A report from Chief Marketer suggests that SMBs are taking SEO more seriously and focusing on their presences in other channels to boost organic traffic and SERP standing.
Using high-quality content to improve a site’s search ranking can help SMBs, but distributing the articles and tailoring them to ensure a strong user experience has become equally important in driving search results.
Sixty-eight percent of responding companies said they include social sharing buttons on their site content to encourage users to share content further as a means of boosting SEO. Moreover, optimizing landing pages to include a natural keyword strategy and other relevant content can ensure that prospect have a good experience with these pages.
Blog content is another popular element of websites’ SEO efforts, with 45 percent of companies using original blog posts to fuel search optimization and traffic.
Other ways SMBs are looking to improve search standing organically is by encouraging prospects and customers to create content of their own in the form of reviews and comments. While moderating these contributions is critical to ensure quality, it user-generated content can help guide visitors through a website and put them on a path to conversion.
In general, the study suggests that 48 percent of companies actively monitor their search standing to ensure they rank well on their leading key terms.
As SEO evolves, specialized forms of search marketing are becoming increasingly valuable. ContentLEAD recently reported that Google has adjusted its search algorithm to do a better job of bringing local results to searchers. With so many consumers looking for nearby locations, a keyword strategy that focuses on local SEO can help SMBs attract their target audience.