Part 2: Unlocking SEO Opportunities for Small Businesses and Nonprofits
- Sebrinia Welch
- Nov 1, 2023
- 4 min read
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Let’s get personal: It’s November 2023 and I just moved back to Minnesota. I am nervous about winter. I haven’t experienced a midwest winter since 2008 (yikes!) and I know I am going to need some warmer clothes after chasing the sun these past couple of years.
So, where do I start? I know, let’s search for… socks. Yep, socks.
As a potential sock buying customer, what are my needs? They need to be warm and sturdy. I don’t want to have to replace them after a couple of washes. I also don’t want a “one-size-fits-all” (I really dislike stepping on the extra material within my shoe) so finding multiple sock sizes would be good.
What would I be using them for? Other than the typical daily use, I may want to make sure the socks work for outdoor activities. I’ve been thinking about learning snowshoeing or curling, so I may want breathable and moisture wicking material.
Alright, now how do I find the right pair? I’ll probably start an online search using a query like “Top winter socks for outdoor activities,” “Recommended socks for winter,” or if I want to buy local: “Where to buy winter socks near me.”
Once I click on “search,” various results will appear with descriptions and then I would find and navigate to a webpage that seems to have what I am looking for.
If that page loads quickly, has the information I am looking for, visuals and descriptors of products I could buy, and working links where I can navigate to other options easily, then I may be well on my way towards making a decision.
However if my journey isn’t as easy or I am not finding what I am looking for, I will probably leave that site and go find another.
This example of a customer journey shows a number of aspects to Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, and how it plays an incredibly important role in the digital presence of small businesses and nonprofits.
SEO Opportunities to Seize
In our last article [read it here!], we talked about how SEO isn’t just a singular task you complete once and you’re done, rather it is a group of practices that should be implemented on-going and these strategies are dynamic, evolving with technological advancements and changing based on behaviors of your audience:
1. Keyword Optimization: By incorporating relevant keywords into your content, you enhance your visibility for those terms. It’s like speaking the language of your audience.
If your target audience is searching for “breathable sturdy winter socks,” and your website doesn’t have any of these keywords, more than likely your website is not going to register.
2. Quality Content: Regularly updating your website with quality content can improve its authority, leading to better rankings.
If you write informative blogs or resources, but the latest one you published on your website was from 3 years ago, other organizations with similar content, but newer published materials, are probably going to rank better.
3. Mobile Optimization: With more users browsing on mobile devices, it is critical that your website is mobile-friendly.
More than 50% of website searches happen on mobile devices, so if your website doesn’t appear or work well on a cell phone, chances are your visitors are going to bounce, or leave, your site quickly.
4. Backlinking: External links from reputable sites to your content can significantly boost your site’s authority.
If you create content that other websites reference back to, this tells search engines that what you have published must be quality, which helps your rankings.
5. Site Speed: Search engines favor fast-loading websites. This not only improves your SEO but enhances user experience.
If you have slow loading photos or videos, this could hold back your overall site speed.
6. Meta Descriptions: These brief snippets describe your content to search engines and can influence click-through rates.
Under each search result is a short descriptions of what you will find on this page, which (1.) can give search engines more information about what type of content is available and (2.) give you an opportunity to quickly persuade visitors to click on your site.
7. Image Optimization: Including alt text with images ensures search engines understand every part of your content.
How do you think photos show up onto Google image search? By describing your photos, you can also inform search engines on what content you offer in your visuals.
8. Local SEO: For businesses serving a local community, optimizing for local searches can lead to increased foot traffic.
Think about a search like “[TOPIC] near me” and how you can make sure your small business or nonprofit shows up as a local result.
9. Regular Audits: Checking your website for broken links, outdated information, or slow-loading pages can improve its performance.
10. Engagement Metrics: Metrics like bounce rate and time spent on the page can provide insights into user engagement, indirectly impacting SEO.
The Impact of Comprehensive SEO
The beauty of SEO is its cumulative effect - each opportunity builds on another, and together they create a robust, visible, and trustworthy digital presence. And as an organization with a one person or small team, these practices can be implemented over time if there are limitations on time, money and resources.
By integrating multiple SEO strategies, small businesses and nonprofits can expect:
Improved online visibility
Increased traffic to their website
Enhanced user experience and trust
Higher conversion or decision rates
In our next article, we’ll tackle the topics of meta data and alt text, diving deeper into what it is, what to do about it and how you can work through this SEO practice on your own.
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