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August 4, 2022 by Bill Treloar Leave a Comment

Small Business SEO: The Basics

On August 4, 2022 / SEO practices / Leave a Comment

SEO isn’t just for “big businesses.”

Big business shouldn't crush small businesses
As a small business owner, you don’t have to let big business walk all over you. Take advantage of SEO.

Small businesses make up over 99% of the business sector in the United States. Due to the intense competition associated with this statistic, the chances of businesses making it past the one-year mark are very slim if they don’t utilize online marketing and advertising. Even if your customer base is purely local, those current and potential customers rely on online information that either includes you in their customer journey or rules you out in just a few seconds. From making decisions on where to eat for dinner, where to get their dog groomed, or what yoga studio to join, a single Google search can make or break your business. When compounded over time, failure to catch the eye of these potential customers can seriously impact your bottom line, especially if your site is not located on the first page of search engine result pages (SERPs).

If you run a relatively new company, or if you’re in the process of starting one and want to make sure you are set up for success at the start, keep reading to get an idea of the basics of small business SEO and how it can help you grow your business.

What Is SEO?

Small business SEO company in Lake George, NYSEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the process of creating digital content or web pages that are easily found by search engines as they crawl for keywords within the content. They then match these keywords with searches made by their users. Not only does this have to be an accurate match to the user’s query, but it has to be a relevant one. Search engines like Google pride themselves in weeding out low-quality content that users don’t want to see; which means what we might consider little things like old content or poor spelling could be keeping your site from ranking! There are many (admittedly confusing!) ranking factors that go into the special SEO sauce Google likes and rewards sites for implementing by giving them higher SERP ratings.

In the past — and even now — keywords have been a huge focus in SEO practice. Still, it’s become apparent in recent years that Google places a higher value on the reader’s experience after clicking “search” over the keywords found in a piece of content. Make sure every piece you and your team produce, whether it’s a blog post, a landing page, or a product description, is high-quality. Here are some SEO practices that Google “likes”:

  • Original Content. This seems like a no-brainer, but if they find something that matches word for word on another site, they will pick up on the fact that you’ve either intentionally or unintentionally plagiarized someone else’s content.
  • Quality connections to other sites via link-building. By obtaining backlinks, you can increase your authority as Google sees other sites referring to your page as a valuable resource.
  • Quick load. If a site isn’t providing users with a pleasant experience, no one will want to visit it, and Google won’t recommend it!
  • Keywords are seamlessly included in the content that is purely there to help answer a user’s query. No keyword stuffing!

It’s important to provide the most relevant and comprehensive answer to a question or solution to a problem that your customer is looking for. By consistently producing high-quality content, your site can stand out from the competition both on SERPs and in the customer’s search journey.

Small Business SEO: The Basics

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Why Do I Need It?

Your competitors are doing SEO. You need to beat them at that game to succeed.
Your competitors are doing SEO already.

Simply put, a business must focus on SEO optimization because competitors are already doing so — and they will continue to do so. In the past, brick-and-mortar locations relied on word-of-mouth, print ads, radio spots, or even local TV commercials to make up the bulk of their advertising. These methods worked because they were meeting their customers where they were. Years ago, potential customers could be reached while they were reading a paper, listening to local radio, or watching local TV; but these marketing methods are fading into the background as most people access all the information and entertainment they want online via websites, podcasts, and social media.

Local search map pin icon
Local SEO brings customers right to your door.

Focusing on SEO helps you meet your customers where they are now. Start by running a competitor analysis to shed light on competitors you were previously unaware of. These businesses either are or could in the future direct potential customers away from your website before they even find the address where you do business! By putting local search optimization in place as you start, you can find gaps where you might want to gather and include reviews, include consistent business hours, offer more robust product and service descriptions, and more! Keeping all of this up-to-date ensures customers see you as a desirable option versus a site that hasn’t been updated in months with out-of-date photos or old reviews.

What Can It Do For Me?

Name a struggle your business currently faces, and you’ll probably find a solution that SEO brings to the table! If your business is new and doesn’t have the credibility other competitors have, putting the work into SEO can yield results over time. You’ll build not only your site’s visibility on SERPs, but also in comparison to other businesses as you surpass them in rankings.

As your rankings improve, your traffic and engagement will increase as well, resulting in a higher conversion rate (the percentage of people who take the desired action, whether that be making a purchase or subscribing to a service). In general, SEO helps your business not only survive but grow over time, whereas other (paid) marketing methods may only yield temporary results.

How Do I Get It?

Don't Panic button
SEO is probably not as expensive as you fear.

We know it’s hard for small business owners to make sure no aspect of their business gets neglected, but it happens. Either time or budget limitations can limit or even cut SEO from the day-to-day operations of a company. However, ignoring SEO optimization can seriously hinder your business from thriving. If your budget is tight but you have some time to devote to learning and implementing new tactics, look into using a free program, or purchasing an SEO tool that does the heavy lifting for you.

Often, small businesses find themselves in a situation where they’re not able to hire someone full-time but want to bring a professional in to set things up and enable easy maintenance of their SEO campaigns themselves later on. Budgets can limit how long a consultant works on your site, thus limiting the effectiveness of your SEO optimization. To keep cash on hand, consider applying for a small business loan, or a business line of credit that provides the means for hiring SEO professionals for the scope of work you need.

An attractive aspect of SEO is that the upfront investment in hiring, setup, and maintenance isn’t as costly as paid advertising that may or may not work. SEO plays the long game by gaining traffic and visibility organically; which means what’s put in place today can yield results months or even years in the future as you maintain your site and continue to put out great content and resources.

What Can I Expect?

Woman tracing an upward griwth raph resulting from SEO efforts.
Once you optimize your site with SEO, results can continue to grow for years.

Set your expectations appropriately. SEO isn’t a quick fix or band-aid to immediately stop the loss of customers when a competitor shows up. If your business is just starting out, devote a sizable portion of your budget to a related company role, or tools for SEO. Positive outcomes from your SEO practices may not show up as quickly as you want them to, but they are much more sustainable than purchasing hundreds of ads on one platform.

Find an SEO checklist and work on it with your consultant or designated in-house digital marketing personnel to ensure you set things up correctly at the beginning and keep everyone on the same page. We cannot stress enough that giving things the appropriate amount of time to yield results is crucial when measuring the success of implementing or re-working your SEO methods. Many business owners get frustrated when they don’t see exponential growth within a few weeks of starting their practices and assume their SEO teams are doing things wrong. This assumption is often very far from the truth! When in doubt, keep the lines of communication open, and adjust your expectations according to the information your teams provide.

Don’t Wait!

Your small business can greatly benefit from SEO implementation by creating high-caliber content, optimizing your site for local searches, and seeking to be a resource for customers – both in person and online. It takes time and dedication, but you will see measurable success over time that can ensure your small business is around for years to come.

We value your opinions! Let us know what you think of this in the comments below.

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July 1, 2022 by Bill Treloar Leave a Comment

Top 10 Positive Google Ranking Factors

On July 1, 2022 / Google, keywords, links, page content, SEO practices, user experience, web design / Leave a Comment

What are SEO ranking factors?

The Google logo.Where you show up in Google search results is determined by an algorithm that evaluates many characteristics of your website.  Those characteristics, or ranking factors — both positive and negative — affect how visible you will be in search results.

Google’s ranking algorithm is reported to contain more than 200 SEO ranking factors, each with its own weight or level of importance.

Nobody knows all of the Google ranking factors, but experience gives us a really good sense of which are the most important.

Categories of Google ranking factors

There are three groups of ranking factors that are important to understand.

  • Technical ranking factors tend to be mostly managed by your web designer.  They have to do with your website’s level of performance and what I refer to as Google-friendliness.  These are typically site-wide factors rather than factors relating to individual pages on your site.
  • On-page ranking factors are typically controlled by you and relate directly to the content of your web pages and keyword optimization.
  • Off-page ranking factors are things you have somewhat less control over because they’re not on your website.  These typically relate to your authority or importance on the web, based largely on backlinks.

Here is what I considered to be the top 10 positive Google ranking factors today.  This list isn’t in any kind of priority order for a couple of reasons.  First, it would be pretentious to claim that I know which of these factors are more important than which others.  Secondly, good SEO is a function of many small techniques that support each other. No one of them is critically essential to good rankings — it’s the sum total of all of them that matters.

Technical ranking factors

Most important Technical ranking factors for Google results.

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Yoiur web site MUST be mobile friendly.1) Mobile-friendliness

Mobile phones now account for more than half of all searches done.  As a result, it’s essential that your website be mobile-friendly.  I typically recommend ensuring your website is “responsive” which means that its display varies depending upon the device connecting to your site.  That ensures that the same information is available regardless of the platform your visitor may be using.

2) Security (SSL and HTTPS)

Visitors may be frightened away if your website is not secure.Whether or not your website is secure is a ranking factor at Google.  Beyond that, many browsers will show a “Not Secure” warning in the address bar when someone arrives on your website.  Some website plug-ins actually display a warning page instead of the page on your site, encouraging people not to visit your site.  Many people mistake the “not secure” warning as meeting your website is dangerous or may load viruses on your computer.  The result is a certain portion of the people trying to visit your site abandoning it, costing you business.

To be secure you need to arrange to have an SSL certificate and your URL needs to begin with HTTPS instead of the insecure HTTP.

3) Page speed and Core Web Vitals

Page speed has to do with how quickly the page on your website loads on someone’s browser or phone.  It can significantly affect your search rankings and conversions.Google's core web vitals metrics are an important part of its evaluation of your Page Experience

Last summer, Google implemented a major algorithm change called the Page Experience update.  It outlines, among other things, Core Web Vitals: critical measurements of three essential components of website speed and usability.  Several months ahead of Google’s implementation of this, we offered 7 Steps to Prepare for Google’s Page Experience Factor.

On-page ranking factors

Most important on-page ranking factors for Google results

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4) Quality content and keyword relevance

High-quality content is essential.  It has a big effect on whether people stay to read it or bounce away (which Google sees as a negative ranking factor.   Readability is a critical part of quality content. Another is customer focus; it’s important to focus on what’s in it for your reader/customer. That means focusing on benefits to the customer rather than features of your product or service.

Keyword relevance is also essential here. Your page has to show search engines that it’s all about your target keywords. That means having your keywords and related words and phrases in your content enough to make sure Google easily understands what your page is all about.  But avoid keyword stuffing as that detracts from the quality of your content.

5) Headings and meta tags

Having keywords in headings and sub-headings gives them some extra weight with search engines and helps readers navigate your content efficiently. For that to happen, they need to be coded within heading tags to search engines can tell they’re headings.

Meta tags are in the HTML code that runs your site and they tell search engines about your page.While meta tags are not visible on the page, two items in the HTML code of your page are very important: the page title and the description tag.  The page title isn’t a heading on your page, but it acts as the headline for your listing in all search engines.  So it’s a critical place to include your keywords.  Google says keywords in your meta description tag don’t influence your ranking, but since this description often ends up in your search listings it has a direct impact on how likely a searcher is to click on your listing.

6) Image keyword optimization

Every image on your page provides two or three places to put your keyword phrases in front of the search engines without keyword stuffing your text content.

The image filename is most obvious. An image filename of img183572x6.jpg tells Google nothing. But one that’s got a keyword in it (like nj-real-estate-lawyer.jpg) can really help.

Alternate text is text describing the image for visually impaired visitors who have their computers read the page out loud. It’s a great place to show your keywords to Google.

And if an image acts as a clickable link to someplace else, a title attribute generates a little text box that pops up when the user hovers their mouse over the image. It’s meant to tell the user what’s at the other end of the link if they click it, and is another place you may be able to use a keyword.

7) URL structure

Your URL structure helps you in three ways.

  1. It improves the user experience of your listings in Google:
  2. Keywords in the URL can help your rankings.
    https://www.njexpungements.com/q1.php
    is not as good as
    https://www.njexpungements.com/expungement-eligibility
  3. Links can sometimes serve as their own clickable text of a link.
    Here’s an example from Moz:
    https://moz-static.moz.com/learn/seo/URLs-page/URLs-2_170315_124322.png?mtime=20170315125811

8) Schema code

Schema markup is a common short term for structured data, named after Schema.org, the website for structured data markup.  It’s sometimes called structured data markup and it tells the search engines exactly what kind of information is on your website.  It’s totally in the HTML code behind your website and doesn’t affect what visitors see on your site.  If you’re a local service area business, it can be especially helpful to identify your location and service area for local searches.

You can easily check out your own schema code in this schema code validator.  If it shows you don’t have schema code, it’s time to fix that.

Off-page ranking factors

Most important off-page ranking factors for Google

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9) Domain and Page Authority

This is a graph of the Domain Authority and Page Authority for one of our clients.Page and Domain Authority strongly impact your rankings.  These are metrics developed by the folks at Moz that attempt to predict how well a given website will show up in search results. It’s based largely on the number and quality of other websites that link to you and is designed to correlate with Google’s internal PageRank scoring.

10) Local prominence

Prominence is an important ranking factor for local search.Prominence refers to how widely across the web you’re listed with a correct and consistent NAP (name, address, phone).  It’s particularly important for small businesses to show up in local search results and in the Google Local 3-Pack.  These listings are often called citations and citation management deserves ongoing attention from small local businesses.  But don’t be misled by many of the common misconceptions about citations that are floating around.

Feel free to use our free tool to check on several dozen top citation sources to see how your own prominence looks.

Bottom Line

None of these are absolutely essential.  But none of them can be ignored either.  Where you rank is the result of all of these things (and more).  Just do your best with as many of these as you can.

How’s your experience been with these issues? What other factors do you think deserve to be included? Start a discussion below.

Find this helpful? If so, please share it with the buttons on the left or the “Click to Tweet” above.

If you’re struggling with your visibility and search rankings, odds are good that Rank Magic can fix that. Reach out to us.

 

 

 

 

May 10, 2022 by Bill Treloar Leave a Comment

Website Load Speed — Why Does It Matter?

On May 10, 2022 / user experience / Leave a Comment

Website Load Speed, or Page Speed, is probably more important than you think.Visiting a website with slow loading times is frustrating. Sure, a page with flashy graphics, slick animations, and artsy design features might look nice, but if it’s functionally limited then what’s the point?

One of the hallmarks of a great web developer is the ability to hit that sweet spot between attractive layout design and adequate load speed optimization. After all, it’s a crucial component if you’re to keep potential customers on your webpage.

That said, being a web developer requires skills that most of us don’t possess, so it’s understandable for a website owner to struggle. If you’re happy with how your website looks, it may well be falling short of performance expectations — and that’s troubling given that nearly half of us won’t wait longer than 3 seconds for a shopping site to load up.

That’s just one of the big reasons why it’s vital for your site to load quickly. Below, we’ll delve more deeply into why having a speedy site can’t be anything less than a priority. Here we go.

First Impressions Are Crucial

As noted, our attention spans are minuscule when it comes to how long we’re willing to wait for a page to load. This fact becomes even more pertinent when you consider that your business has only 7 seconds to make a positive first impression. What are you going to do with that time? What does your website look like within the first few seconds?

Why Your Website Load Speed is So Important

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When you’re setting up your first website, it’s tempting to load it up with high-res images and stack the UI with special effects and animations. After all, you want it to look slick and professional — but those additions come at a cost, holding back the performance and potentially turning your site into a sluggish mess. The foundation needs to be usability achieved through a combination of fast load speed and functional UI design.

Regardless of your site’s primary purpose (be it to sell, inform, or entertain), your audience will lose interest fast if your load times don’t match their expectations. And when that interest fades, it won’t come back. It’ll be replaced by interest in rival sites that meet or exceed those expectations. Can you really afford to let that happen?

First impressions are important for your web pages.You must focus on making good first impressions, then — and to do this, you need to think about all platforms through which your visitors may view your site. Being mobile-responsive hasn’t been optional for a long time. Use Google’s free mobile-friendly test to ensure you’re catering to mobile visitors, and generally make an effort to provide strong functionality regardless of how people choose to interact with your site.

If you can do this, your hard-earned traffic won’t go to waste. Leads will be impressed by your website and act upon that by sticking around and becoming positively inclined towards your brand. Start as you mean to go on.

Speed Affects Your Search Rankings

Whether you’re an SEO whizz-kid or you’re less familiar with how search engines dictate rankings (you can learn more here, so take a look), upping your page speed is a simple and effective way to get your website seen more frequently. Improving performance will help your page appear higher up in Google’s results pages (other search engines are available, though perhaps not consequential).

Don't make your visitors wait through slow load speed. Because they won't wait; they'll go back to the search results and click on your competitor.Why? For starters, Google actively penalizes any sites with slow load times because they provide a terrible page experience for users. Visitors simply don’t want to wait around, so you can expect your page to appear further down the results page if your website is a little sluggish. And if someone does stick around, they’ll be less likely to convert (more on this soon).

[Editor’s note: Google’s recent Page Experience algorithm update makes your load speed even more important.]

How can you fix this, then? One of the best ways to give your site a quick boost is to take a look at your hosting provider. If it’s been a while since you set up your page, it may be worth investing in an upgrade.

Even a slight improvement in page load speed can improve your revenue.Many hosts have blisteringly fast response times, but we’d recommend choosing a host based on their individual features, as many providers specialize in different areas, making them more suited to different niches. For instance, if you’re running on WordPress, Cloudways can pair a free migration with a baked-in Cloudflare integration to deliver strong and secure performance throughout the world.

If you’re not looking for the fastest WordPress hosting, or even the most secure, you can find something less complicated. It’s important to do the research to find something that suits your exact needs. PC Magazine has a good roundup of 2022 options that can give you an idea of the pros and cons of each provider, helping you make the right choice for your eCommerce site. However, it’s important to do your research! Use a comparison site to weigh-up the pros and cons of each provider to ensure you make the right choice.

Faster Load Speed Means Higher Conversion Rates

Run an eCommerce store? Ensuring your website loads quickly should be one of your highest priorities. A study from Google found that a speed increase of just 0.1 seconds can boost the number of shoppers adding items to their baskets by more than 9%. Staggeringly, a 100-millisecond delay can result in a 7% decrease in conversions. Take a look at these conversion rates based on load times sourced from recent research:

 

Page Load Time (in seconds)

Conversion Rate

2.4

1.9%

3.3

1.5%

4.2

1%

5.7+

0.6%

Slow page load speed can cost you revenue.Of course, this is less of an issue if you’re not trying to sell anything. Given the stats though, we reckon that’s unlikely — online retail sales are set to grow 50% in the next 4 years, with the current market value of the industry recorded at $4.9 trillion. And if you’re not planning to ever sell any products through your site, you’ll still want to monetize it in some way to take advantage of the traffic. Doing otherwise is leaving money on the table.

In addition to following the aforementioned steps, you should keep an eye on your image sizes. Using image compression plugins (or sites such as TinyPNG or Squoosh) can help you avoid using more space than you need to, cutting back your required server resources and giving your website visitors better experiences.

If you’re using WordPress, a free plugin like W3 Total Cache can also help you to cache your web pages. This is one of the best ways to speed up your website, as caching stores copies of all the bulky files on your site. This reduces the load on the host’s servers when a user loads your page, ensuring that load times are minimal. [Editor’s note: another one we like is WP Rocket.]

Website load speed matters — hopefully we’ve been able to convince you of that! Find that balance between great design and optimized content, and we’re sure you’ll have no trouble keeping the attention of any visitors that come your way.

About the Author

Rodney LawsRodney Laws is an ecommerce expert with over a decade of experience in building online businesses. Check out his reviews on EcommercePlatforms.io and you’ll find practical tips that you can use to build the best online store for your business. Connect with him on Twitter @EcomPlatformsio.

If you found this helpful, please share it with the social media links on the left or the Click-to-Tweet above.

How has your experience been with this? Join the discussion in the Comments below.

April 7, 2022 by Bill Treloar 9 Comments

8 Best Digital Marketing Tools for Small Businesses

On April 7, 2022 / marketing, SEO practices / 9 Comments

An illustration of a computer screen that reads Past the basics, digital marketing is far from easy.  Different channels, practices, and campaign types require their own skillsets and tools to tackle. What’s worse, some tools often come with hefty price tags that strain smaller budgets – sometimes needlessly so. We can’t address the former much, apart from offering our advice and services. But the latter we can help with by exploring the best digital marketing tools for small businesses.

What marketing tools do small businesses need?

First, let’s briefly establish what types of tools most small businesses will likely need. Then we’ll suggest an outstanding performer for each one and note alternatives you can consider.

#1 Website analytics tools

A pie chart of traffic sources on a laptop screen.
Analytics is an invaluable resource for any business, regardless of size.

Before all else, any and all marketing activities need website data to inform their course. How much traffic are you getting, and from where? What’s your bounce rate? How do visitors behave?

Knowing exactly how your website performs is crucial, as that’s where you ultimately want to bring and convert your audiences.

#2 A CRM

Similarly, a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution can offer immense help as you’re getting started. This software type records all customer interactions with your business, as the name suggests, collecting customer data and actionable information.  You can benefit from this type of software quite substantially – from keeping customer information up to date to using it for email personalization.

#3 Local SEO tools

Next, most small businesses tend to target and rely on local audiences, so they need local SEO. We’ve written about this subject before, if you’d like to know, or brush up on, why local SEO is important.

Of course, much like its general SEO sibling, it also needs all the help from your tools it can get.

#4 SEO tools

An illustration of a computer on a desk next to a sign that reads
SEO is a series of practices that greatly enhances online visibility.

On the subject of SEO, you can not neglect its broader variants either. SEO will offer organic traffic, enhance online visibility, and facilitate long-term growth by improving your search engine rankings.

You can practice basic SEO manually, but Backlinko finds that Google uses over 200 ranking factors. Attempting to cater to them all without specialized tools will often not go well, so digital marketing tools for small businesses can never exclude SEO.

#5 Keyword research tools

Still on SEO, as it holds that much value, keyword research tools are essential as they spearhead it. Targeting the right keywords will get your blog found and serve your content to eager audiences.

Should you want to engage in paid marketing, keyword research will also reveal overlaps with SEO and help the two synergize – letting you prioritize which keywords to bid on and which to chase organically.

#6 Email marketing tools

But beyond SEO, you will most likely also want to engage in email marketing. Not everyone will reach the “astounding 4,200% ROI” that HubSpot finds, but it’s still highly cost-effective.

However, email marketing also requires personalization, outreach timing, and more, making email marketing tools an excellent investment.

#7 Social media tools

Social media activities also come with similar requirements. You can’t safely ignore social media either, as they present an excellent opportunity to reach vast, engaged audiences.

You may combine email and social media with SEO – ideally with the proper consolidated tools for easier management.

#8 Communication tools

Finally, even the smallest businesses need to ensure proper communications among staff. You cannot guarantee smooth operations if everyone isn’t on the same page at all times.

To stress this point further, consider Oak’s communication statistics – where, among others, they find that:

  • 39% of surveyed employees believe that people in their organization don’t collaborate enough
  • 44% of employees want wider adoption of internal communication tools
  • 33% of employees said a lack of open, honest communication has the most negative impact on employee morale
8 Best Digital Marketing Tools for Small Businesses

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8 Best Digital Marketing Tools for Small Businesses

Having covered marketing tool types, now we can move on to specific suggestions. In order, you may consider the following.

#1 Google Analytics

Staring with analytics, one cannot recommend Google Analytics enough. This handy tool offers a wealth of actionable insights, including:

  • Traffic volume and traffic sources (direct, referral, organic search, etc.)
  • Keywords used to find you
  • Visitor behavior; dwelling time, pages visited, etc

The cost of its 360 plan is very steep, unfortunately, starting from $12,500 per month and $150,000 per year. However, you will most likely not need it as the free plan already offers a wealth of helpful analytics features.

Finally, it synergizes perfectly with Google Search Console (formerly Google Webmaster Tools) to truly let your website shine. Thankfully, Google Search Console is also a free service.

For alternatives, you may consider:

  • SEMrush
  • BuzzSumo
  • Heap Analytics
  • Cyfe
  • Crowdbooster

#2 HubSpot

On to CRM solutions, HubSpot’s CRM may have caught your eye online before. This excellent solution offers such vital features as:

  • Customer database
  • Reporting dashboard
  • Pipeline management
  • Email tracking
  • Live chat

Most surprisingly, but thankfully for small businesses, it’s completely free. It also synergizes very well with HubSpot’s other marketing services, or “hubs,” should you need them. Price points are a bit complex if you do, however, so Tech.co’s HubSpot pricing guide should help.

For alternatives, if you can budget for them, you may also look into:

  • SalesForce, the industry leader
  • Zoho
  • SAP
  • Microsoft Dynamics
  • Oracle CX
  • [Editor’s note: My personal favorite and the one I use is Pipeline CRM.]

#3 Google Business Profile

The logo of Google Business Profile (GBP), formerly Google My Business (GMB).Next, digital marketing tools for small businesses need to address local SEO specifically. For this purpose, there’s nowhere better to begin than Google Business Profile (GBP).

Formerly Google My Business (GMB), this free listing service is the spearhead of all local SEO campaigns. It grants your business access to Google’s app ecosystem, most notably Google Maps, and it boosts your local search ranking. If you’d like to know precisely how to make the best of it, you may consult our article on local SEO.

Unlike the other tools on this list, GBP has no replacement. You may augment it, however, using:

  • Other citation sites, like Yelp, Foursquare, and Facebook 
    [Editor’s note: we offer citation management services to our clients.]
  • Local citation checker tools, like Moz’s local listing checker
  • Link checker tools for your local links, such as Ahref’s broken link checker

#4 KWFinder

The home page of KWFinder, a keyword research tool.On the subject of SEO, keywords are a fundamental part of it. Thus, to fully cover your bases, you may consider KWFinder, one of the best keyword research tools around.

KWFinder offers such features as:

  • Keyword analysis; SEO difficulty and search volume
  • Related and hidden keyword suggestions
  • Localize keyword results for local SEO

KWFinder comes with a free 10-day trial, after which you may opt for the affordable $29.90/month plan. If it doesn’t serve your needs or you want to explore your options, you may also consider:

  • Google Keyword Planner (free)
  • Keyword Surfer (free)
  • SEMscoop (freemium, paid version starts at $9/month)
  • Ubersuggest (freemium, paid version starts at $29/month)
  • SpyFu (paid, starts at $33/month)
  • [Editor’s note: my preference is Moz Pro (paid, starts at $99/month)]

#5 Ahrefs

The home page of Ahrefs, an SEO tool.But keywords are only a part of SEO, not its sum. Digital marketing tools for small businesses should thus always include broader SEO tools, which Ahrefs stands out among.

This comprehensive tool’s features include:

  • Website auditing tools
  • Competitor analysis tools
  • Rank tracking
  • A content explorer
  • A built-in keyword research tool

It does start at $99/month, but it compensates for it through its breadth of features and ease of use. Still, you may also want to explore its paid competitors, like:

  • Majestic (starts at $50/month)
  • Moz Pro (starts at $99/month)
  • SEMrush (starts at $99/month)

Or, if you’re now getting started with SEO, you may begin with free alternatives like:

  • MozBar
  • Neil Patel’s SEO Analyzer
  • Ahrefs’ SEO toolbar

#6 MailChimp

The homepage of MailChimp, offering to “do it all” for marketing campaigns.Next, SEO aside, you will most likely need email marketing regardless of business size. You can’t ignore its excellent ROI or ability to bring you customers.

For this purpose, MailChimp remains by large the industry leader. Its pricing plans do come with list limitations, but you can consider upgrading as your lists grow. The free plan comes with a limit of 2,000 subscribers and 10,000 monthly emails but also has excellent features, like:

  • Email automation
  • A built-in marketing CRM
  • A creative assistant, alongside form and landing page tools

Chances are you may soon find this restricting, however. If so, the Essentials plan at $11/month offers some excellent value, adding:

  • A vast email template library
  • A/B testing tools
  • Delivery by time zone
  • Chat and email support
  • A new limit of 50,000 contacts and 500,000 emails per month

While relatively restrictive, MailChimp is still among the best digital marketing tools for small businesses. If you’re unhappy with it, you may look into alternatives like:

  • SendinBlue
  • Constant Contact
  • Omnisend

#7 Hootsuite

The home page of HootSuite, a social media marketing tool.Moving on to social media, social media marketing does offer small businesses an excellent, albeit demanding, engagement channel. You may consider the world-famous Hootsuite to make your job much more manageable.

Hootsuite’s reputation is well-deserved, as they’re industry experts – producing insightful annual digital reports alongside We Are Social. Their social media marketing platform seeks to cater to these insights, offering:

  • A central social media management platform
  • Scheduling tools
  • Advanced reporting tools

Unfortunately, more specialized features are reserved for higher pricing plans, and the basic Professional plan starts at $49.00/month. If it doesn’t suffice for you, and you can’t budget for its Team plan ($129.00/month), you may consider alternatives like:

  • Zoho Social (Standard plan starts at $10/month
  • MeetEdgar (Edgar Lite starts at $19/month)
  • SocialPilot (basic Professional plan starts at $25.50/month)

[Editor’s note: you may also look into Buffer, which helps schedule social media posts on multiple platforms. It’s free for up to three platforms, and charges if you need more. This is the one I’ve chosen to use.]

#8 Slack

The home page of Slack, a communication tool.Finally, when all is said and done, even the smallest teams need efficient communication. For this vital purpose, you may consider Slack – one of the best digital marketing tools for small businesses out there.

Even in its free version, Slack comes with a wealth of valuable features like:

  • The synchronous communication platform that reduces email time waste
  • Simple, efficient data sharing
  • Integrations with over 1,500 apps

It does have some limitations, however, such as:

  • Only searching for the 10,000 most recent messages
  • Only allowing 1:1 calls
  • Limiting active integrations to 10 at a time

The Pro plan removes these restrictions for just $6.67/month, leaving you with an excellent communication tool. Still, if its interface doesn’t suit you, you may also consider:

  • Discord (free, $9.99/month for advanced features)
  • Google Chat (Free to Gmail users)
  • RocketChat (free for up to 1.000 users, $3 per user per month for more and advanced features)

In closing

To conclude, digital marketing does require technology’s help to meet its increasing demands. Thankfully, the market continues to provide affordable digital marketing tools for small businesses to let them elevate their efforts. While brief, this list hopefully helped you get started.

 

About the author

Andrew Miller is a freelance digital marketer and copywriter with over a decade of experience in both fields. An avid SEO practitioner and a CRM enthusiast, he often authors content specifically for SMBs and local businesses.

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March 11, 2022 by Bill Treloar 2 Comments

Monitor Your Search Rankings and Visibility

On March 11, 2022 / analytics / 2 Comments

Search engine rankings - visibility graphSearch rankings are always in flux

While organic rankings achieved ethically often tend to be stable for months and years without further attention, they aren’t permanent.

As your business changes, you’ll update your website and may inadvertently de-optimize parts of it.  As competitors conduct SEO programs and more effectively  compete for rankings, your visibility may drop.

The danger is real

You don't want your search rankings to disappear without knowing it.
Don’t let this happen to your own search rankings.

A former client of ours had achieved and maintained enviable search rankings when we last checked his rankings. But that had been five years before. At the time, he was so busy from the SEO we did that he was reluctant to do continue active SEO lest he be unable to keep up with the business.

Five years later (in 2009) he was blaming his slow business on the recession going on at the time. But a quick check showed that as a result of changes to his web site that partially de-optimized it, his search rankings had slid dramatically over those 5 years.

It was much harder to get his rankings back at that time than it would have been if we’d attacked the problem in a more timely manner.  If we’d only been able to keep an eye on them periodically, he would have maintained his level of business.

Monitor Your Search Rankings and Visibility

Click To Tweet

Don’t neglect monitoring your search rankings

That’s why our SEO Monitoring  program checks your rankings in a detailed report every month. If you don’t want a formal monitoring program like our search ranking reporting, you need to at least check your important rankings manually. And you need t do that on a regular basis so you’ll know when you start to lose visibility so you can take corrective measures promptly.

[Updated from the original post in December, 2009]

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