owners:
- Small Business Owner, that gets overwhelmed with the vast marketing options and decide not to do anything new.
- Small Business Owner, that has their marketing plan in their heads, but have not put anything in motion.
- Small Business Owner, that does a lot of research online, watches a lot of Youtube videos and is willing to try new marketing medians to find their marketing sweet spot.
Which Small Business Owner are you?
Regardless of your service or small business owner status, being smart about marketing and being open to change are critical to business growth in the new digital era. My goal in this Summer series is to shed some insight based on the calls we get at Marketing 4 Real Results.
Let’s jump right in!
This week’s focus is “Off-Page SEO” which stands for Search Engine Optimization.
In 2020 there were 58 billion unique indexed webpages in Google search
So, how is SEO connected to the world wide web?
When a user searches for a specific service, search engines use a very quick query search/algorithm to determine the location of the request and the best possible website with the most relevant content to answer the search query.
SEO techniques are designed to enhance a website’s credibility and enable search engines to recognize the website as an authority leading to organic rankings and online brand authority.
By investing in SEO services, you are investing in the long-term organic growth of your business. Many people are willing to pay thousands of dollars a month in pay per click ads, which will give you quick results in many cases, unfortunately that is not sustainable and will results in disappointment and lost of a lot of resources.
Ways to improve Off-Page SEO Rankings:
- Link building (backlinks)
- Social Media Marketing
- Guest Blogging
- Local SEO
- Public Relations
- Reviews
Link building, social media marketing and blogging are three of the most common and effective organic off-page seo techniques.
Public Relations (PR), is by far the platform to share your opinion as an expert that can offer huge exposure. Important factors to keep in mind with PR medians are to align with the audience you are targeting. It does not make sense to appear or advertise on a radio station that targets children, if your service is not for children.
Coordinating an effective PR campaign can be very effective as with other marketing tactics that take into account planning, focus and coordinated efforts. Reach out to local radio, podcast, magazine or cable shows to offer your expertise on a subject matter. Learn more about PR here.
5 Factors every PR campaign should include:
- Identify a specific target audience.
- Identity a specific goal.
- Outline a tone of voice and point of view.
- Craft messages that focus on the specific goal.
- Effectively communicate your message to your target audience.
Another excellent source to boost off-page seo is to have an industry related local guest blog spot. This option will introduce you to a new audience. One placement to consider is your local Chamber Of Commerce. Do not attempt to be all things to everyone, instead be the expert in your local community on one specific topic.
The process of off-page seo link building is an ongoing process that should be reviewed multiple times per year or once per quarter each year. We do this to ensure that we are improving across multiple aspects of our business. In the areas that we do not see improvement, we should create a new goal, new messaging and new benchmarks.
High-quality industry backlinks from reputable websites work well to drive organic traffic.
All SEO options should be considered as a part of your long term marketing initiatives, since expanding your digital footprint is no easy task. Hence, why partnering with other industry related online platforms is a good move to expand your online presence. To check where you appear in the SERP consider a free rank tracking tool.
Knowing where you appear in the SERP results will help you improve search engine optimization and get more leads to your website. Before you get started: Combine a keyword list from a reputable and trusted keyword research database.
Off-page SEO techniques is the ability to enhance your website’s credibility and visibility in the digital ecosystem.
This exclusive Summer Series, is designed to enhance every aspect of your service business in preparation for a big boom this Fall and beyond.
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