Every day, more and more people are turning to the internet to find products and services. This is good news for you as a business owner and bad news because it’s more complicated than ever to stand out from the crowd. Even if you employ the top digital marketing tools like Google Ads and Facebook Ads, you still need to ensure that your business website is search engine optimized to be found by potential customers in their web searches. To help your small business thrive in this competitive marketplace, we’ve compiled 25 of our best digital marketing tips that will have you dominating Google search results in no time!
#1. Improve Your Social Media Marketing Strategy
While this might not technically be considered “digital marketing,” it’s the place where most people spend a good deal of their time online. There are 1.7 billion people worldwide who use social media regularly – and if you don’t have a strategy to reach them, you’re going to be missing out on many potential customers.
If done correctly, social media marketing can have a significant impact on your business! To get started, try using sites like Twitter and Facebook to announce new products or services. Please make sure you also engage with other users by replying to their comments and questions promptly.
#2. Encourage customers to leave online reviews
Search engines reward sites that receive high-quality reviews from customers. This means online reviews are essential to the success of your business. The more you encourage your customers to leave honest testimonials, the easier it will be for search engines to surface them in relevant Google searches. You can use tools like ReviewBuzzer or Feefo to request reviews from satisfied customers quickly.
#3. Optimize your website for local search and Google Maps
Please don’t underestimate the power of local search queries when it comes to capturing new business!
Most consumers rely on Google Maps to find nearby businesses, so if you’re not showing up in these searches, you’re missing out on many new customers.
#4. Give customers multiple ways to contact you
A phone number, Facebook messenger, and more. This tip is essential for eCommerce businesses that have no brick-and-mortar storefronts. If your customer can’t find a way to contact you on your site, they’re likely just going to go with a competitor who does have contact information readily available. Make it easy for customers to get in touch by providing multiple contact forms on your website, including a live chat feature if possible.
#5. Use Google Analytics to track your site’s performance and see where You can make improvements
To do this, you’ll need to know how to create goals in Google Analytics. Once you’ve done so, you can see exactly which keywords are driving the most traffic back to your site and pinpoint any areas where visitors seem to be getting lost along the way. This is an absolute must for any digital marketing campaign!
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#6. Start Blogging
Blogging is another excellent way to interact with potential customers online. If you’re looking for ideas, try using services like Google Keyword Planner to research the most popular blog post topics in your niche and generate some content ideas you can base your blog posts around. You could even re-purpose the content you create for your blog and use it elsewhere on your website to make more room for new content!
#7. Publish a White Paper
If you’re well-versed in a particular subject matter, consider writing a white paper (an in-depth report or guide that can be used as an incentive to get visitors to sign up for your email list). It’s a great way to establish yourself as an expert in your industry and even generate more traffic from search engines. To help you get started with this, we’ve put together our top ten tips on how to write and publish a white paper.
#8. Use Social Media Widgets on Your Website
Adding social media icons to your website is a no-brainer when it comes to digital marketing, but did you know that you can embed entire feeds into your pages, too? This will give people instant access to real-time updates from any of the networks they choose. This is also an easy way to get them involved in your social marketing strategy as a whole.
#9. Offer Incentives via Email Marketing
You’ve probably heard of this already, but email is still one of the best marketing tips for small businesses and it’s not going anywhere anytime soon. If you’re looking to improve your efforts, try offering a free incentive to encourage people to sign up to your email list. A great way to do this is by running a competition or promotion that gives away something valuable in return for the prospect’s contact information.
#10. Start an Affiliate Marketing Program
Affiliate marketing is a fantastic and often overlooked way of generating some extra income from your website. All you need to do is add a simple graphic or text link to your site pointing to the merchant’s product. If somebody clicks on this and purchases, you’ll earn a commission from the sale – which frequently can be as much as 10% of the total.
#11. Optimize Your Site for Mobile Search
Earlier this year, Google officially started rolling out changes that gave mobile search results precedence over desktop searches in certain regions. If your website isn’t optimized for mobile devices yet, you might want to consider making the switch. People are often looking for information on their smartphones, so they’ll be 50% more likely to visit a site that’s suitably formatted for their screen size.
#12. Add a Q&A Section
If you’re looking to inspire trust and loyalty with your customers, one way to do this is by adding a Q&A section on your site. This gives prospects a chance to ask questions in real-time about the services you offer. By “educating” them in this way, they’ll be more likely to see you as a resource and eventually convert.
#13. Use Google Authorship Markup
Gone are the days of trying to rank for competitive keywords – today, it’s all about increasing your visibility in the search results. By using Google’s Authorship markup code, you’re allowing search engines like Google and Bing to link your profile to the content you create. This might not seem like a big deal now, but Google is focusing more and more on “Author Rank,” – which will allow people who link to authoritative authors to rank higher in the search results.
#14. Create a Facebook Group
As we mentioned above, it’s important to focus less on acquiring likes and more on creating engagement among your Facebook fans. The easiest way to do this is by creating a Facebook group that’s exclusive to people who have liked your page. It will ensure that they feel like an essential part of something larger than themselves – which is the goal of social media marketing, right?
#15. Use Facebook Custom Audiences
Speaking of Facebook, did you know that you can create custom audiences based on specific groups of people? If you’ve ever wondered how companies like Nike can send what looks like personalized messages to so many people at once, this is the reason. After uploading your email list to an advertising account or tagging specific email addresses, you’ll be able to serve content that’s customized specifically for them.
#16. Understand your customers and your target audience for digital marketing:
It is more important than ever to understand your customers and your target audience in our digital age. You must be able to get inside your customers’ and target audience’s minds. Think of it this way: if you were a customer shopping at a store, what would convince you to buy? In-depth knowledge of customer demographics and buying behavior can help you create a value proposition that will resonate with them long before they reach their wallets. Use tools like Google Analytics to gather insight on customer flows and journeys across different channels – social media, websites, apps, and other touch-points. This knowledge will help you strategize your digital marketing plan in the most effective way possible.
#17. Edit Your Meta Description
The meta description is the short line or two that appears under your link in the search results, and it’s your “advertisement” for potential customers. You should pay close attention to this section because this is what gets people to click on your site, and it’s one of the main factors search engines consider when ranking sites.
#18. Edit Your Meta Keywords
Like the meta description, this section shows you what keywords people will use to find your site when they search in Google and Bing. The difference is that no one knows how much (if at all) this impacts where you rank in SERPs. Similarly, the meta keywords tag isn’t used by Google anymore, so you don’t need to stress about setting it up.
#19. Include Keywords Throughout Your Posts
Having a keyword-optimized title tag and meta description is excellent, but you shouldn’t stop at that. Keywords are essential because they help people find your site in Google – so it makes sense to include them throughout the content on your page. For example, if one of the keywords is “social marketing,” make sure to work it into a few links within your content.
#20. Create Custom URLs
If you want to rank higher in the search engine results pages (SERPs), consider creating custom URLs. These are great because they increase your visibility and make it easier for people to find your page on social media or search engines like Google. For best practices, try using keywords in the root of your URL.
#21. Get More Shares
When it comes to “going viral,” people tend to focus on how they can get more shares on Facebook and Twitter, but the truth is that this tactic won’t do much for your site traffic. The best way to increase your page views is by getting more people to click on your website from the homepage. To do this, consider:
Hijacking popular topics trending online (like the Ice Bucket Challenge or #TheDress) to create shareable content and cross-promote your website from those posts.
To create shareable content, and cross-promote your website from those posts. Making sure that your site is mobile-friendly so that when people are on their phones, they can easily access your home page.
#22. Optimize Your Site for Google
If you want to rank higher in the search engine results pages (SERPs), remember to optimize your website with relevant, high-quality content and make sure it’s mobile-friendly. Google is important, but it’s also worth mentioning that other search engines like Bing and Yahoo should be considered as well – especially if you’re concerned about the long-term health of your pages (and even more so for SEO).
#23. Publish Consistent Content
One of the best ways to stay relevant in the search engine results pages (SERPs) and social media is to publish new content regularly. This gives you space to cover various topics, and it also makes people see your site as “active,” – which could attract more visitors in the long term.
#24. Build an Email List
Email marketing isn’t popular just because it’s one of the best ways to get new traffic to your site – it’s also a great way to build a loyal audience of subscribers. These benefits are essential for marketers, especially if you’re using social media as part of your strategy. After all, there’s no point in creating a Facebook page unless people follow you on it.
#25. Use Visual Content
In the past few years, visual content is one of the best digital marketing tips for small business. One reason why websites from BuzzFeed to Upworthy have been doing so well is that they’ve found a way to make images and videos go viral. If you want your website to get more traffic, consider creating infographics or using similar types of visual content.
The Bottom Lines:
Remember to create unique and engaging content if you want to rank high in search engine results pages (SERPs). Make it relevant, and be sure to make it easy for people to read and share on social media – or even offline. If you follow all of these best practices and work with a talented SEO company, you can expect to see your traffic increase by hundreds, if not thousands, of visitors per month.
