Getting the Most of Your Small Business Online Marketing

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SEO and internet marketing are two of the most distinct yet closely related terms online. In the simplest of terms, SEO or search engine optimization can be said to be a part of internet marketing. 

There are few internet marketing strategies that revolve mainly around locations and these are generally known as local SEO strategies. Local SEO requires a great deal of marketing knowledge and if practised properly, it can help your small business websites rank higher in the search engine results page.

Understanding local SEO

Local SEO is something that greatly differs from conventional SEO and relies heavily on internet marketing. If you are a small business owner, SEO and internet marketing are two things that you must learn at any cost. 

Among the two aspects, SEO is the only part that might require you to put in some extra efforts. The reason why SEO web design requires more attention is because of the fact that small mistakes committed while optimizing your site can often have greater repercussions online. 

Internet marketing, on the other hand, is something that uses the optimization strategies to draw traffic and revenue to your site using different online platforms. Both these practices need to work hand-in-hand in order to get dividends from your efforts.

Internet marketing for local SEO

Internet marketing usually involves leveraging a group of online marketing platforms along with strategies for SEO to draw traffic to your site. Here is a brief outline of the various internet marketing platforms that you could be using.

ñ  Blogging and content marketing

These are the two most commonly used methods of internet marketing and can help drive a large amount of traffic to your site. The main strategy behind these methods is to educate and provide valuable information to prospective customers. The information could range from anything between product descriptions to general information about the services your offer.

ñ  Video marketing

Video marketing involves creating videos with content that provides value to your prospects. Videos are excellent tools of branding your products/services and establishing trust with your prospects.

ñ  Social media

Social media is perhaps the most popular and well-known internet marketing strategy. However, most people consider that internet marketing is limited only to social media such as Facebook or Google Plus. In reality, it is more than that. Citations through reputed sites such as Yelp and other local forums are also important.

Local SEO to market your small business

You can either outsource your SEO web design requirements or get it done in-house. Either way, knowing the basics of SEO can help greatly to avoid the pitfalls of outsourcing and assist in optimizing your site on your own.

When it comes to SEO, the first and foremost thing that pops into anybody's mind would be keywords, meta tags, meta description, and title tags. These are applicable to local SEO also. You must try as much as possible to include your location through these tags, descriptions and keywords throughout your website. A mention of your complete business address here and there will also help. When it comes to local SEO, this is the most important aspect you need to take care of.

Link building is the next important thing. You may also want to get yourself listed in as many local directories and search engines as possible. Having a profile on Google Places is also an absolute must. The general rule of the thumb is to associate yourself with your location as much as possible and sooner or later, you will definitely succeed.